Here we have an opera from early in Rossini's career and one from late in it. It feels odd that when it comes to Rossini, "late in his career" is not the same as "late in his life." But I've lamented that enough, probably!
First, La pietra del paragone, by a twenty-year-old Rossini. Not bad, I have to say! Whether he was on the level of Mozart, one can argue, but it's definitely impressive.
The plot really couldn't be more flimsy. There's this count, Asdrubale, and everyone wonder why he isn't married yet--he's almost thirty, fergawdsake! Ods bodkins! But he doesn't trust women; he thinks they're just after his money. People will say that the story is of him pretending to have lost his fortune so he can see which of the women courting him really loves him, but that takes up seriously, like, two minutes from start to finish. The libretto could fairly be described as baggy: you have two hangers-on, a journalist and a poet, sort of dicking around. You have a thing where the count's lover's dead brother reappears--or so it seems! You don't watch this for a tight, cohesive plot.
You watch it for some great music, obviously. Young Rossini definitely had it. You can hear echoes of his later work here; suffice to say, it's great. You also watch it, perhaps, for the super-fun production. It takes place in a fifties Hollywood-style mansion, which seems highly appropriate for the story and allows for a lot of fun goofing around. I feel like I need to revise what "Eurotrash" means to me, because instinctively, I don't think this is it, even though it should be under my definition. Well, more on that later, maybe.
This is also the opera that led Napoleon's viceroy in Milan to declare that Rossini should not be drafted: "I cannot take it upon myself to expose to the enemy's fire such a precious existence; my contemporaries would never forgive me. We are perhaps losing a mediocre soldier, but we are surely saving a man of genius for the nation." I don't how likely Rossini was to be drafted otherwise, but I sort of have mixed feelings here: obviously, I'm extremely glad that he didn't die in the Napoleonic Wars. That would've fuckin' blown. And yet, imagine that someone else was drafted in his place, and this person was killed. Was his life fundamentally worth less because he wasn't a musical genius? If you pursue that idea, it can lead you to some dark places, I think.
Il viaggio a Reims is a late work. I don't think the La Scala production that I watched is otherwise available. This is an interesting one, in that it was written for the coronation of Charles X in the city of Reims, performed a few times, and then set aside. It was intended to be an ephemeral thing, which i why Rossini reused about half the music in Le Comte Ory. But really, could he possibly have been oblivious enough to his own talent to imagine that people would be content to just let it fade into obscurity? Really now.
The plot is even less of a plot than La pietra del paragone. There are eighteen named characters, but without checking, I don't think I could name a one of them. But they're all various lords and professionals dallying at a hotel preparing to head off for Reims. They're all from different countries, and there's a lot of music that's supposed to reflect their national characters including--no joke--an aria by the English colonel to the tune of "God Save the King." Anyway, as I said, they mill around, there are various romantic entanglements...that's about it.
Could I determine from the music which of these is early Rossini and which late? Alas, I fear probably not. But again, the music is beguiling. Good lord, everything Rossini ever wrote beguiles. Not all of his operas are available in video form, but most of them are, and I definitely need to make a concerted effort to see as many of them as possible.
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