Tag: Opera

Colin Ainsworth Castor, Florian Sempey Pollux, Emmanuelle de Negri Télaire, Clémentine Margaine Phébé, Christian Immler Jupiter, Sabine Deveilhe Cléone, Philippe Talbot un athlète, Virgile Ancely le grand prêtre, Ensemble Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon
139:31
harmonia mundi HMC 902212.13

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s with Mozart, so with Rameau. When you’ve heard several operas (or even the same one several times) it’s easy to forget how brilliant they are. However, this recording offers a stimulus for renewed admiration by using the 1754 re-working of the 1737 original, apparently with the benefit of ‘recently discovered’ manuscript material. I must say that I do prefer this – shorn of the prologue, much recitative and with arguably a clearer and tauter storyline. And the music is sublime – noble, jaunty or outright jolly as required and sometimes spectacular: try the Athlete’s air (CD1 track 25). The booklet (Fr/Eng/Ger) offers an essay that explains the context of the 1754 version, a synopsis and full text/translation cued to the track list and the performance does not disappoint with both singers and players finding inspiration in Rameau’s genius. Yes, there’s occasionally an excess of vibrato or percussion but a non-reviewer might not even notice, such is the general sweep of the action, and the general standard, especially for a live recording, is remarkably good. I just wish it were a DVD of a staged performance. For that you need the Christophe Rousset account but be warned – the production will definitely not be to all tastes.

David Hansell

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Sandrine Piau L’Armonia Martin Oro Ormindo Howard Crook Amida, Dominique Visse Nerillo, Magali Léger Sicle, Jean-François Lombard Erice, Stéphanie Révidat Erisbe, Karine Deshayes Mirinda, Jacques Bona Hariadeno, Benoit Arnould Osmano
131:10 (2 CDs)
Pan Classics PC 10330 (© 2006)

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here is a dearth of recordings of L’Ormindo, only this version recorded in 2006 and the old Raymond Leppard Glyndebourne arrangement dating from 1967. Perhaps the success of the staging of the Royal Opera’s English language version under Christian Curnyn at the Globe has encouraged the publishers?

This is quite a stylish performance, recorded in Paris in 2006, and I believe released originally on Pan; downloads from this are still available and feature Sandrine Piau prominently on the sales pitch, who however only sings the much-ornamented Prologo as Harmonia. The continuo group including an organ, two harpsichords, just one chittarone, harp and guitar provide a varied texture in the narrative exchanges; and two violins, two violas da gamba and a violone form the five part ritornelli. The clefs for the middle parts in the score are alto and tenor, and Monteverdi normally calls for viole da brazzo: are gambas right here? Sometimes the score provides worked-out ritornelli in the arias, but occasionally I hear the strings ‘improvising’ with the singers – a euphemism for being written in to the score Leppard-style where there are some blank staves from time to time. This and a number of cuts make it hard to follow in the on-line facsimile available from the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice. The timing of the BBCs Globe broadcast runs to 180:15, while these two CDs last for 131:10. No details of the performing edition – how it was created, who edited it, what editorial principles were used, how decisions were made – are recorded in the liner notes, which are slender in the extreme and largely taken up with introducing the listener to the complex plot. There is nothing about the performers, or the circumstances of the recording in Paris in June 2006. As the only recording with any gesture towards HIP, this is disappointing.

Among the singers, Dominique Visse has the cameo part that suits his voice and the kind of camp stage presence he has created for himself. In Nerillo, Amida’s page, he exploits this to the full. The action however is dominated by the female roles of Erisbe and Sicle, both sung beautifully by Stéphanie Révidat and Magali Léger. These two soprano characters run the plot, and it is right that they should come across more strongly that their two male lovers, Ormindo and Amida. Ormindo really needs to be sung by an haute-contre, not an alto as here. But all the voices have a lyrical quality, and they have certainly got their minds and tongues round the occasionally fast-moving Italian, so I guess this is the fruit of a well-prepared staged version.

As the plot develops, we get some fine exchanges, and the laments and lovers’ partings as they drink what they believe to be poison are sung passionately yet clearly. The drama in this production – aided by some pruning – moves the music along at a good pace; only occasionally was I aware of some awkward changes of key, and some of the blank staves are filled – for example in Erisbe’s “Ah questo è l’imeneo” – with a questionable violin part.

But lovers of Cavalli and students of the beginnings of the Venetian opera house and its early productions will be glad of this performance, despite my reservations.
David Stancliffe

Sonia Prina Adriano, Ann Hallenberg Farnaspe, Roberta Invernizzi Emirena, Romina Basso Sabina, Lucia Cirillo Idalma, Ugo Guagliardo Osroa, Europa Galante, Fabio Biondi
172′ (3 CDs)
Fra Bernardo FB1409491

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]driano in Siria was the first of three operas written by the virtuoso violinist Francesco Maria Veracini for Handel’s London rivals, the Opera of the Nobility. It was first performed at the King’s Theatre on 26 February 1735, subsequently running to an impressive 20 performances. The booklet notes for this first recording wrongly suggest a mixed reception, in the process inaccurately citing the king as the leading supporter of the Nobility, and quoting a long, damning (if amusing) report of the opera by Lord John Hervey, without recognising that Hervey was by no means an impartial observer, being a bitter opponent of the Prince of Wales, who was the leading supporter of the Nobility. Adriano was set to a much-altered libretto of Metastasio’s. It tells of the Emperor Hadrian’s (Adriano) betrayal of the Roman princess Sabina in favour of Emirena, his captive and the daughter of his enemy Osroa, King of Parthia. Caught in the middle of this intrigue is Farnaspe, a Parthian prince betrothed to Emirena, a role taken by Farinelli, who headed a glittering cast that also included Senesino (Adriano), Cuzzoni (Emirena) and the bass Montagnana as the fierce Parthian ruler. The score is an admirably capable piece of work that includes an agreeable variety of arias. The writing, perhaps understandably, tends to be more instrumental in character than one might expect from Handel or Hasse, some of it indeed being reminiscent of Vivaldi (cf Osroa’s act 1 aria di furia ‘Sprezza il furor’). If there is a weakness it is a tendency for the instrumental writing (usually for strings alone) to fall back on sequential chains of roulades.
     Nonetheless a large vote of thanks is due to Fabio Biondi for reviving the opera (and providing the missing plain recitatives) and doing so with a cast that in present-day terms seeks to emulate the original. Praise must however be tempered with considerable reservation regarding Biondi’s direction of the live performance, which emanates from the 2014 edition of Vienna’s Resonanzen Festival. Tempos are often extreme, while within arias they are often pulled around mercilessly, especially (for some reason) in B sections. The strings, not favoured by a dry recording, sound woefully undernourished, the small number (3-3-2-1-1) contrasting starkly with the 20-odd known to have been employed by the King’s Theatre at the time. The addition of timpani in several numbers is almost certainly spurious. It is a measure of the quality of Ann Hallenberg’s wonderful Farnaspe that it eclipses the remainder of a splendid cast, not least because she is the only one to produce proper trills. But whether in primarily lyrical arias such as ‘Parto, sì bella’ (act 1) or the rather vacuously virtuosic ‘Amor, dover, rispetto’ that ends act 2, Hallenberg is here at her peerless best. The presen-tation by the recently established Fra Bernardo label is poor. The booklet’s small white print on black is difficult to read, there is no translation of the Italian text and the synopsis of the plot is remarkably unhelpful. The company has an interesting catalogue in prospect, but it will need to be more user friendly to English speaking collectors if it is to succeed.

Brian Robins

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Brian adds: The rating for performance is an average. It would be 2 for orchestral work, 4 for singing (5 for Ann Hallenberg!)

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Nicholas Achten baritone, Deborah York soprano, Lambert Colson cornetto, Scherzi Musicali
75:49
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 88843078722

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his intriguing CD takes the Orpheus legend as a springboard to explore the world of early opera. To a surprising extent the legend dominated the early years of opera, providing in its story a powerful message about the power of music, but also a hero who conveniently performs monophonically to his own instrumental accompaniment. What Nicholas Achten has done here is stitched together a fantasy opera in which numbers from a range of these early settings are placed in sequence to retell the story. At first I determined to listen to the sequence ‘blind’ to see whether the music by Monteverdi stood out from his contemporaries as many commentators suggest that it ought to. Of course this proved impossible to judge as I already knew the Monteverdi well, but to my mind much of the ‘supporting’ music by Rossi, Merula, Caccini, Cavalieri, Piccinini, Falconieri, Landi, Sartorio and of course Peri seemed highly effective and, in the hands of Scherzi Musicali, powerfully expressive.

The role of Orfeo is taken by the Nicholas Achten, whose light baritone voice seems constantly on the verge of ornamentation and is perfectly suited to the music – his account of the Monteverdi’s superlative aria Possente spirto is one of the finest I have heard. His Euridice, who in keeping with the earliest settings plays a much smaller role in the drama, is Deborah York whose soprano voice is also convincingly expressive. The accompanying consort of strings plus two cornetts and a range of continuo keyboards including harpsichord, organ and virginals occasionally joined by theorbo, guitar, harp and bass cittern provides highly charged textures to support the singers as well as performing purely instrumental items with considerable delicacy and passion. This CD is a true pleasure to listen to, and provides the very useful service of bringing several early operatic composers out of the textbooks and into the limelight, if perhaps in the context of a co-operative effort which few of them would have countenanced in life.

D. James Ross

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