“L’Incoronazione di Poppea” by Marc Minkowsky

I watched Monteverdi’s opera  “L’Incoronazione di Poppea” (The coronation of Poppea) conducted by Marc Minkowsky and staring Anne Sofie von Otter as Nero.

She has one of the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard. Her voice has elegant beauty with quality of intelligence. She sang the role of Nero rather much better than any other singers besides Philippe Jaroussky and Sarah Connolly.

The orchestration was much closer to authentic Monteverdi tunes than the Emmanuelle Haim version but it was still little too Classical for my taste. All the singers sang in Monteverdian style.

And yet, the production itself was the second round of disappointment. They had most suffocating monotone costumes, which cover up their entire bodies, the cheapest stage settings and the awful stage directions. I don’t think there was any acting direction because many of the singers’ acting were very cheep and boring. I don’t think even any high school performance would be this bad. I was surprised by the fact that they actually had a stage director.

This opera is supposed to be one of the most sexually charged operas. And yet, there is no any on stage sexual or not even emotional chemistry between the main two characters (in spite of how beautiful these singers are).

So I closed my eyes and listened to the music only. It got better.  But yet, even their music itself had some problems. The voices of the main two characters never harmonized together. (When it does, that’s where all the sexual charges are coming from.)

The role of Nero has to be mezzo- soprano-to-soprano range (I watched some clips which were sung by tenors but they just simply don’t sound good or right). And Poppea has to be mid to higher soprano range. Mirelle Delunsch who played Poppea often sang much lower than Anne who is mezzo-soprano. Mirelle’s voice is beautiful but little too low, thick and darker to sing this role. And her voice sounded somewhat distanced and non-emotional when Anne’s voice’s was much expressive.

I also didn’t so much care for the mezzo-soprano who sang the role of Otto neither. Her voice was weak and often sang with chest voice. This role has characteristic weakness and emotionally tormented. So I prefer this role to be sung by countertenors with certain male darker hue in their voices instead of  “vasty” mezzo-soprano. I liked the singers who sang Drusilla and Alnarta. Alnarta’s great aria, “Oblivion Soave” was wonderful.

“Giulio Cesare” by Handel

I watched the Handel’s opera “Giulio Cesare” staring Andreas Scholl.

 People say that it is the best opera written by Handel. They are so right. This opera has huge scale and it is the most magnificent opera I’ve ever listened to (even though “Faramondo” is still my personal favorite opera by Handel so far). Every part of this opera is heavenly gorgeous. If there is music in heaven or Nirvana, this must be that music.

This is the perfect opera for great night out. You laugh, you cry and just be blown-away by most beautiful music on this earth and come home in complete contentment. Handel’s music has both paralyzing and euphoric effects on listeners. His music is purely amazing.

This production about Julius Cesar itself was set in modern days. Sometimes, when one story is set in different timeline from original story, there can be unnaturalness, but not for this production. It is very entertaining production. This production is the first class, which is filled with the rich human goodness and luxurious beauty of music.

This is the first time I watched and listened to Andreas Scholl in an opera. He played the title role. He looked handsome and his singing was magnificent. He has such amazing singing techniques.

Randi Stene and Tuva Semmingsen were wonderful also. They sang the saddest mother and son duet, “Son nata a lagrimar” which made me cry.

The biggest surprise in this opera for me was Inger Dam-Jensen. She sang and played sexy, humorous and very moving Cleopatra. She had such beautiful soprano voice which is highly flexible, effortlessly smooth and very captivating. It is amazing considering how her role is vocally demanding as much as Andreas Scholl’s role as Cesar. Her beautiful flawless voice has both out of worldly sound and earthly weight.

All these four singers have elegant cool purity in their beautiful voices.

Va tacito e nascosto (Andreas Scholl)

Son nata a lagrimar (Randi Stene & Tuva Semmingsen)

V'adoro pupille (Inger Dam-Jensen)

Se pietà di me non senti (Inger Dam-Jensen)

Svegliatevi nel core (Tuva Semmingsen)

Empio, dirò, tu sei (Andreas Scholl)

Piangerò la sorte mia (Inger Dam-Jensen)

Non disperar, chi sa (Inger Dam-Jensen)

“Orlando Furioso” by Vivaldi

I listened to Vivaldi’s opera “Orlando Furioso” conducted by Jean-Christophe Spinosi.

Marie-Nicole Lemieux sang the title role. She is the jewel I discovered through Philippe Jaroussky. She’s contralto and they’ve often sung together.

Majority of singers don’t sing like they speak. This is particularly true for these two people. Marie-Nicole speaks in higher girlish voice and Philippe speaks in baritone. But when it’s time to sing, they become complete opposite. Her voice gets lower and his voice gets higher. Because her voice has such depth, when they sing duets, his light voice really sounds like little boy instead of his usual young man-ish high voice. And together, they sound so gorgeous.

She has rarest kind of voice. You don’t see many contraltos. And usually when the more voice range is lower, the more heavily it gets especially in female voices. But her voice does not carry any heaviness at all but has so much lightness despite of its amazing depth. The texture of her voice is crystal, warm and gorgeous, which are also very rare qualities in female lowest voice.

Her interpretation of music is also amazingly deep as much as Philippe’s. They sang in the album “Nisi Dominus/Stabat Mater” (Vivaldi) which was also conducted by Spinosi. Though I love Philippe’s portion in the album, I listen to her portion more simply because her voice scale and her expression are heart-stoppingly deep.

Opera is not only meant to be listened to but also meant to be watched. So it was so nice that the stage version of this production was recently available on Internet. It was staged just last month.

The album version was made much lighter tone but the stage version was much darker, heavier and grittier for both the stage settings and the stage direction. I’m not sure if all the productions of this opera is like this or because it’s a French production which tends to create grittier human drama. At the beginning, it was little hard to follow the story because not only it didn’t come with English subtitle but also the characters’ positioning on the stage did not match with what’s happening in the scenes. It took me for a while to figure out that such stage direction was based on the psychological reflections of the characters rather than the actual events.

Spinosi’s Samurai orchestration didn’t have many changes from the album but some portions of the music were slower and the singers sang in much heavier tones. It might be because it’s live stage.

The story of this opera goes like this and the singers’ names are from the stage version.

Orlando (Marie-Nicole Lemieux) is the force of his own will and madly in love with beautiful Angelica (Veronica Cangemi). But she is so afraid of him so she fled to the protection of Alcina (Jennifer Larmore) who is sorceress. Alcina possesses the urn containing the ash of Marlin, which gives her great power and with the power, she controls everyone including Astolfo (Christian Senn), her mistreated lover. Orlando also ends up in Alcina’s palace because another sorcerer foretold him if he steals the ash of Marlin he will have fortune in love.

Alcina falls in love with the married man, Ruggiero (Philippe Jaroussky) and seduces him by giving him love portion. He doesn’t recognize his own beloved wife, Bradamante (Kristina Hammarstroem) who is Orlando’s cousin. Ruggiero sings the love song to Alcina. Bradamante is furious and heart-broken. Astolfo comforts her upon seen this and finally breaks the chain with Alcina. They form the pact to take revenge on Alcina.

In Orlando’s mind, Angelica belongs to him. Upon seen her and her lover, Medoro (Romina Basso) together, he becomes enraged with jealousy. Alcina quickly told him that Medoro is Angelica’s brother. Orlando begs Angelica’s forgiveness. Later, in desperate attempt to protect herself and Medoro, Angelica seduces Orlando, which pains Medoro greatly. After kissing Orlando, she asks him to climb the high steep cliff to get magic portion for her, hoping he would be killed.

Bradamante uses her magic ring to break the spell on Ruggiero. He wakes up and deeply regrets his blind infidelity. And upon seen his wife’s pain and outrage, they each swear revenge on Alcina.

Thinking Orlando is dead, Angelica and Medoro get married by the blessing of Alcina while she moans the absence of her lover, Ruggiero. Orlando comes back wretched and discovers he was betrayed. It was just too much for him. He gets so furious, very violent and looses his mind completely.

Orlando captures Angelica followed by Medoro. Angelica sees the condition of Orlando and deeply regrets how she drove him into madness. And she breaks down to tears because she knows her and Medoro’s lives would come to the end.

All through this opera, all the characters have kept singing like magic word how “ constancy and fidelity will give reward in love”. So when Ruggiero blames Angelica for Orlando’s madness by changing her heart and betraying him. Medoro also accuses Ruggiero for his infidelity with Alcina and betraying her. Angelica screams at Ruggero repeating what he said before,  “the constancy lies in a change of heart!”

In fury violence, Orlando ended up destroying the monster and breaking the barrier, which protected the ash of Marlin. Alcina looses her power and be abandoned by everyone whom she loves, goes down in her realm of ruined illusion. In the end, everyone looses certain portion of the humanity. Orlando comes to senses and finally realizes that his fortune in love is to be the love in his heart to be taken away and blesses Angelica and Medoro’s union.

There should be Oscars for opera. Marie-Nicole was everywhere on the stage singing and playing the operatic version of Hulk. She showed bone-deep pain of a man with her intensely emotional singing and acting, which almost made me cry. She is one of these naturally talented actors like Philippe Jaroussky and Placid Domingo who can go into the psychology of any character naturally and smoothly.

Jennifer Larmore also deserves Oscar playing a complicated woman who has both evil and sympathetic side.  Her acting was like the Hollywood version of a witch and the same time, showed sensitive vulnerability of the character who desperately needed love. When Ruggiero sang her the beautiful love song, “Sol Da Te, Mio Dolce Amore”, she was overwhelmed with emotion, fell down and cried. It was nice touch by the stage direction. Her character and Orlando are the duel sides of the same coin.

Veronica Cangemi has very beautiful soprano voice. I love her singing techniques in this opera and I cannot think anyone else who is better than her to sing the tragic Angelica who is determined but fearful.

I prefer Lorenzo Regazzo in the album version for the roll of Astolfo. He has the typical sexy warm Italian baritone voice. His voice also carries the texture of sensitive vulnerability, which is suited for the character. 

For Medoro, I liked Ramina Basso in the stage version. Her higher mezzo-soprano register has beautiful crystal clear texture. But she has strength in her lower register, which is filled with deep expressive masculine melancholy.

I love these arias in this opera.

Un Raggio Di Speme (Veronica Cangemi)

Nel Profondo (Marie-Nicole Lemieux)

Sol Da Te, Mio Dolce Amore (Philippe Jaroussky)

Amorose Ai RAI Del Sole (Jennifer Larmore)

L'Irato Nembo (Marie-Nicole Lemieux)

Chiara Al Pari Di Lucida Stella (Veronica Cangemi)

Che Dolce Più Giocondo Stato (Jennifer Larmore)

Poveri Affetti Miei, Siete Innocenti (Veronica Cangemi)

Come L'Onda (Philippe Jaroussky)

Vorrebe Amando Il Cor (Romina Basso)

“L’incoronazione di Poppea” and Emperor Nero

I watched Monteverdi’s opera “L’incoronazione di Poppea” (The coronation of Poppea) conducted by Emmanuelle Haim.

 I read that this opera is Monteverdi’s last and best opera. So I’ve watched bits of pieces of videos from various productions for this opera, which are filled with simple, but beautiful and rich music. I absolutely loved most of them. So I anticipated watching the complete opera specially if it’s by Haim.

I disappointed. She used too many classical instruments and made it too modern. And it was too fast and hastily done. The most singers sang in Classical style including the mezzo-soprano who played Nero. She had beautiful voice but had no weight in her voice and personally, I thought she was miscast. I did not care for how they treated the story and the characters either which they shallowly caricaturized.

The thing I did not like most about this production was that simply it did not sound like Monteverdi at all. I hardly recognized his signature sounds that I most love about his music.

The only good thing about this production was Danielle De Niese who played and sang Poppea in Monteverdian style with beautiful voice. Her portrait of Poppea was realistic, convincing and very charming like diamond.

This is very unconventional, dark, immoral, sensual, passionate and humanistic opera about Emperor Nero and his second wife, Poppea.

Until I watched “Agrippina”, my understanding of Nero was that he was tyrannical, brutal Roman Emperor who was the first persecutor of Christians. I also knew he was rumored to set fire which destroyed most of the city Rome in order for him to build his own amusement facility (this story sounds far fetch to me as much as the 9/11 conspiracy theory).

In order to understand the jokes in “Agrippina”, I read about him on Wikipedia with certain fascination. The true story about him was much more complicated and very contradictory. And there are several things in the articles intrigued me.

The first, he was very young Emperor (I imagined him to be middle aged). He became Emperor at 16 and committed suicide at 30.

The second, he was very popular among lower class, slave population and soldiers but hated by upper class, the elites and the senate. He was also popular in Eastern Empire because of the landmark peace treaty he made there. I also read when there was the famous fire, which destroyed most of Rome’s, he was said to be personally digging debris to rescue survivors and paid charitable contribution for the victims of the fire from his own money.

The third, he considered himself as an artist. He acted and sang publically which must be very unusual especially as an Emperor. He also played instrument and composed songs. When he realized he has to kill himself during the political coup d’état, he repeatedly said, “What an artist has to die within me!” 

The fourth, the articles mentioned that modern historians are questioning the factual authenticity of many negative writings about him through centuries. The first century Jewish historian, Josephus who was critical about Nero was also the first person to mention such wave of popular slanders against him.

The fifth, the Emperor who overthrew Nero was also overthrown by Nero’s friend, Otto, whose wife, Poppea, Nero stole. Otto became Emperor and praised Nero in various ways as the same ways as the Emperor who overthrew Otto. This tells you that Nero was not known as Hitler type in ancient times as he is described in modern days.

In other hand, his mother killed her husband to make Nero emperor. Nero also killed or executed his mother, his stepbrother, his first wife, his second wife by kicking (she might died from child birth for there was no eye witness account), his long time adviser, his friend, etc…  who all of them, except his second wife, might had involved in treasons against him.

The history also said he killed many Christians. But I don’t know how much he was personally involved in persecution of a small foreign religious sect for he must had so many other big political issues throughout Roman Empire to deal with as a world leader.

Because there are so many conflicting information including mentioned above, the true picture of Nero is not very clear. You really don’t know what to trust. But as it’s said, history is written by victors which is often far from truth.

“Agrippina” by Jean-Claude Malgoire

I watched Handel’s light comical opera “Agrippina” conducted by Jean-Claude Malgoire.

It took me for a while to figure out that the story is about Roman emperor, Nero and his mother because I didn’t know anything about their personal gossips. So I understood all the jokes finally when I watched it at the second time after I read his biography.

They had outrageously colorful Rococo costumes and wigs. The stage setting was very minimalistic and goofy. And all the singers played unbelievably shallow characters with such goofiness.

And, the music was gorgeous. This is the one of early Handel’s operas. Though it doesn’t have the full maturity of his later works like “Faramondo” but still exceptionally beautifully written.

All the singers sang wonderfully, beautifully and comically.

Especially soprano Veronique Gens played very cunning but irresistibly charming title role who ambitiously plots to make her son emperor. Her voice was so beautiful. Countertenor, Philippe Jaroussky also sung wonderfully playing a teenage Nero who is not-so-smart mommy’s boy with greedy ambitions. Also soprano, Ingrid Perruche sung with bright and beautiful soprano voice! Nigel Smith, Thierry Gregoire, Bernard Deletre and Fabrice Di Farco were all wonderful.

These are my favorite arias in this opera.

Come nube che fugge dal vento (Philippe Jaroussky)

Se vuoi pace (Veronique Gens)

Pensieri (Veronique Gens)

Bel piacere e godere fido amor (Ingrid Perruche)

Con saggio tuo consiglio (Philippe Jaroussky)

Qual piacer (Philippe Jaroussky)

E’ un foco quell d’amore (Ingrid Perruche)

Io di Roma il Giove sono (Nigel Smith)

Tacero purche fedele (Thierry Gregoire)

“Ercole Sul Termondonte“ by Vivaldi

I listened to Vivaldi’s opera “Ercole Sul Termondonte “ (Hercules in Thermodon) conducted by Fabio Biondi and orchestrated by Europa Galante. They played high quality wonderful orchestration.

Vivaldi must have been very popular in commercial use. Because several of the harmonies in this opera sound so familiar to my ears as I’ve heard them growing up like from TV commercial or radio.

According to the production notes, this opera was not discovered as one complete piece. They were scattered mainly two different places with so many missing parts including sinfonias and recitatives. So they had to reconstruct them by recycling (as Vivaldi had done often) and making up with a lots of guess works.

It might be because of this, it never feels as whole. Instead, many original arias were there which were sung at the highest levels by some of the current top opera singers. These singers include my favorite singers like Rolando Villazon, Philippe Jaroussky and Patirizia Ciofi. I’ve also known and very fond of Diana Damaru and Topi Lehtipuu. The only singers I’d never heard before this opera were Vivica Genaux, Joyce DiDonato and Romina Basso. All of them sang so wonderfully at individual level. So it more felt like compilation album.

Rolando Villazon sang powerful Hercules. As a big fan of Rolando, there is always fear that his voice is not going to be there after 2 years of voice setback and very serious throat surgery (Julie Andrews’s voice never returned from the same surgery). So it’s always so nice and special to hear his brand new voice.

Previously he sang Monteverdi wonderfully but his Handel was little bit of disappointment, because I love them both. I think the song selections were just not suited for his voice. (He and Mozart don’t mix well either even though they both are each great lyrical composer and singer for his voice is too Mediterranean.). He sings amazingly if he chooses right songs.

In this opera, he sings Vivaldi impressively well. Their musical temperaments are so much alike. But I was so used to listen to him in heavy-handed classical Puccini and Verdi Style, so it just feels neat, weird and wonderful at the same time to hear him singing in the 18 th Century coloraturas Baroque style. I think he has good time singing Baroque but there is little bit of feel that he’s still not used to the singing style.

Topi Lehtipuu is wonderful tenor with higher register which suites for Baroque music. He sang in “Combattimento” where his voice and Rolando’s higher register voice have similar texture so their voices streamed well together. He also sang Mozart wonderfully. But in this opera, the register of the role he sang seemed little too low for his voice range. There is no wonder, because I found out that the role was originally written for contralto.

Philippe Jaroussky sang at his usual highest level.

I’m not going to imitate the story of this opera (the battle between Amazon female warriors and Greek soldiers), but because of these reasons above for male singers, I found myself enjoyed more with the female singers. The girls’ power is stronger in this production. I think they had the most artistic field day singing Vivaldi’s flashy tunes.

I started to watch other videos of Vivica Genaux after watching the promo video of this opera. She has amazingly beautiful mezzo-soprano voice with powerhouse lower register. But her voice is not heavy at all but has lighter, feel good and large-scale juicy texture of biting huge watermelon. But every video I watched, she sings like she is so pissed off. I think that’s why she got this Amazon queen role.

When I first listened to Diana Damaru was when she played Queen of Night in Mozart’s  “Magic Flute”. She looked very scary and she rocked the house down with her high-tech high notes. She sang one of the most amazing Queen of Night aria I’ve ever heard. After that, I saw her without all the make-up and costume and I was very surprised to see a younger, prettier and feminine-like person. She was not scary at all like her persona on the stage. It’s amazing to see what music and make-up can do.

I first listened to Patrizia Ciofi when she sang with Rolando Villazon & Topi Lehtipuu in “Conbatimmento”. She also hypnotically mesmerized me with her very beautiful soprano singing voice in Donizetti’s “La fille du Regiment” and “Don Pasquale”. In these operas, she sang in amazing Bel-cante style but in “Conbatimmneto”, she sang in perfect early Baroquean style. I also watched some portion of her Verdi’s “La Traviata” where she sang so wonderfully. Her soprano voice has amazing flexibility and such effortless smoothness. She’s also very funny comical actor.

So I disappointed that she sang only two arias in this production. According to the production notes, all the arias by her role were lost. So they borrowed two arias from elsewhere for her role. She sang them so wonderfully though. Personally I think she was more suited for Martesia role.

According to the production notes, Romina Basso is mezzo-soprano. But in this opera, she sounded more like contralto. She sang as one of the Greek soldiers who desperately falling in love with one of Amazon female warriors. He (she) is the most thoughtful, melancholic character in the opera like Faramondo in “Faramondo”, so she put so much deep moving emotions into her songs, which made me want to listen to her music more.

The biggest surprise in this opera for me was Joyce DiDonato who is mezzo-soprano from Kansas. Her voice is so pretty and I’m obsessed with her aria,  “Onde chiare che sussurrate”.

Here are my favorite arias in this opera.

Onde chiare che susurrate (Joyce DiDonato)

Bel piacer ch'è la vendetta (Vivica Genaux)

Amato ben (Joyce DiDonato)

Non fia della vittoria (Rolando Villazon)

Ti sento, sì ti sento (Romina Basso)

Occhio, che il sol rimira (Romina Basso)

Quella beltà (Philippe Jaroussky)

lo sembro appunto (Philippe Jaroussky)

Se libertà mi rendi (Patrizia Ciofi)

Caderò, ma sopra il vinto (Patrizia Ciofi)