Review: Wolf Trap Opera's 'Il viaggio a Reims'

Rossini would laugh if he knew that people were still performing his opera "Il viaggio a Reims" ("The Journey to Rheims") nearly two centuries after it was written. It's hardly even an opera but more a gala-cum-revue that has a patently flimsy plot (travelers are stuck in hotel, have dinner). It was written for a specific occasion (the coronation of the French king Charles X) and given four performances in 1825 -- after which the composer recycled the best of its music in his later comedy "Le Co...