Domenico Cimarosa’s 1788 piece L’Italiana in Londra is not performed very often.  If you wanted to see it this year your only option would be a revival of the 2021 Frankfurt production which was recorded and is the subject of this review.

It’s really a rather silly but quite amusing farce.  Milord Arespingh is in love with the Italian girl Livia but his father doesn’t approve and has sent him sent off to Jamaica.  He’s now back in London where unknown to him, the girl he loved in Genoa is now staying with Madama Brillante under the name Enrichetta and claiming to be from Marseilles.  Also staying at Madama’s hotel are the rather pompous Dutch merchant Sumers and a young Neapolitan nobleman Don Polidoro.

Livia believes Arespingh has betrayed her.  Not least because his impending marriage to someone else dominates the newspapers.  Sumers befriends Livia and tries to keep her away from both Polidoro and Arespingh.  Madama persuades Polidoro that Livia uses a bloodstone to make herself invisible and is always hanging (invisibly) around him because she’s madly in love.  Polidoro gets himself a bloodstone and, with a little encouragement from Madama, believes himself to be invisible.  Arespingh pulls all the strings to get out of his arranged marriage.  After a great deal of coming and going Livia is arrested and everyone is convinced that Arespingh is behind it.  But after even more antics he shows up with her pardon and they reconcile.  Meanwhile Polidoro has been disabused of the bloodstone nonsense and has fallen in love with Madama.  The opera closes with two weddings in the offing.

AB Schlather’s production doesn’t take itself too seriously.  It’s set in 1960s-ish London.  The men embody obvious national stereotypes.  Sumers wears a three piece suit, Arespingh has a bowler hat.  Polidoro wears red trousers and shirt open almost to the waist over a chest wig and lots of bling.  There’s a great deal of physical comedy; entrances and exits, people losing their trousers and son on.  All this happens quite seamlessly on a rotating black and white geometric set aided by a rather cool lighting plot.  The only Regie touch is the utterly baffling appearance of a knight in 15th century armour during the Act 1 finale.  Verily a “Berenice’s potato”!

The performances are terrific.  The music, as might be expected from the composition date is quite Mozartian with more ensembles than one might expect.  Stylistically it seems to sit in the sweet spot for all concerned.  Both the ladies are stylish singers, look terrific and are good actors.  Angela Vallone as Livia sings very sweetly but also generates some real emotion.  She’s especially good in her “despair” scene; “Dunque per un infidola libertà perdei”.  Bianca Tognocchi as Madama also throws in some coloratura and some quite raunchy acting.

Theo Lebow is a proper Mozart tenor and he does a great job as the rather uptight Dutchman.  Which leaves two contrasting baritones who are both excellent.  Iurii Samoilov is suitably stiff as the lovelorn Arespingh but he certainly lets his hair, and pretty much everything else, down when he and Livia reconcile enthusiastically in a telephone box.  He also gets the patter aria “Van girando per la testa”, which would not be out of place in a Rossini work.  He handles it with panache.  Then there’s Gordon Bintner as Polidoro.  He’s absolutely ridiculous in just the right way.  He just has a way with physical comedy.  Act 2 opens with him doing a sort of “after you, no after you” thing with Sumers and Madama while simultaneously addressing a large plate of pasta.  He’s also completely ridiculous when he thinks he’s invisible and he and Tognocchi are very funny when they get together (almost) as enthusiastically as the other couple.  The Franfkfurt house orchestra is excellent and conductor Leo Hussain pushes things along nicely.  He also does a good job at the fortepiano with the recits.

Myriam Hoyer’s Video direction is straightforwardly excellent helped by very good audio (stereo and DTS-HD-MA) and video on Blu-ray.  There are no extras on the disk but there’s a full track listing, a synopsis and a good interview with Hussain and Schlather in the booklet.  Subtitle options. are Italian, German, English, Korean and Japanese.

I’m not going to say that this is a long lost masterpiece but it is musically extremely competent and, in a production like this, an enjoyable romp.  Worth seeing!

Catalogue information: Naxos Blu-ray NBD0155V