{"id":71588,"date":"2014-04-23T00:45:47","date_gmt":"2014-04-22T22:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gbopera.it\/?p=71588"},"modified":"2016-11-26T05:06:39","modified_gmt":"2016-11-26T04:06:39","slug":"dresden-semperoperlimpresario-delle-canarie-sub-plot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/dresden-semperoperlimpresario-delle-canarie-sub-plot\/","title":{"rendered":"Dresden, Semperoper:”L’Impresario delle Canarie” & “Sub-Plot”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dresden. Semperoper,\u00a0 Opera Season 2013-2014. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>
\n“L’IMPRESARIO DELLE CANARIE” <\/b>
\nIntermezzo for two, libretto Pietro Metastasio
\nComposer Giovanni Battista Martini <\/b>
\nDorina<\/em>\u00a0 CHRISTEL LOETZSCH
\nNibbio<\/em>\u00a0 <\/b>MATTHIAS REXROTH
\n“SUB-PLOT” <\/b>
\nIntermezzo for soprano, 2 baritones, contrabassoon and double bass.
\ntext based on the libretto ‘Didone abbandonata’<\/em> by Pietro Metastasio selected and compiled by Lucia Ronchetti and Anne Gelber
\nComposer \u00a0Lucia Ronchetti <\/b>
\nDidone<\/em>\u00a0 NORMA NAHOUN
\nEnea\u00a0<\/em> PAVEL KUB\u00c1N
\nIarba<\/em> \u00a0<\/b>JULIAN ARSENAULT
\nDancers: Mandy Garbrecht, Nicole Meyer, Mykola Abramenko
\nThe Handel Festival Orchestra Halle
\nConductor and basso continuo Felice Venanzoni <\/b>
\nDirector\u00a0 Axel K\u00f6hler <\/b>
\nSet designer\u00a0 Arne Walther <\/b>
\nCostumes\u00a0 Frauke Schernau <\/b>
\nChoreography\u00a0 Carla B\u00f6rner<\/b>
\nBaroque gesticulation\u00a0 Nils Niemann <\/b>
\nLighting\u00a0 Fabio Antoci <\/b>
\nDramaturgy Anne Gelber\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>
\nCo-production with the Halle Opera House.
\nDresden. 13th<\/sup> April, 2014.
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

With their latest premiere, the Dresden\u00a0 Semperoper Dresden has the double merit of presenting a rarely performed baroque intermezzo together with a\u00a0 contemporary chamber opera commissioned by them from the Italian composer Lucia Ronchetti.\u00a0 It is already the second excursus,\u00a0 into this genre by Ronchetti who will complete her trilogy for the Saxon opera house next year.\u00a0 In the 18th<\/sup> century,\u00a0 an intermezzo indicated a brief, fun entertainment held during the intervals of serious operas. Ronchetti has taken this opera within an opera format and reversed it, inserting an opera seria within the opera buffa.\u00a0 She has taken ‘L’impresario delle Canarie’,<\/em> set to music by Giovanni Battista Martini in 1744 to a libretto by Metastasio, and interpolated, within it, her chamber opera Didone Abbandonata, the original opera seria for which the intermezzo had been written. The text of her Sub-Plot is a selection and compilation of Metastasio’s own libretto of Didone Abbandonata,<\/em> first performed in 1724 to music by Domenico Sarro.
\nThe entire performance lasts just over an hour and\u00a0 uses only the proscenium and pit area. An excellent small baroque orchestra, made up of members of the Halle Handel Festival Orchestra, conducted by Felice Venanzon<\/strong>i, is employed.\u00a0 The deceptively simple and fixed set design by Arne Walther is a stage set seen from\u00a0 the back-stage perspective,\u00a0 representing the location of the behind the scenes behaviour of the impresario.\u00a0 This perspective also provides the reduced stage zone with the possibility of exploiting the\u00a0 vertical space for action and movement by means of\u00a0 stage machinery, in this case a scaffolding bridge. With the subtle use of lighting by Fabio Antoci, the same scene transforms from the harsh footlights of the intermezzo into a diffused dimness of an unidentified background for the Sub-Plot while availing itself of the identical structures.\u00a0 The costumes define the characters; beautifully baroque and elegant for Dorina, garishly colourful for\u00a0 Nibbio, shadowy purple in baroque coat, soft bow and britches for Iarba, Grecian white simplicity for Didone and a brocaded waistcoated replica of the conductor for Aeneas.
\nL’impresario delle Canarie,<\/em> written in the style of Pergolesi, is a charming work with a lively melodic vein, rich in ornamentation, instrumental novelties and self-parody.\u00a0 Both Christel Loetzsch<\/strong> and Matthias Rexroth<\/strong> who carry two thirds of the weight of the\u00a0 performance alone on stage,\u00a0 are engaging and commanding in their respective roles of Dorina and Nibbio.\u00a0 Loetzsch, a member of the\u00a0 Semperoper’s Young Artist’s Programme, has the poise and presence but also the temperament\u00a0 in the part of the\u00a0 prima donna.\u00a0 Vocally precise in the exacting runs and ornaments, fluidity of line and clarity of diction suffered due to an intense vibrato and dark, covered colour, suited to Dorina’s passionate nature, but which camouflaged the text and weighted the flow.\u00a0 Supported by a stylish gesticulation of the baroque declamatory style, Matthias Rexroth’s counter tenor shone for technical security, clear and focussed enunciation, together with an easy and galvanizing stage-presence and\u00a0 a perfectly calibrated self-mockery.
\nWith his exit and the dramatic device of a dream sequence, the Sub-plot is grafted seamlessly into the intermezzo. Fascinating for its parallels with baroque opera and oratorio, it presents a lean cast and a musical base akin to a basso continuo with only a contra bassoon and double bass. The plaintive timbre of the bassoon and the cavernous sound of the bass, lend themselves to an atmosphere of pain and\u00a0 despair, and allow the voices an almost a cappella freedom for dynamics and colour.\u00a0 The solo voices overlap and entwine in a clearly defined counterpoint, each expressing their individual state of mind and expressing their intimate emotions. The build up of tension passes through the\u00a0 constant harmonic shifts between dissonance and resolution as the vocal lines overlap and fall away.\u00a0\u00a0 The scene is based on the brief, crucial episode in the tale of Dido and Aenaes when Aeneas, declares his love for Dido but confesses to her that the gods request his departure: the Didone Abbandonata of the original title.\u00a0 Aeneas is torn between love and duty. Dido is in despair and Iarbas, the local king demands Dido’s hand in marriage. The conflicting sentiments and emotions are projected clearly and articulately in counterpoint, and the vocal writing is extremely supportive of the voice, never demanding brutal or violent handling of it. The cast, all from the Young Artist’s Programme, Norma Nahoun<\/strong> as Dido, Pavol Kub\u00e1n<\/strong> as Aeneas and Julian Arsenault<\/strong> as Iarbas, did justice to Lucia Ronchetti’s solicitous and sensitive writing.\u00a0 Norma Nahoun brought both expressive and musical phrasing to her part.\u00a0 Her even emission\u00a0 and sustained breath control, with the roundness and purity of her timbre, lent dignity, grace and pathos to her character. Pavol Kub\u00e1n and Julian Arsenault were convincing foils for her tragedy and dilemma; Kub\u00e1n in conveying a sense of hopelessness and Arsenault in his portrayal of an impetuous and unrefined rejected suitor.\u00a0 The baroque orchestra, under the guidance of the conductor and harpsichordist, Felice Venanzoni, played stylishly, with consummate precision and beauty of tone, always in perfect balance within the group and in relation to the singers. It was also encouraging to see such a large percentage of families, and enthusiastic too, which made up the audience at the second performance matin\u00e9e, on Sunday 13th<\/sup> April. Photo Matthias Creutziger<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dresden. Semperoper,\u00a0 Opera Season 2013-2014. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “L’IMPRESARIO DELLE CANARIE” Intermezzo for two, libretto Pietro Metastasio Composer Giovanni Battista […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":71593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10378,10283,9354,10376,10375,10377,145],"class_list":["post-71588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senza-categoria","tag-axel-kohler","tag-dresden-semperoper","tag-foreign-readers","tag-giovanni-battista-martini","tag-limpresario-delle-canarie","tag-lucia-ronchetti","tag-opera-lirica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}