First performed in Venice in 1823, Rossini’s Semiramide has been described as the last of the great baroque operas. It brought Rossini’s career in his native Italy to an end – he was based in Paris from 1824 – and its combination of measured classical dramaturgy and vocal extremism mark it out as one of his most extraordinary scores. The source is a play by Voltaire. Semiramide, queen of Babylon, has achieved power by murdering her husband, Nino, with the aid of her lover, Assur, but now finds herself attracted to the young army captain Arsace, in terrible ignorance of the fact that he is her long-lost son. Rossini pushes his singers to their technical and expressive limits as he explores the emotional catastrophe.
Its outings are infrequent, though Opera Rara brought it to the Proms, with Mark Elder conducting the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and a cast more than equal to its challenges. Albina Shagimuratova dazzled in the title role with her high-lying coloratura. Although Daniela Barcellona occasionally sounded underpowered in the vast space of the Albert Hall, her agility in Arsace’s arias was exceptional. Mirco Palazzi made an insidiously attractive Assur, and Gianluca Buratto was outstanding as Oroe, the implacable priest, whose secret machinations provoke the dramatic crisis. Elder drove the score hard. Period instruments added to the starkness of it all – the OAE brass sounded aptly baleful throughout. Thrilling, every second of it.
