Il Signor Bruschino

This 1813 early single-act comic opera by Rossini receives a curious staging in this 2012 production from the Rossini Festival in Pesaro. The plot is essentially a conventional one: Florville (David Alegret) and Sofia (Maria Aleida) are in love, but Sofia's guardian—Gaudenzio (Carlo Lepore)—has pledged her to Signor Bruschino's (Roberto De Candia) son. Florville impersonates his beloved's betrothed in order to fool Gaudenzio, but events take a rather strange turn when the befuddled senior Bruschino is convinced by the imposter's charade. Rossini wrote a supremely witty score for this comic trifle (the violinists' striking their music stands in unison as part of the overture is justifiably famous), which the Orchestra Sinfonica G. Rossini plays with verve and precision under the baton of Daniele Rustioni, and the singing is first-rate across the board. The staging by the group Teatro Sotterraneo aims to make the absurd story contemporary by presenting it as one of many attractions for visitors at a theme park called Rossiniland. So, tourists in shorts wander about the stage, stopping to listen and snap pictures of the singers (who are in colorful period costumes), and occasionally interact with them (an only partially successful conceit that adds some 20 minutes of extraneous material). Overall, however, this is a generally excellent musical performance of a Rossini rarity. Presented in DTS 5.1 (DTS-HD 5.1 on the Blu-ray release) and LPCM stereo, extras include a “making-of” featurette and a cast gallery. Recommended. (F. Swietek)