ROSSINI BIANCA E FALLIERO Katia Ricciarelli Marilyn Horne Chris Merritt

BIANCA E FALLIERO
Bianca............ Katia Ricciarelli
Falliero........... Marilyn Horne
Contareno...... Chris Merritt
Priuli............... Ambrogio Riva
Capellio........... Giorgio Surjan
Costanza......... Patrizia Orciani
Pisani.............. Ernesto Gavazzi
Ufficiale.......... Diego D’Auria
Usciere............ Diego D’Auria

Coro Filarmonico di Praga
The London Sinfonietta Opera Orchestra
Donato Renzetti

Director, Set and Costume Designer Pier Luigi Pizzi

Pesaro, Auditorium Pedrotti

August 1986


Bianca e Falliero, ossia Il consiglio dei tre (Bianca and Falliero, or The Counsel of Three) is a Two -Act operatic melodramma by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani. The libretto was based on Antoine-Vincent Arnault's play Les Vénitiens, ou Blanche et Montcassin.
The opera premiered on 26 December 1819 at La Scala. Giuseppe Fioravanti, a popular basso buffo of the day and the son of composer Valentino Fioravanti, sang in the premiere. Carolina Bassi Manna, Italiancontralto considered one of the best in her day, also created a role in this opera.
The work was performed thirty times during the initial season in Milan and was performed throughout Italy and elsewhere to some extent before largely disappearing into obscurity after 1846. It was revived at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro in 1986 with Katia Ricciarelli, Marilyn Horne, and Chris Merritt.
The opera is considered very difficult to sing due to the intensity of its coloratura writing.