“Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria” by Nikolaus Harnoncourt

I watched the stage production of Monteverdi’s opera “Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria” (The return of Ulysses) conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

This stage production of DVD was made in 2002, so everything looked very modern.

It is not only stage setting and costumes that are modern. Harnoncourt’s orchestra in this production is quiet large for early Baroque music. It’s almost mid-size orchestra, not small ensemble as customary of early Baroque music. And it seems like he used very little period instruments. As the result, his music in this production sounded very Classical and quiet loud, which is so different from his other Monteverdi DVD productions.

Not only that, most of the singers in this production including the main characters sung in the straightforward Classical style. They are not at all Baroque singers, which is disappointing because voices of Classical singers tend to be heavier for early Baroque music.

I’ve never really understood why Harnoncourt changed the voice ranges for all the three main characters in his three Monteverdi opera DVD productions. Both tenor roles of Orfeo and Ulysses became baritones and soprano role of Nero became tenor. Musically, these are very drastic changes.

The main character, Ulysses that meant to be and usually sung by tenor, but was sung by Baritone, Dietrich Henschel. This role is the best when it’s sung by tenor as originally intended by Monteverdi. Henschel’s singing had heavy weight that is much suited for Classical operas. Also his singing and acting had little emotional expression.

Ulysses’ wife, Penelope was sung by mezzo-soprano, Veselina Kasarova. She has also very good weight in her singing and acting which had the appealing quality even though, she also sounded like very Classical.

Their son, Telemaco was sung by handsome tenor, Jonas Kaufmann. His voice is very Classical; I couldn’t and cannot imagine him to sing Baroque even after hearing him singing Monteverdi.

All three of them had really heavy voices for this type of music. They’re very good singers, but rather belong to Classical but not to Baroque.

Only the charming couple of Malin Hartelius and Roger Widmer who sung Melanto and Eumete had authentic Baroque voices and singing techniques. They sung very well and only when they sung, it really felt like Monteverdi.

I didn’t care so much for the orchestration or over all quality of the singers in this production. I liked the production of the same opera by William Christie better. Christie’s production had better assemble of wonderful Baroque singers.

“L’Orfeo” by Nikolous Harnocourt

I watched Monteverdi’s opera “L’Orfeo” conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

It was also made in 70’s. So like his “L’Icoronazione di Poppea”, from the lavish costume to stage settings, everything about this production has the same grandeur of the 70’s big budget Hollywood movie production. And just like his “Poppea”, visually, it is either entertaining or has the 70’s excess & artificial cheapness, depends on how degree each viewer likes or dislikes the 70’s trends and styles.

Monteverdi left the very specific instructions on the type and number of instruments to be used for “L’Orfeo”. But just like his “Poppea”, Harnoncourt’s music has quiet bit of modern arrangements and commercialized sounds. This production is also “sophisticated” version of Monteverdi. And yet, I’m still fond of his music. Because I think he has both very good musical senses and dramatic musical skills.

He also chooses high-level selection of singers. All the singers in this production sung well.

Mezzo-soprano, Trudeliese Schmidt played and sung both La Musica and La Speranza very well. She sung Ottavia in “Poppea” wonderfully. She is elegantly beautiful and has the similar elegant beautiful expressive voice.

Baritone, Philippe Huttenlocher played Orfeo. Orfeo is usually sung by tenor and I usually also personally prefer tenor to sing this role. Philippe Huttenlocher’s acting was initially dorky just like Eric Tappy as Nero was in “Poppea”. But later in the opera, his goofiness was gone and both his acting and singing became intensive, real and emotionally heavy. His acting and singing were very convincing.

So far, I’ve only listened to very handful of the17^th century operas (Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo”, “L’Incoronazione di Poppea”, “Il ritorno D’Ulisse in Patria” and Stefano Landi’s “Il sant’ Alessio”). All these operas picture very intensive either non-idealized human characters or emotions, which are surprisingly raw, compare to either idealized, romanticized and polite style of human dramas in the 18^th and later century operas.

Inconsolable Orfeo goes deep down to Hell in desperate search of his beloved dead bride. He finds her but looses her because of his irrationality. Not only he looses her but also he’d be torn to pieces to death by the female species whom he cursed from anger. He is not presented as a hero but as one human being of weakness and faults with raw emotions. This opera is all about his torment and sorrow. Him going through Hell is the psychological metaphor of the very raw human emotions.

“La fida ninfa” by Vivaldi

I listened to Vivaldi’s opera “La fida ninfa” conducted by Jean-Christophe Spinosi and orchestrated by his orchestra, Ensemble Matheus.

When I first listened to this opera, I got the immediate impression that Vivaldi either hated or loved soprano singers so much because just like “Griselda”, this opera is also filled with highly vocally demanding torturous arias especially for soprano singers like Veronica Cangemi and Sandrine Piau.

The truth of the fact is that Vivaldi was violinist not singer. He composed for vocal as he composed for violin, just like that. The crazy notes must be really flying around all over inside of his head because human vocal cord is not as flexible as violin.

To answer to his demands, Veronica Cangemi truly has the vocal flexibility and agility of an Olympic athlete. The wonderful thing about her is that she also did not sacrifice emotional expressions for the sake of vocal technicality. As always, she is highly expressive even in this production. (Though it took for a while to get used to the idea that she sung as the male role instead of female roles she usually sings.)

Two baritones. Lorenzo Reggazo and Christian Senn are also wonderful. Christian Senn’s voice is much richer than when he sung on the stage of “Orlando Furioso”.

Contralto, Sarah Mingardo has wonderful voice. As the same way as Marie-Nicole Lemieux, she also has amazingly light, fine expressive beautiful voice as contralto.

Marie-Nicole Lemieux sung higher and lighter in this production than in any other productions I’ve listened to. She also showcased her wonderful voice agility. Her and Philippe Jaroussky’s voices are like two butterflies in their comical duet.

Philippe Jaroussky seems to shine high level of artistry in every production he’s involved (including Vivaldi’s “Elcole Sul Telmodonte”). But he is little less shiny in this production. Even though he sung one of my favorite Vivaldi’s arias,  “Ah, che non posso” very well and yet, I also thought the aria like “Qual serpe toturosa”, he could do better. This opera is probably not his cup of tea.

There are two singers who are surprisingly wonderful in this production.

One of them is Sandrine Piau. Her voice has purity and beauty of pearl shining brightly at night. Her singing has exceptional beauty and maturity. And every aria she sung, she sung so wonderfully.

The most surprising thing in the production is Topi Lehtipuu. His aria, “Deh, ti piega, deh, consenti” is amazingly emotionally moving. He sung the old father who was kidnapped along with his two young daughters. And in this aria, he desperately negotiates and begs his captor who is about to sell them to slave traders. He tells the captor to show them some mercy because the situation they’re in is where the captor could find himself in one day.

There is one more surprising thing. This is different from the other Vivaldi operas he has done; Jean-Christophe Spinosi’s orchestration in this opera is wonderfully rich and full. His “Orlando Furioso” was recorded in 2004, “Griselda” was in 2006 and this recording was done in 2008 (and his Handel’s “Messiah” was staged in 2010). So it seems like simply his orchestration sounds have refined and wonderfully matured over time. He’s wonderful conductor whose music is filled with so much affectionate human warmth.

Deh, ti piega, deh, consenti (Topi Lehtipuu)

Selve annose, erme foreste (Sandrine Piau)

Alma oppressa da sorte crudele (Sandrine Piau)

Destin avaro (Veronica Cangemi)

Dite, oimè! Ditelo, al fine (Veronica Cangemi)

Ah, che non posso, no (Philippe Jaroussky)

Perdo ninfa, chera una dea (Lorenzo Regazzo)

Cento donzelle (Marie-Nicole Lemieux)

“L’Incolonazione di Poppea” by Rene Jacobs

I watched Monteverdi’s “L’Incolonazione di Poppea” conducted by Rene Jacobs in 1993.

The stage setting looked like Sci-Fi movie set, which looked neat and strangely unsuitable at the same time. They had cheep and ugly costumes and not so good make-up jobs.

The sound recording was not very good.  Also this production omitted many scenes.

The mot singers in this production are either good or good enough but not so great.

Soprano, Patricia Schuman who played Poppea had beautiful voice but it was little heavy.

The opening scene’s singing by countertenor, Jeffery Gall who played Otto was good. But the rest of his singing was weak.

I didn’t know until I watched it that Richard Croft played Nero. It was made almost 20 years ago, so he looked very young and handsome. His acting was awkward as a stick in mud though.

I usually don’t care so much for tenor to sing this role, but his light virtuosic vocal cord was well suited for Monteverdi. He makes very good tenor Nero. Only he sung it slower.

This is my biggest complaint for this production. All the singers sung so hastily. I love slow Monteverdi like the production of  “L’Orfeo” conducted by Jean-Claude Malgoire. Monteverdi’s music has such wonderful melodies and rich textures so I don’t understand why they have to be hasten to be cut so short.

This production was orchestrated by Concerto Koln. I listened to their orchestration in the recent Philippe Jaroussky’s album “Caldara” where they played very muscular tight music under the direction of another muscular conductor, Emanuel Haim.

There is close to 20 years difference between these two productions, so probably most of the instrumentalists are not the same but yet even in this production, they played very vital hardcore Classical style music. I liked their music, only if they played other than Monteverdi. This is my second biggest complaint. They played little too noisy in the face of the singers’ singing.

This is not very good production. Even within the older recordings, Harnoncourt’s “Poppea” which made in 70’s had much superior quality.