Sunday Classics snapshots: Rosina I and Rosina II

Victoria de los Angeles as Rosina II at the Met in 1952

Rosina I

I'm docile, I'm respectful;
I'm obedient, gentle, loving;
I let myself be ruled and guided. But --
but if you touch on my weakness,
I shall be a viper, I shall,
and a hundred tricks
I'll play before I'll yield.
And a hundred tricks, etc.
I'm docile, I'm respectful;
I let myself be ruled and guided, etc.

Victoria de los Angeles (s), Rosina; Orchestra of the Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Carlo Felice Cillario, cond. Live performance, June 1962

Rosina II

Grant, love, that relief
to my sorrow, to my sighing.
Give me back my treasure,
or at least let me die.
Grant, love, etc.

Victoria de los Angeles (s), Rosina; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, cond. Live performance, Mar. 1, 1952

by Ken

It's not that we've never done this sort of thing before in Sunday Classics. In fact, I like to think we've taken pretty frequent advantage of the oportunity afforded by this peculiar, er, format, to put together any two (or three or more) damned things we want which can benefit from being heard together. Butting together "the two Rosinas," as we've just done, is an idea so obvious that it doesn't seem to occur to many people that it really doesn't get done that often.

Well, here it is.


MY NEED TO DO THIS JUXTAPOSITION STARTED . . .

. . . as best I recall when I happened to listen to a broadcast performance of Rossini's Barber of Seville, from Buenos Aires's celebrated Teatro Colón, which I've had for a while but didn't remember ever actuallly listening to. Most of the principals are familiar from more widely circulated Barber performances -- in some cases, like tenor Luigi Alva's Count Almaviva, very very familiiar. The Colón Figaro and Rosina, Sesto Bruscantini and Victoria de los Angeles, in fact made a recording of the opera not long after doing it here.

I think there was another step required to set this little project in motion -- a line uttered by the Count near the end of The Marriage of Figaro, one of Mozart's most hauntingly beautiful, near the end of the opera:

THE COUNT [kneeling]:
Countess, pardon! Pardon, pardon!

Eberhard Wäechter (b), Count Almaviva; Philharmonia Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond.
EMI, recorded Sept. and Nov. 1959

We'll come back to it. But first let's listen to the full arias that we teased at the top of this post. These are, of course, the great first arias of, first, the "young Rosina," of Rossini's Barber of Sevlille, based on the Beaumarchais play of the same name, and then the "mature Rosina," now Countess Almaviva, from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, also based on the Beaumarchais play of the same name.

Again, there's nothing at all innovative about the juxtaposition -- these operas are, after all, among the cornerstones of the operatic repertory. It's just a juxtaposition that we don't often get to hear in actual sound. And it occurred to me that we could actually peform the juxtaposition with the same singer.

I'm hoping that the juxtaposition is amply rewarding in artistic terms but, in human terms, utterly horrifying. It should be noted that, according to Beaumarchais, the action of The Marriage of Figaro takes place only three years after that of The Barber of Seville. What could have happened in a mere three years to transform Rosina I into Rosina II?


BEFORE PROCEEDING, LET'S DISPOSE OF THE
OBVIOUS PECULIARITY IN OUR JUXTAPOSITION

Which again is something that could hardly be better-known: that while Beaumarchais of course wrote the plays "in order," with Le Mariage de Figaro (1778) coming as a sequel to Le Barbier de Séville (1775 -- with yet another sequel, La Mère coupable, The Guilty Mother, yet to come in 1792), the great operas that were created from them were created in reverse order: Mozart's Marriage of Figaro in 1786 and Rossini's Barber in 1816. Yes, there was an operatic Barber that preceded Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, by Giovanni Paisiello in 1782, but while it's a pleasant enough piece, it in no way rises to the stature of the material and even with a couple of additional attempts at operatic Barbers left a gaping hole that wouldn't be filled until Rossini served up his operatic prequel.

Note, though, that this isn't the only chronological reversal in our Rosina samples. We heard soprano Victoria de los Angeles singing the "mature" Rosina in 1952 and the "young" Rosina in 1962!


SO LET'S LISTEN TO THE WHOLE OF ROSINA I'S ARIA

Although Rosina's great showpiece aria "Una voce poco fa" is placed at the start of Rossini's Act I, Scene 2 (which in fact, given the length of Scene 1, often used to be played as "Act II"), we've actually heard and even seen her in the opening scene -- as the lovesick young Count Almaviva, disguised as a poor student, attempted to serenade her at dawn outside her bedroom window in the home of her guardian, the cantankerous old Dr. Bartolo. Amid the comic confusion, one thing seemed pretty clear: The young lady wasn't at all averse to the idea of a dashing young suitor.

In Scene 2 (or Act II) we're now inside the house.

ROSSINI: The Barber of Seville: Act I, Scene 2, Cavatina, Rosina, "Una voce poco fa" ("A voice just now") . . . "Io sono docile, son rispettosa" ("I'm docile, I'm respectful")

Inside the room in Dr. Bartolo's house, the balcony and windows of which overlooked the street in Scene 1. ROSINA holds in her hand a newly written letter.

ROSINA: A voice just now
echoed here in my heart;
my heart is wounded already,
and it was Lindoro who inflicted the wound.
Yes, Lindoro will be mine!
I swear it! I shall win it!
My guardian will object;
I'll sharpen my wits.
In the end he'll be pacified,
and I'll be satisfied.
Yes, Lindoro will be mine, etc.

I'm docile, I'm respectful;
I'm obedient, gentle, loving;
I let myself be ruled and guided. But --
but if you touch on my weakness,
I shall be a viper, I shall,
and a hundred tricks
I'll play before I'll yield.
And a hundred tricks, etc.
I'm docile, I'm respectful;
I let myself be ruled and guided, etc.

-- translation by Peggie Cochrane

Teresa Berganza (ms), Rosina; Rossini Orchestra of Naples, Silvio Varviso, cond. Decca, recorded July-Aug. 1964

Victoria de los Angeles (s), Rosina; Milan Symphony Orchestra, Tullio Serafin, cond. EMI, recorded June 1952

Victoria de los Angeles (s), Rosina; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Vittorio Gui, cond. EMI, recorded Sept. 4-10, 1962

Maria Callas (s), Rosina; Philharmonia Orchestra, Alceo Galliera, cond. EMI, recorded Feb. 7-14, 1957

Teresa Berganza's voice in its youthful prime is for my ears something like the ideal Rossini mezzo, as I think this performance from her gorgeous 1964 Barber recording demonstrates. Victoria de los Angeles and Callas are sopranos of course, but singing the role without the common soprano alterations, and de los Angeles, while hardly a coloratura specialist, sings the role quite endearingly -- and noticeably more girlishly in the earlier recording (I couldn't resist including both her commercial Barber recordings)  -- which, again, was made three months after the Met performance of The Marriage of Figaro we're hearing her it. Callas is, well, Callas, in an infrequent opportunity to apply her dramatic sense to comedy, and while the building stresses in her voice are noticeable, this is still a heckuva performance.


NOW LET'S HEAR ALL OF THE COUNTESS'S ARIA

Although "Porgi, amor" comes at the start of Act II of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, it is in fact our first sighting and hearing of the Countess.

MOZART: The Marriage of Figaro: Act II, Cavatina, Countess Almaviva, "Porgi, amor"

The COUNTESS's bedchamber. The COUNTESS is alone.

COUNTESS ALMAVIVA: Grant, love, that relief
to my sorrow, to my sighing.
Give me back my treasure,
or at least let me die.
Grant, love, etc.

Victoria de los Angeles (s), Rosina; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, cond. Live performance, Mar. 1, 1952

Sena Jurinac (s), Countess Almaviva (Rosina); Glyndebourne Festival Orchestra, Vittorio Gui, cond. EMI, recorded July 1955

Elisabeth Grümmer (s), Countess Almaviva (Rosina), Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Karl Böhm, cond. Live performance in Tokyo, Oct. 23, 1963

For "Porgi, amor" we've got a group of singers I think of as especially notable for their ability to burrow their way into the listener's heart. It's worth noting again that we're hearing de los Angeles, our dual-Rosina-ist, at 28, a pretty tender age for Rosina II. (The "early" Rosina I we've heard above is from the same year, but three months later.)


SO WHAT'S HAPPENED TO ROSINA IN THREE YEARS?

The short answer is that she got what she wanted, as expressed in "Una voce poco fa." Of course at that point she thought what she was getting was a poor student; instead she got a count, and it has turned out not to be a trade-up. In the difference between Rosina I and II we hear the psychological effects of a disastrous marriage.

Which brings us back to that amazingly beautiful line of the Count's when he thinks he has caught his wife in an act of infidelity -- and never mind that he has spent the entire opera trying to arrange an act of infidelity of his own. It's the only moment of tenderness, or even kindness of any kind, we see the Count display toward the Countess, and it doesn't seem likely to be repeated anytime soon.

MOZART: The Marriage of Figaro: Act IV, The Count asks the Countess's pardon

In the garden scene of Act IV, COUNT ALMAVIVA, unaware that he is the victim of mutliple pranks, believes he has caught the COUNTESS -- actually SUSANNA in disguise -- in a compromising situation.

THE COUNT: Your plot is discovered;
the deceiver is there, the deceiver is there!
SUSANNA [disguised as the COUNTESS, kneels before the COUNT, holding her handkerchief before her face]: Pardon, pardon!
THE COUNT: No, don't hope for it!
FIGARO [kneels]: Pardon, pardon!
THE COUNT: No, no, I will not!
ALL THE OTHERS: Pardon!
THE COUNT: No!
ALL THE OTHERS: Pardon!
THE COUNT: No!
ALL THE OTHERS: Pardon!
THE COUNT: No, no, no, no, no, no!
THE COUNTESS [comes out of the pavilion and is about to kneel when the COUNT prevents her]: At least I may obtain their pardon.
BASILIO, DON CURZIO, THE COUNT, ANTONIO, and BARTOLO: O heavens! What do I see?
I'm raving! Going crazy!
I don't know what to believe!
THE COUNT [kneeling]: Countess, pardon!
Pardon, pardon!
THE COUNTESS: I am more bending,
and I answer yes.
ALL: Ah! All shall be
made happy thereby!
Only love can resolve
this day of torments,
caprice, and folly
into joy and happiness.

Eberhard Wächter (b), Count Almaviva; Anna Moffo (s), Susanna; Giuseppe Taddei (b), Figaro; Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (s), Countess Almaviva; et al.; Philharmonia Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. EMI, recorded Sept. and Nov. 1959

#