Overture to Tancredi
Gioacchino Rossini
(1792-1868)
In a single year (1813) Gioacchino Rossini catapulted to international fame with a pair of operas of sharply contrasting character: the uproarious opera buffa, L’Italiana in Algeri, and Tancredi, an impressive opera seria based upon a drama by Voltaire. Barely twenty-one years old, the composer had already composed nearly a dozen operas, and another dozen would appear within the next four years!
Although nowadays better known for his comic operas, such as the Barber of Seville and Cenerentola, Rossini won great success in the early years of the 19th century with a number of powerful works which belong to the tradition of opera seria. Although already on the wane, this form of opera, with its rather rigid theatrical conventions (and continued use of castrato singers) survived into the 1830s, effectively killed off by the vivid dramatic works of Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi.
Despite the lofty tone of Voltaire’s play (reflected in Rossini’s music), with its story of family rivalries and passionate conflict akin to Romeo and Juliet, Rossini’s buoyant musical personality prompts him to serve up an overture which mirrors the serious tenor of the opera only in its solemn slow introduction, with a majestic opening statement, and subsequent hushed pizzicato passage on “tiptoe,” soon giving way to a exuberant allegro, set out in a condensed sonataform. A skipping first theme soon swells into robust ruffles and flourishes, leading to a teasing second theme, decked out in tumbling triplets. Here we encounter a trademark Rossinian crescendo, led off with a ghostly whisper in “ponticello” strings---the violins playing very quietly with the bows close to the bridge of the instruments, producing an eerily “distant” sound. There is no “development,” and a mere crumb of a first theme: after twelve bars Rossini bounces onweard to the second theme, triplets, ponticello, and a coda which picks up speed and scrambles home.
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