Rossini: Adelaide di Borgogna

This show-stopping performance was recorded live at the 2005 Edinburgh International Festival. Adelaide di Borgogna is not one of Rossini’s best efforts; he wrote it in two months, re-used the overture (albeit in revised form) from an earlier opera (Il cambiale di matrimonio) and probably delegated a considerable amount of the composing to others, but with a performance of this calibre one can excuse the weaknesses, so dramatic is the singing and playing. Adelaide di Borgogna was an actual historical figure, and the plot is in essence a telescoped version of events drawn from her life: the brutish Berengario, having murdered Adelaide’s husband and usurped her throne, is determined to marry her to his son Adelberto, who loves her; she seeks assistance from the German emperor Ottone; and after various set-backs and much soul-searching (by Adelberto in particular), Adelaide and Ottone emerge victorious. The writing for the two main characters, Adelaide and Ottone, is virtuosic in the extreme, but Majella Cullagh and Jennifer Larmore respectively prove dazzlingly commanding in these roles. In her opening aria Cullagh positively sparks with hatred for Berengario and Adelberto, and copes admirably with breathtakingly quiet top notes in the Act 1 finale. Larmore’s smokier, duskier tones are ideal for Ottone’s music, and complement Cullagh’s harder-edged soprano well in their duets. Somewhat surprisingly (given his less-than-youthful years) Bruce Ford makes for a compelling Adelberto, while the more minor roles are equally well taken. Conductor Giuliano Carella elicits sparkling playing from the SCO and keeps the action moving, so that only on a very few occasions does the momentum flag. With this strength and depth of casting, typical of Brian McMaster’s years as Festival Director, it is hardly surprising that the evening was a great success, with the audience greeting the performance with rapturous applause.