Rossini's "La Scala di Seta" may be a "comical farce" in one act, but it contains more dazzling wit and inventiveness than many a full-length opera by other composers. Written in 1812, when Rossini was only 20, this "jewel" (24 Ore) is an experiment in miniaturization, in which the composer tried out many of the elements that were to shape his mature style. With its libretto inspired by Cimarosa's popular "Il matrimonio segreto", Rossini's one-acter weaves a burlesque tale of secret husbands and would-be lovers climbing in and out of a lady's bedroom on a silken ladder.
In this colorful and exuberant production by Damiano Michieletto, "one of the truly new voices in stage direction today" (L'Unità), the farce becomes an Almodóvaresque spectacle "that transforms all the singers into extraordinary actors" (La Stampa). Indeed, this production from the Rossini Opera Festival "ranks as one of the most genuine and captivating successes in the history of the festival" (Il Giornale). Diving head first into the romantic chaos are the "wonderfully supple" (Opernwelt) Olga Peretyatko as the cunning young wife Giulia, comical genius José Manuel Zapata as her secret husband, Anna Malavasi as Giulia's cousin and Carlo Lepore as the hapless suitor.
Leading the young and spirited cast is Maestro Claudio Scimone, a key figure in the international Rossini Renaissance, who conducts the Orchestra di Bolzano e Trento "with precision and incisiveness, highlighting the Rossinian instrumental colors as well as the comical and sentimental currents of the score" (Il Giornale di Vicenza). All in all, "it is a delight from beginning to end – you leave the theater happy and contented" (Il Velino). The Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, the composer's birthplace, is internationally renowned for its innovative stagings and musically impeccable productions of Rossini's works.
