# Rossini/Respighi – La Boutique Fantasque - Suite Rossiniana



## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

This week's _Vinyl's Revenge_ digs out an old cassette I acquired in the early 1980's featuring the music of Ottorino Respighi inspired by music composed by his compatriot, Gioacchino Rossini.

Respighi had written the ballet _La Boutique fantasque_ for Léonide Massine and Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1919, basing it on short piano pieces from Rossini's collection _Péchés de vieillesse_ (Sins of Old Age).

Massine described how, in Rome for a ballet season, Respighi brought the score of Rossini's Péchés de vieillesse to Diaghilev. Toulouse-Lautrec was an influence on the period setting and style of La Boutique fantasque, and Massine envisaged the principal character "quite Lautrec-like".

The story of the ballet has similarities to _Die Puppenfee_ ("The Fairy Doll") of Josef Bayer, an old German ballet that had been performed by Jose Mendez in Moscow in 1897 and by Serge and Nicholas Legat in Saint Petersburg in 1903. Others note the similarities to Hans Christian Andersen's _The Steadfast Tin Soldier_. Massine's scenario centers on the love story between two can-can dancer dolls in a toyshop, incorporating elements of comedy, national folk dance and mime, as well as classical choreography.

In 1925, Respighi returned to Rossini's music, but not as a ballet, simply as concert music. He again used Sins of Old Age, specifically _Quelques riens _(Various nothings) from Volume XII, and applied what he called a _trascrizione libera _(free transcription) to them.

The four-movement score is brilliant, but also dark and evocative. Although not written for ballet, _Rossiniana _ has been choreographed as a dance performance work.

Antal Dorati recorded many of Respighi's seminal orchestral music for Mercury with the Minneapolis and London symphonies in the 1950's, and his recording of the Ancient Airs and Dances with the Philharmonia Hungarica (again for Mercury, featured here a few years ago) is a reference recording. This coupling of the two Rossini-inspired scores comes much later, in the mid-1970's for Decca, with the Royal Philharmonic. I note that the Boutique score is labelled a "ballet suite", meaning some sections of the complete ballet are omitted in this performance - it still remains crisp and enjoyable.

Happy Listening!








*Ottorino RESPIGHI (1879-1936)*
_La boutique fantasque_ (ballet after Rossini), P.120 - ballet suite
_Rossiniana_, P.148 (after Rossini)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Antal Dorati, conducting

Decca Jubilee Series - KJBC 79

_Discogs _- https://www.discogs.com/release/106...Dorati-La-Boutique-Fantasque-Suite-Rossiniana

_YouTube _- https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lbenu1jYKkBX5Q2FHKll3TJb2MXWQBuqE


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