ROSSINI : TANCREDI

Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 19th of October 2014 at 6.03 - 9  pm

ROSSINI: Tancredi, an opera in two acts
Tancredi........................... Marie-Nicole Lemieux
Amenaide......................... Patrizia Ciofi
Argirio.............................. Antonino Siragusa
Orbazzano........................ Roberto Tagliavini
Isaura................................ Josè Maria Lo Monaco
Roggiero........................... Sarah Tynan
Théâtre des Champs-Elysées Chorus & Radio France Phil/
Enrique Mazzola

INTRODUCTION
SYNOPSIS
LIBRETTO

This opera Tancredi is based on a play by Voltaire (Tancrède) in which the arch-satirist was not trying to be funny; it had a tragic conclusion. Rossini's opera had a happy ending (first performed in Venice in 1813), but a revision later in that year in Ferrara returned to Voltaire's version of the finale. I have a 1978 audio vinyl set of the tragic version with Fiorenza Cossotto, and a 1992 video recording of the Ferrara version, with the Venice original ending tacked on.
   Saracens in Syracuse in 1005 in the time of the Byzantine Empire.