Rossini : Ciro in Babilonia. Spyres, Podles, Pratt, Crutchfield.

   in Opera Now (Dec, 2013)
An early almost-hit for Rossini, Ciro in Babilonia has seldom been performed since. Will Crutchfield conducted Davide Livermore’s production at the Caramoor Festival in 2012 before it arrived in Pesaro, where this DVD was recorded. Livermore’s production is half thrilling and half frustrating. The Cecil B. Demille silent movie treatment works wittily, with the singers striking poses with panache and Gianluca Falaschi’s black and white costumes surely amongst the most stunning ever seen on stage. But the absorption of the cinema audience into the action and the over-acting of the extras is a burden, plus the relentless flickering screen effect is fit-inducing. Ewa Podles’s Ciro goes where fewer mezzos have been …