Martin Duncan’s staging of Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia (The Turk in Italy) matches Garsington Opera’s airy new ‘floating’ pavilion theatre on Mark Getty’s Buckinghamshire estate in its eye-opening accomplishment.
A vibrant tourist-poster billboard depicting a glamorous Naples beachfront is the backdrop for this comedy in which the Poet, alert to the characters’ desires and weaknesses, turns social agitator in order to workshop the storyline for his new play.
The comic performances are razor sharp. At its best, the cast takes collective flight in what would seem a rare alignment of individual comic talent and sharp directing. A case in point is the Act 1 sequence in which Fiorilla’s deliciously flirtatious encounter with the visiting Turkish prince, Selim, leads to a spitting row between Fiorilla and her hapless husband Don Geronio - he trying in vain to assert his authority, she feisty and defiant.
As Selim, Dutch baritone Quirijn de Lang moves with the grace and charisma of a movie star. Mark Stone’s dependably rich baritone suits the Poet, and Geoffrey Dolton plays the browbeaten, inadequate Geronio engagingly, without over-blustering. David Alegret’s Don Narciso sings with agility, if the tone is slightly strained.
But in an accomplished cast, Rebecca Nelsen’s flighty Fiorilla stands out. Confidently alluring and comically intuitive, she is also vocally ravishing, matching athleticism with effortless tonal shading. She is surely a star on the rise. The icing on the cake is David Parry in the pit, a consummate Rossinian.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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