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An Italian Drag Queen in Algiers Pesaro
Teatro Rossini
08/12/2025 - & August 14, 18, 21, 2025
Gioacchino Rossini: L’Italiana in Algeri
Giorgi Manoshvili (Mustafà), Daniela Barcellona (Isabella), Josh Lovell (Lindoro), Gergen Baveyan (Haly), Misha Kiria (Taddeo), Vittoriana de Amicis (Elvira), Andrea Nino (Zulma)
Coro del Teatro Ventidio Basso, Pasquale Veleno (chorus master), Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Dmitry Korchak (conductor)
Rosetta Cucchi (stage director), Tiziano Santi (sets), Claudia Pernigotti (costumes), Daniele Naldi (lighting), Nicolás Boni (videography)
(© Amati Bacciardi)
Italian director Rosetta Cucchi, whose successful staging of Alfano’s Risurrezione in Florence was riveting, had the idea that mezzo Daniela Barcellona would portray Isabella as a drag queen. Though the production never sank into slapstick, Cucchi’s examination of society’s role assignation of the genders could have been more profound. Mustafà’s interest in a dominant woman could have been more probing.
The setting is meant to be Ottoman-ruled Algiers a few centuries ago. Instead, Cucchi transposes the opera to the present, evoking a Gulf sheikhdom ruled by a military strongman. Sheik Mustafà and his wife are dressed in modern Western attire. He is utterly blasé as he has everything he could dream of: an attractive wife, eager to please, three pretty concubines seeking his attention, obedient personnel, an Italian chef and all the creature comforts one can imagine. No wonder he wants to spice up his comfortable routine.
Instead of being a captured slave, Lindoro is his private cook on a binding contract with stringent conditions, an allusion to those who sell their souls for well‑paying jobs in the Gulf states. Aly, Mustafà’s secretary, is on the outlook for an “Italian” woman for his bored boss. Instead of pirates capturing an Italian vessel, the local police capture a band of five drag queens, including Isabella and their manager/driver/pimp Taddeo. It’s not clear what the charge is: soliciting, cross dressing or working without a permit. Most likely, it is the latter. The most charismatic of the lot is Isabella, who is taken to Mustafà.
The production is centred around Daniela Barcellona, who has both the necessary charisma and an impressive voice, easily able to handle the technical challenges of the role of Isabella, from her opening aria “Cruda sorte!” to her Act I duet with Mustafà, “Oh! Che muso! Che figura!” or in the Act II “Per lui che adoro.” Usually cast in dramatic roles, Barcellona revealed here an alluring comic verve. A veteran Rossini singer, she made the most of the text, with proper emphasis on specific words. Mercifully, she didn’t resort to slapstick or excessive parody. Her drag queen persona was a well adjusted “woman,” comfortable in her own skin. This quality is likely what attracted Mustafà.
Canadian lyric tenor Josh Lovell was a good actor but not up to the challenges of the demanding role of Lindoro. Heard last season in Fidelio in Toronto, where he was a satisfactory Jaquino, his Act I aria “Languir per una bella” was adequate but lacked brio. He skipped the extrapolated high G in the aria’s cabaletta “contenta quest’alma”. This is not what one expects from a Rossini tenor.
This opera usually has two basses. Mustafà, the Bey of Algiers, and Haly, Captain of the Algerian pirates, as well as a baritone, Taddeo, Isabella’s companion and hopeful soupirant. It is essential that these three lower voices sound distinct, and happily, they were. Though here, Haly was a baritone and Taddeo a bass.
Recently heard as Assur in Semiramide in Paris, Georgian bass Giorgi Manoshvili impressed with his comedic talent as Mustafà. Endowed with an impressively huge voice, he sang way too loudly in Paris. Here, under the baton of Russian tenor Korchak, in his conducting debut, Manoshvili had his huge instrument under control. Subtlety also extended to his acting; his portrayal of the Bey was spot on, completely convincing as the bored tyrant. Director Cucchi managed to create an almost lovable Mustafà, a grown up baby. His transformation from ruthless potentate to tame apprentice in the art of love all’italiana was masterful.
Some directors confuse Haly, Captain of the Algerian pirates (or Mustafà’s secretary in this production) with another subordinate in another “orientalist” opera, Osmin, overseer for the Pasha, in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, also a bass. Haly is no Osmin; he observes and is bemused by his master’s folly. Most often a bass, Haly can also be a tenor or a baritone. Armenian baritone Gergen Baveyan played an overly submissive subordinate. He was more than adequate for the vocally undemanding role, though he would have benefited from more insight into the role, the director’s shortcoming no doubt. He nonetheless managed to portray Haly as a power hungry fool, which is often the predicament of those crushed by power, trying to boss around Taddeo, Elvira and Zulma whenever possible.
As I said, most often Taddeo is a baritone, but here the role was assigned to a bass. Georgia’s Misha Kiria evoked the essence of Taddeo: a cowardly and foolish man. Instead of doing his best to comfort Isabella, he constantly needs reassurance himself. Best of all, he too falls for Isabella’s ruse. The poor man is seriously convinced that Isabella has devised her “Pappataci” scheme so that she may escape to Italy and marry him. Watching his facial expressions, initially as the plan unfolds and ultimately as he figures out that Lindoro is Isabella’s love interest, was truly effective. The pathos of this very real character was phenomenal. Endowed with an impressive voice, Kiria was recently admired as Sulpice in La Fille du régiment in Munich, and last season as Don Pasquale in Toronto. Despite his excellence, he has a tendency to sing loudly and to overdo comedy, bad habits he repeated in this performance.
Finally, the “Algerian” women Elvira and Zulma have token roles that are vocally undemanding. Thanks to their excellent acting, both Vittoriana de Amicis and Andrea Nino managed to make their roles seem larger. De Amicis, like most Elviras, has a high soprano, whose main function is to contrast with Isabella’s lower notes, and it certainly did, as demonstrated in Act I’s thrilling finale, “Pria di divedersi da voi, Signore... Va sossopra il mio cervello”. She also managed to play the submissive, overly eager wife masterfully. She had an acid quality to her voice that reinforced Elvira’s nagging character. As for Nino, the timbre of her mezzo holds great appeal; hopefully this will soon result in a major career.
For his conducting debut, Dmitry Korchak did a brilliant job supporting the cast, understandably, as he too is an excellent singer. He also managed to tame one of the two Georgian basses, Manoshvili, who portrayed Mustafà. Alas, the other, Kiria (as Taddeo) was beyond control. Korchak’s handling of the opera’s spirited overture was elegant and well-controlled; no vulgarity or overly boisterous crescendo.
This was a pleasant production, though unremarkable. The LGBT element was not laboured and there was no unwarranted vulgarity, inevitable had this been produced in North America or North of the Alps. Perhaps a revival would benefit from a deeper insight into gender roles in society.
Ossama el Naggar
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