Better known, perhaps (at least to Anglophones) by its English title, The Thieving Magpie. The overture may not be as iconic as Guillaume Tell's, but it's pretty famous as these things go. And, you know, good.
So it's Napoleonic Wars time. Ninetta is a serving girl working for a rich couple, the Vingraditos. She and their son Giannetto are in love and they're going to get married when he comes home. So that's fun. But then Ninetta's father Fernando appears: he was a soldier, but now he's on the run, having deserted after a fight with his captain for which he was sentenced to death. He gives her some silverware to sell to cover his expenses. The mayor appears, intent on seducing her, but she rejects him and he gets mad. Ninetta sells the silverware to an itinerant merchant. Another thing that's been happening during this time is that pieces of the Vingraditos' silverware are disappearing. When everyone learns that Ninetta was selling silverware, suspicion falls on her. The merchant comes back and says that the stuff she'd sold him had the initials "F.V." on them, her master's initials--and also her dad's, but she doesn't want to say anything to give him away, so she lets herself be arrested. The mayor tries to get her to accept his advances in turn for letting her go free, but she rejects him, and thus is sentenced to death (!). Fortunately, a friend of Fernando's appears, revealing that the king has pardoned him, and it is discovered that all the silverware was taken by a naughty magpie, so everyone's happy, except the jerkass mayor.
Gotta say: I'm pretty sure there has never been a point in my life when I knew how much silverware I had or would have noticed if some of it went missing. But hey, different times. Even so, though...in theory, the reason you can be sentenced to death for stealing it is because we're under martial law, which seems a bit questionable, but hey, I can sort of believe it, maybe. What's harder to believe is that this tribunal would just go along with that, sure sentence her to death, without thinking "dude, what are we doing? This is FUCKED UP." And happy ending notwithstanding, it's hard to ignore the fact that the law that says you can be hanged for pilfering cutlery is still on the books.
I hope, however, that the above paragraph isn't taken as serious criticism. I mean, it's something you can't help but notice, sure, but the opera works dramatically in spite of that, and it goddamn well rules. Rossini's music is varied and awesome as ever. I chose the traditional production over the weird, Eurotrashy looking one; as you know, I like Eurotrash as much as anyone, but this seemed a bit much. Very traditional, probably not unlike what it would have looked like in 1817; the only thing to object to is the quality. It's from 1987, and I'm sorry to say, the audio is a bit lacking--you get used to it, but you really have to crank it up, and there's audible hissing in the background.
Well, I think you'll have fun here however you see it. Let me ask you: do you think Rossini was the greatest composer of the nineteenth century? I know there's a lot of formidable competition, but he's gotta be up there, doesn't he? To say what thousands of people have said before, it really is a shame that he gave up opera. It wouldn't be reasonable to expect him to have kept up the frenzied pace he had at his height, but just on occasion? Every few years, maybe? Oh well. There's still plenty out there to enjoy, of course.
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