A hidden gem in bel canto repertoire, Le Comte Ory is one of Rossini’s most consistent works. If I were to be really picky, there is one number I don’t like in the whole opera – the rest is bubbly and fresh like champagne, including a libretto clearly less silly than those in his Italian opere buffe. I will be forever spoilt by first hearing it live in truly authentic circumstances at the Opéra Comique with a cast impossible to match. That said, the Opernhaus Zürich can stand proudly to the competition with this evening’s performance. First, Moshe Leiser and Patrice Courier’s staging is intelligent, entertaining and visually catchy, amazing acting from all involved, including individual members of the chorus. The action is updated to the 1960’s and we witness the lives of these ladies from an ultracatholic milieu waiting their husbands return from the Algerian War. May 1968 is only 6 years ahead, and our Comte Ory with his marijuana leaf t-shirt is a sample of what is happening next. And, no, the staging is not pretentious at all – if you don’t read the program, you’ll get all that without racking your brain. It’s there and is not obtrusive at all.
Conductor Victorien Vanoosten doesn’t think of bel canto as chantilly and marzipan. The first thing one would notice about this evening’s performance was that the orchestra was very much there in full, earthy sound, a bit rough in the edges, what becomes this kind of screwball comedy. Although I still miss a bit of the filigree in John Eliot Gardiner’s CDs, the boldness is not unwelcome and the tempi were lively enough, what makes the level of precision in ensembles even more praiseworthy, especially if one has in mind the level of physical comedy involved. Bravi.
In terms of singing, I am afraid I had to avoid comparisons with what I heard in Paris. With one exception, which is Uruguayan tenor Edgardo Rocha in the title role. First, he is a terrific – really, amazing – comedy actor. He could twist the audience around his little finger with his facial expressions and gestures. One could see that there was some ad lib involved, especially when he felt that everyone was really fixed on his every little movement. I was about to say his is a typical Rossini tenor voice, but it is actually warmer and rounder than, say, Juan Diego Flórez’s if a bit less impressively articulate in coloratura. His trump card actually are his high notes. He is the kind of tenor who is really dying to sing the next high c sharp! And his French is really crystal-clear.
Brenda Rae too was very funny as the Countess Adèle, yet her voice is neither typically Italian or French, in the sense that it is a bit colorless and rather unfocused in the middle. So, when the phrase was rather central, she could be a bit hard to hear. In any case, even if the voice has no inbuilt magic, she sang very well, tackled her coloratura adeptly, has reasonable legato and, even if her in alts were a bit freer in the past, they’re still there, true in pitch and firm. Rebeca Olvera’s overbright, nasal soprano is not my kind of voice and she too was a bit hard to hear in the middle register, but her fioriture is fluent. In spite of a apt physique not truly apt for trouser roles, she was scenically very convincing as the page Isolier. As the gouverneur, Andrew Moore had a clear advantage in a noble, velvety bass voice, a bit on the high side for the role. Liliana Nikiteanu too is a mezzo in a contralto role as Ragonde, but she made it work for her in an extremely likeable performance.
I HEAR VOICES 
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