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| Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Tara Erraught, Cecilia Bartoli - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus) |
Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims; Cecilia Bartoli, Marina Viotti, Mélissa Petit, Tara Erraught, Edgardo Rocha, Dmitry Korchak, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, Florian Sempey, Misha Kiria, Peter Kellner, Giovanni Romeo, dir: Barrie Kosky, Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco, cond: Gianluca Capuano; Salzburg Festival
Reviewed 5 August 2026
Rossini's occasional comedy reinvented by Barrie Kosky as hyperactive farce in an over the top performance with strong musical contributions
Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims was written for an occasion, the coronation of Charles X of France, and never performed again, though Rossini's music is of the highest quality. He would, in fact, re-use material in Le comte Orgy and but it was not until the 1980s that the original work was performed again. It is more than an occasional piece, the music ensures that, though companies music field a wide range of Rossini stylists.
Barrie Kosky's production of Rossini's Il viaggo a Reims debuted at the Salzburg Easter Festival and returned to Salzburg's Haus für Mozart for the summer Salzburg Festival, opening on 5 August 2026. Gianluca Capuano conducted Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco, a period instrument ensemble whose founding was the inspiration of Cecilia Bartoli. She was something of a presiding genius over this production, not only singing Corinna but appearing out of a cake as herself at the climax of celebrations at the end of the opera.
The rest of the cast included Marina Viotti as Marchesa Melibea, Mélissa Petit as Contessa di Folleville, Tara Erraught as Madama Cortese, Edgardo Rocha as Cavalier Belfiore, Dmitry Korchak as Conte di Libenskof, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo as Lord Sidney, Florian Sempey as Don Profundo, Misha Kiria as Barone di Trombonok, Peter Kellner as Don Alvaro, and Giovanni Romeo as Don Prudenzio, with the Choeur de l'Opéra de Monte-Carlo.
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| Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Peter Kellner, Florian Sempey - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus) |
In the programme book, Barrie Kosky described the work as 'an exquisite confection' commenting that 'the characters are not developed', they have to be 'fleshed out by the performers'. In Rossini's day this probably relied on his distinguished singers (who included Giuditta Pasta and Laure Cinti-Damoreau) bringing out the original Romantic context for each of the set pieces. Kosky's solution was to play the piece as hyperactive farce. His production had many of the elements of farce, not just its pacing and mad-cap activities. There were plenty of entrances and doors - five in the first scene including three revolving doors, 13 in the second scene. There was much bedroom hopping in that second scene, along with many characters stripped down to their underwear. All prime ingredients of farce.
Visually, Rufus Didwiszus's black and white graphic sets and Victoria Behr's costumes were inspired by the 1820s but the colour palate and over-emphasises shapes for the costumes was riotous.
The performance was hyperactive from the start - eight dancers as bellhops seemed to suggest Kosky had been watching Jonathan Miller's production of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado at ENO. For both the soloists and the chorus all movement was stylised, all performance mannered, and the singers were encouraged to overdo the dramatics. Every ensemble seemed to be performed as if it was a finale and the whole, hyperactive and over-dramatic, felt a bit too full on. Somewhere along the line the subtlety, the light and shade of Rossini's music got lost.
Gone was any element of the Romantic archetype. Rossini had a clear idea of the role of his music as large-scale 'serious' arias are used to poke fun at Romantic pretensions. The original audience would have found it funny because of the dissonance between musical style and dramatic subject, as personified by the Contessa di Folleville's dramatic, coloratura scena about the loss of her hats! (the original Folleville, Laure Cinti-Damoreau had already sung Rossini's Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra in Paris).
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| Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Dmitry Korchak, Marina Viotti - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus) |
And within all the stage activity, character rather got lost. Kosky gave us very little help at identifying the individual characters; any sense of national characteristics was vestigial except for Ildebrando D'Arcangelo's Lord Sidney.
Tara Erraught made a delightful if over-active Madame Cortese whilst Giovanni Romeo's doctor, Don Prudenzio seemed to be not only inebriated but had a bad leg too. Misha Kiria effortlessly stood out as Trombonk both in terms of sheer stage presence and voice. Here there seemed a suggestion of attraction between him and Erraught's Cortese.
Mélissa Petit's Contessa di Follweville made her elaborate aria a musical treat but lacking alas the correct context with, instead, much physical comedy on stage. Marina Viotti's rich voiced Marchesa Melibea drew the eye and ear whenever she was on-stage. But the fight over her character between Dmitry Korchak's Conte di Libenskof and Peter Kellner's Don Alvaro descended into farce as multiple guns were introduced into the action (complete with sound-effects). At the beginning of Part Two, Viotti and Korchak's touching duet of reconciliation was almost steered off-course by the introduction of a whip! But both singers' stylish performances ensured our attention.
Throughout the opera there were spoken interpolations, dramatic vocalisations and extra music which often served to impede the flow of the original and disturb the drama for simple comic effect.
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| Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Edgardo Rocha, Misha Kiria, Cecilia Bartoli, Rouven Pabst - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus) |
Cecilia Bartoli's Corinna was winsome and lively, rather different to the dramatic poetess usually portrayed. Her harp was a significant presence in the proceedings and she even had a cross-dressing harpist (Rouven Pabst). Vocally she was elegant if somewhat mannered and fragile, the fioriture rather sketched in lightly but with character in spades.
Ildebrando D'Arcangelo's Lord Sidney suffered in that his fine aria to Corinna was turned into physical comedy. This happened to Edgardo Rocha's Cavalier Belfiori in his duet with Bartoli, though Rocha ensured that he was wonderfully vocally suave even if the character was louche. Florian Sempey's Don Profundo had his own moment with the aria characterising the guests' possessions. Here, Sempey's command of patter was dazzling even though Kosky provided copious visual distractions.
Rudolphe Briand's courier Zeferino had been encouraged to overac with a vengeance whilst Helena Rasher and Rafal Pawnuk provided vigorous support as Maddalena and Antonio, with Frederica Spatola as Modestina, Galia Bakalov as Delia and Salvatore Taiello as Don Luigino. The dancers, Fanny Di Ponti, Marco Arzenton, Matt Emig, Joaquin Fernandez, Roland Geczy, Hugo Olagnon, Rouven Pabst, Julen Pazos, deserve credit for the vividness and energy with which they implemented Barrie Kosky's vision (no choreographer was credited). The chorus too was hard working in roles that were both physically and vocally demanding.
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| Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Marina Viotti - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus) |
In the pit, Gianluca Capuano drew fine sounds from Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco and it was only a shame that the antics on stage threatened to overshadow the vibrant range of timbre and colour provided by period instruments.
Valentina Ceschi's staging of Il viaggio a Reims for English Touring Opera in 2023 [see my review] demonstrated that, in the right hands, the opera can work as drama on its own terms. In Salzburg, Kosky seemed frantic to ensure that no note of Rossini's music went without its appropriate (or inappropriate) stage action(s). The result seemed guaranteed to entertain audiences not comfortable with Rossini's large-scale, quasi-serious arias.
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| Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims - Helena Rasker, Mélissa Petit, Tara Erraught - Salzburg Festival (Photo: Monika Rittershaus) |
The first night audience did indeed enjoy the production immensely as did, I think, the cast. But given the quality of the performances and what they did achieve, it could have been so much more.
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