Gioachino Rossini - Armida (1817) - Cavatina for Gernardo - "Non soffriro l'offesa" (Bruce Ford)

It is obvious that "Armida" is an opera with an unusual vocal distribution, incorporating three tenor roles which are almost too demanding on the singers (an unimportant compirmario role notwithstanding): Rinaldo (originally sung by Andrea Nozzari) and the double roles of Carlo-Goffredo and Gernardo-Ubaldo (it is not truly obvious why such a doubling is needed, as the librettist could have easily abandoned either of the alternates). Even more provocatively, the lead part of Rinaldo has no arias whatsoever (though this is counterbalanced by the sheer amount of music that the tenor has to sing), while the two other tenors receive one cavatina per singer, one of which, that of Gernardo, is presented here.

Gernardo is a bit of a mystery in the opera, already overburdened with a confusing libretto. He serves no true dramatic purpose, appearing and disappearing in Act One, but we are almost expected to consider him a tragic figure, as his cavatina finds him refusing to stay in the shadow of his main rival, Rinaldo (who he promptly challenges in the first finale). It's obvious, then, that the role was tailor made for a particularly famous tenor, in this case - Claudio Bonoldi, a celebrated tenor with a baritonal voice (in an unrelated curio, in 1816 he sang two other roles at La Scala: Mayr's "Ginevra di Scozia" (Polinesso) and the title role in Mozart's "Don Giovanni"; he also went on to create Contareno from "Bianca e Falliero". And the aria itself is actually a quite wonderful three-part piece of tantalizing difficulty (the obvious highlights include a handsome central section with a large parts for horns and a furious cabaletta that brings the aria to an excited finish), demanding both dramatics and generous amounts of coloratura, thus I decided to upload it.

Bruce Ford, in one of his earlier recordings, is at his freshest and provides considerable delight in a difficult piece. Hope you'll enjoy :).

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Rossini
• coloratura
• romantic
• belcanto

[armidaNH]

Omfg, my name in an opera ;w; ♥ (?)

[lyrictenorfan]

@LindoroRossini, thank you for yet another quality post! Your detailed notes are among the best on YT.

[eurydike]

LindoroRossini: is it possible for you to put here the aria of goffredo that is sung at the beginning of the opera?

[LaDonnaization]

Going to the Met ! Not really, going to see this at the movies live HD. This is the best LIVE technology. The last one I went to was sold out. I love the Met but this is so great. It is only 15 min from my home.

[bbbartolo]

is the painting a Rosetti or Burne-Jones?

[luvatune]

much more than consideravle delight!! thanx so much for posting this....so glad i found it!.....WOW

[Elgranbajo]

Yes, it´s amazing and very dissapointing. But I´m sure people wouldn´t know what to write if they watched this great video.

Thank you, Lindoro for uploading it. You certainly have incredible Rossini´s music recordings...

[semiramide1945]

It's amazing to me that this has been up for 6 months without comments. That said this is the type music I performed during my career and it is fiendishly difficult. Rossini seemed to set anything he was given no matter how bad the libretto. He must have also had at his disposal many incredible singers. I think if today's tenors didn't scream out high notes instead of using head voice or falsetto that there might be hope of these becoming repetory pices- so sad- Ernesto Vasselli