Lasting Magic
GIUSEPPE PENNISI was at the
Italian premiere in Ravenna of
Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'
With Saverio Mercadante's I Due Figaro, a five year project has been completed. Under Riccardo Muti's guidance and artistic direction, jointly carried out by the Salzburg Whitsun Festival and the Ravenna Festival, the project focused on the revival of operas by the 'Neapolitan School'. The five operas presented -- one each year -- in Salzburg and Ravenna (as well as touring to many other theatres) are, by and large, works that had disappeared from regular programming around the 1840s; their common matrix is that they were composed by Neapolitan-trained musicians or had their most important successes and influence in Naples.
The opera is scheduled for several performances at the Teatro Real of Madrid (which is coproducing it) and may be toured in Italy and Spain. Before reviewing the performance, as seen in Ravenna at the Italian première on 24 June 2011, a few words must be said about the 'Neapolitan School' and Saverio Mercadante.
Even though Riccardo Muti is a strong supporter of the School, of its identity and of its merits, I tend to agree with the late musicologist Francesco Degrada; in a scholarly essay of the late 1970s, he demolished the concept of the very existence of a 'Neapolitan School' by documenting that Naples was indeed a major capital of opera creation and development at least for two centuries but differences of style were such that any 'Neapolitan School' would have been extremely eclectic. The supporters of the existence of the 'school' include, under the same label, composers from Cimarosa to Rossini, from Scarlatti to Pergolesi, from Jommelli to Provenzale, from Vici to Anfossi, from Traetta to Leo, from Durante to Vaccaj. Most of them were not born in Naples or even in the nearby regions but all were raised in Neapolitan conservatories. In short, they are a very mixed bag where it is hard to identify a clear tendency, let alone a style. There are, however, two elements common to several 'Neapolitan' composers (but not all of them): the flair for opera comica, the grandfather of opera buffa and a more sober line than that of flowery baroque, dominating the musical scene in Venice and Rome. Although he was born in Jesi, Pergolesi died near Naples at the age of only twenty-six, and may be seen as the main expression of the 'School', especially because of the querelle des bouffons that exploded in France just before the Revolution when some of his works were staged in Paris. Yet in the five year project, not a single opera by Pergolesi was included (in spite of the celebrations in 2010 for the three hundred years since his birth), but emphasis was placed on Cimarosa, Paisiello, Jommelli and Mercadante.
Alongside Bellini (in my view a 'unique school on his own', ie a giant who did not belong to any specific school), Saverio Mercadante is often seen as the most significant representative of the Neapolitan School in characteristics evolved during the first half of the nineteenth century. He composed I due Figaro in 1826 for his debut in Madrid (not Naples) where he was music director of the royal opera house until 1831. Due to censorship problems, the first performance of the opera took place only in 1835. The score had been lost but was retrieved by mere chance, in the Madrid Teatro Real archives, by a PhD student two years ago. Saverio Mercadante was a prolific composer of operas as well as church music and was influential in his day for his 'reformed' operas of the 1840s. Reacting to excesses in both bel canto style and grand-opera effects, he purposely restrained himself from those tendencies to arrive at a more effective drama on stage. These reforms were critical for the kinds of operas Verdi pursued early in his career. Mercadante studied in Naples with Niccolò Zingarelli between 1816 and 1820. While some of his earliest music was for various instrumental ensembles, he began to compose operas around 1819. With an opera buffa in Rossini's style, Elisa e Claudio (1820), his seventh opera, Mercadante achieved notice in Italy. From 1825 to 1831, Mercadante lived in Spain and Portugal, where he continued to compose. With no long-term contracts emerging at the time, Mercadante returned to Italy. He served as maestro di cappella at the Cathedral in Novara from 1833 to 1840, and it was then that Mercadante reconsidered his approach to opera. His 'reformed' style begins with his most famous opera, Il Giuramento, occasionally revived in Italy. In this work he avoided any effects that did not serve the drama directly, and purposely varied the forms used in set pieces. This prevented his resorting to strings of da capo arias or diva-based scenes. Such self-imposed restrictions were part of Mercadante's style for the rest of his career.
In I due Figaro, the libretto continues the story about Figaro and Count Almaviva: Figaro has risen to become the actual lord of the palace and intends to arrange the marriage of the count's daughter to one of his mates so as to share the rich dowry with him. Yet Figaro has not taken account of Cherubino, who has meanwhile matured into a real hero, and who appears in the palace in disguise under the name of Figaro. The sparkling Barbiere di Siviglia, a comedy of the ancien régime, introduces Figaro as fixer and factotum to the dashing young Count Almaviva in his quest to snatch the orphaned heiress Rosina from the clutches of the guardian who keeps her under lock and key. Anticipating the French Revolution, the incendiary Le Nozze di Figaro depicts Figaro, now Almaviva's valet, dancing as fast as he can to keep his bride Susanna -- Countess Rosina's maid -- from the clutches of their master. All the while, the pageboy Cherubino keeps the household in a fever state, fluttering around every woman in sight. I Due Figaro picks up the Almaviva family saga a generation later. The Count is arranging a marriage for his daughter Inez who, unbeknown to him, has fallen in love with Cherubino, now a colonel in the Spanish military. In a brazen ploy to win her, Cherubino presents himself to the Count under the name Figaro, in a costume copied from Figaro's, supplanting Figaro in the Count's favor. In short, the bourgeoisie is taking over from the Ancien Régime.
The plot derives from Les Deux Figaro (1790), an unauthorized sequel to Le Nozze di Figaro by the actor-playwright Honoré-Antoine Richaud-Martelly, who had played Almaviva on stage, though not to Beaumarchais' satisfaction. The libretto, in elegant Italian, is by Felice Romani, Bellini's partner in La Sonnambula and Norma. A previous version had been composed by Michele Carafa and is available on a DVD edited by the small but important Bongiovanni music editions.
Beaumarchais is a clear heir of Molière, but he was also a clockmaker and inventor of genius -- his plots make the head spin -- also a feisty litigant, an arms trader, a music teacher to French princesses and a devoted ladies' man. His eventful personal life even inspired a play by Goethe (Clavigo), in which he appears under his own name. In the first two Figaro plays, Beaumarchais painted no fewer than three self-portraits. The nimble-witted Figaro and the adolescent skirt-chaser Cherubino bear nicknames from Beaumarchais' own boyhood: Figaro, his patronymic ('fils Caron', after his father André-Charles Caron), Chérubin, an allusion to his legendary erotic precocity. The increasingly willful and isolated Almaviva ('lively spirit') reflects the social aspirations of a commoner who, in his late 1820s (more than a decade before he wrote the plays), bought his way into the ruling class. As post-revolutionary France lurched from disaster to disaster, his outlook darkened. It was in this mood that Beaumarchais cranked out his third Figaro play, La Mère Coupable ('The Guilty Mother'), which opened in 1792, two years after Les Deux Figaro, on the eve of the Terror. From a single night's liaison with Cherubino twenty years before the curtain rises, the Countess -- the culpable mother of the title -- has borne a son. Now the Count is seeking proof for his long-festering suspicions. A mirror of bone-deep disillusionment, the play moves from dyspeptic cynicism to desperate, born-again euphoria that rings sentimental but totally false.
Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna. Click on the image for higher resolution
In Mercadante's opera, like in Rossini's (but unlike Mozart's), Almaviva is a coloratura tenor whose fancywork presupposes the high-wire artistry of a Juan Diego Flórez. Lacy embellishments on the long-spun soprano lines for the Countess recall the Bellini phrases Maria Callas exulted in at the peak of her powers. Cherubino's mezzo-soprano/alto pyrotechnics might have been made to order for Cecilia Bartoli.
As well as for the other 'Neapolitan School' operas, for this modern-day premiere, Muti is working with youngsters: the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini in the pit and handpicked newcomers (from a variety of schools of music) in the leading roles. In addition, the Spanish director Emilio Sagi gives the show an authentically Spanish flavor. 'The characters are very Spanish, as I can say, knowing very well the character of the people of my country. They have so much life. There are so many imbroglios. But what surprises me most of all is the real Spanish air and the Spanish perfume Mercadante brought into the score with the boleros and fandangos and tiranas and cachuchas he knew from living in Spain'.
Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna. Click on the image for higher resolution
Dramatically Sagi is intrigued by the supporting character of a playwright, Plagio -- as in plagiarism? -- who hangs around Figaro in hopes of pointers for a comedy he is writing. (The opera's subtitle is Il Soggetto d'una Commedia, or 'The Subject for a Comedy'.) 'He's like someone in Pirandello', Sagi says. 'Figaro is trying to invent a plot for him, but Figaro has no real imagination. It's real life that has the poetry and the creativity to make a comedy. It's life that is the real poet.'
I Due Figaro ends in the spirit of the world Beaumarchais has long known and loved, on a note of all-around forgiveness -- however temporary -- for one mad day's follies and betrayals, whether real or imaginary. From such a premise, a composer of genius ought to be able to spin lasting magic.
Rosa Feola as Inez and Annalisa Stroppa as Cherubino in Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
The visual part of the production is a joy for the eyes: a single set by Daniel Bianco is used for the various rooms and gardens of Almaviva Castle. The flashy costumes are designed by Jesus Ruiz. It reminds older audience members of the beautiful set for the third act of Luchino Visconti's Le Nozze di Figaro as produced in the 1970s, and revived in the 1990s, in Rome. Within this elegant neo-classical structure, the eight characters, the chorus and the extras move the action swiftly, in spite of the opera's length (three and a half hours with an intermission). The singers are all young and well-trained in acting.
From left to right: Mario Cassi as Figaro, Omar Montanari as Plagio and Ancio Zorzi Giustiniani as Torribio in Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
The orchestra is young too: the Muti-created Orchestra Giovanile Cherubini. The chorus is the well-seasoned Philarmonia Chorus Vienna. From the overture, where Spanish elements (bolero, fandango) are intertwined with the main theme of the opera, we sense Mercadante's care for harmonic elegance and precision. Muti conducts the orchestra with a delicate baton; we feel how this work of Mercadante has metabolized Mozart's lessons and has many points in common with Donizetti 'opera semi-serie'. In short, the score is sparkling but also full of melancholy.
A scene from Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
Among the singers, the group of women (Rosa Feola, Asude Karayavuz, Eleonora Buratto and, especially, Annalisa Stroppa) is an inch above that of the men (Antonio Poli, Mario Cassi, Anicio Giorgio Giustiniani, Omar Montanari). On average they are young and hand-picked by Muti for this production. As an old TV series says: they will be famous. In particular, Annalisa Stroppa, an impressive coloratura alto, and Antonio Poli, a highly articulate lyric tenor. The Teatro Alighieri is comparatively small (nine hundred seats) and has a very good acoustic. Thus, nobody had to force his or her voice.
Mario Cassi as Figaro and Eleonora Buratto as Susanna in Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
There were accolades and standing ovations at the curtains calls.
Copyright © 26 June 2011 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy
RAVENNA
ITALY
RICCARDO MUTI
<< M&V home Concert reviews Stephen Hough >>
Lasting Magic
GIUSEPPE PENNISI was at the
Italian premiere in Ravenna of
Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'
With Saverio Mercadante's I Due Figaro, a five year project has been completed. Under Riccardo Muti's guidance and artistic direction, jointly carried out by the Salzburg Whitsun Festival and the Ravenna Festival, the project focused on the revival of operas by the 'Neapolitan School'. The five operas presented -- one each year -- in Salzburg and Ravenna (as well as touring to many other theatres) are, by and large, works that had disappeared from regular programming around the 1840s; their common matrix is that they were composed by Neapolitan-trained musicians or had their most important successes and influence in Naples.
The opera is scheduled for several performances at the Teatro Real of Madrid (which is coproducing it) and may be toured in Italy and Spain. Before reviewing the performance, as seen in Ravenna at the Italian première on 24 June 2011, a few words must be said about the 'Neapolitan School' and Saverio Mercadante.
Even though Riccardo Muti is a strong supporter of the School, of its identity and of its merits, I tend to agree with the late musicologist Francesco Degrada; in a scholarly essay of the late 1970s, he demolished the concept of the very existence of a 'Neapolitan School' by documenting that Naples was indeed a major capital of opera creation and development at least for two centuries but differences of style were such that any 'Neapolitan School' would have been extremely eclectic. The supporters of the existence of the 'school' include, under the same label, composers from Cimarosa to Rossini, from Scarlatti to Pergolesi, from Jommelli to Provenzale, from Vici to Anfossi, from Traetta to Leo, from Durante to Vaccaj. Most of them were not born in Naples or even in the nearby regions but all were raised in Neapolitan conservatories. In short, they are a very mixed bag where it is hard to identify a clear tendency, let alone a style. There are, however, two elements common to several 'Neapolitan' composers (but not all of them): the flair for opera comica, the grandfather of opera buffa and a more sober line than that of flowery baroque, dominating the musical scene in Venice and Rome. Although he was born in Jesi, Pergolesi died near Naples at the age of only twenty-six, and may be seen as the main expression of the 'School', especially because of the querelle des bouffons that exploded in France just before the Revolution when some of his works were staged in Paris. Yet in the five year project, not a single opera by Pergolesi was included (in spite of the celebrations in 2010 for the three hundred years since his birth), but emphasis was placed on Cimarosa, Paisiello, Jommelli and Mercadante.
Alongside Bellini (in my view a 'unique school on his own', ie a giant who did not belong to any specific school), Saverio Mercadante is often seen as the most significant representative of the Neapolitan School in characteristics evolved during the first half of the nineteenth century. He composed I due Figaro in 1826 for his debut in Madrid (not Naples) where he was music director of the royal opera house until 1831. Due to censorship problems, the first performance of the opera took place only in 1835. The score had been lost but was retrieved by mere chance, in the Madrid Teatro Real archives, by a PhD student two years ago. Saverio Mercadante was a prolific composer of operas as well as church music and was influential in his day for his 'reformed' operas of the 1840s. Reacting to excesses in both bel canto style and grand-opera effects, he purposely restrained himself from those tendencies to arrive at a more effective drama on stage. These reforms were critical for the kinds of operas Verdi pursued early in his career. Mercadante studied in Naples with Niccolò Zingarelli between 1816 and 1820. While some of his earliest music was for various instrumental ensembles, he began to compose operas around 1819. With an opera buffa in Rossini's style, Elisa e Claudio (1820), his seventh opera, Mercadante achieved notice in Italy. From 1825 to 1831, Mercadante lived in Spain and Portugal, where he continued to compose. With no long-term contracts emerging at the time, Mercadante returned to Italy. He served as maestro di cappella at the Cathedral in Novara from 1833 to 1840, and it was then that Mercadante reconsidered his approach to opera. His 'reformed' style begins with his most famous opera, Il Giuramento, occasionally revived in Italy. In this work he avoided any effects that did not serve the drama directly, and purposely varied the forms used in set pieces. This prevented his resorting to strings of da capo arias or diva-based scenes. Such self-imposed restrictions were part of Mercadante's style for the rest of his career.
In I due Figaro, the libretto continues the story about Figaro and Count Almaviva: Figaro has risen to become the actual lord of the palace and intends to arrange the marriage of the count's daughter to one of his mates so as to share the rich dowry with him. Yet Figaro has not taken account of Cherubino, who has meanwhile matured into a real hero, and who appears in the palace in disguise under the name of Figaro. The sparkling Barbiere di Siviglia, a comedy of the ancien régime, introduces Figaro as fixer and factotum to the dashing young Count Almaviva in his quest to snatch the orphaned heiress Rosina from the clutches of the guardian who keeps her under lock and key. Anticipating the French Revolution, the incendiary Le Nozze di Figaro depicts Figaro, now Almaviva's valet, dancing as fast as he can to keep his bride Susanna -- Countess Rosina's maid -- from the clutches of their master. All the while, the pageboy Cherubino keeps the household in a fever state, fluttering around every woman in sight. I Due Figaro picks up the Almaviva family saga a generation later. The Count is arranging a marriage for his daughter Inez who, unbeknown to him, has fallen in love with Cherubino, now a colonel in the Spanish military. In a brazen ploy to win her, Cherubino presents himself to the Count under the name Figaro, in a costume copied from Figaro's, supplanting Figaro in the Count's favor. In short, the bourgeoisie is taking over from the Ancien Régime.
The plot derives from Les Deux Figaro (1790), an unauthorized sequel to Le Nozze di Figaro by the actor-playwright Honoré-Antoine Richaud-Martelly, who had played Almaviva on stage, though not to Beaumarchais' satisfaction. The libretto, in elegant Italian, is by Felice Romani, Bellini's partner in La Sonnambula and Norma. A previous version had been composed by Michele Carafa and is available on a DVD edited by the small but important Bongiovanni music editions.
Beaumarchais is a clear heir of Molière, but he was also a clockmaker and inventor of genius -- his plots make the head spin -- also a feisty litigant, an arms trader, a music teacher to French princesses and a devoted ladies' man. His eventful personal life even inspired a play by Goethe (Clavigo), in which he appears under his own name. In the first two Figaro plays, Beaumarchais painted no fewer than three self-portraits. The nimble-witted Figaro and the adolescent skirt-chaser Cherubino bear nicknames from Beaumarchais' own boyhood: Figaro, his patronymic ('fils Caron', after his father André-Charles Caron), Chérubin, an allusion to his legendary erotic precocity. The increasingly willful and isolated Almaviva ('lively spirit') reflects the social aspirations of a commoner who, in his late 1820s (more than a decade before he wrote the plays), bought his way into the ruling class. As post-revolutionary France lurched from disaster to disaster, his outlook darkened. It was in this mood that Beaumarchais cranked out his third Figaro play, La Mère Coupable ('The Guilty Mother'), which opened in 1792, two years after Les Deux Figaro, on the eve of the Terror. From a single night's liaison with Cherubino twenty years before the curtain rises, the Countess -- the culpable mother of the title -- has borne a son. Now the Count is seeking proof for his long-festering suspicions. A mirror of bone-deep disillusionment, the play moves from dyspeptic cynicism to desperate, born-again euphoria that rings sentimental but totally false.
Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna. Click on the image for higher resolution
In Mercadante's opera, like in Rossini's (but unlike Mozart's), Almaviva is a coloratura tenor whose fancywork presupposes the high-wire artistry of a Juan Diego Flórez. Lacy embellishments on the long-spun soprano lines for the Countess recall the Bellini phrases Maria Callas exulted in at the peak of her powers. Cherubino's mezzo-soprano/alto pyrotechnics might have been made to order for Cecilia Bartoli.
As well as for the other 'Neapolitan School' operas, for this modern-day premiere, Muti is working with youngsters: the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini in the pit and handpicked newcomers (from a variety of schools of music) in the leading roles. In addition, the Spanish director Emilio Sagi gives the show an authentically Spanish flavor. 'The characters are very Spanish, as I can say, knowing very well the character of the people of my country. They have so much life. There are so many imbroglios. But what surprises me most of all is the real Spanish air and the Spanish perfume Mercadante brought into the score with the boleros and fandangos and tiranas and cachuchas he knew from living in Spain'.
Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna. Click on the image for higher resolution
Dramatically Sagi is intrigued by the supporting character of a playwright, Plagio -- as in plagiarism? -- who hangs around Figaro in hopes of pointers for a comedy he is writing. (The opera's subtitle is Il Soggetto d'una Commedia, or 'The Subject for a Comedy'.) 'He's like someone in Pirandello', Sagi says. 'Figaro is trying to invent a plot for him, but Figaro has no real imagination. It's real life that has the poetry and the creativity to make a comedy. It's life that is the real poet.'
I Due Figaro ends in the spirit of the world Beaumarchais has long known and loved, on a note of all-around forgiveness -- however temporary -- for one mad day's follies and betrayals, whether real or imaginary. From such a premise, a composer of genius ought to be able to spin lasting magic.
Rosa Feola as Inez and Annalisa Stroppa as Cherubino in Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
The visual part of the production is a joy for the eyes: a single set by Daniel Bianco is used for the various rooms and gardens of Almaviva Castle. The flashy costumes are designed by Jesus Ruiz. It reminds older audience members of the beautiful set for the third act of Luchino Visconti's Le Nozze di Figaro as produced in the 1970s, and revived in the 1990s, in Rome. Within this elegant neo-classical structure, the eight characters, the chorus and the extras move the action swiftly, in spite of the opera's length (three and a half hours with an intermission). The singers are all young and well-trained in acting.
From left to right: Mario Cassi as Figaro, Omar Montanari as Plagio and Ancio Zorzi Giustiniani as Torribio in Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
The orchestra is young too: the Muti-created Orchestra Giovanile Cherubini. The chorus is the well-seasoned Philarmonia Chorus Vienna. From the overture, where Spanish elements (bolero, fandango) are intertwined with the main theme of the opera, we sense Mercadante's care for harmonic elegance and precision. Muti conducts the orchestra with a delicate baton; we feel how this work of Mercadante has metabolized Mozart's lessons and has many points in common with Donizetti 'opera semi-serie'. In short, the score is sparkling but also full of melancholy.
A scene from Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
Among the singers, the group of women (Rosa Feola, Asude Karayavuz, Eleonora Buratto and, especially, Annalisa Stroppa) is an inch above that of the men (Antonio Poli, Mario Cassi, Anicio Giorgio Giustiniani, Omar Montanari). On average they are young and hand-picked by Muti for this production. As an old TV series says: they will be famous. In particular, Annalisa Stroppa, an impressive coloratura alto, and Antonio Poli, a highly articulate lyric tenor. The Teatro Alighieri is comparatively small (nine hundred seats) and has a very good acoustic. Thus, nobody had to force his or her voice.
Mario Cassi as Figaro and Eleonora Buratto as Susanna in Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
There were accolades and standing ovations at the curtains calls.
Copyright © 26 June 2011 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy
RAVENNA
ITALY
RICCARDO MUTI
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