Vinci's Artaserse

Artabano, Mandane, Arbace, Megabise, Artaserse, Semira.  I think.

Conductor–Diego Fasolis
Director--Silviu Purcărete

Artaserse, Prince and then King of Persia; friend of Arbace, in love with Semira--Philippe Jeroussky
Mandane, Sister of Artaserse; in love with Arbace (en travesti) -- Max Emanuel Cencic
Artabano, Prefect of the Royal Guard; father of Arbace and Semira-- Juan Sancho
Arbace, Brother of Semira; Friend of Artaserse; in love with Mandane-- Franco Fagioli
Semira, Sister of Arbace; in love with Artaserse (en travesti)--Valer Barna Sabadus
Megabise, General of the Persian Army, confidant of Artabano; in love with Semira --Yuriy Mynenko

This is a film of the opera Artaserse by Leonardo Vinci on a libretto by Metastasio which was first performed in Rome in 1730.  It was the last opera for Vinci who died that year, and the first for Metastasio.  Vinci is one of the great Baroque Italian composers whose operas are only now being revived.  Women were not allowed on the stage in Rome, so all the characters were originally sung by castrati except Artabano who is a tenor and the villain.  This performance exists to remind us that opera is an Italian art form.

All the castrati are here countertenors and some of the most famous countertenors of our time.  These guys are amazing.  The opening pair are Cencic and Fagioli, both incredible, and the music is gorgeous.  The range of colors in our 5 countertenors is pretty fascinating.  It remains to be seen if the fascination will wear off before the opera ends.  So far 6 Rossini tenors pales in comparison.  They have been assembled in Nancy in the west of France.

At the start there is some breaking of the fourth wall in case you missed that these are all guys.  Some start out in their modern clothing, for instance.  Stagehands appear, and all of them are girls.  Hmmm. These are theatrical stagehands--when the real stagehands appear, they are all men.

There is an attempt here to present Baroque costumes, though they seem to suddenly appear and disappear.  Now that Artaserse is king he appears in an incredible white wig with horns and a white outfit.  Then Artabano appears in the same outfit.  Jeroussky has the most beautiful voice, but there is much to admire here.  The most spectacular is probably Fagioli, but they're all pretty amazing.

Plot.  There is an offstage murder of the present king, Artaserse's brother.  This makes Artaserse king and causes a lot of accusations.  Artabano is probably to blame.  He and Megabise plot to marry Semira to Megabise instead of Artaserse.  Since the male characters all wear the same white outfit, it's very hard to keep track of who is who.  Some visual help would have been good.  Artabano tries to poison Artaserse, but when it appears that Arbace will drink the poison, Artabano confesses.  It has a happy ending, as do almost all opera seria.

What it is actually about is singing, of course.  If you are at all curious to know what Baroque opera was really like, this is probably your best opportunity.  This is the Italian Baroque opera and not the French version which had no castrati.  These guys belt it out in a way that is surprising.  It is a unique experience, unlike anything I have seen in all my years of going to the opera.

Jaroussky removes his hats and wigs as soon as possible, giving the impression that he doesn't much care for dressing up.  The tenor is banished.  All six characters return for a song at the end.  One of the "girls" brings out the conductor.  The music is spectacular, not just the singing.  Find a way to add this to your experience of opera.




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George Frideric Handel

 

Handel was born in 1685 in Halle, Duchy of Magdeburg.  He received his education there where he learned to play the harpsichord, organ, violin and oboe.  He began composing in Halle and held regular musician jobs.  Part of his education involved copying the compositions of other composers.  It is important to know that Rossini also did this, and probably others.  Today we just put it on the copy machine.  His skills at orchestration may come from this.

From 1705-1709 He traveled to Italy, initially at the invitation of one of the Medicis.  In this period he composed Agrippina for Venice and Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno for Rome. 

Each of these is in the style of the city where he stayed.  Agrippina was recently performed at the Metropolitan Opera to great success.

In 1710 Handel moved to London where he initially composed Italian operas in the Neapolitan style.  Eventually he settled in England where he worked primarily as a composer of Neapolitan Opera.  He brought castrati with him from the continent.  Giulio Cesare is for our ears his best opera.

In 1728 the hit theatrical work in London was John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, a much lighter and sillier work than any Neapolitan opera.  Interest in Italian opera diminished, leading Handel to adopt a far more English form:  the oratorio.  An oratorio differs from an opera primarily in the extensive use of chorus.  The most famous example of any piece from the entire Baroque period is Handel's Messiah.

An oratorio often performed as an opera is Semele.

Handel's Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno

Belezza:  Malin Hartelius
Piacere:  Anna Bonitatibus
Disinganno:  Marijana Mijanovic
Tempo:

I was in Zurich so I bought a ticket to see Handel's Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at the Zurich Opera. It's an Italian oratorio that has been staged like an opera. Beauty and pleasure form a pair set off against time and disappointment. This quartet are idling away their time in a bar, like one in Zurich where the rich and elegant congregate, when time challenges beauty with a claim: time always beats beauty. Where are the beautiful in the graveyard? While they are arguing, the clientele changes constantly. People in evening clothes are replaced by members of the Salvation Army, altar boys, sailors, and four men who bring in a dummy and set him up at the bar. At the end the dummy bursts into flame. (In Germany fire is not allowed on the stage. Here they constantly burn things up.)

Disappointment, sung by Marijana Mijanovic, warns that when beauty leaves, it never returns. I was fascinated by this woman who sounds remarkably like a falsettist, but isn't one.

The dynamism of the coloratura in this work is extreme. Perhaps Handel worked with some incredible singers in Rome in 1707. The most incredible of all is pleasure, a role that was sung by Cecilia Bartoli in the opera's last mounting here, and whose arias form the framework for her Opera Proibita tour. In this mounting it was sung very well indeed by Anna Bonitatibus, a personal favorite.

Time wins all arguments. It hardly seems an argument worth having. Beauty, sung by Malin Hartelius, begins as a blond, bejewelled and evening gowned woman and ends as a nun in full habit who has seen the error of her ways. Pleasure is driven out.

The star of the evening was unquestionably Marc Minkowski, the conductor. His work is remarkable.

Other side of the argument from one whom beauty has long abandoned: because it is fleeting, all the more reason to flaunt our beauty while we still possess it. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may. Should we hide all the flowers because they bloom only for a day?

Agrippina

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Conductor...............Harry Bicket
Production..............David McVicar

Agrippina.............Joyce DiDonato
Nerone, her son.........Kate Lindsey
Claudio, her husband the emperor.....Matthew Rose 
Poppea, her rival..........Brenda Rae
Ottone..................Iestyn Davies (countertenor)
Narciso.................Nicholas Tamagna (countertenor)
Pallante................Duncan Rock
 
Deborah Voigt announced that Handel's Agrippina, 1709, was the oldest opera ever presented at the Met.  As I mentioned after the last time I saw it, it was composed for Venice early in the era of Neapolitan opera.  That means lots and lots of da capo arias and a happy ending.  What is more Venice than Naples is the mixing of comic and serious elements.  The Venetians weren't fussy about that stuff.

This is the most I have enjoyed a Baroque opera maybe ever.  This is regie, of course.  The clothes are modern with lots of WWII military uniforms.  There is a bar scene where all the characters seem to meet by accident.  Maybe it's on the frequently mentioned Campidoglio. When Rome conquers England, they return with Elizabeth II's crown.  One of the scenes showed the ceiling of the Pantheon which brought some character to the mostly abstract sets.

What makes this a great opera is the well designed plot.  No matter how difficult the complexities are for our heroine, she conquers them all.

I was going to say there is no hit tune until Nerone sang "Come nembo" while snorting cocaine.  This is known because Bartoli recorded it.  The most unusual thing about this production is the staging of the character Nerone.  I think we are to presume that he is a very athletic, well-tattooed juvenile delinquent.  He loves his mother and acts up continuously.  Kate Lindsey said she had to train for this role.  We believe her.  Her rendition of "Come nembo" was excellent.


The music was always excellent, but no one topped the magnificent Joyce DiDonato who created a wonderful, perfectly believable evil character and topped it with gorgeous singing.

Giulio Cesare from Glyndebourne

Conductor William Christie
Director David McVicar

Giulio Cesare - Sarah Connolly, mezzo
Curio - Alexander Ashworth
Cornelia, Pompei's wife - Patricia Bardon
Sesto, Pompei's son - Angelika Kirchschlager, mezzo
Cleopatra - Danielle de Niese, soprano
Nireno - Rachid Ben Abdeslam, countertenor
Tolomeo, Cleopatra's brother - Christophe Dumaux, countertenor.
Achilla - Christopher Maltman, baritone

This performance of Handel's Giulio Cesare, 1724, took place at Glyndebourne in 2005.  This is the David McVicar version that ran at the Met with David Daniels and Natalie Dessay in 2013.  I called it Julius Caesar the Musical.  I enjoy remembering that Natalie was ill for one of the performances, and Danielle de Niese was in town.  Naturally she took advantage of the opportunity and stood in for Natalie.  That would have been fun to see.

We are projected in time into the British Empire.  The Egyptian servants wear the Fez, and the Roman Army are dressed in the red uniforms of the British Army.  There is no evidence of Islam, I guess.  Cleopatra looks like a modern woman.  There are WWII ships and dirigibles.
In the real time of Julius Caesar the rulers of Egypt were descendants of one of the generals of Alexander the Great but still called themselves Pharoahs.  This is the original and in my opinion is better than the Met version.

I think I prefer this cast.  They are sincere in their change from Roman to British empire.  Angelika Kirchschlager is maybe the best trouser singer I have ever experienced.  It's worth it to see her alone. 
I'm never really wild about countertenors, so I am happy to see that Giulio Cesare is sung by the great Dame Sarah Connolly.  She even sort of looks like Caesar and carries herself like a great general.  This is Danielle de Niese's first big success, indeed this is her masterpiece.  She sings, she dances, she brings us joy.

I notice that the two dead guys, Tolomeo and Achilla, come back to life.  I also noticed this in Cecilia Bartoli's version.  The characters must have singing in the finale.  Here it is staged, but we're not sure what it should mean.
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Handel Semele

Semele, 1744, just may be my favorite Handel opera, even though it isn't really an opera. By then he had been in England so long the English had begun to rub off on him, and this influence flowered into "Oh sleep" and "Where e'er you walk", two dreamily gorgeous songs in the English style. After writing so many oratorios, he had begun to feel that a chorus here and there would break up the monotony of aria and recitative.

And the plot is so wonderfully juicy. Jove whisks his darling off to a newly built castle in the mountains and showers her with presents, leaving his wife at home to fume.

Zurich Opera got it right. It is exactly like a story from the tabloids--like Brad running off with Angelina. It worked in New York as a semi-serious scandal, and it works here as something like a slapstick comedy. Iris, Juno's servant, played to perfection by Isabel Rey, is the comic sidekick, kicked around the stage by her mistress and constantly getting into trouble.

I begin to wonder if it mightn't be Handel's only opera buffa--especially when Semele herself is also played as buffa by Cecilia Bartoli. She continues to present the most spectacular detailing in the coloratura that we've ever heard. I know I said Anna Netrebko was the most athletic singer I've ever seen, but that was before I saw Cecilia in mid cadenza in "Should I persist in gazing" bouncing up and down on the bed. It was a Cecilia Bartoli moment. The entire aria was a complete tour de force I hope I never forget. Each phrase was a masterpiece, a miracle of phrasing and not merely one of comic genius.

The giant Birgit Memmert in the role of Juno loomed over her Iris and was at once dramatic and funny. They didn't combine the roles of Ino and Juno in one singer as they did in New York, but then they didn't have Vivika Genaux either. Liliana Nikiteanu was a lyrical Ino, and Charles Workman's Jupiter was also fine.

One nice comic bit worth mentioning was the staging of the search for Somnus whom Juno wants to put Jupiter's guard dogs to sleep. He is lost in a crowd of sleeping men, and Juno and Iris search in the dark with flashlights. Iris happily serves as his reward.

Both productions, New York and Zurich, ended in the same way: Jove and not Apollo appears with Juno at the end. Jove finds a new girlfriend to replace Semele. It has to have this ending.

The current trend in ornamenting the da capos was everywhere in evidence here. Cecilia's ornaments were particularly wild. Of course. What fun!  It's possible it will come out later on DVD.

Cecilia Bartoli appeared at the beginning in a wedding dress.

She is to be married to a man selected by her father. The omens for the marriage from Juno are good, but Semele pleads to Jove to rescue her from this marriage she does not want. Her sister also does not want it. This scene is dramatically but not musically interesting.

Jove steps in and sweeps Semele off to a villa he has created for her. Cecilia then came out wrapped in a sheet to sing "Endless pleasure, endless love." This is one of the hit tunes of Semele, and was sung with great enthusiasm.

Semele becomes discontent almost immediately. Jove leaves her alone at night and she sings the beautiful song (beautifully) "O sleep." To placate her Jove gives her stuff.

Outfits.

One outfit she chooses to wear is currently being worn by someone else.

The opera is very sensual, and Cecilia projected a lot of sensuality in her voice, her manner, her body, her style. Time is spent keeping Semele happy.  Chorus crowd the stage.

Jove sings a love song to Semele "Where e'er you walk", one of the great pieces by Handel and one of the greatest love songs ever written.

Finally Semele is seduced from her true path by the image of her own beauty. "Should I persist in gazing," a very funny song done in the style of a great virtuoso, both in the field of comic business and Handelian coloratura.

Semele goes on to throw a tantrum immediately afterward. The role offers great scope for La Bartoli, offering her sweet songs, comic coloratura and an intense rage aria.

The opera ends badly for Semele who is burned up by Jupiter's flame after briefly seeing the error of her ways.

Platée

It is astounding to think how little changed in France between the 1745 of Rameau's Comédies lyriques Platée, the Swamp Queen, and the banana dance of Josephine Baker. The mind boggles. The taste for absurdity and low comedy is exactly the same.

The work is more a ballet than an opera. At its premiere it was called a ballet bouffon. In the San Francisco Bay Area it was presented by the Mark Morris dance company. Folly, a coloratura soprano here sung by Heidi Stober, presents some spectacular singing, but hers is the only truly operatic role.

The set begins looking like a section of portable bleachers borrowed from the neighborhood high school and gradually disintegrates into the swamp.

The chorus enters in couples led by suspiciously thin ushers and is seated in the bleachers in a way that mirrors the audience it is facing. Then the ushers go berserk and start forcing everyone to change seats, sometimes crawling on the floor, sometimes climbing over the rows.

The plot is an attempt to reconcile Jupiter and Juno by making it seem that Jupiter is marrying a hideous monster. To avoid offending women by presenting an ugly woman as a character, the role of Platée is composed for a tenor and always played by a man. At the Santa Fe Opera the role is sung by Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, the current master of this role wherever it is presented. He is what I would incorrectly call a Spieltenor. (I would call him that because I am ignorant of French opera and don't know what they call anything. This blog is subtitled the education of DrB.) He was very funny and quite unselfconscious.

The jokes came thick and fast, and the ballet numbers were very creative. Gods descended from the ceiling. Scum gradually grew until it covered everything. When she was rejected by Jupiter and ridiculed by everyone, Platée vowed to get her revenge.

And the music? Varied and amusing in a late Baroque, early Rococo way, very suitable for dancing.


See pictures of Santa Fe Opera's Platée here. It's almost like being there.