Italy Florian Leopold Gassmann’s L’opera seria: Soloists, Teatro alla Scala Orchestra and Les Talens Lyriques / Christophe Rousset (conductor). Teatro alla Scala, Milan, 3.4.2025. (CR)
Simply as warfare is the continuation of coverage by different means, so the eighteenth-century librettist Ranieri de’ Calzabigi stepped up his marketing campaign towards the perceived absurdities of Baroque opera seria, progressing from making a extra Classically reformed model of the operatic style with Gluck in Orfeo ed Euridice (1762) and Alceste (1767) to biting satire in L’opera seria (1769). Set to music by Florian Leopold Gassmann and premiered at Vienna, it sends up the present conventions of opera as an inventive style in addition to the pretensions of those that create and market it.
Laurent Pelly’s new manufacturing for La Scala follows that home’s current mounting of older repertoire, by Cavalli and Vinci, which traces the roots of Italian operatic comedy. However Gassmann’s work is much more intriguing as an opera that displays upon the character of the artwork type of which La Scala has been one of many foremost proponents on this planet for two-and-a-half centuries. Gassmann’s work stands at a pivotal second within the growth of opera, given the brand new heights to which Mozart was about to take it, but additionally in waiting for different items which lampoon the apply of opera, equivalent to that composer’s Der Schauspieldirektor, in a double invoice with Salieri’s Prima la musica e poi le parole; Donizetti’s Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali; and Richard Strauss’s Ariadne and Capriccio. L’opera seria pre-empts components in all of those.
Such works already contain their very own dimension of metatheatre. However Pelly’s manufacturing provides one other of his personal, in that the efficiency of Gassmann’s work is basically channelled by means of the angle of the impresario Fallito, sung with fluency and directness right here by Pietro Spagnoli. Clad in a modern-day go well with, he seems round on the naked stage and out to us within the auditorium, with a view to survey the clean slate of the theatre upon which he seeks to create a brand new opera because the Overture performs. Stagehands in impersonal black costume emerge like shadowy imps from behind the scene, right here, as all through the efficiency. Gassmann’s opera then proceeds with its characters in roughly appropriate eighteenth-century costume, however in austere tones of white, gray, and black, with a number of doorways for the entrances and exits of the principle protagonists in the course of the preliminary plans for the opera in Act I, adopted by the rehearsal in Act II.
If it doesn’t fairly appear that Pelly engages with the true vivacity of the work in these acts, he has a broader intention in view, which is to point out that, nonetheless far off from the eighteenth century we could also be, little or no has modified within the apply of opera over that point, and the issues the impresario has to take care of as we speak are hardly totally different from these of his predecessors again then. Likewise with the poet Delirio, who sports activities a recent tie beneath his overcoat and waistcoat, bridging the 2 eras, and sung with heft and authority by Mattia Olivieri. The composer is certainly not arrange on a pedestal, as Sospiro stays a flamboyant character solely in eighteenth-century apparel, although with a sharply coiffed wig that’s absolutely meant to be harking back to a punk rocker’s mohican. Giovanni Sala takes the half with corresponding color and aptitude in his efficiency.
However Pelly’s easy presentation of the opera, and the occasional problem in telling one character aside from one other owing to vague costumes, there may be enough charisma on the a part of the performers to convey out the opera’s wit. There’s additionally sufficient comedy in Calzabigi’s libretto to make all the opposite connections with circumstances as we speak – the impresario’s must economise and maintain prices down, in addition to calls for on the viewers’s consideration with a shorter work; overbearing singers, particularly the prima donna; disagreements amongst composer, librettist, and singers; a romantic relationship between the composer and one of many sopranos; and bother brought on by the dance troupe and the separate composer, Passagallo, of the ballet numbers.
Calzabigi’s different targets relate extra particularly to the apply of opera seria – which many operagoers will probably be sufficiently acquainted with now (e.g. by means of the works of Handel and Vivaldi) to recognise: the obvious lack of inventive integrity in substituting one aria textual content for the music of one other, and singers’ habits of transferring their very own favorite arias into different operas; the phenomenon of the castrato (which is tellingly written by Gassmann, as an alternative, for a florid tenor, though it might definitely have been potential to forged the function for an actual castrato within the 1760s); and the overwrought librettos of Baroque opera. The deceased Silvio Stampiglia and Apostolo Zeno are talked about, however little question Calzabigi actually meant the then nonetheless alive Metastasio as the thing of his scorn, in his satire upon simile arias the place he likens a state of affairs of hazard with an irate dolphin in pursuit of a college of tuna.
Act III brings all the pieces collectively within the inconceivable exoticism of a Baroque theatrical spectacle – full with extravagant French dances – with singers in feathers and hooped skirts set within the context of a sometimes loosely based mostly, historic historic drama in India (‘L’Orenzebe’) although nonetheless with backdrops in grisaille. Reported viewers disapproval and incompetence by the backstage technicians resulting in the disintegration of the surroundings convey the efficiency to an in depth, in addition to the flight of the impresario. Additional bickering ensues among the many others, which now extends to the three sopranos’ moms (all male singers in drag in an extra dig at operatic inclinations, for cross-dressing and disguises) as to whose offspring is the very best performer. Out of the chaos they swear an oath to make life tough for all impresarios, which no less than makes an ironic decision to all of the comedian mayhem.
Initially the three sopranos sound comparable in vocal high quality, however in Act II the rehearsal of their numerous numbers brings out extra distinction amongst them. Julie Fuchs offers an exuberant account of Stonatrilla, the prima donna, sustaining exact intonation and strong timbre in her melodic leaps and roulades. Andrea Carroll brings a extra sedate readability to the a part of the second soprano, whereas Serena Gamberoni exerts coquettish allure as Porporina, the third, who has a flirtation with the composer. Josh Lovell evinces agility and dignity because the male, castrato lead, Ritornello. Alberto Allegrezza, Lawrence Zazzo, and Filippo Mineccia introduce waspish humour because the three moms in drag – pantomime dames with out overdoing their arch, camp characters.
Christophe Rousset presides over his group Les Talens Lyriques within the pit, bolstered by further performers from the La Scala Orchestra. They provide strong help in a rating that shows a lot selection, displaying that Gassmann may skilfully ape the conventions of opera seria with its musical affectations (he had written such operas himself from the late-1750s onwards) whereas additionally waiting for the freer type of comedian ensembles that Mozart would go on to develop in his masterpieces. The orchestra are unflagging in power, and Rousset additionally places in a flip with a wild harpsichord solo between the failed finish of the opera inside and Gassmann’s denouement, simply as virtuosos like Handel would have executed between scenes. The entire challenge is large enjoyable, and the conflict of personalities and ambitions be sure that the leisure is greater than only a collection of in-jokes concerning the theatrical world however a witty comedy of manners.
Curtis Rogers
Manufacturing:
Director and Costume designer – Laurent Pelly
Set designer – Massimo Troncanetti
Lighting – Marco Giusti
Choreography – Lione Hoche
Solid:
Fallito – Pietro Spagnoli
Delirio – Mattia Olivieri
Sospiro – Giovanni Sala
Ritornello – Josh Lovell
Stonatrilla – Julie Fuchs
Smorfiosa – Andrea Carroll
Porporina – Serena Gamberoni
Passagallo – Alessio Arduini
Bragherona – Alberto Allegrezza
Befana – Lawrence Zazzo
Caverna – Filipo Mineccia
Dancer – María Martín Campos
Refrain of dancers – Dilan Şaka, Haiyang Guo, Xhieldo Hyseni
