Intermezzo

Orlando furioso at the Barbican

Orlando furioso (concert performance) - Barbican, 27 March 2011

Nurtured by recently-departed general manager Dominique Meyer (now installed at the rather grander Vienna State Opera), baroque opera has flourished in recent years at the Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. Earlier this month, a Pierre Audi production of Vivaldi's Orlando Furioso premiered there to acclaim. Its bedrock was Jean-Christophe Spinosi's Ensemble Matheus and most of the cast he first brought together for his benchmark 2005 recording and later toured to the Edinburgh Festival and beyond.

Vivaldi's Tito Manlio at the Barbican

Tito Manlio - Accademia Bizantina/Ottavio Dantone - Barbican, 19 February 2008

Is baroque opera losing its pulling power? A year or two ago, a concert performance of a rarely-done Vivaldi opera by respected specialists might have drawn a sizeable audience. Tonight I don't think the Barbican was even half full, with most of the audience huddled into the freezing cold lower level. With little musical competition elsewhere in London it was a disappointing turnout.

Ottavio Dantone and Accademia Bizantina recorded Tito Manlio a couple of years ago together with some of the singers he brought to the Barbican.

I hadn't listened to that (or any) recording beforehand. With next to no info about Tito Manlio unearthable on teh internets, and the least informative concert programme I've ever seen, it really was a step into the unknown.

So, as interpreted via the surtitles, this is the story: Manlio and Vitellia are the son and daughter of Tito, Consul of Rome. Vitellia and Geminio are secretly in love, and Manlio is engaged to Geminio's sister, Servilia.  Just to make things difficult, Geminio and Servilia are Latins, enemies of Rome - in fact Geminio is their leader. Sent on a scouting mission to Latium, but forbidden to fight, Manlio bumps into Geminio. Provoked by Geminio's taunting, Manlio kills him. Tito is obliged to order Manlio's execution - even the Consul's son cannot be above the law. The vengeful Vitellia eggs Tito on while Servilia pleads unsuccessfully for mercy.  As Manlio is taken for execution, the Roman legions insist that he should be freed, because in killing the leader of Rome's enemy he has brought peace. In the face of this opposition, Tito is forced to show mercy and let Manlio go free. Manlio can now marry Servilia. Geminio's friend Lucio, whose love for Vitellia was unrequited while Geminio was alive, can now marry her too. We also meet Vitellia's servant Lindo, and Decio, the Roman soldiers' leader, really the only fat on a fairly lean and coherent drama.

If Vivaldi doesn't probe too deeply into his characters, they are at least rounded and credible, and there's some fantastic and really varied music.

But that wasn't too obvious to begin with. The first act fell flat as a Roman pizza. Some half-hearted playing from the orchestra was part of the problem, but it was more down to technically passable but bloodless and often under-projected singing. The only person who came out of this section with credit was Marina De Liso (Vitellia), an assured and velvety mezzo with a restrained dignity. She was a late substitute for the advertised Sonia Prina, an altogether more extrovert stage presence who might have succeeded in perking up the rest of the cast.

It seemed that quite a few people left at the interval - I even considered it myself. But Roberta Invernizzi (Lucio) opened the second act with such passion and energy that she got the first applause of the evening. This seemed to light a fire under the rest of the musicians. And just like that, the performance was transformed. Roberta Invernizzi just got better and better, with impressive coloratura and dynamic control shading her lines. Karina Gauvin's Manlio was noble and touching, her highlight a fantastically mournful prison aria, thinly scored and doubled by oboe. Ann Hallenberg's Servilia had a graceful coolness which complemented Karina Gauvin's warmth, and she managed not to be outshone by the riveting viola d'amore obbligato which accompanied one of her arias. When it came to the vengeful fury required in the second act, Marina De Liso was less outstanding than she had been earlier, but it was still a creditable performance. Carlo Lepore's Tito lacked the beefy presence and fullness of tone to be truly assertive, but his vocal dexterity in the gymnastic coloratura was never in question. Christian Senn gamely captured the comedy in the role of Lindo without over-milking it.

In the end though - and I never thought I'd say this of a Vivaldi opera - it is the richness and colour and sheer variety of the score which impresses. With every possible combination of horns, trumpets, bassoon, oboes and recorders in addition to strings and keyboards, it never just chugs along. Every detail is thought out. The sheer exuberance of Accademia Bizantina's performance, at least in the second half, raised it to another level again. It's hard to believe, as the programme suggests, that Vivaldi completed Tito Manlio in just five days, and rather sad to reflect that, with no sure record of a complete performance in his lifetime, he quite possibly never heard it in full.

Magdalena Kozena Handels some chewns better than others

Magdalena Kožená /Venice Baroque Orchestra/Andrea Marcon - Barbican, 15 November 2007

Opening her London Handel recital with a couple of arias in English was a brave move by Magdalena Kožená. Unfortunately it demonstrated that for all her keen grasp of the meaning underlying the text, she has less of a grip on the slippery basics of English diction than might be expected. With darkness deep from Theodora came off worse than O had I Jubal's lyre from Joshua, where the lavish (and precisely-executed) coloratura largely supplanted the details of the text anyway.

The remainder of her programme was all-Italian, starting with the twelve minute Scherza Infida from Ariodante. Here, there was no distraction from the ecstatic radiance of her seamless tone. She was secure and even from her porcelain soprano top to her fruity (and disturbingly baritonal) bottom.

With a voice and technique like Kožená's it must be tempting to sit back and luxuriate in 'beautiful' singing, but instead her interpretations are fearless dramatic statements, sometimes, debatably, to excess. Her recital presentation is I suppose what she'd deliver in a full opera. But on a bare stage, without the surrounding characters and the preceding drama, it's brave and challenging, and there's a temptation to view it simply as histrionic. It requires a degree of imagination (or a stupendous recollection of the opera) from the listener if it's to be taken at face value, something we're not often asked for in this context.

It was easier to appreciate the more reflective Cara speme from Giulio Cesare and the exuberant Dopo notte from Ariodante with its flowing sweeps of coloratura. Languid legato is perhaps her strongest suit, and the encore, an astonishingly beautiful Lascia Ch'io Pianga from Rinaldo, displayed Kozena at her melancholic best.

The 16-strong Venice Baroque Orchestra complemented Kožená's every mood sensitively (and it was a surprise to see the violins and violas standing throughout). In between the Handel arias they gave spritely readings of Vivaldi concertos. This combination sounds logical enough on paper - battle of the baroque maestri - but in reality, it was curiously unsatisfactory, like alternating bites of dinner with mouthfuls of dessert.

One of their aims, according to the programme, was to demonstrate the variety of Vivaldi's concertos -- something that would surely have been easier to appreciate had they been placed side by side. Alternating with the Handel, they inevitably paled by comparison. But they were elevated above mere filler status by the vitality of the performance, especially in the closing Concerto for two cellos.

Vivaldi's Orlando Furioso in Edinburgh

Orlando Furioso (concert performance) - Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 12 August 2007
Edinburgh International Festival

Veronica Cangemi (Angelica) and Jennifer Larmore (Alcina)

This splendid concert performance sparkled like the glitter sprinkled liberally on the singers' cleavages, and, more enigmatically, all over conductor Jean-Christophe Spinosi's coat. Rarely has anything three hundred years old sounded quite so lively.

Spinosi really loves this music, and it shows. Bright and shiny as a tube of smarties, subtlety took something of a back seat as Spinosi cracked his team along at breakneck speed. Rather than being blunt or disrespectful, this seemed to me a sensible response to the muddled libretto and flawed dramaturgy (which I can never quite work out no matter how many synopses I read). He even leapt down from the podium at one point to grab the leader's violin for a couple of bars takeover.

And what a great cast. With the extended vocal gymnastics of Vivaldi's writing, it was inevitable a few notes would go awry, but rather than detracting, it actually added to the tremendous spontaneity.

Sonia Prina's Bertarido from the the Barbican's Rodelinda a couple of years back has remained lodged in my mind, and tonight as Orlando she gave an even more memorable performance, investing even the sparest lengths of secco recitative with passion and drama, and planting every note of her tricksy coloratura warmly and securely. As a very late sub for Marie-Nicole Lemieux in this demanding role, she deserves even more credit.

Veronica Cangemi as Angelica and Jennifer Larmore as Alcina added presence and experience to the mix - both perform on Spinosi's excellent 2005 recording. Philippe Jaroussky's sweet unforced countertenor as Ruggiero was another highlight, as was Christian Senn's effortlessly acrobatic Astolfo. But really, all the soloists were outstanding. And not to forget flautist Alison Mitchell's exquisite solo which concluded the first act.

The performance was recorded, and the programme claims it will be broadcast on Radio 3 on 22 September.

Sonia Prina applauds leader Christopher George with Jean-Christophe Spinosi: