{"id":16151,"date":"2017-11-21T14:43:12","date_gmt":"2017-11-21T13:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/2017\/11\/21\/semiramide-review-rossini-sounds-sublime-in-aldens-eccentric-staging\/"},"modified":"2017-11-21T14:43:12","modified_gmt":"2017-11-21T13:43:12","slug":"semiramide-review-rossini-sounds-sublime-in-aldens-eccentric-staging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/?p=16151","title":{"rendered":"Semiramide review \u2013 Rossini sounds sublime in Alden&#039;s eccentric staging"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Royal Opera House, London Outstanding performances by Joyce DiDonato, Lawrence Brownlee and Daniela Barcellona illuminate David Alden\u2019s occasionally cluttered vision of this Rossini rarityRossini\u2019s great 1823 tragedy, his last work composed for Italy before he based himself in Paris, was deemed a masterpiece in the 19th century, but fell out of fashion for much of the 20th. David Alden\u2019s staging is the first at Covent Garden since 1887, though the opera was heard there in a series of concert performances in 1986. If Alden\u2019s contribution is at times eccentric, the evening also contains performances from Joyce DiDonato, Lawrence Brownlee and Daniela Barcellona that are indisputably great.Alden has reimagined Rossini\u2019s Babylon as a modern dictatorship, where DiDonato\u2019s guilt-ridden Semiramide struggles to maintain authority as her world crumbles around her. The drama plays itself out in a series of ostentatious corridors of power, where presidential portraits of Semiramide\u2019s murdered husband hang on the walls. A massive, totalitarian statue serves for the god Baal. Buki Shiff\u2019s costumes evoke both Middle Eastern opulence and North Korean militarism, though Brownlee\u2019s Idreno, visiting from the Ganges, is a Mughal raja. The first half is unnecessarily cluttered, and includes such quirks as the captive Azema (Jacquelyn Stucker) bound in what looks like a gilded straitjacket, and the ghost of Semiramide\u2019s husband rising, Dracula-like, from his coffin. The second half is simpler, allowing the music to speak more easily \u2013 and speak it unquestionably does. Continue reading&#8230;<br \/>\nVia: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2017\/nov\/21\/semiramide-review-royal-opera-house-david-alden-joyce-didonato\" target=\"_blank\">Semiramide review \u2013 Rossini sounds sublime in Alden&#039;s eccentric staging<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Royal Opera House, London Outstanding performances by Joyce DiDonato, Lawrence Brownlee and Daniela Barcellona illuminate David Alden\u2019s occasionally cluttered vision of this Rossini rarityRossini\u2019s great 1823 tragedy, his last work composed for Italy before he based himself in Paris, was deemed a masterpiece in the 19th century, but fell out [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}