For completeness, I'm adding here the rest of my review of Rossini's Viaggio a Reims - the musical part, to be added to the review of the production posted above.
It's a minor Rossini work, put together in rapid touches, since it was commissioned to celebrate Charles X's coronation as King of France. The opera itself is about the coronation (or more precisely, about a bunch of aristocrats stuck in a hotel, awaiting transportation to Reims where the coronation will take place), and ends by a sugary praise to Charles X (Viva il diletto, augusto regnator), filled with repeated shouts of "Viva la Francia." Rossini does seem to suck up a lot to the French, and it is interesting to notice that this was the last opera he composed in Italian, and he was already living intermittently in France until years later he moved there for good and lived in France until the end of his days. One might think that he was interested in earning the sympathy of the inhabitants of his new home.
Apparently Rossini just intended this opera to serve the occasion and be forgotten; he canibalized it later and used half of its music in Le Comte Ory and its ballet in Le Siège de Corinthe.
So, I approached this work with low expectations, and they were mostly confirmed, but this is not to say there aren't some hidden jewels there.
First, the bad news, as they say.
This opera doesn't really feel like an opera, but rather, like a concert to display some nice coloratura arias, bel canto style. There isn't much that happens, and all that does, seems to be just an excuse to present a showcase of several arias. This is clear when we see the large number of characters with singing lines - not less than 20! There are so many characters, that this opera with a single act that lasts for 2 hours and 5 minutes, is still introducing new characters at the 1 hour 23 minutes mark. It's even more clear when at a certain point, the characters who are guests at an hotel and come from everywhere in Europe are invited to sing a typical song from their home countries, and the concert feeling is reinforced as they go one by one to the front of the stage and sing their numbers.
Another problem with the excessive number of characters is that the plot becomes confusing and irrelevant. By the time you understand who is in love with whom and who is the rival of whom, it doesn't really matter to you among the various love stories whether between two rivals it's Y or rather Z who end up getting the girl W. There is no time for any character development, so, if Y sings a love song to W and Z gets jealous and sings in protest, the feeling of the audience is - who cares? Therefore, it is the love song itself and the protest song itself that are the point - thus the 'concert' feeling.
In terms of pace, there are problems as well. It's a single act, but it is too long an act. It is hard to keep the pace and sustain the audience's interest when you are introducing one character after the other and singing a number of mostly disconnected arias. There are particularly two points in which the action almost comes to a halt and two long and boring love duets are performed - Nel suo divin sembiante which lasts for 15 long minutes, and D'alma celeste o Dio.
In terms of orchestration and musical structure, all is nice but nothing is particularly special. You get the usual punctuation of ariosi, the usual typical Rossini crescendo, the usual hectic ensembles ending on the typical um-pah-pah, and the usual Rossini fast tongue-twisting aria à la Largo al factotum.
The libretto by Luigi Balocchi is based on Mme. de Staël's Corinne, ou l'Italie. While like I said it doesn't develop characters and it is confusing given the excessive number of characters, its poetry is nice enough, and it doesn't drag down the music.
Now, the good news.
Somehow, even with the above shortcomings, this opera is still lots of fun. It is pleasant and even though there is no entertaining plot, it does work as the intended showcase for some nice numbers.
It is quite satirical, making wicked fun of the European aristocracy of the time, and even picking on several European countries and their stereotypical inhabitants. Rossini and Balocchi seem to be mocking everybody, especially in the hilarious aria Bravo il signor Ganimede when the buffoon Don Profondo (interesting name) literally mocks all the different foreign nationals who are hotel guests: the rigid German, the snob Frenchman, the macho-man Spaniard, the impetuous Russian, and so on and so forth.
Another satirical part is the display of "national songs" (starting with Or che regna fra le genti) which mocks either national anthems (there's a parody of God Save the King) or typical music of, in rapid succession, Germany, Polland, Russia, Spain, England, France, and even Italy itself (although the latter gets better treatment).
Both the arias/ensembles in the above two paragraphs are quite good, funny, and entertaining.
Another highlight is Che miro, ah, qual sorpresa, which exaggerates the coloratura in purpose, to accentuate - with an irresistible comic effect - the bubbly personality of the most coquette of the characters, la Contessa di Folleville (another very well picked name, LOL).
Four more numbers are pretty high quality:
1) Your typical Rossini crescendo in Zitti! Non canta piú! has the usual attractiveness of similar pieces in his works.
2) A spectacular, truly spectacular ensemble called Non pavento alcun periglio.
3) Another pretty good ensemble; not as good as the one above, but very impressive with not less than 14 voices (and no, it's not a chorus piece, LOL, it's a true ensemble), Signori, ecco una lettera.
4) The best piece of the entire opera, in my opinion: Arpa gentil, a fine example of lyrical, melodious bel canto. Very, very beautiful; this aria deserves a place in any top 100 list.
Overall, I rate this opera a B. It never really takes off to make it into B+ or A- territory, but it is certainly pleasant and with some exquisite bits.