Rossini - L'equivoco stravagante (Wexford, 2026)

Gioachino Rossini - L'equivoco stravagante

Wexford Festival Opera, 2026

Riccardo Bisatti, Max Hoehn, Maria Barakova, Stefan Astakhov, Gurgen Baveyan, Sebastian Mach, Kelli-Ann Masterson, Carlos Natale

O'Reilly Theatre, National Opera House, Wexford - 21st October 2026

This year's theme for the Wexford Festival Opera was determined by it being a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the first festival that took place there in 1951. The very first opera performed at the festival was Michael William Balfe's The Rose of Castille, chosen in part to celebrate a composer who was associated with the town, having been born in Ireland and having lived part of his childhood in Wexford. That first night set the tone for subsequent programmes which became noted for their selection of lost, forgotten and rarely performed operas that deserved another shot at recognition. And indeed, as well as resurrecting works by lesser known Irish composers, the festival was instrumental in the rediscovery of many of the 19th century bel canto operas of Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini - many known only by name and historical records of their success and failure - and they have also specialised in reviving forgotten works by the Italian verismo composers.

With so many lost works from notable composers to choose from, I don't think from looking over the 75 years that there has been any repetition in the programming - which is frustrating to look on if you were not old enough to see many of those fascinating works performed there and, more than likely, never performed again anywhere else. For the 75th Anniversary programme then, the festival programmers chose three works previously performed at the festival for their main stage productions that few would ever have had the opportunity to see the first time around: Iris by Pietro Mascagni (last seen in Wexford in 1995), The Gambler by Sergei Prokofiev (last seen in 1973), and L'equivoco stravagante by Rossini (last seen in 1968), the idea being to choose a selection that represented "one for the heart, one for the head and one for fun".

L'equivoco stravagante wouldn't have been my first choice as an opera for fun - and indeed it wasn't, since Wexford actually gave their audience a choice, putting it out to a vote between three (against Paisello and Donizetti choices). It wasn't my first choice only because I have actually seen L'equivoco stravagante staged before, as one of the first rare operas I found streamed on the internet at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Liège, 2012. Up until then, the only Rossini you would ever see fully staged would have been The Barber of Seville and La Cenerentola, so seeing the huge catalogue of around 40 Rossini operas listed in books was always fascinating and it marked the beginning of an exciting period of discovery of many wonderful forgotten works by this composer. Now of course the composer's rarer works are all well catered for in new critical editions at the Rossini Opera Festival and democratically shared with the world on DVD. L'equivoco stravagante - first performed in Wexford in 1968 - was always likely to be the popular audience choice and you suspect it's probably the better work from the choices given, so it's certainly worth another look.

On an initial look however, there is not a great deal to get excited about. It certainly fulfils the remit of "one for fun" and as such there is no real point in digging any deeper into it, or indeed attempting to impose any modern re-interpretation upon it, even as it must be tempting to revisit its gender fluidity and gender reassignment themes in the light of the present day. As an early Rossini opera, L'equivoco stravagante however is very much as opera of its time, with references to castrati, with its standard plotting of an arranged marriage for a bookish young woman (called Ernestina of course) to a rich suitor, while the adoring penniless young man in love with her has nothing to offer but his devotion. There is however quite a bit more to it than first appears, and of course it has that familiar Rossinian touch - even though the composer was only nineteen years old at the time - to elevate it further.

The first act offers little other than standard routines with not a great deal of promise of anything wonderful to come in the second act. It never seems to take off or give you anything to engage with, but there are some compensations. The libretto is littered with malapropisms, suggestive imagery, double entendres and outright nonsense that is amusing in itself. It's enough to make you laugh at the nerve of the composer to date put this saucy plot before the censor, enough to raise a giggle or a snort of disbelief. (It was quickly shut down after just three performances in 1811).

It's given a little extra boost here in the Wexford production by the singing and acting performances. Ernestina's father Gamberotto (Stefan Astakhov) and the rich suitor Buralicchio (Gurgen Baveyan) play the absurdity up for all its worth, full of blustering pomposity on the part of the father and his surreal pronouncements, and the preening self-importance and unctuousness of the suitor flabbergasted at being rejected. Those two are balanced by a superb and engaging central performance from Maria Barakova as Ernestina, a confident young woman who might have more wisdom about the nature of love and sex gained from her reading than she lets on.

The production is attractively staged, the set designs by Darko Petrovic keeping it in period - or at least a theatrical style period with colourful costumes and imaginative sets using old-fashioned cut out board scenery with pulley and lever operations. The director Max Hoehn keeps it moving, as of course does Rossini, giving them little choice in the matter really. With little to really engage with in the plot, Rossini enlivens every number with overlapping singing, quartets, with pacing that builds up to grand flourishes that demand applause without really having any great qualities to merit it. Which sounds ungracious and it probably is, as there is great skill involved. Rossini makes a standard routine lively and holds your attention enough to see whether the second half can live up to the promise of the curious misunderstanding of the title that hasn't even really been so much as hinted at after almost an hour and a half of the first act.

And to be fair, it's so well-composed, paced and directed that the production makes short work of that first act. And if the second half doesn't really live up to the extravagant promise of its title, it at least delivers the goods just as effectively as in the first. There are no great revelations here in the drama, the silliness/fun of the plot or the singing, except in the case of the other principal player, Ermanno. Coming across as a little bland as a character through the necessity of the drama and characterisation - having little to offer Ernestina as a penniless young man pretending to be a tutor - Sebastian Mach seems himself transformed in the second act when he gains the love of Ernestina, delivering some fine singing and proving himself - and ultimately the opera - worthy of all its machinations.

You really couldn't have asked for more from the performances and the production as a whole. The music was given a lively musical account under the direction of Riccardo Bisatti, the singing was first-rate and each delivered fun performances that captured the spirit of the work. The set designs and costumes were attractive, keeping it all visually interesting even when there is nothing specifically demanded from the plot or libretto, introducing random little elements and moving everyone around just enough to enhance the situations. The chorus were great at enlivening other moments and even the secondary roles - Kelli-Ann Masterson as Rosalia and Carlos Natale as Frontino - all had a part to play in contributing to the whole, as they often to in Rossini. L'equivoco stravagante is no great marvel but it's wholly Rossini, which ensures at the very least an enjoyable evening at the opera.

The Wexford production of L'equivoco stravagante can be currently be viewed from the RTE Lyric FM site.

External links: Wexford Festival Opera, RTE Lyric FM Streaming

Rossini - L’Equivoco Stravagante

Gioachino Rossini - L’Equivoco Stravagante

Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Liège, 2012

Jan Schultsz, Stefano Mazzonis di Pralafera, Sabina Willeit, Daniele Zanfardino, Enrico Marabelli, Laurent Kubla, Julie Bailly, Daniele Maniscalchi

Live Internet Streaming, 28 February 2012

Written when the composer was only nineteen years of age, Rossini’s third opera L’Equivoco Stravagante (“The Curious Misunderstanding”), a drama giocoso, premiered in Bologna in 1811, playing only for three performances before it was banned by the police. It hasn’t been performed very many times in the intervening 200 years, so it’s wonderful to have the opportunity to see this rare early Rossini opera performed at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège (via internet streaming during its run there in February 2012), see it performed so well, and have the chance to consider the curious nature of the work and its history.

One thing that is immediately evident from this production is that even at this very early stage, the Rossini style is immediately recognisable in L’Equivoco Stravagante. It romps along with jaunty melodies and individual arias, the arrangements gradually building up to entertaining group finales with tricky vocal deliveries that match the content of the comic drama. The drama itself is, depending on your viewpoint, the typical nonsense of Italian opera buffa or a delightful farce, but it’s one that in this case is particularly outrageous – the material controversial enough to have the work censured and banned. Initially, it seems straightforward, the usual romantic complications ensuing from a situation where a wealthy landowner, Gamberotto, hoping to make a suitable marriage for his daughter – ie. one that is beneficial towards elevating his social position – has promised the hand of Ernestina to the wealthy but stupid Buralicchio. Ernestina has another suitor, Ermanno, but the penniless and timid young man would seem to have little chance of winning the favour of the bookish young woman, or persuading her father that he would make a good match.

That’s until the servant Frontino, hoping to assist Ermanno in his endeavours, comes up with an outrageous idea that is to lead to the “curious misunderstanding” of the opera’s title and, as it happens, the idea that also would lead to the work being banned. Buralicchio is fooled into believing that Ernestina is actually a man, Ernesto, the castrated son of Gamberotto, who only dresses as a woman as a means of evading military service. Buralicchio, incredibly, buys this rather implausible suggestion (he is extremely stupid after all), but when the military forces turn up at the Gamberotto household looking for the army deserter, it looks like Frontino’s plan could have backfired (and the composer’s when the police similarly brought down the curtain on the opera itself) .

Whether the libretto, by Gaetano Gasbarri, is as funny as it is supposed to be is difficult to say – there is a great deal of play on words and double meanings in the original Italian, but there were no subtitles on the performance of this production that I viewed when broadcast through the Opéra Liège web streaming service. The subject itself however is risqué enough, taking on two subjects that would have been controversial for its time through suggestions of castration (which was illegal), and dealing with desertion from the army. Without the ability to follow the original Italian libretto, it’s hard to say therefore whether the plot and libretto of L’Equivoco Stravagante is as funny as it is supposed to be or whether it’s just plain silly. All I can go on is the performances, and while they are all entertaining to watch and listen to, it’s obvious that the characters are broad buffo types – none of them particularly bright, and none of them entirely what they appear to be on the surface.

What is evident however, brought out particularly in the fine production by Stefano Mazzonis di Pralafera which sets it in Hollywood during the 1920s or 1930s, is that there is some amount of social satire here on the class pretensions of the nouveau riche. The setting, in a Hollywood mansion adorned with fine art and a swimming pool at least makes that aspect of the aspirations for glamour and status from the non-hereditary wealthy more evident than it would have been if it were set during the Napoleonic era in which it was written, but it also means that the production looks wonderful. The casting is also good for the necessary appearances, and the singers, without exception, are marvellously adept at the buffo roles, as well as singing this particular work with the requisite Rossinian spirit and verve. Like most works of this type, it can be dramatically rather static on the stage, but the director and cast do their best to keep it all highly entertaining, as does the terrific performance of the music score by the Orchestra of the Opéra Royal de Wallonie under the musical direction of Jan Schultsz.