Gassmann: L'Opera seria
Libretto by Ranieri de
Calzabigi
Mario Zeffiri (tenor) - Ritornello, primo uomo
Jeremy Ovenden (tenor) - Sospiro, composer
Klaus Häger (bass) -
Delirio, poet
Pietro Spagnoli (baritone) - Fallito, impresario
Riccardo
Novaro (baritone) - Passagallo, dance master
Alexandrina Pendatchanski
(soprano) - Stonatrilla, prima donna
Miah Persson (soprano) -
Smorfiosa, seconda donna
Janet Williams (soprano) - Porporino,
secondo uomo
Dominique Visse (countertenor) - Befana, mother of
Smorfiosa
Stephen Wallace (bass) - Caverna, mother of Stonatrilla
Curtis
Rayam (tenor) - Bragherona, mother of Porporina
Concerto Köln
René
Jacobs (conductor)
Jean-Louis Martinoty (director)
Friday, March 28,
2003
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris
A coproduction with
the Berlin Staatsoper and the Schwetzingen Festival
Imagine the irreverence of the Marx Brothers' A Night at the
Opera, mixed with the backstage shenanigans of the Prologue to Richard
Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos and the witty parodies of Baroque style composed
by Peter Schickele's alter ego P.D.Q. Bach and you will have some idea of
the flavor of Florian Leopold Gassmann's L'Opera seria. The work offers
the audience a hilarious insider view of the rehearsal, production and
subsequent failure of a pompous opera seria called Oranzeb.
This
co-production made its debut at the Schwetzingen Festival in 1994 and then
appeared at the Innsbruck Festwochen in 1997 and at the Berlin Staatsoper during
the 1997–98 season. At long last it has arrived in Paris and it is very welcome
indeed.
Heretofore Gassmann (1729–1774) has been known in music history footnotes as the composer who recognized the potential of 15-year-old Antonio Salieri (who became his protégé and succeeded him as Court Composer in Vienna). The composer of 21 operas, Gassmann was already famous throughout Europe when he teamed up with the noted librettist and bon vivant Ranieri de Calzabigi for this opera, which premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna in 1769. Calzabigi had already written the librettos for Gluck's Alceste and Orfeo ed Euridice and was later to run a Parisian gaming establishment as a partner of the notorious Casanova under the protection of Madame de Pompadour. His deliciously satiric take on the follies involved in presenting grand opera reveals that he knew the business well.
The first act opens with the composer (Sospiro) and the writer (Delirio) congratulating each other on their new opera. Their conversation soon dissolves into a shouting match which is interrupted by the arrival of the impresario (Fallito) who immediately talks of "necessary" cuts. They all rush off, arguing. The arrival of the prima donna (Stonatrilla) finds the stage empty and she is not amused: "Where are the porters? Where are the lackeys?" she querulously demands. Soon the stage is full with the two other sopranos and their respective — and combative — mothers: Befana (countertenor), Caverna (bass) and Bragherona (tenor). With the arrival of auditioning dancers, the costumer and the posturing, preening (and oddly randy) castrato Ritornello, the cast of characters is complete and the noise level rarely dips below forte.
The second act is the rehearsal for the opera, Oranzeb (about an emperor of India). An aria sung by Porporino which includes dolphins and tuna in the lyrics sets the others to helpless giggling; the other arias are found to be either boring or mannered. An overture begins Act Three, which depicts the actual performance, and is written with tongue-in-cheek frivolity, including a grotesque fugue. The curtain rises on rows of cardboard cutout elephants, a triumphal march with four supernumeraries running in circles and a hand-held smoke machine making oddly-timed offstage puffs. Cast members in the hall soon began shouting insults and the performance deteriorates into mayhem until the curtain is dropped. The final scene is dominated by the trio of mothers, who soon find that Fallito the impresario has absconded with the box office receipts, leading to a finale denouncing all impresarios.
This is an evening of light-headed, fast-paced, non-stop fun. The young and talented cast were clearly enjoying themselves and their carefully wrought ensemble performance was opera at its best. The three sopranos were equally adept at tossing off coloratura lines and giving authentic shape to the neurotic characters they portrayed. As good as everyone was, special recognition must go to Miah Persson, particularly stylish as the hypochondriac Smorfiosa, and Mario Zeffiri, who handled the vocally challenging role of Ritornello with unfailing élan.
Stage director Jean-Louis Martinoty knows the opera world very well himself: general director of the Paris Opéra (1986–89) and author of two books on Baroque opera, he has worked in the past with such notables as William Christie in bringing 17th- and 18th-century repertory to the stage. The Belgian countertenor-turned-conductor René Jacobs has performed and recorded with the period-instrument orchestra Concerto Köln for a dozen years and his rapport with them is obvious; he also knows to pace and shape a performance to perfection and makes this score sparkle.
Last year Jacobs and Martinoty won the French music critics' top prize for
their production of Le nozze di Figaro at this same theater; they're
doubtless in the running for the same award again this year for this production.
It is a real pity that this project was not filmed: while the score is
substantial, well crafted and full of wit, it should really be experienced with
the clever theatrics onstage. Here, more than usual, words and music are
inextricably bound together into an entertaining whole. In the meantime, at
least, the radio network France-Musiques will broadcast L'Opera seria on Saturday
14 June 7:30 p.m. Central European Time (1:30 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time); it
can be heard via FM radio, satellite or the Internet.
