Clotilde

Clotilde is an opera in two acts by Carlo Coccia. The Italian-language libretto was by Gaetano Rossi. It premiered on 8 June 1815 at Teatro San Benedetto, Venice. Clotilde was especially appreciated for the usage of the chorus. A contemporaneous Italian writer wrote: "Nobody after Mayer has understood how a composer can take advantage of a sensible usage of the chorus. Coccia did it in this opera, avoiding those screams heard too often before". Francesco Regli in its Dizionario biografico stated: "With Clotilde Coccia taught how a chorus has to be written". Clotilde was performed also in Paris in 1821, but it was unsuccessful. In modern times, this opera was revived for the first time at the Teatro Coccia in Novara, on 7 November 2003. This production was recorded and published on CD. In his review of the Novara performance, which used different versions of the opera, the Italian music critic Giangiorgio Satragni noted "the resounding of features of Rossini's style" and emphasized, among the pieces of the opera, Emerico's cavatina "Soave all'anima" and Clotilde's aria "Deh! Tu guida", but judged the work on the whole as "implacable nineteenth-century operatic routine".