World Premiere Recording! Early Rossini has something buoyant, vibrant, youthful about it – even when it is a “dramma per musica” such as “Sigismondo”, a dark swirl of an opera revolving around a mad king and his delusions, his wife who is allegedly dead but very much alive, the fate of Poland and much more. Premiered in 1814 but rarely played thereafter, the work deserves to be resurrected, if only for its many beautiful and original arias and ensembles, some of which were such brilliant little masterpieces that he reused them in his later successes such as “Il turco in Italia”, “La Cenerentola” and “Il barbiere di Siviglia”. The work was given its first performance from the critical new edition at the 2010 Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. The press hailed the production as a “perfect symbiosis of music and stage work” that yields “truly brilliant theater”. Director Damiano Michieletto sets the first act in a startlingly realistic “insane asylum“ of around 1900, where King Sigismondo has been placed after losing his mind over his wife’s death, which he, convinced of her infidelity, had ordered. The second act takes place in an elegantly appointed royal palace, where Sigismondo, who has now recovered, must confront an assault by the Bohemian army and decide upon Poland’s fate. Mezzo Daniela Barcellona – a sought-after Rossini and Verdi singer – portrays the mad King Sigismondo with fierce intensity and effortlessly flowing coloraturas; restored to health in the second act, her “Sigismondo” dominates the stage as ruler of Poland, alongside Olga Peretyatko, Antonino Siragusa and Andrea Concetti. Bringing youthful exuberance and supreme musicality to his conducting is Michele Mariotti, principal conductor of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and acclaimed maestro at La Scala, the Met and other leading houses.