Gioacchino Rossini: Il Signor Bruschino

Schwetzingen is a tiny town near Heidelberg which has a famous palace with magnificent gardens, not unlike those at Versailles. The Schwetzingen Festival is held every Spring in the palace and commissions a small-scale opera for the palace's exquisite Rococo theatre, built in 1752. Il signor Bruschino is the last of the five one-act operas - farsa giocosa - in which the teenage Rossini first demonstrated his operatic genius. Among the ‘peculiarities’ which caused a sensation at its premiere 1813, was the daring experiment in search of new tonal effects occurring in the overture, during which the second violins are required to tap their bows on their music stands. Il signor Bruschino is a mixture of saucy elegance, sizzling wittiness, cheeky orchestration and also some touching lyricism. It was realised to perfection in the small, jewel-like Rococo Theatre of Schwetzingen Palace. The stage is small and the production transfers to the small screen perfectly. “...the whole is held in perfect balance by the conducting of Gianluigi Gelmetti with the versatile Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra.” Stuttgarter Zeitung