The Guardian

'... the score is striking, much of it in minor keys and often darkly chromatic. Conductor Marco Benini certainly makes the most of its expressive opportunities and the cast is very good indeed; Elizabeth Futral is wonderfully edgy and precise in the title role, Bruce Ford as the scheming Antenore
 
 
 
 
Sicilienne
Zelmira
 
 

The Cast

ANTENORE - Bruce Ford
LEUCIPPO - Mirco Palazzi
POLIDORO - Marco Vinco
ZELMIRA - Elizabeth Futral
EMMA - Manuela Custer
ILO - Antonino Siragusa
EACIDE - Ashley Catling
HIGH PRIEST -
Mathias Hausmann

Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus
CONDUCTOR -
Maurizio Benini

 

Classical CD of the week

'Zelmira might not be the most riveting of dramas, but it contains some of his finest music in the seria genre. The lovely duet for Zelmira and her confidante, Emma, accompanied only by harp and cor anglais, is one of Rossini's most exquisite compositions of this kind. As usual in his Neapolitan operas, there are also splendid opportunities for rival tenors - the dark baritonal Antenore, the light, florid tenore di grazio Ilo - to pit their vocal skills against each other. Bruce Ford and Antonino Siragusa are ideally

 
 
 
 
 
 
contrasted in timbre, and technically formidable, in the live recording from last year's Edinburgh Festival. With Elizabeth Futral's sweetly sung heroine and Benini's immaculately stylish conducting, I wish I'd been there.'
 
Registered charity number: 258224
5 January 2009  
The Peter Moores Foundation supports projects which come to the attention of its Patron, or Trustees, through their interests and special knowledge. General applications for grants are not encouraged and are unlikely to succeed
© Peter Moores Foundation 2004
 
 
 
 
still copes with Rossini's fearsome tenor writing better than anyone else, and neither tenor Antonino Siragusa nor mezzo Manuela Custer is any slouch either.'