Rossini

Le Comte Ory (DVD) Philippe Talbot, Julie Fuchs, Gaëlle Arquez, Eve-maud Hubeaux, Jean-sébastien Bou; Les éléments; Orchestre de Champs-élysées/

Louis Langrée; dir. Denis Podalydès (Paris, 2017)

C Major DVD: 747408;

Blu-ray: 747504 150 mins

Rossini’s final comedy is given a knockabout reading in this 2017 staging from the Opéra Comique in Paris, where director Denis Podalydès – a leading Greekfrench actor – moves the action forwards, for no very obvious reason, from the period of the Crusades to the time of the work’s composition (1828).

Designer Éric Ruf’s Act I set is the vestry of a country church where various substantial pieces of ecclesiastical furniture – including a cross and a confessional – have been piled up, presumably to be disposed of; the bare walls of a large chamber in Act II look a good deal better.

But the problem is that instead of presenting a comedy of intrigue, Podalydès’s busy production is purely farcical: putty noses seem a bit old-fashioned these days, and the whole thing is overstated along the lines of Carry On, Ory! in the place of what Rossini expert Richard Osborne has described as ‘one of the wittiest, most stylish and most urbane of all comic operas’.

There are some good vocal performances along the way. Philippe Talbot’s light and graceful would-be seducer Ory can get around the notes and crucially possesses facility at the top of his range. As his intended victim, the Countess, Julie Fuchs’s small-scale but fizzy soprano gives the character vitality and she makes easy work of the notes. Mezzo Gaëlle Arquez is delectable as Ory’s sidekick Isolier, her performance immaculately sung and stylishly acted, though Patrick Bolleire makes heavy weather of Ory’s Tutor. In secondary roles Evemaud Hubeaux as the Countess’s loyal stewardess Ragonde and Jeansébastien Bou as Ory’s henchman Raimbaud give good value.

One of the best musical features is the playing of the periodinstrument Orchestre des Champselysées under Louis Langrée, who make Rossini’s score shine as brightly as a button. George Hall PERFORMANCE ★★★ PICTURE & SOUND ★★★★