Admeto re di Tessaglia (review) Brooke Bryant

Notes, Volume 66, Number 3, March 2010, pp. 621-622 (Review)

Published by Music Library Association DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/not.0.0266

For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/376422

[ This content has been declared free to read by the pubisher during the COVID-19 pandemic. ] VIDEO REVIEWS Edited by Leslie Andersen छ

This semiannual column presents reviews of significant video releases of interest to the field of music and to music libraries, as well as occasionally briefly noting other interesting titles. All genres of music in all video formats will be covered, with a preference given to those in DVD. All Web sites accessed 18 November 2009.

George Frideric Handel. Admeto re di Tessaglia. DVD (Blu-ray). Howard Arman / Das Händelfestspielorchester Halle. With Matthias Rexroth, Romelia Lichtenstein, Mechthild Bach, Tim Mead and Raimund Nolte. [Germany]: Arthaus Music, 2009, 2006. 101 258. $39.99.

Directed by counter-tenor Axel Köhler costumes and stagecraft. Niels Niemann and conducted by Howard Arman, this trained the singers to use Baroque gesture video captures a live performance pre- alongside modern movement. Köhler sented at the Händel-Festspiele in Halle, makes several unusual staging choices, in- Germany in 2006. Handel’s Admeto is cluding Lichtenstein singing two demand- played by the thirty-three-piece Händel- ing arias while lying flat on her back. festspielorchester and stars Matthias Action is located in a bleak modern hospi- Rexroth in the title role, with Romelia tal where Admeto is recovering from a Lichtenstein as Alcestis, Mechthild Bach as coma; in Act II, the hospital doubles as the Antigona, Tim Mead as Thrasymedes and underworld, where a cannibalistic three- Raimund Nolte as Hercules. headed doctor functioning as Cerberus Admeto, which premiered in London in threatens Hercules’s ability to free Alcestis. 1727, relays the story of a king who be- Köhler’s direction pairs slapstick humor— comes tangled in a complex love triangle. such as Admeto falling out of bed while Admeto’s wife Alcestis sacrifices her life singing a heroic aria—with unsettling so that her ill husband might live. When drama. In Act II, the courtier Orindo drugs Angitona—whom Admeto had earlier re- Alcestis and throws her unconscious body fused to marry—learns that Alcestis is dead, onto a bed, ripping her stockings and she attempts to woo him. Just as she nearly raping her. Thrasymedes intervenes, captures his affection, however, Hercules only to attempt to rape her himself during rescues Alcestis from the underworld. his subsequent aria. The juxtaposition of Thrasymedes, who himself loves Antigona, comedy and violence makes it somewhat complicates matters. difficult to absorb the production’s goals. This video makes available one of Its aesthetic might be off-putting to those Handel’s lesser-known operas, showcasing who are unfamiliar with Baroque opera or superb performances of exquisite musical prefer a more traditional approach. writing. Alcestis’s Act III rage aria features Musically, the opera remains faithful to coloratura that rivals Cleopatra at her most mainstream conceptions of Baroque per- virtuosic. Lichtenstein’s final cadenza is a formance practice. The orchestra is com- thrilling display befitting Faustina Bordoni, prised of period instruments, showcasing for whom the role was created. Mead per- the color and scope of an early eighteenth- forms recitative and aria with a pure and vi- century ensemble. Da capo sections are or- brant vocal tone, impeccable phrasing and namented tastefully, though somewhat con- highly developed acting skill. servatively overall. While arias are colorful The production values combine historical and impassioned, performances of recita- performance practice with ultra-modern tive do not always successfully emulate

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speech. While text expression is of para- watch a synopsis, which is read over a mon- mount importance in Baroque recitative, tage of scenes from the opera, providing a several singers do not enunciate clearly, useful overview of plot and characters. The and the pacing often drags. disc features subtitles in English, Spanish, In addition to a clear picture, the Blu-ray French, German and Italian and is accom- format offers stunning sound quality. The panied by a booklet providing a history of disc is organized in a way that makes the the opera and a summary of each act. opera accessible. Each piece receives its own chapter, enabling straightforward navi- Brooke Bryant gation for classroom use. Viewers may City University of New York Graduate Center

Gioachino Rossini. Early Operas. DVD. Gianluigi Gelmetti / Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. With David Kuebler, Vito Gobbi, Amelia Felle, Alessandro Corbelli, Alberto Rinaldi, Oslavio di Credico, Carlos Feller, Janice Hall, John del Carlo, Monica Bacelli, Robert Gambill, Susan Patterson, Natale de Carolis, Stuart Kale, Jane Bunnell, Luciana Serra. [Germany]: EuroArts, 2009. 2057388. $34.99.

For more than fifty years, the Radio Symphony, conducted by Gianluigi Schwetzingen Festival has presented operas Gelmetti. Three of the four operas are from the Rokokotheater at Schwetzingen quintessential Rossini, worthy of a regular castle, which served as the summer resi- place in the repertoire. dence of the elector Palatine Carl La cambiale di matrimonio, Rossini’s first Theodore. The intimate theater eliminates professional work for the stage and the the need to project to the upper balconies weakest in the collection, foreshadows ele- of a larger house, permitting the cast to de- ments of wit and sentiment that are refined liver performances that contain many act- in his later works. Rossini also benefited ing and vocal subtleties. Through its vari- from the experience of librettist Gaetano ous programs and numerous radio Rossi in this collaboration, as well as from broadcasts, the festival also has become the the musical style of Giovanni Paisiello and world’s largest radio classical music festival. Giovanni Simone Mayr, whose style he stud- From the festival’s performance archives, ied and parodied here. The sets are won- EuroArts has released Rossini: Early Operas, derfully elaborate and realistic, with extrav- a DVD set containing four of the five one- agant costumes. The singing is of the act farsas (Il signor Bruschino, La cambiale di highest quality, with a coterie of bel canto matrimonio, L’occasione fa il ladro, La scala di specialists that offsets the generic nature of seta) that Rossini wrote for the Venetian the musical ideas. Rossini liked the cabaletta Teatro San Moisè, which specialized in the of Fanni’s to such an extent that he reused genre, as a teenager (all were written be- it virtually intact in Il barbiere di Siviglia. fore he reached the age of 21). La scala di Seta, the third Rossini farse Director Michael Hampe, whose credits and an excellent collaboration with the li- include productions at Salzburg, Paris, brettist Giuseppe Foppa, is an operatic trea- Milan, Edinburgh Festival and London- sure for a host of reasons. First, because Covent Garden, combines his wealth of ex- certain aspects of the story invoke French perience with the superb talents of a well- comedy, notably the plays of Beaumarchais rehearsed ensemble company to present and points to Rossini’s long association these operatic trinkets. Among the princi- with French theater. Second, the plot of La pal male singers are Alessandro Corbelli, scala di Seta is delightful—firmly from the Alberto Rinaldi and David Kuebler, tal- world of amorous intrigues, wily servants, ented actors as well as singers; representing forced betrothals, secret marriages and de- the female singers are stars such as Luciana ceived older men. Finally, Michael Hampe Serra, Susan Patterson and Monica Bacelli. and the cast are both charming and witty in The soloists are ably supported by members their 1990 rendition of the score, which of Oper du Stadt Köln and the Stuttgart employs the then-recent critical edition