Whilst watching Rossini’s farce for the very first time and in a modern update by Kurtheatre in Wildbad, I wished I was watching a more traditional production in its correct period.
So, I went online and discovered Michael Hampe’s production for Theatre Schwetzingen had been filmed in 1989 and Is both available on DVD and can be watched free on EuroArts channel on YouTube.
Hampe’s production, featuring the Radio-Sinfonie Orchester Stuttgart conducted by Gianluigi Gelmetti and elegantly designed by Carlo Tommasi, is set in 1813, the year of the opera’s première in Venice. The pastel colours are much more respectful.
The performance feels much more like the real thing: romantic, sentimental, tender, totally innocuous and charmingly old-fashioned. The Roco theatre is a delighful bijou venue for it.
Alessandro Corbelli is Sofia’s guardian. Amelia Felle and David Kuebler are the young lovers. Alberto Rinbaldi is Bruschino’s father. Sadly, there are no subtitles in English for the EuroArts version.