“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)