The Times
‘Jennifer Larmore is a technically impressive... Isabella, Alastair Miles an odiously amorous Bey, but Alan Opie’s comic Taddeo takes the Rossinian honours.’
BBC Music Magazine
‘Barry Banks is a properly plaintive Lindoro, though's there's a tad too much vibrato in his cavatina 'In dreams of endless pleasure', and Alastair Miles's softgrained bass makes the lovelorn Mustafa an oddly touching figure... Best of all is the utterly dependable Alan Opie who turns tiresome Taddeo into much more than Isabella's lap dog.’
Highlights
Dramma giocoso in two acts
Libretto substantially derived from Angelo Anelli's libretto
for Luigi Mosca's
L'italiana in Algeri
English translation by David Parry
The Cast
Alastair Miles, bass - Mustafŕ
Sarah Tynan, soprano - Elvira
Anne Marie Gibbons, mezzo-soprano (PMF Scholar) - Zulma
David Soar, bass - Haly
Barry Banks, tenor (PMF Scholar) - Lindoro
Jennifer Larmore, mezzo-soprano - Isabella
Alan Opie, baritone - Taddeo
Geoffrey Mitchell Choir
Philharmonia Orchestra
Brad Cohen (PMF Scholar) - conductor
Recorded in Blackheath Halls, London
20-22 August 2008
Producer - Brian Couzens (Executive) and Brian Pidgeon
Sound engineer - Ralph Couzens,
Assistant engineer - Jonathan Cooper
MusicalCriticism.com
‘In the title role of Isabella, Jennifer Larmore once again proves her aptitude for this music, dispatching coloratura runs with ease and in particular underlining the humour of the opera. She revels in playing a naughty, sexy woman who has unbeatable power over men, something which comes across particularly in the Isabella-Mustafŕ duet...
Barry Banks' sense of style in the bel canto repertoire is impeccable, and the intensity of expression he brings to the role of Lindoro makes a huge impression in his arias and ensembles... Alastair Miles' Mustafŕ is a wonderful portrait of a buffo buffoon and his contributions are always notable for his clarity of diction and poise... Alan Opie's Taddeo really stands out in spite of the brevity of the role in these highlights.
Cohen's conducting of the Philharmonia is high on imagination and detail... the vivacity and wit of the piece are always brought out, and there's such a coherence and liveliness about the whole that any small reservations are easily swept away in this pleasurable recording.’
Gramophone
‘Rossini's The Italian Girl distils readily onto a single CD. With opera in English, translation is key. Arthur Jacobs's translation in the vocal score of the Ricordi Critical Edition is a workmanlike affair but it isn't a patch on David Parry's brilliant new version. Lines from Isabella's cavatina are typically felicitous: "Through years of practising / I have perfected / The gesture languishing / The sigh affected".
Jennifer Larmore has recorded the opera in Italian (Teldec, A198) but her English Isabella, superbly articulated and projected, is both formidable and funny. Her Act 2 cavatina, played with the original cello obbligato, is the lyric highlight.
Happily, the three men in her life are equally vividly characterised: Alan Opie as her hang-dog admirer Taddeo, Barry Banks a most eloquent Lindoro, and Alastair Miles as the lascivious Mustafa. Fifty years ago there was barely a bass in Europe who could find his way around Mustafa's bumbling coloratura, let alone project the text as Miles does here.
Brad Cohen conducts superbly, bringing out the strength and expressive range of music that revels in the thrill of sexual confrontation and the speed and power of the vortex into which so-called civilised society can all too rapidly vanish. Back in the 1820s, English audiences were entertained by The Italian Girl and vaguely frightened by it. This remarkable performance tells you why.’
