Rossini: La scala di seta

This beautiful production by renowned opera director Michael Hampe was recorded at the exquisite Rococo Theatre in Schwetzingen Palace in May 1990. La scala di seta is one of the five one-act operas – farsa giocosa – in which the young Rossini first demonstrated his operatic genius This sparkling production continues the Rossini one-act opera series emerging from the Schwetzingen Festival. The staging is perfectly suited to the screen and the cast of principals, led by David Griffith and Luciana Serra provide musical excellence together with the flexible Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. Simone Young, who has since become one of the foremost opera conductors of the younger generation, appears on harpsichord and fortepiano. She was chief conductor of the Sydney Opera and has recently been appointed as the new musical director of the Hamburg Opera. Here she can be seen at the start of her career establishing a speciality for which she is now famous: she frequently conducts early operas from the harpsichord.