Halévy is exclusively known for La Juive these days, but that was only his first big success: he was very prolific, and he wrote a lot of successful grand operas after the fashion of Meyerbeer. And also like Meyerbeer, he dabbled a little in Italian opera, resulting in this early, semi-successful work.
It could hardly be more different than La Juive in tone: it's a goofy, very lightweight comedy in a bel canto style strongly reminiscent of Rossini. The plot is trivial: Clari is a peasant girl who goes off to marry a duke known only as "Il Duca," to her parents' distress. This happens before the opera opens. As it does, she's at his mansion and everyone's getting ready for a party. However, she freaks out and has a nervous breakdown from the culture clash and because she thinks he won't really marry her. They have a fight and she runs back home to be with her parents. Realizing how much he indeed loves her, he goes after her, they get back together, her parents accept the situation, and everyone's happy. Also, there's a servant couple, Bettina and Germano.
The DVD has a funny cover:
And that's not all: the booklet includes an eight-page pictorial plot summary with screenshots from the opera coupled with speech balloons. It's a hoot. But I'm not so sure about the motivations here: "In the way that its story was told, Clari seemed to [the producers] an utterly over-the-top melodrama. What a public 180 years ago, at ease with such material, could swallow without difficulty, is for today's audience hard to digest." Honestly, I hate that attitude: sure, some operatic plots are dated, but you have to accept them as they are. Don't try to save them from themselves. And in any case, if such saving was necessary, I can't say that I think they really do it here: if it was an over-the-top melodrama back in the day, and over-the-top melodrama it remains. I don't know what they think they did to save it from this fate. Sure, it's a goofy, cartoony production, but I can't imagine it ever would have been anything else. They point to the photo-novel concept as their "solution," but I would have no idea that that's what it was supposed to be if not for the material in the booklet. I mean, don't get me wrong, the production's fine--I'm just not sure the producers really knew what they were doing if their goals were as they're articulated.
So as you can see from that cover, we've got Cecilia Bartoli in the title role. Bartoli's such a big name, I feel like it's weird that I've only ever seen her in this and Handel's Semele. She's fine; it's kind of a soppy role, but there's certainly a lot of opportunity for great singing. John Osborn--a fairly big name in his own right--is funny as the duke duking the exaggerated dreamboat thing.
This is fine. I like it. Honestly, given the choice, I'd probably rather have seen one of Halévy's other grand operas, but I can't complain. I feel like at least a modest Halévy revival is overdue.
No comments:
Post a Comment