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Haydn, L’Infedeltà Delusa – ‘Deceit Outwitted’ : Soloists, Orchestra Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, Conductor: Jérémie Rhorer, Teatro Arriaga de Bilbao 8. 2.2009 (JMI)

Production: Académie Européenne de Musicque, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Opera de Toulon, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, Opera Lille and Musikfest Bremen,

Director: Richard Brunel
Sets: Anouk Dell’Aeira
Costumes: Marianne Delayre
Lighting: David Debrinay

Cast:

Sandrina: Ina Kringelborn
Vespina: Eduarda Melo
Filippo: Iain Paton
Nencio: Julián Pregardien
Nanni: Thomas Tatzl

Picture - courtesy of Teatro Arriaga, Bilbao

To commemorate the second centenary of the death of Josef Haydn, the Teatro Arriaga produced one of his operas. There can be no question that Haydn is one of the great composers, even though his work has perhaps been over-shadowed by the genius of Mozart, but in the field of opera his work has not been rated very highly, despite some operas having been revived in the past few years.

Amongst the dozen operas that he  wrote, a large part is made up of opera buffa in the Italian style which was so popular during the second half of the 18^th century. None of them are in the repertoire of major houses at the moment. Other more serious operas have had better fortune, particularly Armida (revived in Salzburg in 2007), L' Anima del Filosofo (a vehicle for a brilliant Cecilia Bartoli in 2001) and Orlando Paladino (revived successfully in Vienna at  the end of 2007). The rest of his operas, including this L' Infedeltà Delusa,  have had occasional revivals, but have soon fallen again into oblivion.

The plot of L’infedelta Delusa is typically  complex and tends, appropriately, towards the absurd. A father, Fillipo, has a beautiful daughter he intends to marry to a rich man, Nencio. The daughter, Sandrina, loves Nanni the brother of Vespina.  Vespina, naturally enough, loves Nencio.  Sandrina is obliged to obey her father and lets Nanni know that all is lost, which inspires his  sister to embark on a series of disguises in which she impersonates variously an old woman who says that Nencio has abandoned her daughter (thus making Fillipo refuse to allow his daughter to marry him), a servant, a marquis and a notary. Eventually, all four are married, each to the right person, by Vespina’s deception.

The production at the Teatro Arriaga was premiered last July at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in the small outdoor space  of the Hôtel Maynier d' Oppède, with director Richard Brunel amply fulfilling the task  of offering this “musical burletta”, as Haydn called it. The sets were conceived for a very small stage, to the point that the action often takes place in the vertical, and this left quite a lot of empty space on the stage at the Teatro Arriaga. The opera arrived already well rehearsed, with a cast of young people who have been on a tour through different cities in Spain.

The Orchestra Le Cercle de L' Harmonie was conducted by Jérémie Rhorer. This young conductor handled the burletta with very suitable tempos, and at the same time was aware of the needs of the young singers on stage, supporting them well.

As I said, the casting was a vehicle for young singers and the best performance came from the Portuguese soprano Eduarda Melo, who was an excellent interpreter of Vespina, the heroine of the opera, a kind of Despina who moves the action along amidst ever-changing disguises. She is a good actress and a decent singer.  Sandrina was played by the Norwegian Ina Kringelborn, the only survivor of the original cast. She looked very convincing, but her vocal qualities were somewhat limited for the part.

Scottish tenor Iain Paton was too young to convince as Filippo (Sandrina’s father) and was vocally still immature.  Another young tenor Julian Pregardien (24 years old) was not up to playing Nencio, and encountered serious problems at times.   Thomas Tatzl played Nanni, the object of Sandrina’s love and suffered from uncertain pitch.

The theatre was half empty. At the final bows the public applauded all the artists with some warmth but not much enthusiasm.

José M Irurzun


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