Giuseppe Nicolini was more or less forgotten already by the time he died in 1842; however, around 1800, he was reckoned among the royalty of Italian opera, regarded as one of the greatest exponents of Neapolitan classicism. Born just six years after Mozart, Nicolini enjoyed his most rewarding successes in the years following the French Revolution, leading up to the rise of Rossini circa 1819. Although his signature work was the opera seria Trajano in Dacia (1807), Il geloso sincerato is a comic opera, and a good one. Giambattista Lorenzi's libretto, a pastiche of pathologically jealous husbands drawn from
Molière and Shakespeare, was already two decades old by the time this opera was first trotted out in 1804; it remains genuinely funny, and even a little racy, two centuries hence. The overture to Il geloso sincerato could easily stand on its own, and the opera contains many imaginative passages as scored for the clarinet and bassoon. The work is fast-paced and quite amusing, although non-Italian speakers will want to keep the libretto nearby.
This is a live performance, taken from a revival of the opera given at Piacenza in May 2004; outside of a single revival in 1808, this was the first time Il geloso sincerato had been heard in 200 years. The singing, while not spectacular -- there are no standout performances in this Bongiovanni recording -- is generally not bad, and from the standpoint of characterization, the cast is pretty good. Once in awhile the orchestra, under
Fabrizio Dorsi, lacks coordination, but it maintains a decent tempo and ample enthusiasm for this unfamiliar score. Il geloso sincerato certainly would benefit from the kind of crispness typical to average performances of familiar works contemporary to its time, such as Die Zauberflöte or The Barber of Seville, but for the purpose of getting this work into our ears, the Bongiovanni recording is more than adequate. Il geloso sincerato is a opera taken out of the mothballs from long ago that is nevertheless well worth reviving, not to mention fun.