Pacini: Saffo
Pacini is another of those Italian 19th century opera composers who had been squeezed out between Donizetti/Bellini and Verdi. I don’t think that I had heard anything of his before - perhaps the odd extract on one of the Opera Rara compilation CDs.
I have to say that my first impressions were not positive. I thought that most of Act 1 was full of clichés, indeed at times it seems almost like a parody of Italian opera. But things changed in Act 2 - there was a really impressive duet for two female voices and some dramatic ensembles at the end of the Act, which ended with real energy and drama.
The third act also had some high quality music, The sombre music as the crowd gathers to watch the heroine leap to her death off a cliff was genuinely moving and brought to mind Spontini and serious Rossini in places.
So after a poor start I really got into this opera. Overall it didn’t impress me quite as much as the Mercadante which preceded it in this project but I was still very glad to have heard it.
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