For the first time in this country since 1860, the colorful Ros#ni operatic pageant, “Moses,” will be presented Friday night on ##e stage of the Hippodrome by the Chicago Opera Company.
Recalling the history of the play, Alfredo Salmaggi, general director of the Chicago Opera Company, declared Friday that the opera has been performed in this country only twice before.
“I have traced two performances of Rossini’s opera,” he said, given in New York City during the seasons of 1835 and 1860 but #m confident that the presentation of the work which I have now planned will be undoubtedly the first to do full artistic judgment, dramatically and pictorially to the specifications of the libretto. The mechanical perfections of modern staging were, of course, unavailable to grand opera impresarios of the past century and although Rossini’s music may have been sung by singers in costume, there could not have been an adequate representation of the several spectacular dramatic episodes, such as the division of the Red Sea and Moses in the mountains, which have been worked out by my present scenic designers and stage managers.”
European revivals of Rossini’s opus have been given at La Scala, Milan, last March, and at Verona, Italy, last July and August. First composed as an oratorio, “Moses” was first presented in Italy in 1818. Subsequently Rossini refashioned the score and libretto in Grand Opera and in this version it was presented in Paris in 1827.
It is interesting to note that among the witnesses of this Paris performance was the great novelist Honore De Balzac who later incorporated his impressions of the opera in his novelette, “Massimilla Doni.”
“Never before,” Balzac wrote, “was there so grand a synthesis of natural effect, so complete an idealization of nature.”
Eugene Plotnikoff will conduct the Hippodrome presentation.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
