Vivaldi Orlando Furioso - Teatro la Fenice

Vivaldi Orlando Furioso from Teatro la Fenice in Venice, conducted by Diego Fsolis, directed by Fabio Ceresa with a cast led by Sonia
Prina, now on Culturebox. On an enchanted isle in the middle of nowhere,  where Alcina reigns, Medoro loves Angelica, Ruggerio loves Bradamante, but they get mixed up  and scrap among each other. Alcina is part goddess, part witch, her rival Astolfo the only one who can stand up to her. No wonder Orlando goes mad ! But in the end, all is magically resolved. Vivaldi's audiences  knew Ariosto and his predecessors, the Greeks, well enough to
appreciate that art is not pseudo-reality so much as meta-reality, where
men and mythic figures interact in all too human ways in decidedly
non-human situations.  Vivaldi's audiences went to the opera to be thrilled and challenged and,
indeed, titillated.  In the world of art, the only logic that applied was emotional truth : ergo, the laws of church and state could be tested (within limits).  Orlando Furioso is a play on outward appearances and delusion.  If there's a message it's not to take things too literally.

Not, for exmple, the gender bending, not unusual in the genre for many different reasons. The sole soprano, Angelika (Francesca Aspromonte) is an innocent not nearly as complex as the other characters. And what a character Orlando is!  He's is a warrior hero who gets thrust into anti-hero mode, ideal for a singer as spirited and as experienced as Sonia Prima who has can bring out the full range of Orlando's personality. That mad scene is a tour de force which Prima carries off so conviningly that it feels both real and unreal at the same time, in the best sense.  He's still a leader and a man of action, though he loses control for a while when he's under a spell.  Medoro and Ruggerio were originally cast for castratos, but now taken by countertenors, here Raffaele Pe and Carlo Vistoli.  Bradamante, the woman disguised as a soldier, is Loriana Castellano and Astolfo is Riccardo Novaro, a bass. Alcina (Lucia Cirillo) is a contralto/mezzo part, signifying Alcina's  decidedly feminine sexuality while also hinting at the demonic side of her personality. Modern
audiences have different expectations, but in baroque times higher voice
types signified good guys, whatever their actual gender, while bass
voices signified darker portent. Vivaldi gives all the singers extended sections in which to display their virtuosity, and also imprint their individuality on the listener.  They're all gorgeous in their own way !



Splendid production, too  The staging is simple  A giant clamshell provides the focus, a hint at mythology. Like Venus, Alcina arises from the sea. Her magic is love, her costumes decorated with roses, and petals fly at her bequest  Her handmaidens are both female and male, some warriors dressed as women, in keeping with the plot. Changes of scene are wrought by lighting effects, transforming the golden palace into craggy nightscape, and  the green forest where Orlando meets his fate.  Spectacular effects, through simple means, reflecting the limited staging of Vivaldi's age with modern technolgy.  Even better, the detail in the Personenregie. Every gesture, every movement  evokes the personality of the role, and/or the music.  And best of all the artistic rigour behind it : such  elegance grows absorbing the idiom and values of the era, not from sticking on Hollywoodesque excess.  The strange animal in Alcina's kingdom is a creature who seems to have stepped out ofd a baroque drawing, with the body of a horse and the head of a night bird : highly symbolic, clearly  a stage prop, not meant to be naturalistic. 

 

Four L'Olimpiades!

Vivaldi's 1734 opera L'Olimpiade seems to be multipying everywhere. Last week, there was a  concert performance at St John's Smith Square. Starting this weekend, there'll be a fully staged, high profile production at Garsington Opera at Wormlsey, and soon there'll be another staging at the Buxton Festival.  The photo shows a staging  at Schloss Greinberg during the Donaufestwochen in 2008  Very minimalist.

The opera isn't about the Olympics so much as about cheating!  The hero  uses a fake ID to win, but the prize is his friend's girlfriend. Dishonesty, deception, suicide, attempted murder. Sure beats drug scams. The original play, by Torquato Tasso, was so popular that it inspired over 60 composers - including Beethoven - to write operas and shorter pieces about it.
 
Prepare by listening to The Venice Baroque Orchestra, whose L'Olimpiade pastiche took place last night at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Review HERE on Opera Today. But listen for yourself, as it's online on BBC Radio 3 for 7 days HERE. This version uses extracts from 16 different composers and works surprisngly well, because the pieces are so well chosen. Indeed, the difference is styles adds piquancy You can hear why pastiches like these were so popular once, they have charm. Vivacious singing, and delightful playing, conducted by Andrea Marcon.

Vivaldi L'Olimpiade - Garsington Opera at Wormsley

Vivaldi's L'Olimpiade iis a rarity, but this year, like buses, three come along at once. Garsington Opera at Wormlsey's production is probably most interesting as the director is David Freeman. Garsington Opera has always specialized in baroque treasures, and Freeman has directed all three Vivialdi operas there so far. The conductor will be baroque veteran Laurence Cummings. This will be the one to go to! It starts Sunday, and a few seats are still available.

"We did L’Incoronazione de Dario, from Vivaldi’s early period, La Verità in cimento (see review) last year, and now L’Olimpiade, from much later. This is probably the finest - we’ve saved best for last”. Though not, hopefully really the last as there are at least 20 more Vivaldi operas around.

"In L’Olimpiade, Freeman says there is some “absolutely beautiful music and it’s genuinely touching too. It’s not just pretty tunes. The music cuts pretty deep, even if the plot’s a concoction”. L’ Olimpiade is based on a text by Metastasio which was also used in other operas. Audiences would have had printed texts available, though not sheet music which was expensive to copy, so the plots would not have been wholly unfamiliar. “So there wasn’t the same close relationship between text and music that you get in Mozart or even in Monteverdi". Contemporary audiences might have enjoyed these operas much in the way that popular modern shows string together good tunes around a storyline."

“Another thing about Vivaldi”, says Freeman, “is that we tend to think of baroque as Handel. They were almost direct contemporaries, Vivaldi (1678-1741), Handel (1685-1759). But Handel was a German composer writing in Italian for an English audience, so naturally he didn’t go in for very complicated plots but for rather sublime situations. Vivaldi is different. He’s a Venetian writing for Italians, even in the Venetian dialect, for Venetian audiences, who could understand . So he was able to do a lot more, with text, with comic wit, a lot more madness. So there are more arias, even if they’re shorter, and lots more recitative. So in comparison with Handel who can seem quite noble, Vivaldi might seem more scrappy, but that’s what makes Vivaldi lively”.

David Freeman is an extremely experienced director. Please read this interview in Opera Today, in which he talks about Vivaldi and how he makes drama come alive.

Photo shows David Freeman directing Rosa Bove in rehearsals fo Garsington Opera's Vivaldi L'Olimpiade. 

Vivaldi put to the test, Garsington Opera

" Vivaldi's La Verità in cimento (Truth put to the test) and Garsington Opera have a hit on their hands if the first two performances are anything to go by." writes Sue Loder who is a passionate baroque specialist. "The characters are a dysfunctional royal family whose ruling Sultan is a well-meaning tyrant who makes that one big decision but then lives to regret it as his extended family start to tear each other’s throats out ". Read her comparison in Opera Today between Handel operas and Vivaldi, which explains why Vivaldi can't be judged on Handel terms.  Some seats available for upcoming performances. Vivaldi won't reach mass market but those who appreciate a real baroque romp might like it as much as she did.  

Vivaldi Orlando furioso Barbican

Vivaldi's Orlando furioso (1727) is the latest in the Barbican's exciting series of operas based on the theme of Orlando. Orlando was the superhero of the baroque, inspiring Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem Orlando Furioso, a huge sprawling panorama, in which Orlando and his companions have adventures in exotic places with supernatural beings yet still have strong human emotions. Absolutely in tune with the baroque fascination for drama spiced with florid fantasy. Perfect for the then "new" art form that was opera. The creative possibilities weren't lost on composers who could combine the adventures with opportunities for glorious musical elaboration.

Ensemble Matheus, its soloists and conductor Jean-Christophe Spinosi demonstrated why Orlando furioso is as vivid now as it was in the past. It was so inherently dramatic that you were caught up in its vivacious spirit: no real need to follow subtitles to get meaning. In any case, the plot is less important than the characters. Baroque audiences knew the basic story. What they came to see was how the music and singers would express it in their own way.

In this genre, everything hangs on role and interpretation. Marie-Nicole Lemieux is an ideal Orlando. She embodies the part making it come alive with depth and emotional veracity. She sings like a true hero - rich, dark and resonant, yet agile and energetic. She leaps through the elaborate ornamentations with complete ease. Just as Orlando breaks through his restraints, Lemieux's voice bursts forth free and clear. She makes Orlando's mad scene a tour de force, whipping each repetition with precision, so it feels taut and muscular. Defeated our hero may be, but Lemieux reminds us who he is and that he won't be beaten down forever. Lemieux is highly polished, but also wholly natural.  Her Orlando starts off as a fairly repressed soldier, enchained, so to speak, in his armour and helmet. By the end, through the agonies of love and loss, he's reaching deeper levels of his nature. Lemieux is so expressive that you realize that Orlando's chainmail is a kind of emotional prison, keeping him in as well as keeping out danger.

Lemieux sang Orlando with Spinosi and Ensemble Matheus on the keynote recording with Philippe Jaroussky as Ruggiero. They're a dream pairing, beautifully balanced vocally as well as in character, for Orlando and Ruggiero are two sides of the heroic image. Jaroussky's countertenor is a wonder, so pure and clear yet free from the mannerisms that affect lesser artists. No mistaking that he's male, and in an altogether more exalted firmament than anyone else. For obvious reasions, we don't do castrato these days, but voices like Jaroussky's show there's no need. Nature and Art conspire to produce voices like this, as baroque hyperbole might put it. Jaroussky and Andreas Scholl are both wonderful, but each so original and distinctive, they sound amazing in duet. Here, Jaroussky duets with violin in the gorgeous yet gracious Sol da te mio dolce amore. Later, his show-stopping Sorge 'irato nembo.

Lemieux and Jaroussky are the key parts in this opera, so the fuss made about other ccancellations needs to be put into perspective. Franziska Gottwald, replacing Jennifer Larmore at the last moment as Alcina, hasn't quite the same experience in the role, but sang convincingly. Veronica Cangemi's Angelica was lustrous, the brightness of her timbre matching the pertness in the part. Orlando will offer to do anything for her and she knows it, so she asks him to get her some water that will make them live forever. "Easy!" sings Orlando, not knowing that the water is guarded by a savage monster. So much for love.  There's a surprisingly modern kick in the baroque. All these trills about myrtles and rose blossom are elegant, stylized ornamentation, like the singing, but at its core, the drama is strikingly real.

Ensemble Matheus and Jean-Christophe Spinosi exemplify the modern French approach to the baroque. This performance was dynamic, because it was precise and animated, drawing the connection between opera and dance, which until fairly recently were often combined. No musty preciousness here! As much personality in the playing as in the singing. Drama is built into the music, so stagings don't need to be realistic. When Orlando gestures violently, Lemieux moves threateningly at Spinosi who responds. Earlier, he'd grabbed a violin and played, further integrating the music into the mise-en-scène. True to the spirit of whimsy, so dear to baroque aesthetics.

The Barbican's Orlando series began in December with Handel's Alcina. Read about that HERE and HERE. (Minkowski and Les musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble, with some of the same singers as we heard tonight) , It continues with Handel Ariodante on 25th May with DiDonato, Gauvin, Phan, Lemieux, and others (Il complesso barocco/Curtis). And don't forget, Thomas Hengelbrock (Niobe) returns to London with Ensemble Balthasar Neumann in Mozart Idomeneo in June. (Davislim, Tilling, Daletska, Antonnaci). Brilliant series, a great triumph for the Barbican.  Here is a link to Robert Hugill's review in Opera Today.