Semiramide

We may know Rossini best today as the composer of fleet-footed operatic comedies like Il barbiere di Siviglia and La Cenerentola, but in the 19th century, the composer was most celebrated for his tragedies—the genre that would dominate the second half of his career. One of his greatest successes was 1823’s Semiramide. The piece is a milestone: the final opera Rossini would compose for the Italian stage, the ultimate amplification and perfection of a style and skill honed over a decade. Based on a play by Voltaire, the action takes place in ancient Babylon. Queen Semiramide’s past comes back to haunt her when she finds herself tangled in an impossible web of murder, revenge, incest and regicide. Semiramide’s musical interest starts with the "Overture"—one of the longest and most sophisticated the composer would write, a rare, almost symphonic example of an overture developing themes from the opera itself. The four duets are another important aspect of a score which, for all the large-scale spectacle of its finales and sheer scope of its proportions, is developed with surprising intimacy. Solo arias take technical demands to new heights, demanding greater stamina, speed and power than ever before. Semiramide sets the tone with Act I’s “Bel raggio lusinghier”—expressive grace giving way to impossibly nimble athleticism—while the bass villain Assur gets a startling mad-scene-in-miniature (“Deh ti ferma”) in Act II.