Customer Reviews

Handel: Ezio

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ezio has long deserved a first-class recording, and Alan Curtis gives it to us, as he has with so many other neglected Handel operas. Now professor emeritus of musicology at Berkeley, Curtis helped kick off the Handel renaissance with his complete recording of Admeto Handel - Admeto / Jacobs, Yakar, Bowman, Dams, Cold, Gomez, van Egmond, Il Complesso Barocco, A. Curtis for EMI in 1977. That recording, which is still available on Virgin CD, starred Rene Jacobs, James Bowman, Max van Egmond, and other pioneers in historically informed performance. The band was Il Complesso Barocco, then comprised primarily of Dutch musicians.

Curtis didn't record any more Handel operas for many years afterwards, but recently he has more than made up for lost time. From his base near Florence, Curtis has reconstituted Il Complesso Barocco as a largely Italian ensemble. Since 1999, they have produced CDs of Alcina Handel: Alcina, Arminio, Berenice, Deidamia, Fernando, Floridante, Lotario, Radamisto, Rodelinda, Rodrigo, and Tolomeo and a fine DVD of Arioidante Handel - Ariodante / Hallenberg, Cherici, Vandoni Iorio, Nesi, Lepore, Stains, Prato, Il Compresso Brocco, Curtis, Pascoe (Spoleto Festival 2007). Many of these are first recordings, and several have won awards.

Here Curtis assembles another outstanding vocal cast. Swedish mezzo Ann Hallenberg (Ezio) took the title roles in Curtis's Ariodante and Tolomeo and has recorded many other Baroque works. Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin (Fulvia) has excelled in Alcina and Tolomeo under Curtis and has made an outstanding disc of Handel's cantata Apollo e Dafne with Les Violons du Roy. Italian contralto Sonia Prina (Valentiniano) also has a long discography. The other singers are less well known but hold their own in this stellar line-up.

The libretto, after Metastasio's Ezio, draws on the historical rivalry between emperor Valentinian and his general Flavius Aetius (Ezio), who defeated Attila and saved Rome from the Huns. The evil patrician Massimo attempts to frame Ezio for treason, but after some complicated twists and turns, the opera concludes with the requisite liete fine (happy ending). Gramophone's reviewer describes the work as "an excellent and much-needed . . . recording" of "a fascinating, serious dramatic opera," and it's an Editor's Choice for June 2009. The Times (London) writes, "The drama sizzles and the arias ravish the ear." The accolades are fully deserved.

Unfortunately I can't be enthusiastic about this Alan Curtis production. I've followed Curtis' stately progress through the Handel opera catalog with a great deal of pleasure, and felt that many were five-star performances. But this one achieves a level of mere high competency. I agree with the reviewer from MusicalCriticism.com, who said this recording "is an efficiently authentic interpretation of an under-exposed opera, and boasts a strong cast of singers. Yet somehow it lacks the sparkle that would really woo listeners to this unfamiliar opera. The whole enterprise is unfailingly stylish and correct but lacks the suppleness and the willingness to cast decorum aside every now and then and really get its hands dirty." Why?

Well, first, this is not the first Ezio recording, though it is the first "authentic". An earlier, much-maligned recording on Vox, conducted by Richard Auldon Clark, has been around for years. This version is truncated, and played on modern instruments--but, very occasionally, it has some of the "sparkle" this one lacks. That's not at all to say that I recommend the Auldon Clark version (still available) over this newer, complete one. Here, Ann Hallenberg (as Ezio) is quite good, and Karina Gauvin (as Fulvia) is acceptable (though not as good as Julianne Baird, a wonderful baroque soprano and the primary advantage of the Auldon Clark recording). Marianne Andersen as Onoria is the vocal low point of the Curtis effort, constantly rough and unlovely. Curtis' vocal star though,is tenor Anicio Giustiniani as Massimo, the scheming patrician. Massimo is a kind of Handelian Iago, and Giustiniani wears the role like a glove. Vito Priante is fine in the minor but important bass role of Varo. Handel vocally fleshed out this role for his famous bass Montagnana (reportedly the star castrato Senesino was quite irritated that Montagnana got so much stage time in this opera). Priante, as noted, is not bad, but he's no David Thomas--the bass on the Harmonia Mundi recording "Arias for Montagnana". This wonderful CD excerpts all the Varo arias from Ezio.

But the larger issue here is not the performances--it's "Ezio" itself. Several of Handel's operas were outright flops on their initial London runs. "Ezio" was one such. Whenever I read of these Handel London premiere failures, and listen to the beautiful operas today, I usually say to myself, "What were those stupid Londoners thinking about?" But with "Ezio", I think the London public might have been on to something (it lasted only five performances). Handel used a well-traveled Metastasio libretto. It's a Roman story heavily concerned with duty and honor; Metatasio's strong suit wasn't romance (though that's certainly present in "Ezio"). I just don't believe that Handel was quite as inspired by this stolid material as he was in some of his greater works (for me, Ariodante Amadigi, Giulio Cesarea and Serse). There may just be a good musical reason, folks, why "Ezio" is one of the least-performed (and least-recorded) Handel works.

This is a very rarely performed opera but the quality of the music amply justifies a first class performance. In my view the outstanding aspect of this recording is the quality of the recording process itself. I found most of the performance to be engaging, and sometimes of the highest quality, although there were a few moments when either the enthusiasm of the performers and/or their attention to the detail of individual phrases seemed to flag.

There is an American recording of this work but the new recording will be my favourite.