Saturday, 28 February 2026

Rossini: Matilde de Shabran


Opera 25

Rossini: Matilde de Shabran
Soloists
Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia
Riccardo Frizza

Rossini is one of my great enthusiasms. I’m gradually working my way though the lesser known operas and I was delighted to discover this piece. What a cracker it is!  It absolutely fizzes with energy and excitement in a way that nobody in my experience has been able to match.  It is very much an ensemble opera with lots of hair-raising episodes which must be a nightmare to get together in the theatre. Recordings have a definite advantage there.

But these are also some highly attractive solo numbers, including one with an astonishing obligato for solo horn (a nod perhaps to Rossini’s horn-playing father), some extremely demanding coloratura for the tenor soloist and a final aria for the Soprano that simply blows you away. What an opera!


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