Ponchielli: La Gioconda

Opera no 116

Ponchielli: La Gioconda

Soloists

Munich Radio Orchestra

Marcello Viotti

La Gioconda is famous for the Dance of the Hours, not least because of its use in the Disney film Fantasia. Judged by that ballet alone you could be forgiven for thinking that the opera would be a light-hearted confection. It is in fact a a piece of raw ‘blood and thunder’ melodrama. It’s not exactly subtle - in fact in places if is remarkably crude - but the dramatic music has a real impact - none more so that the ensemble at the end of Act Three which really pins you to the back of your seat. It must really be quite something to experience live in the theatre. La Gioconda was the most successful Italian opera to be composed in the interregnum between Aida and Otello and while its star has somewhat faded it is still a force to be reckoned with.  Ponchielli never had the same success again and died relatively young in his mid fifties. Other than Puccini most of the important post-Verdi Italian composers seemed to be able to manage only one bit ‘hit’ and struggled to build a body of work that remains in the repertoire. We will explore some of this in this part of the project.

Puccini: La Fanciulla del West

Opera 115

Puccini: La Fanciulla del West

Soloists

La Scala Milan

Lorin Maazel

Puccini was still a little suspect as a serious composer when I was at University - Kerman’s description of Tosca as a ‘shabby little shocker’ was an extreme view perhaps but not completely a typical of attitudes of the time.  Since then thankfully things have changed and we now recognise Puccini as a composer of real substance. Last year I included his Il Tabarro in my project. That was a real discovery and so I was looking forward to hearing this opera for the first time.  I was not disappointed. This is a truly amazing score which shows Puccini birding effortless the world of late 19th century Italian opera with modernism. Much of the music belonged in the world of Louise or Pelleas. The harmonic pallets is very wide and the orchestration constantly inventive.

So what is this this not performed nearly as often as the other major Puccini works? First of all there is some oddness about an Italian composer setting an opera during the Californian gold rush with references to the Pony Express and other colloquialisms sounding very out of place in Italian. Secondly perhaps the pacing is rather slower than we expect from Puccini. One can imagine the audience at the first performance at the Met starting to look at their watches and wondering when Caruso is going to appeal - the scene setting, though marvellous in its way, does take a long time. Then it has to be admitted that the opera doesn’t have the big hit tunes one expects in Puccini. There are lots of lyrical moments of course but the action doesn’t really stop to allow for arias. This recording is of a live performance and one can feel the sense of relief midway through Act 2 when they finally get to applaud a tenor solo - the applause goes on for ages and though Domingo’s performance is superb one senses that it wouldn’t have got the same level of applause had there been a succession of applause moments throughout the work.

So a fascinating work with many really impaired and dramatic passages and a wonderful quiet end as the hero and heroine walk off into the sunset.. This is one of those operas where ithe heroine doesn’t die in the final scene. I’m so glad that I have added this to my collection of Puccini operas. 

Mondonville: Titon et l’Aurore

Opera no

Mondonville: Titon et l’Aurore

Soloists

Les Musiciens du Louvre

Mark Minkowski

For the last Baroque opera in this part of the project we go over to the other side of the Guerre des Bouffons. In fact this opera was was at the centre of the dispute and the story is, I don’t know how true it iw, that the French supporters guaranteed its success by arranging for the army to keep Italian supporters away from the premiere.

Be that as it may this opera deserved success on its own merits. Mondonville was said to be the only composer who could rival Rameau and one can see why. This has all the characteristics that one finds in a Rameau opera - innovative orchestration, dance music, rich textures, impressive choral sections and some heroic arias as well as some comic moments. Altogether it is a very impressive work which I am very glad to have heard. It took me a long time to appreciate French Baroque opera but now I find myself returning to it time and time again.

This is a suitable point to finish this part of the project in which I have been exploring 18th century opera. Next I am picking up where I left off in Italian opera and will be listening to some late 19th and early 20th century operas by the composers who followed Verdi.

Pergolesi: La Serva Padrona

Opera no 113

Pergolesi: La Serva Padrona

Soloists

Capella Samaria

Pal Németh 

This is a famous example of the Neapolitan style of comic opera. It was in fact written as an intermezzo for performance between the acts of one of Pergolesi’s serious operas, but took on a life of its own. It is a lightweight piece which looks forward to Opera Buffa. It is quite short and if you strip out the dialogue there is only about 25 mins here. It is quite fun but Pergolesi does make a little go a long way - the arias tend to be based on a single idea which comes round and round again. I suspect that Pergolesi would be amazed that he is remembered for this slight pice, which he probably dashed off in a few days, rather than for his substantial body of serious works.

La Serva Padrona turns up in the history books, as a performance in France in 1752 set off the so-called Guerre de Bouffons, where the intellectuals led by Rousseau debated the relative merits of the simplicity of Italian opera with what some saw as the over complexity of French opera. I know which side I would have been on, as I will show in the next opera in this project.

Conti: David

Opera no 112

Conti: David

Soloists

Il Complesso Barocco

Alan Curtis

There is a question mark over whether I should have included this piece in this project because its exact status is unclear - it seems to sit somewhere between an opera and oratorio and it is unclear whether, and to what extent, it was ever staged. But I am glad that I included it because there was some splendid music here. The overall style is Handelian, with plenty of impressive arias covering a wide variety of moods and emotions. The recitatives are also notable and together they add up to a really satisfying whole. But perhaps ever more notable are the splendid choruses which end each act. These really do pack a punch with some unexpectedly chromatic harmonic effects. Whether these would have been sung by the solosits (as in Handel opera) or by a choir (as in his Oratorios) seems to be a matter of dispute but whatever the historical position they do work very well here sung by a small chorus. 

Although Handel represented the peak of baroque Italianate opera his project has clearly demonstrated that other composers, much less well known, were snapping at his heels. 

Dibdin: The Ephesian Matron

Opera 111

Dibdin: The Ephesian Matron

Soloists

Opera Restor’d

Peter Holman

Dibdin wa the composer of Tom Bowling - that lovely song which features in the Sea Songs which are part of the traditional last night of the proms. He had a large output of songs and of theatre music generally. This little opera was a gem. The music has no complexity or profundity but it exuded charm and good humour. Particularly notable were a patter song for the maid, which could almost have come out of the Savoy operas and a lovely love duet which had an irresistibly catchy tune. It is a pity that Dibdin didn’t establish an enduring English tradition of comic opera - the history of opera in England might have been quite different had he done so. As it is this opera only survives in a vocal score and the version here was orchestrated by Roger Fiske in the 1980s. I have seen comments which suggest that his scoring had over elaborate wind parts but it all seemed quite idiomatic to me.

Philidor: Les Femmes Vengées

Opera no 110

Philidor: Les Femmes Vengées

Soloists

Opera Lafayette

Ryan Brown

This is another of those French operas from the peril between the end of Rameau and the opera of the French Revolutionary period. It has neither the richness of Rameau or the intensity of Cherubini, but what it does have is real charm and grace. The style is typical of the early classical era with relatively simple harmonies and straightforward melodies with largely unobtrusive orchestral support. This does sound like damming with faint praise but taken on its own terms this was enjoyable to listen to - not everything has to be a major masterpiece. The vaudeville towards the end , where each characters has a solo verse, had a really catchy tune and one can almost imagine the audience singing along with the soloists when the tune comes round yet again.