Theresia Orchestra
Alessandro De Marchi
Antonio Garés (Bertrando), Miriam Albano (Isabella), Giuseppe Toia (Ormondo), Luigi De Donato (Batone), Matteo Loi (Tarabotto)
Premiered at the Teatro San Moisè in Venice on 8 January 1812, L’inganno felice marked Gioachino Rossini’s first major success at the age of just nineteen. The young composer, already showing the brilliance that would later make him Italy’s foremost opera master, achieved an immediate triumph: contemporary reports describe the audience as being captivated from the overture to the finale.
The opera belongs to the genre of the farsa, a one-act work typical of the small Venetian theater where Rossini began his career. With a modest cast, limited orchestral forces, and a duration of about ninety minutes, these operas combined economy of means with inventiveness. In L’inganno felice, Rossini and his librettist Giuseppe Foppa chose a semi-serious subject: the story of Isabella, a faithful wife wrongfully accused of infidelity and condemned by her husband, Duke Bertrando. Rescued and concealed for years by the miner Tarabotto, she is eventually recognized, her innocence revealed, and harmony restored. The opera skilfully balances moments of pathos with comic relief, particularly in the duets for the two buffo basses, while culminating in Isabella’s moving forgiveness of her remorseful husband.
The present recording captures a historically informed performance of Luca Incerti’s new critical revision, presented in 2023 at the Reate Festival and the Teatro Palladium in Rome under the direction of Alessandro De Marchi with the Theresia Orchestra—offering today’s listeners the chance to rediscover Rossini’s first great operatic triumph.
This album represents the is the fifth album as part of our ongoing partnership with CPO.
