Isabella Colbran |
Rossini clearly thought highly of
Maometto II, unsuccessful at
its premiere in Naples in 1820, he altered the piece and presented it
in Venice, still to no great effect with the public. Finally he
re-worked it entirely for Paris as Le Siege de Corinthe.
Performances in the present day
are still relatively rare and Santa Fe's new production of the opera,
which unveiled a new critical edition, was a welcome opportunity to
assess the piece on stage. The piece was written quite late in
Rossini's Neapolitan career and the piece incorporates various
structural innovations which perhaps did not appeal to the Neapolitan
public.
In fact Rossini
seems to have deliberately been sparing with his use of cabalettas in
the opera. The opening of the opera is similarly innovative in that
Rossini's terzettone, which lasts 25 minutes, was deliberately
written to be continuous with no opportunity for the audience to
applaud, despite two of the characters leaving the stage at one
point. All this creates a brilliant dramatic tension which is only
released when Maometto finally appears and sings his bravura opening
aria.
The
title role was written for Filippo Galli who had sung the bass roles
in the premieres of L'Italiana in Algeri and
Il Turco in Italia. It
is a brilliant part, far more sympathetic than the dramatic build in
the opera would lead us to believe. And Maometto is in many the ways
the most fully rounded of the operas characters.
The work needs four
gifted Rossini singers and Santa Fe had assembled a very fine team
indeed. (We saw the penultimate performance on 7 August). Luca
Pisaroni sang Mametto with Leah Crocetto as Anna, Bruce Sledge as
Erisso and Patricia Bardon as Calbo.
Pisaroni was
stupendous, dazzling in his coloratura, full of bravura without
bluster. The notes were not just there for display, and Pisaroni
impressively coloured and shaped the elaborate vocal lines. He cut an
striking figure on stage, Santa Fe were lucky to find someone who not
only could sing the part, but who looked it as well. Pisaroni was a
believable general and a highly romantic figure. The role is, to a
certain extent, conflicted because we never see him and Anna falling
in love.
In the Colbran role
of Anna, Leah Crocetto was immediately appealing and sympathetic. She
showed great facility with the fioriture and impressively rose to the
challenge of Anna's long final scene, developing into a strong tragic
figure. Crocetto has a warm, rich voice which she moves admirably,
reminding us that Colbran was no canary, but had a fiery temperament.
Whilst Crocetto engaged our sympathies, I could have wished that she
had brought a little more dramatic temperament to the role, there
were times when she seemed just a little to equable. But this is
nit-picking, bearing in mind her considerable achievement in such a
demanding role.
Bruce Sledge was
also the subject of Rossini's experimentation, with the lead tenor
role being allocated to Anna's father Erisso. Sledge, who sings
Leicester in Welsh National Opera's forthcoming Maria Stuarda,
has a fine, evenly produced voice on the dramatic side of lyric. This
is entirely appropriate for Erisso, as the role was written for
Andrea Notari who had created the title role in Rossini's Otello.
Both Sledge and Patricia Bardon (as Colba) suffered from the work's
slightly odd dramaturgy. We never see Erisso in battle in Act 2, and
the dramatic events are subsidiary to the personal journey which Anna
has to make. Erisso is hardly a fully rounded dramatic figure and his
final act is to marry Anna and Colba before disappearing off to
battle. Having set up the siege of Negroponte, Rossini and his
librettist seem to lose interest in it.
Sledge made best
use of what Rossin gave him and was particularly notable in the long
opening scene, which sets the piece's dramatic tone.
Calbo is probably
the oddest role of the lot. In love with Anna, but denied her because
Anna announces that she is in love with the mysterious Umberto
(actually the disguised Maometto), Calbo participates in the drama
but is never quite part of it. Until in the middle of act 2, when
Calbo gets a stupendous aria in which she rouses Erisso in support of
his daughter (whom Erisso suspects has gone off willingly with
Maometto). The role has a wide tessitura with some quite dramatic
leaps, Rossini seems to have been deliberately characterising Calbo
as a vigorous and dramatic young man. Patricia Bardon made light of
the vocal part's outrageous demands and combined the demeanour of a
heroic young man with some fine singing indeed.
In the two smaller
roles of Condulmiero and Selimo, Matthew Newlin and Michael Dailey
provided good support.
Dramatically the
opera is a bit of a mess, Rossini seems to have been more interested
in the dramatic situations than in worrying about coherence. With the
musical structure built on a large scale, it is difficult to avoid
the feeling that there is not quite enough plot to go round.
Director David
Alden and his designer, Jon Morrell set the piece in 1820 at the time
of the work's creation. The basic set was a neoclassical colonnade
which did flexible service for a variety of uses. Morrell's
attractive costumes did not shy away from making Maometto and his
forces look muslim but the historical setting gave added perspective
and glamour. The piece has enough contemporary relevance that you
could imagine a modern setting working and in fact the modern
political perspective might give the dramaturgy of the second act
some welcome impetus.
Alden seems to have
deliberately eschewed any modern political point making; in fact, for
people familiar with Alden's work in the UK, this production seemed
entirely lacking the edge and dramatic urgency for which he is well
known. Most effort seems to have been concentrated on Maometto's big
scenes which were choreographed by Peggy Hickey and turned into vivid
spectaculars. Both Maometto's entrance (through a hole knocked into
the wall of a set) and his final exit to battle (in golden armour
mounted in a chariot) were stunningly spectacular.
But apart from
this, Alden seems to have been content to just move people around in
attractive stage pictures. I think that Crocetto particularly could
have benefited from work to create a stronger and more dramatically
intense conclusion to the opera.
The chorus were on
good form and the men in particular benefited from the lively staging
of Maometto's scenes.
Conductor Frederic
Chaslin was immensely sympathetic to the singers, conducting a
flexible and gently paced account of the score. I am not certain that
everything he did was entirely to be benefit of Rossini's music, but
he went a long way towards creating just the right atmosphere to
enable the four principles to sing brilliantly. The orchestra were
crisply attentive and there were some very find solo moments, notably
from the clarinet and the harp.
The performance
stunningly confirmed Rossini's musical adventurousness with the
performance of his complete score in the new Urtext edition. I am not
certain that David Alden's production is the last word on Maometto
II as drama, but Chaslin and his four principles gave us an
evening of stunningly vivid Rossini singing.
Further coverage of the Santa Fe Opera season on this blog.
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