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La pietra del paragone

[The Touchstone]

Melodramma giocoso in two acts by
LUIGI ROMANELLI

First performance:
Milan – Teatro alla Scala
26 September 1812

Critical Edition by
PATRICIA B. BRAUNER and ANDERS WIKLUND

FONDAZIONE ROSSINI PESARO 2002
[rental only]

CHARACTERS:
MARCHESA CLARICE, spirited widow, perceptive, with a kind heart, who wants to marry Count Asdrubale, contralto
BARONESSA ASPASIA, soprano, and
DONNA FULVIA, soprano,
      both rivals of the Marchesa, not for love, but only for self-interest
COUNT ASDRUBALE, rich nobleman, unmarried not because he absolutely abhors marriage but because he thinks he can't find a good wife, bass
CAVALIER GIOCONDO, poet, friend of the Count, and unrequited lover of Clarice, tenor
MACROBIO, an inept journalist, presumptuous and venal, bass
PACUVIO, ignorant poet, bass
FABRIZIO, butler and confidant of the Count, bass
Male Chorus of gardeners and guests of the Count, hunters and soldiers
Many supernumeraries of various sorts

The scene is set in a rich and populous town, not far from one of the principal cities of Italy; in the town's outskirts;
and particularly in count Asdrubale's pleasant country house

Instrumentation: 2 Flutes/1 Piccolo, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 1 Bassoon, 2 Horns, 2 Trumpets, Timpani, Bass Drum and Cymbals, Strings, Continuo
Performance time: 3h

This first phase of the new edition is based on a re-examination of the autograph score owned by Casa Ricordi, attempting to return to the opera to the state of its first performance. La pietra del paragone was the young Rossini's first commission for La Scala. Romanelli, the theater's official librettist and an experienced dramatist, wrote a text with interesting situations, both serious and comic, alternating to good effect and developing with clarity and rapidity. The large number of characters who are brought together at Count Asdrubale's villa make possible scenes composed of changing groups of characters, while the variety in their personalities and social status gives rise to conversations full of flirtation, witty or snide repartee, or pompous pronouncements.

The orchestra of La Scala was famous – even in Germany, home of the symphony – and Rossini used this fine orchestra with great variety of effect. The cast was as strong as the orchestra, and Rossini did not fail to write music suited to their abilities. For example, in the cabaletta of the aria for Clarice masquerading as her "twin brother," Lucindo (N. 17), Rossini boldly gave Maria Marcolini a fiortura of a descending two-octave scale followed by an upward octave leap. As for Pietro Vasoli, the Pacuvio, the "Misipipì" aria was his triumph. The opera established Rossini's reputation; Stendhal wrote that "crowds came from Parma, Piacenza, Bergamo, Brescia, and all the towns within ten leagues of Milan. Rossini was the leading personage of the country: they hurried to see him."

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