{"id":7471,"date":"2023-07-03T21:28:20","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T19:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/?p=7471"},"modified":"2023-07-22T14:55:34","modified_gmt":"2023-07-22T12:55:34","slug":"roses-thorns-and-diamonds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/?p=7471","title":{"rendered":"Roses, Thorns and Diamonds"},"content":{"rendered":"

I missed Handel. The last time I listened to him to my heart\u2019s content was in 2019, at the H\u00e4ndel-Festspiele G\u00f6ttingen, the place where the oeuvre of Il caro Sassone was revived on 26 June 1920, when the first modern performance of Rodelinda <\/em>took place thanks to the efforts of Oskar Hagen. In 2020 an anniversary festival was being prepared with great pomp to mark the centenary of those memorable events. The organisers intended to present \u2013 in one form or another \u2013 all 42 of Handel\u2019s operas, headed by Rodelinda <\/em>in a fully staged production at the local Deutsches Theater. Their plans were thwarted by the pandemic. It was not until the following autumn that the festival returned \u2013 the long-awaited premiere of Rodelinda<\/em> was not only the most important element in the truncated programme of the event, but also a farewell to Laurence Cummings, who ended his ten-year tenure in G\u00f6ttingen. The following season the Greek conductor, pianist and director George Petrou took over as artistic director of the H\u00e4ndel-Festspiele, while the outgoing general director Tobias Wolff handed over his duties to Jochen Sch\u00e4fsmeier, the manager of Concerto K\u00f6ln until then.<\/p>\n

After forty years of absolute British rule the festival changed its course. Which way it is now going I was not able to find out until this year, \u00a0and in a rather limited way at that, as I could make it only to the last three days of the G\u00f6ttingen Handel celebration. In all respects the trip was informative and successful. However, I did not expect I would precede it with a Venetian prologue of uncommon beauty: the premiere of Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno\u00a0<\/em>at Teatro Malibran as part of the La Fenice season. Such an opportunity was something I could not miss. This was because today\u2019s name of Malibran is that of the oldest surviving opera theatre in Venice, erected on the remains of Marco Polo\u2019s residence \u2013 the famous Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo, which was opened in 1678 with a production of Carlo Pallavicino\u2019s Vespasiano<\/em>, and served as the venue of the world premieres of Alessandro Scarlatti\u2019s Mitridate Eupatore<\/em> and Handel\u2019s Agrippina<\/em>, the title role of which was sung on 26 December 1709 by the then prima donna<\/em> Margherita Durastanti. The golden age was fairly brief: the theatre began to decline already in the 1730s; it changed hands, but nevertheless continued to operate. Maria Malibran sang there in 1835: appalled by the technical condition of the theatre, she gave up her fee so that it could be used for the renovation of the building. Renamed in the singer\u2019s honour, Teatro Malibran continued to experience various ups and downs. In the 1980s it began collaborating with La Fenice. It was only natural that it took in the La Fenice ensembles after the disastrous fire of 1996. Today it operates independently, but also hosts concerts and some productions of the Venetian Phoenix.<\/p>\n

Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno<\/em>, Handel\u2019s first oratorio, composed in the spring of 1707 and soon after that performed at the palace of Pietro Ottoboni, superintendent of the Apostolic See in Rome, has enjoyed remarkable success on stage recently. This is all the more surprising given that the libretto, by Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili, is practically without any action and from the point of view of today\u2019s audiences it carries little dramatic tension. It is, in fact, a philosophical dispute \u2013 true, heated at times \u2013 involving four paired allegories: Beauty and Pleasure, as well as Time and Disillusion. It leads to the inevitable conclusion that spiritual beauty is superior to sensual beauty, and eternal life is superior to earthly life. If there is anything theatrical in this work, it is Handel\u2019s music, which became for him an inexhaustible source of self-quotations, like Pleasure\u2019s aria \u201cLascia la spina\u201d, echoes of which would appear later in Rinaldo<\/em> and the magic opera Amadigi di Gaula.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno<\/em>, Teatro Malibran, Venice. Photo: Michele Crosera<\/p>\n

This is the track followed by Saburo Teshigawara \u2013 director, dancer, choreographer as well designer of sets and costumes for the Venetian production of Il trionfo.<\/em> The Japanese artist finds his inspiration in the butoh<\/em> dance, in Martha Graham\u2019s techniques, in Tadeusz Kantor\u2019s \u201czero theatre\u201d; he plays with time and space, combines very expressive dance \u2013 alternating between dynamism and stillness \u2013 with a bright play of light, and with optical illusion. The stage is black as night and on it Teshigawara \u201ctells\u201d the music with four singers \u2013 personified concepts whose message he emphasises with the colours of the costumes (from snow-white Beauty, silvery Pleasure, grey Disillusion to black Time). He complements the concepts with the movement and gesture of four dancers (Alexandre Ryabko, Javier Ara Sauco, and sometimes also the director himself and his assistant Rihoko Sato), and frames them in the only props used in the production: four openwork metal cubes, which delimit the space of the discourse as well as boundaries between concepts.<\/p>\n

The clockwork precision of Teshigawara\u2019s concept was perfectly matched by Andrea Marcon\u2019s interpretation \u2013 highly expressive, detail-oriented and insightful in terms of shaping the dramaturgy and musical time. The Teatro La Fenice orchestra was inspired in its playing, with the singers generally giving fine performances. Among the female soloists one that deserved particular praise was Silvia Frigato as Beauty. Hers is a light, luminous soprano, used with ease and a great sense of phrase. Not far behind her was Giuseppina Bridelli (Pleasure), whose dark mezzo-soprano, silky in the middle range, only initially sounded jarring with an insufficiently rounded tone in the coloratura. Slightly less successful was Valeria Girardello \u2013 in my opinion miscast as Disillusion, a typically contralto role requiring a voice finely developed in all registers. However, she made up for her colour shortcomings and some intonation flaws with good acting and considerable expressive power. Surprisingly \u2013 and not only for yours truly \u2013 the strongest point of the cast turned out to be Krystian Adam (Time), singing with an uncommonly handsome tenor, with a dark spinto hue, with excellent diction and, above all, with a sense of the intense, typically Baroque play of affect. His spine-chilling aria \u201cUrne voi\u201d, rightly rewarded with the first ovation of the evening, found a worthy equivalent only in Beauty\u2019s final declaration \u201cTu del Ciel ministro eletto\u201d, interpreted by Frigato with admirable lyricism and restraint.<\/p>\n

After such a powerful dose of excitement in Venice, I found myself almost overnight in G\u00f6ttingen\u2019s Deutsches Theater for a performance of Semele<\/em>, a musical \u201cwolf in sheep\u2019s clothing\u201d and one of Handel\u2019s most original stage works, which the composer disguised as an oratorio and presented as part of a series of Lenten concerts at Covent Garden in 1744. Rediscovered and appreciated only in the twentieth century, today it is among the top ten of Handel\u2019s most frequently staged operas. After Giulio Cesare<\/em>, which in 2022 opened up \u201cnew horizons\u201d for the festival, time came for Semele<\/em>, which, owing to its mythological inspirations, fitted in perfectly with this year\u2019s motto of the event: \u201cHellas!\u201d. The devil is in the detail, for the formula of the H\u00e4ndel-Festspiele has remained essentially unchanged. George Petrou, however, puts greater emphasis on the continuity of the Mediterranean cultural tradition, on the exploration of the oeuvres of lesser known composers, and above all on a radically different approach to the music of Handel himself \u2013 fiery, effervescent, closer (all things considered) to Marc Minkowski\u2019s extremely theatrical interpretations than to the intellectual, balanced interpretations of the masters of the English historically informed performance.<\/p>\n

In the case of Petrou \u2013 who not only conducted, but also directed the two productions at the Deutsches Theater \u2013 a substantial role is also played by a bond with the legacy of Greek theatre: with the seriousness and realism of ancient tragedy, understood by modern audiences, and on the other hand with the bawdiness \u2013 quite surprising today \u2013 of plays by Aristophanes and later authors of Attic comedy. There is a bit of everything in Semele<\/em>, though in Petrou\u2019s directorial concept the comic element, sometimes bordering on slapstick farce, prevails. However, the production begins on a dramatic note: a pantomime reenactment \u2013 to the sounds of the overture \u2013 of the death of the Theban princess in a maternity ward, in a bed surrounded by relatives and medical staff. The mood soon changes: we are entering a conventional space with no direct associations with the temple of Juno, where the action of Act I takes place. Things pick up only in Act II, when Juno descends into a nightclub, where access to Jupiter\u2019s love nest is guarded by two bodyguards instead of fire-breathing dragons. The whole gets really funny in Act III, with Somnus characterised as the leader of Hindu sadhus plunged into a drug-induced trance and confused by the sudden intrusion of Iris and Juno at least as much as their semi-conscious guru. The final scene of Semele<\/em> veers dangerously towards a lieto fine<\/em>: in my opinion the least successful element of the staging, as we learn of Semele\u2019s tragedy already in the prologue and are moved to tears by her martyrdom at the end of the opera. I’m not sure whether the idea of Bacchus being born from Semele\u2019s ashes in the form of a bottle of champagne won anyone over to this risky Baroque convention.<\/p>\n

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Semele<\/em>, Deutsches Theater G\u00f6ttingen. Photo: Alciro Theodoro da Silva<\/p>\n

Compared with Teshigawara\u2019s poetic, visually stunning theatre, Petrou\u2019s concept (created together\u00a0 with the set and costume designer Paris Mexis, and the lighting director Stella Kaltsou) war neither revelatory, nor particularly captivating. The main contributors to the unquestionable success of the venture were the performers, led by Marie Lys in the title role, a singer who boasts a clear, well-placed soprano, excellent technique and good acting skills. She may have been outclassed in that last respect by Vivica Genaux in the double role of Ino and Juno \u2013 changed beyond recognition by a fat-suit, red wig and red glasses as the former, made to look like Jackie Onassis as the latter. I have to admit that I am not a fan of the unique timbre of her voice or her peculiar coloratura, but I did not expect her to show such a sense of comedy and verve on stage: as Ino, she even sang with a different timbre to make the roles entrusted to her all the more different. Marilena Striftombola was a phenomenal Iris (and Cupid). She is a quicksilver artist wielding her agile soprano with a truly youthful lightness and bravura. Jeremy Ovenden (Jupiter) is past his prime, but he made up for it with his musicality and experience, which came to the fore especially in the famous aria \u201cWhere\u2019er you walk\u201d in Act II. Riccardo Novaro gave a very decent performance in the triple role of Cadmus, Somnus and High Priest, as did Rafa\u0142 Tomkiewicz \u2013 excellent in terms of singing and acting as usual \u2013 in the thankless role of Athamas. The whole \u2013 with an Athenian chorus under Agathangelos Georgakatos and the FestspielOrchester G\u00f6ttingen \u2013 was conducted by George Petrou with truly Mediterranean verve and panache, often at breakneck tempi, though without destroying the formal freedom of Handel\u2019s score, one of the most beautiful ones in the composer\u2019s oeuvre.<\/p>\n

Later that same evening I let myself be led blindfolded \u2013 like Bruegel\u2019s blind man \u2013 to the Concert in the Dark in the Lokhalle, a former G\u00f6ttingen locomotive depot, where festival instrumentalists and singers played with our perception for over an hour, presenting in the darkness music from Delphic Hymns to Rautavaara \u2013 in the most diverse line-ups and spatial configurations. The following day I listened with the greatest pleasure to an intimate performance by the French Ensemble Masques \u2013 over coffee and cakes, as part of the Caf\u00e9 George series at the Forum Wissen G\u00f6ttingen. Earlier, in the University Auditorium I admired the virtuosity of the flautist Erik Bosgraaf and the harpsichordist Francesco Corti in a programme featuring works by composers associated with the court of Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange, a favourite pupil of Handel. I grumbled a bit that the immanent melodiousness of these gems got lost a bit in the dizzying tempi of their performances. I stopped grumbling, when Fanie Antonelou, the soloist of the Greek ensemble Ex Silentio sang Handel\u2019s solo cantatas without the slightest sense of the composer\u2019s idiom and with an instrumental accompaniment equally lacking in style. Pity, because the programme of the concert in the great hall of the picturesque Welfenschloss near Hannover could have been limited to pieces by unknown composers from Crete, which the Venetians ruled until the Ottoman conquest in 1669.<\/p>\n

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Jeanine de Bique. Photo: Sorek Artists<\/p>\n

However, this year\u2019s festival ended on a very strong note in the form of a gala recital by Jeanine De Bique, a Trinidadian soprano and graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, who recorded her first solo album Mirrors<\/em> in 2021 with Concerto K\u00f6ln \u2013 featuring arias of female characters from Handel\u2019s works, juxtaposed as if in a musical mirror with portraits of the same women in works by other composers of the period, including Carl Heinrich Graun and Georg Philippe Telemann. De Bique has been presenting this programme in concert for the past two years, sometimes shifting the emphasis a little, as she did in St John\u2019s Church in G\u00f6ttingen, where she replaced the aria \u201cMi restano le lagrime\u201d from Alcina with the much more spectacular monologue \u201cOmbre pallide\u201d. I listened to her streamed recital from last year\u2019s Bayreuth Baroque festival. Since then the singer has matured, has become more at ease, has engaged in a wonderful dialogue with both the musicians and the audience. Her voice is a true diamond, still not fully polished, but nevertheless worth hundreds of thousands of pounds sterling \u2013 it already shines like a crown jewel in the royal treasury: indomitable, clear, captivating with its brilliance and rainbow of colours. If it still lacks anything, it is only some softness in the upper register and a touch of vividness in the low notes of the range. De Bique\u2019s interpretations \u2013 supported by Concerto K\u00f6ln\u2019s extraordinary sensitive accompaniment \u2013 touch the heart and at the same time make us realise the essence of the greatness of Handel, who favoured complex musical drama, revelatory colour effects and poignant lyricism over empty virtuosity.<\/p>\n

Called to sing encore after encore, De Bique finally sang \u201cTu del Ciel ministro eletto\u201d from Il trionfo<\/em>.\u00a0<\/em>I will not compare the two performances. Let me just write that I find it hard to imagine a more beautiful link between the impressions of these few days in Venice and G\u00f6ttingen.<\/p>\n

Translated by: Anna Kijak<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I missed Handel. The last time I listened to him to my heart\u2019s content was in 2019, at the H\u00e4ndel-Festspiele G\u00f6ttingen, the place where the oeuvre of Il caro Sassone was revived on 26 June 1920, when the first modern performance of Rodelinda took place thanks to the efforts of Oskar Hagen. In 2020 an … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-mangusta","4":"post-7471","6":"format-standard","7":"category-posts-in-english","8":"category-wedrowki-operowe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7471"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7514,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7471\/revisions\/7514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}