ROSSINI: Il Turco in Italia

Jo, Mentzer; Fissore, Giménez, Corbelli, Alaimo; St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Marriner. Philips 434128 (2)

In his illuminating annotations, Rossini scholar Philip Gossett discounts the widely held theory that Il Turco in Italia (1814) is merely a poor relation to L'Italiana in Algeri, more successfully introduced in Venice the preceding year. He also points to the libretto similarities and conscious musical allusions that link Il Turco to an earlier source, Mozart's Cosí Fan Tutte.

This, the Rossini opera's third commercial recording, follows the pioneering, rather heavily cut 1955 Angel version with Maria Callas and Nicola Rossi-Lemeni and a 1982 CBS set based on the critical edition, authorized by the Rossini Foundation in Pesaro, with Montserrat Caballé and Samuel Ramey. Based on the same edition -- with minor textual differences -- Philips' new album is successful, proving again Neville Marriner's affinity for Rossini style. Scenes are merrily bound into a fast-moving whole, flowing along at a bright but unhurried pace with precise ensemble work. Most important, the music is in the hands of a seasoned cast.

Simone Alaimo's malleable, well-focused bass is a fortuitous match for Sumi Jo's bell-like soprano, and both are engaging vocal personalities. The extraordinary light tenor Raúl Giménez positively shines in Narciso's showy music, and Enrico Fissore, if not quite so appealing in tone as CBS' Enzo Dara, is appropriately crusty and characterful as the henpecked husband, Geronio. Alessandro Corbelli's capable Poet and Susanne Mentzer's delightful Zaida complete the cast. Philips captures the opera on two CDs, as opposed to CBS' three, and does so in superior sound.

- GEORGE JELLINEK