Categories
DVD Recording

Handel: Rinaldo

Antonio Giovannini Rinaldo, Gesche Geier Armida, Marie Friederike Schöder Almirena, Florian Götz Argante, Yosemeh Adjei Goffredo, Owen Willetts Eustazio, Cornelius Uhle Mago cristiano, Compagnia Marionettistica Carlo Colla & Figli, Lautten Compagney Berlin, Wolfgang Katschner
DVD of the puppet action (137’+10′)
Audio recording (2 CDs)
Arthaus Musik 102207

[dropcap]A[/dropcap] charming and, as far as I am aware, unique recording of Handel’s London debut opera with marionettes, and – better still – a real attempt at Baroque staging. As the excellent sleeve notes explain, marionette performances of opera have a long and distinguished history- and with a production as good as this, one can understand their attraction. Visually, it is a delight- the costumes are suitably sumptuous, and the sets absolutely terrific. Armida arrives, as advertised, in her dragon-drawn chariot, and Almirena gets abducted by a deliciously evil-looking spirit. I particularly liked the seascape at the beginning of Act 2, with the seductive sirens swimming to and fro, and the equally charming garden with Almirena and assorted Birds in Act 1. Scene changes are instantaneous, as they should be, so that Handel’s dramatic key shifts- eg where Rinaldo surprises Armida in Act 2- have their proper effect. Armida’s transformations into Almirena, later in the same act, are beautifully realised- especially when she catches Argante out as he woos the wrong lady! The later scenes of Act 3, with the march-pasts of the rival Christian and Moorish armies, Rinaldo’s bravura ‘Or La Tromba’ and the subsequent ‘battaglia’ are splendidly dramatic, and Handel’s four trumpets and drums make their presence well felt.

Musically, it is a strong performance. Antonio Giovannini is a heroic Rinaldo – his Act 2 ‘Abbruccio, Avvampo” is especially thrillingly done, and ‘Cara Sposa’ in Act 1, after Almirena’s abduction, is hauntingly lovely. Gesche Geier, as Armida, is fire-spittingly good in her opening ‘Furie Terribili’, and wrings the heart in her Act 2 ‘Ah, Crudel’, with its plangent oboe and bassoon obbligati. Marie Friederike Schoder’s virtuous Almirena is a fine contrast- her Act 2 ‘Lascia, ch’io pianga’ is mesmerising. Florian Gotz as Argante blazes in in Act 1 with ‘Sibillar gli angui d’Aletto’, and is a fine foil for Armida in their Act 2 duet. Yosemeh Adjei (Goffredo) and Owen Willetts (Eustazio) prove musically muscular Christians, and Cornelius Uhle is a sonorous Mago. Schroder and Geier also double as the Sirens in Act 2- I don’t think I’ve ever heard their delicious ‘Il vostro maggio’ better done. Wolfgang Katschner’s tempi feel exactly right, and the band follow his energetic conducting with absolute confidence.

There are a few caveats. Most musically serious is the frequent truncation of da capo arias – ‘a’ section, ‘b’ section, then merely the ritornello of the ‘a’ section. The orchestration is tinkered with from time to time, e. g., recorders are used in the gigue of the overture, which rather spoils their surprise appearance in ‘Augeletti’ later on; there is also liberal addition of tambourine and castanets. The filming occasionally feels disjointed – there are frequent shot-shifts between the marionette onstage, the “real” singer backstage and the orchestra or conductor. A couple of times the stage business (eg during the Battle in Act 3) is filmed as if from the puppeteers bridge, which spoils the ‘full frontal’ Baroque effect.

Overall, however, this is a fine achievement, both musically and visually. It would be fascinating to see further operas done so – imagine ‘Orlando’ or ‘Alcina’ with similar staging!

Alastair Harper

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This promotional video includes some short extracts from the production.

Categories
DVD

Vivaldi: Il Farnace

Mary-Ellen Nesi Farnace, Sonia Prina Tamiri, Roberta Mameli Gilade, Delphine Galou Berenice, Loriana Castellano Selinda, Magnus Staveland Aquilio, Emanuele D’Aguanno Pompeo, Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Federico Maria Sardelli
151′ (2 DVDs)
Dynamic 37670

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]arnace was first performed at the Teatro S Angelo in Venice in February 1727 and frequently thereafter in other cities. The plot of the libretto by A M Luccini is a sequel to the story of the struggle of Mitridate, king of the Hellenic kingdom of Pontus, against Roman occupation. That struggle has now been taken up by Farnace, his elder son, who like his father has problems with an enemy within. Berenice, the mother of his wife Tamiri, is a Roman sympathiser seeking the destruction of Pontus and its rulers as revenge for her husband’s earlier death at the hands of Mitridate. It’s a plot that allows not only for political and amorous intrigue, but also sly digs at Roman imperialism, always a popular topic with Venetian audiences.

The present DVDs were filmed at performances at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale in Florence in May 2013. They represent yet another depressing episode in the dismal failure of attempts to mount opera seria on the contemporary stage. The performance employs what is laughingly touted by Dynamic as a ‘critical edition’ by Bernardo Ticci. Googling ‘Farnace Ticci’ produces the rather more accurate description ‘arr. B Ticci’. Suspicions are immediately aroused by the discovery that Ticci’s edition is cast in two, not the standard three acts, a format never used by drammi per musica (opera seria). Comparison with the original 1727 libretto reveals that not only has there been a reduction from 27 to 23 numbers, but that after the first few numbers of act 1, what is performed bears no relationship to the libretto or indeed to that of the 1737 version recorded by Jordi Savall. Most damaging of all, Ticci contrives a spurious tragic conclusion by having Farnace sing ‘Gelido in ogni vena’, an aria from later versions of act 2 in which he laments the supposed death of his young son at the hands of Berenice. Since we have no evidence the child is dead (he certainly isn’t in the original libretto), the whole farrago of nonsense strikes an utterly false note. I strongly suspect, too, that there has been considerable tampering with the orchestration, though have not been able to find a score on-line to check.

The production is little better, dark and dismal in the literal sense, with stark post-modernist tubular erections at various angles supplemented by various oddities such as what look like upright florescent tubes and, at one point, an array of illuminated doughnuts. An apron, on which a number of arias are sung, is built out from the stage around the orchestra. Most extraordinary of all is that almost all arias are sung at music stands in the fashion of a concert performance. Whether this is supposed to be some kind of observation that the arias in opera seria are a static form, I have no idea, but it looks absurd when done in a fully staged production. It does, however, have one advantage, which is that there is therefore mercifully no stage ‘business’ during arias. Costumes are largely dowdy but serviceable, with the Romans distinguished from the locals by their wearing of breastplates, though to comical effect by the proconsul Pompeo and legionary Aquilio, both of whom for some bizarre reason wear a dinner jacket over their breastplate.

It is sad (and not to his credit) to find one of the finest of today’s Vivaldi conductors involved with such fatuous stuff. Federico Maria Sardelli’s direction has all the drive and intensity we have come to expect from him in the composer’s music, although even he cannot disguise the patently obvious modern instruments of a large contingent of Maggio Musicale strings. The cast, including some outstanding Baroque singers as it does, deserves better than this miserable effort. I except the tenors who sing the roles of Aquilio and Pompeo; their contribution is best passed over in polite silence. Mary-Ellen Nesi is a strong, incisive Farnace, pursuing the mental cruelty to which he subjects his long-suffering wife with relentless ferocity, though the voice does sound as if it is being pushed at times. Sonia Prina is a splendid Tamiri, resolute in the face of the threat to her young son, deeply affecting when she believes she has lost him. Among the most telling moments are the confrontations with her mother Berenice, superbly sung and acted by the French mezzo Delphine Galou, the only one of the cast who suggests she understands gesture. Loriana Castellano’s Selinda, the sister of Farnace, is capably sung, but while Roberta Mameli sings stylishly and winningly, her Gilade is marred by some undisciplined singing in the upper register.
Vivaldi may not be among the best Baroque opera composers – his output is today overrated in my view – but Farnace is one of his better operas. It certainly deserves much better than it gets here.

Brian Robins

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Categories
DVD Recording

Purcell: Dido & Aeneas

Vivica Genaux Dido, Henk Neven Aeneas, Ana Quintans Belinda, Marc Mauillon Sorceress/Sailor, Le Poème Harmonique, Chœur Accentus /Opéra de Rouen Haute-Normandie, Vincent Dumestre
80′ (1 DVD)
Alpha 706

[dropcap]‘[/dropcap]Dido-on-Sea’? Or ‘Dido and Aeneas go to the Circus’? Whatever construct is put on this conception it will hardly be sufficient to convey just how bizarre it is. Where to start? Well, as is not uncommon in these benighted days, the stage directions are largely ignored. At no time are we ever in Dido’s Palace (act 1), a Cave (act 2/1), or a Grove (act 2/2). Only in act 3 do we have some semblance of place, where we see the prow of a ship. Otherwise we are located on a rocky seashore, which makes something of a nonsense of Belinda’s ‘Thanks to these lonesome vales’, among much else. The dances are largely given over to a troupe of acrobats, whose performances both aerial and earthbound are described in an astonishingly pretentious – and in places inaccurate – note by Vincent Dumestre as being ‘sometimes the protagonist’s projections’, while at other times ‘allegories of the characters described in the songs of the chorus’ (which performs throughout off-stage). Most notably, in the Cave scene they are slithery, writhing sea creatures, the accessories of a (male) Sorceress who is … wait for it … an octopus with a rather nasty bump protruding from the back of her/his head. Really. Otherwise the costumes in what is a quasi-period production are odd – Dido wears striped pantaloons under her gown, while Aeneas looks like Trapper John, the fur round his neck hardly compatible with his location in North African desert territory.

It would be pleasing to report that it was a relief to turn to the music. But it is no such thing. Dumestre has seen fit not only to flesh out the scoring with an utterly anachronistic continuo group including a harp, guitars, theorbos, but also – and equally anachronistically – an orchestra that includes recorders, oboes and bassoons. The effect of the plucked arpeggiations and pretty ornaments in such numbers as the Ritornelle that opens act 2 is about as inimical to Purcellian style as it is possible to imagine. While there is certainly room for improvisation in the Dido dances, Dumestre’s owes far more to his mistaken belief in the influence of Lully on the score. As Richard Luckett pointed out all those years ago in his notes for the famous Andrew Parrott Chandos recording, the musical accent of the opera is – aside from the overture and a few dances – not at all Lullian, but cast in Purcell’s wholly distinctive style. It is this aspect of Dido that Dumestre and his performers have fatally missed. Not one of the cast display real comprehension of either the linguistic or musical syntax. Vivica Genaux’s Dido is especially disappointing, the voice marred by obtrusive vibrato and even pitch problems, while at times taking on a curiously plummy quality. Her Dutch Aeneas is better, but ultimately, well, the Aeneas we all love to despise and his inability to articulate ornamental phrases cleanly is another disadvantage he shares with the Belinda.

Vincent Dumestre is a director for whom I have great respect for the many outstanding things he has done on record, not least the marvellous DVDs of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. But I fear here he is way out of his comfort territory. And I say that not because he is French; it is perfectly possible for non-English musicians to give convincing, moving performances of Purcell’s operatic masterpiece, witness that given last year in Bruges by the Italian Fabio Bonizzoni with a Spanish Dido. The film emanates from performances given at the Rouen Opera in 2014.

Brian Robins

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Categories
DVD

Mozart: La finta giardiniera

Erin Morley Sandrina (Violante), Carlo Allemano Don Achise, Podestat, Enea Scala Comte Belfiore, Marie-Adeline Henry Arminda, Maria Savastano Serpetta, [Marie-Claude Chappuis Ramiro, Nikolay Borchev Nardo (Roberto), Dimitri La Sade-Dotti, Marcelo Rodrigues, Rolim de Goes figurants], Le Concert d’Astrée, Emmanuelle Haïm
176:00 (2 DVDs)
Erato 08256 461664 5 9

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]or long regarded simply as a precursor of the great comic operas of Mozart’s maturity, La finta giardiniera has more recently shown increasing signs of being accepted into the repertoire. Last year’s first-ever staging at Glyndebourne was mirrored across the Channel by this co-production mounted in Lille and Dijon. The attention is justified, the remarkable thing about La finta giardiniera being not that it fails to match the mature operas – that’s a given – but that much of the opera attains a standard that is notable for far more than its composer’s youth. So, while the long act 1 finale may lack the miraculous structural architecture of later finales, it is still an extraordinary achievement by any other standard, while the eventual act 3 reconciliation of Belfiore and Sandrina (he believes he has killed her some time before the opera opens) evokes an emotional response that reminds us that this is the same composer that would later write the shattering scene in which Fiordiligi finally capitulates to Ferrando.

La finta was composed for the Munich Carnival season and first given in January 1775, just two weeks before Mozart’s nineteenth birthday. Although termed an opera buffa, it belongs to a genre that includes parti serie, here the roles of Armindo and her lover Ramiro, and parti di mezzo carattere or intermediate roles that feature serious characters who may also find themselves in comic situations, in this case Sandrina and Belfiore. The remaining characters, the Podesta (or Mayor), his maid Serpetta and Sandrina’s servant Roberto have purely comic roles. Producer David Lescot has opted for a generalized production that relies more on props – a constantly changing (and sometimes fussy) array of plants and bushes in tubs in act 1, set in the Podesta’s garden – than sets. Costumes, if not specifically in period, at least nod in that direction, the unifying conceit being that everyone is dressed in white. It works well enough, though I’m not sure why Ramiro needs short trousers and a pair of tennis rackets or why the backcloth in act 1 needs to be so dark; we are after all in a garden.

The performance is immensely likeable. Having never been much of a fan of Emmanuelle Haïm’s work, I’m delighted to discover that on this evidence she is a splendid Mozartian. Tempos throughout are finely judged, and she draws from her orchestra idiomatic playing that encompasses variously both sensitivity and real dramatic strength. My one complaint is continuo playing straight from the René Jacobs’ school of gross over-elaboration. And would a fortepiano really have been used as far back as 1775? Exceptional among a young cast that is likely to be unfamiliar to most opera enthusiasts in this country are the outstandingly stylish Ramiro (originally a castrato role) of Marie-Claude Chappuis, the infinitely touching Sandrina of American soprano Erin Morley, and Nikolay Borchev’s splendid Nardo, his richly rounded baritone suggesting an outstanding future Don Giovanni. Enea Scala’s Count Belfiore sings more lyrical music with sensitivity, but his tone is liable to coarsen under pressure. Marie-Adeline Henry is a splendidly fearsome, Arminda, delivering her act 2 aria di furia with suitable venom, while fine comic performances come from Maria Savastano’s Serpetta and Carlo Allemano as the Podesta.

Some of the camera work is a bit close for my taste, but overall the presentation is excellent, though the English subtitles could have done with a proofread. La finta giardiniera is a long opera that can easily outstay its welcome; that it is does no such thing here is to the credit of all concerned. Finally, it is a sobering thought that this is the achievement of two of France’s second-tier regional opera houses.

Brian Robins

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Categories
DVD Recording

Biagio Marini & Antonio Vivaldi a Vicenza: Cantate e Sonate da camera

Giuseppina Bridelli, I Musicali Affetti, Fabio Missaggia
58:49
Tactus TC590004 (DVD)

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his DVD not only features a recital of two alto cantatas by Vivaldi (Cessate omai cessate and Amor hai vinto) and four works for strings by Biagio Marini, but it also includes visuals of the fine palazzo in Vicenza where the recording was made. Both composers were associated with the city at various points in their careers; Marini as maestro in the cathedral, Vivaldi as composer of and violinist in the 1713 premiere of Ottone in Villa and his oratorio Il battaglia navale (the latter in a church 100 metres from the afore-mentioned palazzo!) Giuseppina Bridelli has a wide-ranging and agile voice, well suited to the dramatic nature of the texts and the technical demands of Vivaldi’s music; she does well not to be distracted by the camera, and the sound engineer does a great job of taming the expansive acoustic. The two violins and viola are joined by a continuo team consisting of cello, plucker and harpsichord. Missagia’s introduction to the location and the music (especially his passionate advocacy of Marini’s music – the group is named after his first publication) is very enjoyable and really enhances the experience.

Brian Clark

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Categories
DVD

Handel: Rodelinda

Danielle di Niese Rodelinda, Bejun Mehta Bertarido, Kurt Streit Grimoaldo, Konstantin Wolff Garibaldo, Malena Ernman Eduige, Matthias Rexroth Unulfo, Luis Neuhold Flavio, Angelo Margiol Flavio’s friend, Concentus Musicus Wien, Nicolaus Harnoncourt
189′ (2 DVDs)
Belvedere 10144

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his DVD is hardly worth listening to, let alone seeing. The speeds are dull – to take for example the overture (where was the minuet?), the largo was andante-larghetto; the allegro was andante. The tempi continue in such fashion (‘mean’ Handel – where fast is too slow and slow too fast). The cast is pretty decent, although indiscriminate vibrato taints them all. And while Bejun Mehta is not bad as Bertarido, Matthias Rexroth (Unulfo) makes a good case for using a contralto or mezzo. (Amazingly, women can play men.) As the heroine, de Niese has good facial expressions and can act (makes up for an indifferent voice), but Rodelinda is misconceived: no dignity or that aura of untouchability that means a) Grimoaldo is helpless about her in more sense than just love, and b) that she keeps her reputation and poise throughout. For example, her ‘L’empio rigor’ (far too pedestrian, by the way – and that’s before de Niese lags behind the beat) starts with Grimoaldo actually touching her and towering over her; she seems indecisive and at a loss what to do. The music is so at odds with this that the whole thing’s a nonsense. It’s a shame, for Grimoaldo’s entrance is suitably bumbling. And there’s some bizarre wardrobe-moving – but what else do you do in the da capo? (And, of course, Rodelinda, being a woman, is only interested in clothes anyway.) The recitatives are awful – very sung; all notes almost the same length (interminable). There are occasional good moments (e. g. the first encounter between Grimoaldo and Eduige, and Bertarido’s ‘Dove sei’), but the bad moments are too cringe worthy – e. g. the sex scene between Eduige and Garibaldo (never mind that Eduige is supposed to have left the stage… And how do you bonk with your trousers on/tights up?) We’ve only got a third of the way through Act I. It doesn’t improve. Avoid!

Katie Hawks

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