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High Society Two Centuries Ago
GIUSEPPE PENNISI comments on
Rossini's 'La Pietra di Paragone' in Pesaro
The second
production of the Rossini Opera
Festival (ROF) 2017 is La
Pietra di Paragone ('A Method for Comparison'), a melodramma
giocosowith a libretto written by Luigi Romanelli for La Scala. The La Scala commission was very important for Gioachino Rossini, then twenty years old. He made a name
for himself and attracted the attention of major impresarios in Rome and especially in Naples. The La Scala debut of La Pietra di Paragone was in
1820 and many performances followed until the mid-nineteenth century. Then, it disappeared from theatre
programs until a revival in 1952; however, it had a limited number of performances. The
main reason is that this melodramma giocoso is not a
comic opera but a comedy with a lot of irony and sensuality.
From left to right: William Corrò as Fabrizio, Paulo Bordogna as
Pacuvio, Marina Monzò as Fulvia, Gianluca Margheri as Asdrubale, Davide
Luciano as Macrobio and Aurora Faggioli as Aspasia in Rossini's 'La
Pietra di Paragone' in Pesaro. Photo © 2017 Studio Amati Bacciardi.
Click on the image for higher resolution
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Pier Luigi Pizzi understood this fully. He authored
the stage direction, setsand costumes of the real revival at the ROF in 2002. The action was set in
the last decades of the twentieth century. It revolves around a very richmiddle-aged bachelor, Count Asdrubale, who
has decided to get married, and the three young widows who are courting him. In his palatial
villa, with a swimming pool, and a small crowd of permanent guests — a
real long-time friend, a pompous poet, a gossipy newspaperman and, of course, servants — the protagonist
needs to develop a method to compare the real feelings for him of the
three widows.
From left to right: Gianluca Margheri as Asdrubale, Aurora Faggioli as
Aspasia, Davide Luciano as Macrobio, Aya Wakizono as Clarice and Maxim
Mironov as Giocondo in Rossini's 'La Pietra di Paragone' in Pesaro.
Photo © 2017 Studio Amati Bacciardi. Click on the image for higher
resolution
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The two acts are parallel and symmetric:
in the first act, Asdrubale seduces Clarice, the woman in love with him through a disguise; in the second act, after a
misunderstanding, she seduces him. It may seem like the plot of a movie such as High Society or How to Marry a Millionaire. After the 2002
revival, La Pietra di Paragone has been seen and heard
in many theatres in Europe and the USA.
From left to right: Aya Wakizono as Clarice, Marina Monzò as Fulvia,
Aurora Faggioli as Aspasia, Paulo Bordogna as Pacuvio and Davide
Luciano as Macrobio in Rossini's 'La Pietra di Paragone' in Pesaro.
Photo © 2017 Studio Amati Bacciardi. Click on the image for higher
resolution
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The production opened in Pesaro on 11 August 2017. It is not merely a revival of the 2002
performances. I was in the opening night audience. Pier Luigi Pizzi (now eighty-seven years old) made several changes in order to take account of the different shape and size of the
stage. Reportedly, he lent some of his own personal furniture to the ROF to embellish the villa which is the
main element of the set.
Aya Wakizono as Clarice in Rossini's 'La Pietra di Paragone' in Pesaro.
Photo © 2017 Studio Amati Bacciardi.
Click on the image for higher resolution
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Daniele Rustioni conducted the RAI orchestra with vivacity and sensuality. Giovanni Farina led the choir of the Teatro Ventidio Basso of
Ascoli Piceno. The cast was excellent: the singers young and attractive, and good actors too. They were able to
sing while diving in the swimming pool. There were some quite well known
opera singers — Gianluca Margheri, Paolo Bordogna and Maxim Mironov — and
some less known, trained in the Pesaro Rossini Academy — Aurora Faggioli and Marina Monzò. The real revelation
was Aya Wakizono, a mezzo with a velvet voice, perfect phrasing and a seductive coloratura.
Aya Wakizono as Clarice and Gianluca Margheri as Asdrubale in Rossini's
'La Pietra di Paragone' in Pesaro. Photo © 2017 Studio Amati Bacciardi. Click on the image for higher
resolution
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There were ovations at the curtain calls,
during which Pizzi jogged to the stage to join the rest of the company.
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