Sunday, July 14, 2019
The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College

Thursday, July 18, 2019
Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center

Melodramma by Gioachino Rossini

Libretto: Giovanni Gherardini, based on the play La Pie Voleuse by Théodore Baudouin d'Aubigny and Louis-Charles Caigniez

Premiere: 31 May 1817
Teatro alla Scala, Milan

Ninetta Alisa Jordheim, soprano
Pippo Hannah Ludwig, mezzo-soprano
Giannetto Oliver Sewell, tenor
Fernando Erik van Heyningen, bass-baritone
Il Podestà Hans Tashjian, bass
Lucia Allison Gish, mezzo-soprano
Fabrizio Rob McGinness, baritone
Isacco Spencer Viator, tenor
Antonio Jacob Wright, tenor
Ernesto Peter Warren, bass-baritone
Giorgio Samuel Ferreira, baritone
Il Pretore Daniel Fridley, bass

Teatro Nuovo Chorus and Orchestra
Rachelle Jonck, maestro al cembalo
Jakob Lehmann, primo violino e capo d’orchestra

 

ABOUT LA GAZZA LADRA (THE THIEVING MAGPIE)

Quick facts:

  • Chopin’s favorite opera, quoted or paraphrased in at least three of his works
  • The last Rossini opera to be retouched by the composer, fifty years after its premiere
  • You know the overture if you’ve seen A Clockwork Orange (but try not to think of that!)

La Gazza Ladra belongs to a very important transitional genre, the “opera semiseria.” Literally the term means “half-serious.” In practice it means that the characters are drawn from the world of “opera buffa” - villagers, ordinary working-class people, not nobles drawn from history - but serious things happen. The heroine of La Gazza is tried and condemned for theft, and is on her way to the gallows when rescue arrives (yes, the titular magpie was the real thief of the missing silver). This “slice of life” approach paved the way for everything from La Traviata to Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, all treating subjects that would have been impossible for the earlier concept of “opera seria.” Read More.