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Directed
by
Annika Haller
Designed
by
Herbert Murauer
English
Baroque
Soloists
Leader
Alison Bury
Conducted
by
John Eliot
Gardiner
Ramiro
Sophie Koch
Don
Anchise
Kurt Streit
Violante/Sandrina
Genia Kuhmeier
Roberto/Nardo
Christopher
Maltman
Serpetta
Patrizia
Biccire
Arminda
Camilla Tilling
Count
Belfiore
Robert Murray
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The
Royal Opera
Covent Garden
21
Sep - 7 Oct 2006 |
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There
is wonderful music in this
infrequently-performed work
of Mozart's youth. It trumps
the poor libretto, which (after
a plausible enough scene-setting
start) fails utterly as theatre
because it is over-long, repetitive,
and static in the sense that
the story-line never progresses;
and after all that it collapses
at the end into incoherence
and inexplicability. But these
vices turn into virtues in
one sense: they provide Mozart
with plenty of opportunity
to exercise his genius. A
fountain of melody and invention
burst forth at the first chord,
and does not stop until the
final chorus.
In the inventive efforts of
Annika Haller to make sense
of the story, full scope is
given to the cast to explore
the humour, insight and beauty
of Mozart's response to the
tangle of love quadrangles,
frustration, disappointment,
yearning and comic misunderstandings.
Christopher Maltman's rich
voice was an especial pleasure,
and Sophie Koch was very plausible
as a vigorous and angry Ramiro.
Patrizia Biccire was born
to play Serpetta, and Camilla
Tilling was a wonderfully
convincing Arminda. Both Kurt
Streit as Don Anchise and
Robert Murray as Count Belfiore
enjoyed themselves greatly,
and completed a strong cast
which clearly felt at home
in the music.
Not even the most judicious
adapter could turn the libretto
into anything remotely workable
as theatre, and the necessary
shortening would create vast
difficulties of what to cut
in the music, where any cut
would be a grievous loss.
The solution therefore is
to accept that this is a work
to be staged and appreciated
for its musical treasures
- and also for its wit, insight,
and the ever-present, enjoyably
insidious undercurrent in
Mozart of Enlightenment challenge
to the obstructive pieties
of moral tradition.
John Eliot Gardiner is a superb
interpreter of Mozartian opera,
and La Finta Giardiniera could
not be in better hands. He
gets a delightful rendition
of remarkable clarity and
energy from the English Baroque
Soloists, who with the singers
conspire to make one unconscious
of how small the forces are
in this opera, in revealing
how remarkable is its musical
brilliance.
AC
Grayling |
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