SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

F. Leoni, L’Oracolo and  Puccini,  Le Villi: Soloists, Frankfurter Opern und Museumsorchester. Chor, Kinderchor der Oper Frankfurt. Conductor: Hartmut Keil., Oper Frankfurt. 8.4.2010. (JMI)

 

New Production Oper Frankfurt.

Director: Sandra Leupold.

Sets and Costumes: Heike Scheele.

Lighting: Joachim Klein.

 

Casts:

L’Oracolo

Cim-Fen: Bastiaan Everink.

Ah-Joe: Barbara Zechmeister.

San-Lui: Carlo Ventre.

Uin-Sci: Wen Wei Zhang.

Hu-Tsin: Franz Mayer.

Hua-Qui: Katharina Magiera.

 

Le Villi
Anna: Barbara Zechmeister.

Roberto: Carlo Ventre.

Guglielmo: Bastiaan Everink.


Franco Leoni is a composer who has fallen into near oblivion. A contemporary of Puccini, his first opera was premiered in 1890 in his native Milan, when he was 26 years old. Later on his career was developed mainly in London, and it was at Covent Garden in 1905 where his opera L’Oracolo was premiered. Baritone Antonio Scotti was in the cast then and subsequently he performed the opera at New York’s Metropolitan, so regularly that  it was the opera he chose for his Met farewell in 1933.  Leoni wrote 9 operas in all, and L'Oracolo is the only one (so far as I know) to havie received a studio recording;  dating from  in 1977 with Richard Bonynge and Joan Sutherland. I am not aware that this opera has been performed in any  other opera house during  the last 25 years.

L'Oracolo is a contemporary of the verismo style  and its quality is not really comparable to the more famous works in the  genre, since it is rather short on inspiration. There are a couple of pleasant duets in it and also some quite decent pages that Leoni gives to the bass. The action takes place in San Francisco’s Chinatown around 1900 during the Chinese New Year  and has a fairly complicated  and not too credible plot. It involves Cim-Fem, an evil opium dealer, Hu-Tsin, a wealthy merchant, whose niece is the object of Cim-Fem's desires, and Uin-Sci, a wise doctor, whose son San Lui is in love with Ah-Joe, Hu-Tsin's niece who also loves him. The love rivalry provides the title for the opera; an oracle that allows the wise doctor, to foresee that two men will die the same day, one of them going to Nirvana and the other to hell. Cim-Fen ultimately kills San Lui, before dying by the wise doctor's hand, so fulfilling the oracle's prophesy. Poor Ah-Joe becomes mad.

The second title for this  double bill was the first opera written by Puccini and premiered in Milan in 1884, when the composer was also 26 years old. It makes a  very appropriate choice for pairing with L'Oracolo. Le Villi is also very seldom performed on stage, although in recent years there have been a few concert versions here and there. Although the operas are contemporary, and although Le Villi is not Puccini's best,  it scores better on quality by from the  Lucca composer. Le Villi  is better from a musical point of view and offers excellent arias for the three protagonists -  the bright “Torna ai felici dì” for Roberto, the well known "Se comme voi piccina io fossi", for Anna, and finally, Guglielmo’s "Anima santa della figlia mia".

 

In a sense Le Villi's  plot parallels  Stravinski’s  Rake's Progress to a certain extent. Roberto, promised to Anna, goes to the city to after inheriting money, abandoning the girl, who later dies of grief. The difference comes in the second half, since Anna dies and goes to form part of Le Villi, the spirits of women betrayed by their lovers. In the end, Roberto finally finds Anna and is sentenced to death by dancing with her until exhaustion. Apart from the arias mentioned, there is an intermezzo added by Puccini for Turin and some pleasant ballet music in the score. It is certainly worthy  of more frequent performances.

Director Sandra Leupold present both operas as a live TV show, with the public (i.e.the chorus) occupying the guest stands. The rotating stage is occupied by cameras, show presenters, extras who move the few scenic elements around, and the attractive female assistants usual in television shows. In fact, this choice of setting provides an atmosphere of artificiality that  marries  badly with the arguments of both operas. It is as if Ms. Leupold does not wholly believe in the value of these operas and so does her own thing with them.  Suffice it  to say that in L’Oracolo Cim-Fen's death is followed by a musical epilogue, during which the both he and San Lui rise to meet with  the presenters and their attractive assistants to have a drink, while the fake audience applauds. This kind of thing can make sense in better known operas, but add little to works completely unknown to a theatre audience.

 

Musical direction was in the hands of young Hartmut Keil, whom I found somewhat flat in Leoni’s opera and  improving in Le Villi, although not all that  much. The solid orchestra was also better in the Puccini.

The cast provided no big names. Best-known was the Uruguayan tenor Carlo Ventre as San-Lui and Roberto. He was short on expressiveness as an interpreter, offering a wide middle register of reasonable quality and some bright, although limited high notes. He was at his best in the aria by Puccini. Bastiaan Everink was a compelling performer as Cim-Fen with some  fine open sounds, while he was rather badly cast in the Puccini, where he sang the noble role of Guglielmo as if it were Alfio or Tonio. Both Ah-Joe in L’Oracolo and Anna in Le Villi are written for a full lyric soprano and Barbara Zechmeister was too light either, particularly in the lower register. She is more Despina than Musetta, not to mention  Mimi, Nedda or Cio Cio San.

In the secondary roles for  L’Oracolo, Franz Mayer was decent enough as the merchant Hu-Tsin.  Uin-Sci was bass baritone Wen Wei Zhang, with a noble timbre,  not very much volume and a whitish high register. Katharina Magiera made a positive impression as Hua-Qui.

No more than half of the seats were taken and there were a few more vacated after L’Oracolo. The final reception for Leoni’s performance was cool, bordering just about on courtesy and  I have never witnessed such short final bows from a cast. The reception for Puccini was warmer, but still far from enthusiasm although at least the artists were able to repeat their ensemble bows.

 
José M Irurzun