Musikfestspiele
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Veranstaltungen & Kritiken Musikfestspiele |
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Excellent Young Singers in unknown Handel operaVon Charles Jernigan / Fotos: © Birgit Gufler / Innsbrucker Festwochen
Arianna (Arianna in Creta) is the 32nd of Handel's 49 operas; it
premiered on 26 January, 1734, in the middle of one of the most fertile periods
in his operatic career, having been preceded by Orlando in
January, 1733, and followed in 1735 by Ariodante and Alcina. It
also came at a crucial time for Handel as a composer and impresario in London.
The Royal Academy of Music, which had been presenting Handel operas for some
years, fell apart after Orlando, mostly due to financial
problems, and Handel parted ways with many of the singers who had been part of
his company, including the castrato Senesino, his brightest star. Handel worked
to put together a new company, but at the same time a rival company, the
"Opera of the Nobility," was formed, and it hired away Senesino and
others who had worked with Handel. The new company mounted Nicola Porpora's
opera Arianna in Nasso in January, 1733, with Senesino and
Farinelli, another of the most famous castrati of the era. Handel, perhaps as a
direct challenge to the new company, hired new singers and decided on a subject
which also used the myth cycle involving Ariadne as its basis. An existing
libretto by Pietro Pariati was revised for the purpose; the Pariati libretto
had already been set many times, including by Porpora. Handel's singers
included two holdovers who had not deserted him, the soprano Anna Maria Strada
as Arianna and the contralto Margherita Durasanti as Tauride. Teseo was the
castrato Giovanni Carestini, whom Handel had discovered in Italy. Other cast
members included contralto Maria Caterina Negri as Carilda, the castrato Carlo
Scalzi as Alceste and bass Gustavus Waltz as Minos. The new opera was enough of
a success at the King's Theatre in Haymarket to be revived the following
November at Covent Garden with some changes and new dances.
Teseo (Andrea Gavagnin) and Arianna ( Neima Fischer)
The plot is based on the myths surrounding
Ariadne, specifically the part where she helps her lover Theseus find his way
through the Labyrinth which Minos, King of Crete, has had constructed, and kill
the Minotaur who lives within it. Before the opera starts the Cretans and the
Athenians have warred and Minos' infant daughter Arianna has been captured and
raised by a royal ally of the Athenians. Neither Minos nor Arianna know of her
true parentage, although Teseo (Theseus) does. Eventually the Athenians
are defeated and Arianna (Ariadne) is sent to Crete as a hostage. Minos, as a
condition of the peace, demands a tribute every seven years of seven Athenian
youths and seven virgins, who are to be sent to Crete and sacrificed to the
Minotaur. The human sacrifice will continue until an Athenian hero arrives,
slays the Minotaur and defeats the Cretan general Tauride, who secretly wears a
magic belt which gives him super-human strength. As the opera opens, Teseo
arrives in Crete along with the human sacrificial tribute to accompany Arianna
home; among the Minotaur's victims is Carilda, a beautiful young woman who is a
friend of Arianna.
Tauride (Mathilde Ortscheidt) loves Carilda
(Ester Ferraro).
General Tauride falls in love with Carilda at
first sight, and she is also beloved by Alceste, an Athenian youth who has
rushed to Crete on learning that she is to be sacrificed. Unfortunately,
Carilda is infatuated with Teseo, but he has eyes only for Arianna. Thus the
libretto adds the conflicts arising from jealousy and unrequited love, so
typical of baroque opera, to the ancient Greek myth. And so, through many
complications, Arianna becomes convinced that Teseo has spurned her for
Carilda, primarily because he vows to slay the Minotaur and save her from the
monster. As Carilda prepares to enter the Labyrinth, Tauride tries to convince
her to run away with him, but she disdainfully refuses. Alceste, however, in
the most beautiful aria in the opera, convinces her to flee with him. Minos,
furious, declares that Arianna shall be substituted as the victim, but in the
end, Teseo is successful in killing the monster and saving her. She has
overheard Tauride and Minos discussing how Teseo can win: he will have to slit
the Minotaur's throat and find his way out of the Labyrinth by using a ball of
twine; then he will have to defeat Tauride, whose strength comes from his belt.
Arianna, in spite of thinking that Teseo doesn't love her, tells him what she
has heard. Teseo slays the monster, and emerging from the Labyrinth, rips the
belt off Tauride and defeats him easily. Minos is placated and grants him
Arianna's hand so long as her father approves; he and Arianna are both shocked
to learn that Minos is her father. All ends with double
vows as Carilda has now accepted Alceste.
Modern revivals of the opera include
performances at London's Handel Festival in 2014 and Halle's Handel Festival in
2018. The Innsbruck production was performed in the recently built Kammerspiele
theater, a "black box" with wonderful acoustics which enhanced the
crisp, fresh sound of the orchestra and the singers.
Alceste (Josipa Bilić) wants to
support Teseo (Andrea Gavagnin).
The opera contains some of Handel's most
spectacular and beautiful music. He undoubtedly wanted to exhibit the skill and
technique of his new castrato superstar, Carestini, and Carestini's first aria,
"Nel pugnar col mostro infido," contains impossibly difficult runs
and ornaments, and two of his subsequent arias are equally virtuosic and
exciting, such as his aria coming as he readies to fight the Minotaur,
"Qui ti sfido, o mostro infame!" Teseo has other sides too, as
evidenced in his two loving duets with Arianna, and his dream sequence at the
start of Act 2, a dramatic accompagnato when he foresees his
importance as a hero for his people. He is most lyrical perhaps in his final
aria with chorus, "Bella sorge la speranza," a catchy melody to match
the happy ending. In our production, the Italian countertenor Andrea Gavagnin
managed to cover himself with glory on all fronts, essaying the difficult
ornaments and embellishments with a firm, strong voice and surprisingly well
developed technique for one so young.
Arianna is a thankless role in some ways even
though she is the title figure in the opera. Her unfounded jealousy makes for
needless complications, and one can see why Theseus sheds her for her sister
Phaedra in later developments of the myth which are not a part of the opera,
leading to her abandonment on Naxos (the subject of many another baroque opera
and of course Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos. German soprano Neima
Fischer brought her limpid, lovely voice, replete with powerful high notes to
Arianna's many laments. Some of her improvisations and embellishments did not
seem very Handelian to me, but she was easily up to the task.
Alceste has some of the best music in the
opera, the lovely, lyrical "Tal'or d'oscuro velo," which follows
Teseo's showpiece first aria, but especially the beautiful aria with cello
obligato "Son quel stanco pellegrino," perhaps the highlight of the
whole score, sung as he convinces Carilda to flee with him. In 1743 Alceste was
sung by a castrato, Carlo Scalzi; in 2024 he was sung in sympathetic and
thoroughly convincing fashion by soprano Josipa Bilić. All of the other
singers were equally fine. Contralto Mathilde Ortscheidt (First place winner of
the 2023 Cesti Competition) made the unsympathetic character of Tauride
important because of her vocal excellence. Originally a "pants role"
(sung by Margherita Durasanti), Ortscheidt was convincing in "In mar
tempestoso," her simile aria, and elsewhere. Ester Ferraro as Carilda and
Giacomo Nanni as King Minos rounded out a remarkable cast. There was not a weak
link.
All of the singers were participants in the
Cesti Competition, which the Innsbruck Festival runs every year for young
singers. All hold great promise. In past years the singers in the operas staged
by Barockoper: Jung have exhibited varying levels of competence, just as one
would expect with singers emerging from their student years. Not in 2024: every
one of these artists distinguished themselves as if already seasoned
professionals, giving remarkable performances.
Teseo (Andrea Gavagnin) is ready to fight against
the Minotaur.
The Barockorchester: Jung distinguished itself
too, under the leadership of Angelo Michele Errico. Their reading of the score
was exciting and full of variety, as this music allows much latitude to the
interpreters. The stage direction (regie) was overseen by Englishman
Stephen Taylor while sets and lighting were by Christian Pinaud, with costumes
by Nathalie Prats. The production was set in some modern police state where the
victims are to be sacrificed to the monster. The stage set opened in a
non-descript room, perhaps for new arrivals, adjacent to a prison for those
waiting to be sent into the Labyrinth. The walls revolved on a turntable and
separated, making different acting spaces and eventually forming the Labyrinth
itself. It was simple, but effective. The men wore semi-military clothing and
the monster's victims wore white. There was a Minotaur (non singing role), a
man wearing a bull's head.
Stage Director Taylor kept the focus on the singers,
where it should be, while at the same time subtle but constant movement kept
the staging from ever being static; the production also helped clarify what
could be a confusing story. In other words, the direction followed the
libretto's story without directorial intrusions. There was a little humor at
the end when Teseo, the Minotaur-slayer, is dressed in a Matador's jacket and
given a red cape as he sings his final joyous aria, and perhaps in his battle
with the Minotaur, but the opera and its story were taken seriously for the
most part, which the music demands. The staging was never in conflict with the
music or the text. Handel ends his opera at a happy and triumphant moment in
Arianna and Teseo's lives. Those of us who know our Greek mythology know what
is coming for Arianna and Teseo (and Phaedra and Theseus's son Hippolytus); but
for now "Bella sorge la speranza" ("Beautiful hope floods our
breasts").
FAZIT
Barockoper: Jung, the Cesti Competition winners'
annual opera production, was the best this year of several I have seen in the
last decade. All of the singers were excellent and the production focused
attention where it should be while moving the story along clearly. The whole
cast and production team did real justice to one of Handel's best operas.
Weitere Rezensionen zu den
Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik 2024 |
ProduktionsteamMusikalische Leitung und CembaloAngelo Michele Errico Regie Bühnenbild und Licht Kostüme
Solistinnen und Solisten
Arianna
Teseo Carilda Alceste Tauride Minos / Sonno
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