Armida by Gioachino Rossini Voice - Sheet Music

BDSCalgary

Armida

This is an excellent edition of this opera, which one can find on line for free, and as usual with those old out of print versions, filled with mistakes. Well, this wonderful edition eliminates all those mistakes, and gives us what Rossini wrote. It is an interesting work, for when first viewing the music it resembles more a series of vocal exercises rather than really dramatic arias. And if one isn't careful that is exactly how they will sound, especially the ones written for Rossini's wife. Even Maria Callas couldn't add any real drama to the music no matter how masterfully she sang it. Still, it is an interesting work, and a rather beautiful one especially if one doesn't try to inflict on it the realistic requirements of the "legitimate theatre." It is opera, after all, and one written at the time all the dipsy-doodles were required to make an opera exciting for a public that really actually didn't listen to the work, as we listen to them today. The singer needed to show off to gain a reputation, and well, show off they can do in spades in this opera, and in my view, if it were preformed with that in mind today, rather than a realistic drama, it would take the world by storm. Great edition that is a real eye-opener into early Rossini and his DRAMATIC WORKS.