Giaochino Rossini - Soirees musicales (1835) - La danza - "Gia la luna in mezzo mare"

Rossini, having composed no fewer than forty operas between the ages of nineteen and thirty-seven, wrote none in the next forty years. However, these "quiet" years were not barren of music. His various contributions to the catalog of sacred music notwithstanding, the maestro wrote two of the most ambitious, most delightful and most inspiring anthologies: "Soirees musicales" and "Peches de vieillesse". Elegant, witty, charming and often delicately ironic, these songs for various voices are the perfect exemplar of "salon music".

The present exuberant song, "La danza", composed between 1830 and 1835, needs no true introduction: virtually any singer of some renown is going to sing it at some point during his or her career. The piece is truly a hymn to dancing in all its forms: in a brilliant tarantella the singer describes the warm Neapolitan night, perfect for dancing, the moon "already appearing above the sea", the various women who he will conquer in the following few hours. The piece consists of two identical couplets, the repeat probably meant to be further ornamented: an unusually long piano introduction gives way to the opening section, incorporating gradually descending lines, interrupted only by a veritable vocal jump on the word "saltera"; a slightly bombastic appeal of the singer follows, as the hero demands his lover to come join him, culminating in a delightful upward crescendo; finally, almost whooping "la-la-la-la-la" patterns. Though its popularity might suggest otherwise, the song is more challenging for the singer than might first appear: too much delicacy - the exuberance seems artificial, too much exuberance - the delicacy is lost. The rhythms are occasionally tricky as well, with some notes held where one wouldn't expect them, and the words require almost as much mastery of diction as Gilbert and Sullivan patter-songs. A tour-de-force, all in all.

Text (both in Italian and English): http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=12532.

After surveying my collection, I've decided to post Bruce Ford's quite charming performance of the piece, available on Hyperion's winning collection of the "Soirees". Truth be told, the singer is a bit past his best years, and the final patter sections are somewhat strained; however, the main passages are freshly sung and well-characterized (the opening phrases of the second couplet are bursting with humor), and I can think of few such delightful renditions. The clear, light playing of Roger Vignoles is an added plus.

Hope you'll enjoy :).

Category:

Music

Tags:

• rossini
• romantic
• classical
• belcanto