Because I normally can’t stand operas by Paisiello, what with their chirpy sopranos, blustering basso buffos, and endless recitatives, I approached this set with trepidation, and from the very first moments I realized I had happened on to something different. The lively overture leads right into an even livelier ensemble for four characters, and while a little less than a third of the opera is still tedious recitative (albeit delivered perkily in front of a live, Roman audience in 1990), the general flavor of the music is far more sophisticated than anything I’d encountered from this composer before. Furthermore the three finales to the three acts are complex, multi-movement pieces, and while they’re not quite Mozartian, they’re pretty special. This telling of the Don Quixote story includes the exploits of a pair of boorish Neapolitan gentlemen who are after a duchess and a countess, along with tales of Don Q and the obligatory windmills, and it’s vastly entertaining. The performance is energetic with Paolo Barbacini’s colorful tenor infusing Don Quixote with believability and Romano Franceschetto’s Sancho a right-on sidekick. And despite some shrill singing from Elena Zilio as the Duchess and Mary Angeles Peters as the Countess (although the shrillness may be “characterization”), this recording still gives satisfaction. A bauble, but a nice bauble.
