<<  -- 5 --  Roderic Dunnett    COMIC TOUCHES

Cinderella's entrance at the ball might have been better plotted by Leisher and Caurier, but the build up (heralded by some notably clear offstage singing from Royal Opera chorus director Terry Edwards's on-form male singers) and Kasarova's magnificent coloratura in Cinders' great assertive aria 'Sprezzo quei don que versa' was positively thrilling. True, Rossini tends to tart up some slightly pallid notes with coloratura -- the harmonic business of both her aria here and the first part of her finale arguably verges on the vapid -- but Kasarova knows how to sock it out : her fortissimi were positively withering.

The directors encouraged some cheerful comic touches -- Ramiro peeping round the palazzo door, Dandini tiptoing, gesturing and double-guessing. Magnifico's ludicrous and pathetic wheedling to his daughters ('Si qualunque delle figlie' -- shades of 'Figaro qui') was funnily done; and Florez, at last given the floor, brought a really generous, altruistic feel to Ramiro's big showpiece, 'Si, ritrovarla io giuro' -- just what one had vainly looked for in his overwrought Sonnambula. Astonishing, indeed, to achieve such restraint with (apparently) high Cs to be encompassed. This was stupendously accomplished and lovely singing, supported by fine breathing and an honest, natural sense of line. A rather good chorus, intelligently blocked, ensued; the Dandini-Magnifico encounter -- the first part of Magnifico's pompous comedown -- worked a treat.

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