IL Viaggio a Reims

Abstract

The occasion for and the setting of this gala opera are the same: the festivities surrounding the 1825 coronation of the new French king, Charles X. The coronation itself takes place, for historical reasons, in the city of Reims. An assorted group of travelers representing various European nations gather in the hotel of the title to spend the night before traveling the final stage of their journey to witness the crowning. However, there is a shortage of horses occasioned by the extraordinary traffic to Reims and try as they might they cannot get there. So they decide to spend the money they would have spent at the coronation in two ways: in a collection for charitable causes, and in throwing themselves a nice banquet to honor the king in their own way.

The plot is rather slender; while hotel staff and servants seek to make the voyagers comfortable and to locate some horses, various romantic attractions and jealousies arise among the multi-national travelers. These are sorted out peacefully (as are any old grudges held on account of national rivalries), and everyone gets his or her display number, for Rossini rounded up ten of the biggest operatic stars on the Paris stage at the time for his leading roles. Thus, the opera is an unending parade of vocal display pieces, each cunningly tailored to show its intended singer in the best light.

Obviously this opera was intended for the occasion; it charmed its audience during its premiere run of several performances and then was withdrawn. Rossini himself began to dismember it, taking some of its numbers for his later comic opera, Le Comte Ory. In the revolutionary year of 1848 hands other than Rossini's (it seems) took parts of it for an adaptation set during the revolutions of that year. This quickly disappeared. The work became virtually unknown.

In 1936, someone concocted a fake overture, alleged to have belonged to this opera, which gained favor among audiences. In fact, it is a pastiche from ballet music for the opera The Siege of Corinth. In reality, the opera has no orchestral introduction. In the 1970s, serious scholarship unearthed the parts of the score in various libraries, and the score was reassembled from them. It was revived to huge success in the 1980s and has received several productions. It seems destined to delight its audience whenever a large number of high-quality opera singers can be rounded up.

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