Rossini: La Cenerentola

ROSSINI: La Cenerentola

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"Cenerentola has been lucky on record, but Chailly's version sparkles even more brightly than any predecessor. That is largely thanks to a team of Italian-speaking soloists who recorded the piece in well-spaced sessions immediately after performing it on the Bologna stage, where the recording took place. The result has the effervescense of a live performance, with none of the disadvantages of a live recording. Cecilia Bartoli, one of the most vibrantly exciting singers of the younger generation, makes an inspired Cenerentola. Her tone-colours are not just more sensuous than those of her rivals; her imagination and feeling for detail add enormously to her vivid characterization, culminating in a stunning account of the final rondo, "non più mesta". The rest of the cast has been just as carefully chosen, with William Matteuzzi as an engaging prince, sweeter of tone and more stylish than his direct rivals, while the contrasting of the bass and baritone roles is ideal between Alessandro Corbelli as Dandini, Michele Pertusi as the tutor, Alidoro (substitute for the fairy godmother in the Cinderella story), and Enzo Dara as Don Magnifico. Few Rossini opera-sets have such fizz as this, and the recording is one of Decca's most vivid."
The Penguin Guide