ROSSINI – MOÏSE ET PHARAON
Riccardo Muti – Luca Ronconi – Teatro alla Scala

The project’s double value (work of art plus background information) is summarised in the concept Vox Imago, the name chosen for the series from a remark by Philip Gossett, the greatest expert on all Rossini things, who, during the work on the first project, recalled that “Bella imago” are the first words of one of the most beautiful moments of Rossini’s masterpiece, Semiramide.

This evocative idea was the starting point for the work on Moïse et Pharaon, an opera in four acts that Rossini created for Parisian audiences in 1827, which Riccardo Muti presented as the inaugural performance of 2003 at the Teatro alla Scala, in the original French-language version, transforming it into one of the central moments of Italian and international culture.

All this, brilliantly interpreted by Rossini, the most popular composer of his time, became a moving sacred drama. This is explored in the DVD, which offers not only a cinematographic journey but also the “high points” of the opera filmed at the Teatro alla Scala, making listening to the complete version offered on the CD even more fascinating. In the booklet, essays by leading scholars reveal the score’s every secret and allow us to immerse ourselves in the historic, artistic and political context in which the work was conceived.