I/6

La scala di seta

[The Silken Ladder]

Farsa comica in one act by
GIUSEPPE FOPPA

First performance:
Venice – Teatro San Moisè
9 May 1812

Critical Edition by 
ANDERS WIKLUND

FONDAZIONE ROSSINI PESARO 1991

CHARACTERS:
DORMONT, tutor, tenor
GIULIA, his pupil, soprano
LUCILLA, Giulia's cousin, soprano
DORVIL, tenor
BLANSAC, bass
GERMANO, Dormont's servant, bass

The action takes place in the countryside near Paris, in Dormont's house

Instrumentation: 2 Flutes/2 Piccolos, 2 Oboes/English Horn 2 Clarinets, 1 Bassoon, 2 Horns, Strings, Continuo
Performance time: 1h 30m

This comic jewel, the third one-act opera that Rossini wrote for the Venetian Teatro San Moisè, reflects the French plays from which its libretto derives. From its well-known overture to its extended finale, the sparkling music represents the young Rossini at his best. The autograph score, long presumed lost, is held the Nydahl Collection of the Stiftelsen Musikkulturens främjande, Stockholm, and is in fact the earliest manuscript of an opera by Rossini presently known to us.

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