Rossini - Bianca e Falliero: Act II quartet & stretta

A wonderful quartet from the Act II of a rarely performed Rossini's opera 'Bianca e Falliero'. This is Rossini in all his glory. Only ensembles from his later operas "Maometto II" and "Il viaggio a Reims" can surpass this achievement.

The knight Falliero has been unjustly accused of treason and faces death sentence. His beloved, Bianca, ardently defends him. But Contareno, her father and one of the judges, refuses to believe her testimony: he hates Falliero with passion and wants him dead. Fortunately for Falliero, his other judge, Capellio, is fair and noble. He refuses to sign the death sentence and passes Falliero's matter to the higher court.

Live performance from the Rossini Opera Festival, 2005, conducted by Renato Palumbo. The DVD is available at the Dynamic label.

Falliero - Daniela Barcellona
Bianca - Maria Bayo
Contareno - Francesco Meli
Capellio - Carlo Lepore

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Rossini
• Bianca
• Falliero
• Daniela
• Barcellona
• Maria
• Bayo
• Francesco
• Meli
• Carlo
• Lepore
• belcanto

[Aarondefyinggravity]

OMG this is great, the lady at the table who sings second was one of my teachers last year at the RNCM Sandra Dugdale, what a legend x

[Arashi110]

Maria Bayo? Congratulations. :)

[aldiboronti]

Thank you for this. Magnificent! I can't quite go along with Stendhal in calling the quartet Rossini's 'greatest achievement', the great set pieces in Il Maometto Secondo, for instance, outshine it, but Rossini is certainly on top form here.

[Arashi110]

Unfortunately, Maometto II is very rarely performed, let alone staged. AFAIK, there's been only one recording, with Samuel Ramey and June Anderson, right?

[al101199]

Ubi Bayo minor cessat !

[mkart9]

This is a real treasure, I have it only on CD, but after watching tihs video I really would like to have this DVD with such great performers! Thanks for posting it.

[jay377777]

There may be one of the 1823 version of it, I remember seeing it on Audio Lunchbox. I would suggest searching Maometto on Amazon under music to find out the answer to your question.

[jay377777]

Personally, I like this especially and the finale 1 from this opera. I am not as crazy about Maometto II(later The Siege of Corinth). Ensembles like this are Rossinis's strength, though. Tastes are different. I wonder what other ensembles of Rossini that you like.

[jay377777]

I have listened to this opera and I also like the stretta to the 1st act finale- that too is a powerful ensemble. Too bad this opera isn't better known, though, its music is very beautiful, albeit very hard to sing.

[1000002345t]

MARIA BAYO LA MEJORR!!!!!!!!!!!!