Customer Reviews

Menotti: The Consul

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

 

 

One of the finest American operas ever written, Gian Carlo Menotti's THE CONSUL is particularly pertinent today composed as it was around a story of a woman fighting unknown forces who want to destroy her for unknown reasons. The protagonist, Magda Sorel, tries logic, patience, brave denounciations, abject begging but in the end nothing works because her enemies simply do not think and reason as she does.

Magda's character is very much in the mold of Leonore in Beethoven's "Fidelio" ready to risk everything in order to save her innocent husband. The Beethoven ends happily with a government official, Don Fernando, coming to Leonore's rescue; there is no happy ending for Magda because she is fighting the government and its officials. She commits suicide rather than face another day of torment.

This Chandos set of 2 CD's has superb sound, especially for a live performance. All of Menotti's operas must be acted as well as sung and this cast is uniformly first rate, especially Susan Bullock as 'Magda' and Victoria Livengood as the mysterious governmental 'Secretary.' Richard Hickox is the conductor of the superb Spoleto Festival Orchestra. The Spoleto Festival is, of course, the brainchild of Menotti, himself. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

I admit I was glad beyond belief to actually find a recording of this rarely performed/recorded opera. It is an excellent buy for a live recording, and the singers (most, if not all of them are unknown to me) exceed my expectations in terms of their interpretation and quality of performance. Susan Bullock, although not quite the dramatic voice I was hoping for, does a great job in potraying Magda. She is accompanied by a musically effective cast, and is rightly applauded by the audience in the most appropriate moments. If you're looking for one of the best American operas ever recorded, this is it!!!

This is a very moving score, and masterfully performed by all. Magda's nightmare is chilling, yet even more so is the opera's final scene. The message, which touches on humanity, or rather, inhumanity, is powerful and well delivered. The music and the drama haunts the listener for days.

My one concern about this recording is in regards to the soprano who sings the role of the Foreign Woman. Yes, she sings beautifully, but her timing is wrong, and so are several of the notes in her aria. To the average listener, this would pose little concern, as her errors are hardly noticable without a score sitting in front of you. However, if you are performing this role, as I myself have done, it is a bit of a drawback, and can take a lot of unnecessary hard work to correct problems resulting from this.

This aside, you cannot find a better recording of this opera, and it is highly recommended to any lover of opera.

As a student of opera, I found this work to be incredibly inspiring and entertaining. Menotti is one of my favorite composers and is becoming more so every day. Not only is the opera wonderful but the cast on this CD is remarkable. My collection would not be complete without it.

Long the most important opera absent from the CD catalogue, THE CONSUL proves worth the wait. It may not be the greatest music (despite its somber subject, it is still ice cream music, Fedora music, not spinach-Moses und Aroin music...), but when it is presented with such quality and conviction, it is a great pleasure. Maybe the best U.S. opera CD since the Mauceri Street Scene and Regina.

Menotti's 50s-drama The Consul has been recorded several times and has retained a place at the fringes of the standard repertoire. The recording from Chandos has the advantage (or whatever you may call it) of being complete and being well recorded - the performances are overall convincing and the sound is good despite the occasional stage noises, buzz and applause. But that's it, and to put a not too fine point on it: There have been some worries about the future of opera based on the fact that, apart from some Britten operas and Zimmermann's Soldaten (and perhaps a few other), few or no operas written since 1950 have succeeded in establishing themselves in the repertoire - if things like Menotti's Consul are the best candidates there is indeed cause for worry (luckily it isn't, but that doesn't seem to deter opera companies from pushing it rather than the operas of, say, Henze, Matthus, Saariaho and others).

The Consul is a painfully unsubtle take on Kafka, and its content must have struck a nerve with the paranoid political climate of the 50s - and indeed of the present. The story concerns Magda Sorel, who is trying to join her husband (John Sorel) in an unnamed free country. The opera concerns her repeated and frustrating trips to the consulate to obtain a visa, and much of the drama concerns her interactions with bureaucracy - represented by the Secretary - and other frustrated applicants (there are some exceedingly boring and predictable scenes with her mother as well, including a banal dream sequence and the death of her child - everything to shamelessly pull some emotional strings, apparently). It ends with her suicide and the capture of John. A tragedy for the modern world indeed.

Menotti sets the whole thing in a faux-Puccini manner (without the thematic material, characters, scoring, subtlety or quality) interspersed with Americana, which makes the whole thing sound like a parody. The arias are dull, the melodies vulgar, and there isn't a trace of a good idea. If there is a redeeming feature, it is surely Menotti's ability to set the dialogue effectively (Menotti wrote the libretto himself), but that skill would have come across as more impressive if the libretto had been less embarrassing.

The recording at hand is a live one, and there is some stage noise (as well as applause). Susan Bullock is a good singer, surely, and I doubt anyone could make anything more interesting out of Magda Sorel. Victoria Livengood's Secretary is, however, probably the most convincing performance and the only character that could have turned into anything interesting (her act 3 momentary realization that the visa applicants are actual people rather than numbers is the one scene that could have turned into anything actually powerful). The other roles are smaller, and they are all very well taken - one just wishes they'd had something more interesting to sing. The Spoleto Festival Orchestra is on good form, and I cannot fault Richard Hickox's direction. Hence, I should emphasize that the failure of the work lays entirely on the shoulders of the composer, and I am forced to admit that it is, indeed, a failure. Despite the compelling presentation, this release is strictly for the specialist.