COMPOSERS: Rossini
LABELS: Sony
WORKS: L'Italiana in Algeri
PERFORMER: Lucia Valentini-Terrani (Isabella), Wladimiro Ganzarolli (Mustafa), Francesco Araiza (Lindoro), Enzo Dara (Taddeo), Jean Marie Bima (Elvira), Alessandro Corbelli (Haly) Cappella Coloniensis & Männerchor des Westdeutschen Rundfunks/Gabriele Ferro
CATALOGUE NO: 88697579082
Over now to comedy, and the CBS/Sony Rossini special most deserving of reissue – Gabriele Ferro’s sparkling period-instrument whizz through L'Italiana in Algeri. Lucia Valentini-Terrani’s doughty Isabella is rather an acquired taste, a tad serious for my taste, but there’s Rossinian elegance from Araiza and spot-on comedy from Corbelli and Ganzarolli. Essential listening, above all, is the Act I finale with its onomatopoeic noises of confusion – unsurpassed even by Abbado. David Nice