La Scala Di Seta is not one of my favourite Rossinis in the way that Il Barbiere Di Siviglia, William Tell and La Cenerentola, but it is still an opera of considerable charm with beautiful and fiendishly difficult music and a lively enough story. This production is just lovely. My complaints are few, though I did find Albert Rinaldi's voice on the dry and overbalanced side. However, the costumes and sets are traditional and look just beautiful, and just as you'd expect the stage direction of Michael Hampe is intelligent and never dull in any way. The orchestral playing is superb, lively yet with some sensitivity as well and Gianluigi Gelmetti's conducting is entertainingly enigmatic and brisk(if occasionally a little fast)

Of the cast, the standout was Alessandro Corbelli who is just outstanding as Germano, he has a lovely voice that is full of character with great sense of legato line and colouratura control as well as showing once again how much of a comic genius he is. Luciana Serra occasionally has some intonation problems but more than makes up for that by her charming presence and sense of comedy, her rapid-fire passage-work and very elegant phrasing. David Kuebler sings beautifully as Dorvil and does hit the high notes more than credibly even if in want of a slightly more silvery tone. Jane Bunnell has a well-produced mezzo voice that copes excellently with the slightly-too-fast tempo of her aria. In conclusion, a positively charming, lovely and just excellent production of La Scala Di Seta(The Silken Ladder).

9/10 Bethany Cox