Dramatic Effect in Music and Vision 16 June

Dramatic Effect Purcell's 'Dido and Aeneas' in the Roman Gym impresses GIUSEPPE PENNISI Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas is quintessential British music; written and composed for a young ladies' 'finishing school' and premiered in or around 1689, the short opera (around sixty minutes) has rightly been considered for centuries as the 'masterpiece' of British Baroque. Thus, it was quite a surprise when it was announced that this year the Caracalla Festival -- ie the Summer Season of Rome's Teatro dell'Opera -- will start with Dido and Aeneas rather than with a nationally-popular war horse like Aida, Nabucco or Turandot. Well, next to the two-thousand-seat main auditorium in the central part of the Baths of Caracalla ruins, there is the Eastern Gymnasium -- not a small place (roughly 80 by 30 metres) but fully walled and thus with a good acoustic. The orchestra is on the left side of the gym, the stage in the center and an arch opens to a long and large concourse of what used to be Roman baths. Just an enthralling place to be at dusk and in the night. It would be worth the ticket price (30 euros) even without the opera. Regretfully, this production of Dido and Aeneas had only four performances, including on 14 June 2013, on which this review is based. In my view, it should be performed three days a week during the whole of July for the delight of those visiting Rome. An agreement with tour operators might help. 'Destruction's our delight' - Eleonora de la Pena, Alda Caiello and Benedetta Mazzuccato as the three witches in Teatro dell'Opera di Roma's production of Purcell's 'Dido and Aeneas'. © 2013 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution Most of our readers are well familiar with Dido and Aeneas. The stage direction of Chiara Muti, the simple props and sets by Mario Torre and the rich costumes by Alessandro Lai reproduce a Baroque staging; during the orchestral introduction, men and women with elaborate wigs and classy white seventeenth century attire enter the area, argue for the best seats and join the action in certain key moments. Also, Chiara Muti transmits Purcell's sense of dramatic effect and the savory mixture of comedy (the witches) and tragedy (Dido's unlucky love for Aeneas and her suicide). A small ensemble conducted by Jonathan Web with instruments as much as possible similar to 'period pieces' does its very best to reproduce the seventeenth century sound. In a place so different to a British finishing school's parlor some three centuries ago, I would gladly settle for less philology and more vibrato. In the foreground, Serena Malfi as Dido and Jacques Imbrallo as Aeneas; behind, Kiandra Howarth as Belinda, Filippo Chierici as Ascanio and Laura Catrani as a woman, in Teatro dell'Opera di Roma's 'Dido and Aeneas'. © 2013 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution Musicologists argue whether the role of Aeneas was written for a male voice (a baritone -- perhaps a priest at the finishing school) or a soprano. The practice is to entrust it to an 'agility baritone'. Jacques Imbrallo -- well known in Britten's Billy Budd and recently in several Italian theatres for The Rape of Lucretia -- was just a perfect Aeneas: spotless diction, very warm and sensual voice. His Dido was a dramatic Serena Melfi, who excelled in her final aria but with an English diction difficult to grasp. All the others were quite good, even though singing in English is not an easy task for Italians. Copyright © 16 June 2013 Giuseppe Pennisi, Rome, Italy HENRY PURCELL DIDO AND AENEAS ENGLAND TEATRO DELL'OPERA ROME ITALY  << M&V home       Concert reviews        Un Ballo in Maschera >>