It is the singers, particularly the principals, who make or
break this opera. On their shoulders rests the responsibility
to articulate and express the intimately human foibles, weaknesses,
drives and appetites of the intrigue at a terminally corrupt
Roman court of the first century CE. With this recording comes
a sense that many of the singers are ‘living up’ to their roles;
that they have styles and strengths from outside the ‘early’
music field. In particular, Anna Caterina Antonacci (Poppea),
David Daniels (Nero) and Kurt Moll (Seneca) still carry us with
them, for the most part, despite an approach that some listeners
will find inauthentic and deviant from what is known about Baroque
articulation and vocal technique. One would question the over-styled
Ottone and the underpowered Ottavia. Dorothea Röschmann’s
Drusilla is much more centred and convincing. It won’t come
as much of a surprise that Kurt Moll’s Seneca really is what
makes this set worthwhile if those reservations get in the way
of your enjoyment.
The instrumentalists
are more even. It’s a group of ten, some doubling with more
than one instrument, of course. Half the group is strings;
half continuo. This sounds well and the standard is high.
Monteverdi left little indication of which instruments were
to play when. So inevitably the responsibility for the colour
which they convey is director
and harpsichordist Ivor Bolton’s. Fortunately, he was
involved closely enough with the origination and refinement
of this production to have succeeded in making compelling
palettes and moods.
To
concentrate on the text and substance of the drama as Bolton does seems a
wise and profitable decision. We are disadvantaged, though,
in making an assessment of the production as a whole because
we only have the music and none of the staging to respond
to on a CD. For this is very much a live recording – from
the 1997 Munich Opera Festival. As well as coughs, applause
and laughter (though no gasps) there are stage sounds, stage
business and stage movements to add to the sense of being
present. Indeed, some listeners might find this all rather
intrusive, although none of the intensity or beauty of Monteverdi’s
amazing score is lost or compromised completely. Our experience
of Poppea has been largely of a distilled, somewhat
refined psychological study with the Roman ‘atmosphere’ coming
out of the larger- than-life characters and the way they respond
to situations in which our sensibilities look for parallels
with contemporary machinations.
Peter
Jonas, the Bavarian State Opera intendant explains
clearly and emphatically in his note in the booklet that in
recording this live performance a conscious decision was made
to ‘capture’ its excitement and benefits. He lays much of
the credit for this at the door of the independent and innovative
FARAO label.
A
word must be said about how Poppea has been ‘reconstructed’
here. While we know that it was first staged in Venice in 1643 and was very probably Monteverdi’s last work, we
shall never be sure just how much of what we have – including,
sadly, the exquisite ‘Pur ti miro’ – may not be by
Monteverdi at all. Nor, of course, can we have much idea of
the instrumental scoring. This recording seems to stay fairly
faithful to what Monteverdi probably intended: sparse, minimal
continuo and organ for many of Cupid and Seneca’s scenes.
But then the singers and musical momentum had better respect
the almost introverted dynamic that this meagreness implies.
It’s not at all clear that the singers on this recording have
had that uppermost in their minds. A rather flustered irony
has trumped restraint in some places.
It is this feeling
of participating in a somewhat raucous burlesque that has been
emphasised in this performance as opposed to the more suave
and reserved elegance of Gardiner on Archiv (447088) and to
the lusher sound of Harnoncourt on Teldec (063010027).
So for collectors
of Monteverdi masterpieces this will be a welcome reissue;
there is a place for it. Despite its tendency to fussiness,
there is a kind of purity. But not a neo-classical one. The
effect of this is to force a listener to question some assumptions
and accept new lights shining with unconventional colours
on the objects beneath. The actual sound of the recording
is somewhat boxy; the text in the booklet in Italian, German
and English is hard to read. All in all, it would be hard
to make this a first choice for Poppea.
Mark
Sealey
Anna Caterina
Antonacci - Poppea (soprano); Silvia Fichtl - Fortuna, Venus (soprano);
Caroline Maria Petrig - Damigella (soprano); Dorothea Röschmann
- Drusilla (soprano); Jennifer Trost - Virtù, Pallade (soprano);
David Daniels - Nerone (counter-tenor); Axel Köhler - Ottone (counter-tenor);
Dominique Visse - Arnalta (counter-tenor); Marita Knobel - Nutrice
(alto); Nadja Michael - Ottavia (mezzo); Claes H. Ahnsjö - Lucano,
Tribune (tenor); Christian Baungärtel - Valletto (tenor); Hans Jörg
Mammel - Liberto, soldier (tenor); Hubert Schmid - Tribune (tenor);
Gerhard Auer - Littore, Consul (bass); Kurt Moll - Seneca (bass);
Rüdiger Trebes - Consul (bass)
