Customer Reviews

Prokofiev - Betrothal in a Monastery

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Betrothal in a Monastery Op. 86 is an opera that is based on the comedy The Duenna by British dramatist Richard Brinsley Sheridan. The libretto was written by Prokofiev's second wife, Mira Mendelssohn and is Prokofiev's attempt to adapt Italian opera buffa to the Russian stage. While there can be comparisons between this opera and The Love for Three Oranges, the operas are quite different. Betrothal in a Monastery is more lyrical as part of the musical style Prokofiev developed after his return to Russia. Much of the music in the opera is light and playful. The orchestration is masterful and inventive with Prokofiev's characteristic writing for the lower brass.

This production was filmed at the Kirov opera in 1998 and is conducted by Valery Gergiev, which is an excellent Prokofiev interpreter. Visually, it is a beautiful production. The stage is dominated by a giant fan, which rises to create a fantasy background or lowered to make a playing area for the singers and dancers. Some of the costumes (especially those of the dancers) are reminiscent of Carnival season in Venice, and are colorful and original. It is a fast moving theater, full of movement and color, imitating the Italian eighteenth-century theatrical style. The Kirov Ballet dancers add much to the excitement.

All the singers are first rate. It is apparent that in the Kirov Gergiev assembled infinite reserves of outstanding singers. Luisa is sung by soprano Anna Netrebko. Today she is one of the hottest names in opera. She has a beautiful lyric voice and her characterization is flawless. Her Antonio, tenor Yevgeny Akimov, is excellent too. Mezzo Larissa Diadkova, now very famous in the west, is the Duenna and she is superb. Another mezzo, Marianna Tarassova sings the role of Luisa's friend, Clara and her softer voice suit the role admirably. Nikolai Gassiev is Don Jerome. His vocal and physical acting is outstanding and the veteran bass Sergei Alexashkin sings Mandoza with an enormous nose that was attached to his face.

Technical quality is first rate. It is an outstanding issue. No lover of Prokofiev's music should miss it.

Prokofiev had just escaped from the horrors of World War II (the Soviet government sent him to a refuge far from the war front); he had also just escaped from an unhappy marriage (he brought his new girlfriend with him, and they collaborated on the libretto for "Betrothal in a Monastery"). The result was a brilliantly witty score filled with lyric melody. As expected, this production with Gergiev and the Kirov Opera is satisfyingly authoritative. The cast is excellent and Netrebko is outstanding. The sets are ingenious, the costumes are beautiful, and the commedia dell' arte ballet sequences are gorgeous. Audio quality is loud and clear. I am certain that you will enjoy this 20th-century comic masterpiece, this performance, and this DVD.

"Melodies flutter above the the lush thicket of Prokofiev's orchestration like cracked crystal dragonflies, defying the laws of musical gravity."

That's my lame attempt to evoke with words the angular eccentricity of Prokofiev's distinctive style. Nobody with a musical memory would ever mistake a Prokofiev melody for anyone else's. I'm very fond of Prokofiev's music. Though I wouldn't say he's a better composer than Shostakovitch or Schnittke, I listen to him more often, and I do think he's a better composer than his critics claim. Thus I hate it venomously when a rare production of one of his operas is unsatisfactory, and I love it when one succeeds. I love this production immeasurably.

For a modernist charged with using dissonance merely for shock value, Prokofiev is remarkably committed to extending musical traditions. Bethrothal in a Monastery is, formally speaking, a French Baroque opera-ballet. The frequent intermezzi of dance are equally interludes of orchestral development. If the dance is somewhat restrained, all the better for hearing the musical exposition! But Bethrothal in a Monastery is also a Rossini opera buffa par excellence. Rossini could have used the same libretto... and it's a shame he didn't. It would be fun to compare.

Set in 18th Century Seville but based on an English play by Sheridan, Bethrothal in a Monastery is the story of a miserly father and a beautiful daughter, Luisa. The father contracts a marriage for his daughter with an oafish fishmonger, Isaac Mendoza, purely for money. Luisa already has her willful heart set on Antonio, a handsome but impoverished nobleman. Luisa's brother Ferdinand scorns his father's wishes also and wants to marry Clara, who doubts his sincerity. Then there's the Duenna - the title character in Sheridan's play - who aspires to trap Mendoza for herself. Mendoza and the Duenna are broad commedia dell'arte buffoons; the music assigned them is as slapstick as the putty nose of the fishmonger and the clown make-up of the Duenna. Suffice it to say that all three couples are eventually united and the father reconciled to the matches.

Prokofiev himself prepared the libretto in collaboration with Mira Mendelson. It's excellent dramaturgy, concise and quick-moving, offering the composer a vehicle for condensing his musical thoughts scene by scene. The Kirov Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev, realizes those musical thoughts with jolly precision. Bass Sergei Aleksashkin sings the bizarre swoops and bellows of Mendoza with ludicrous beauty, while Nikolai Gassiev, as the father, and Yuri Shkliar, as the pompous old meddlar Don Carlos, likewise succeed in making brilliant music out of clownish roles. The four handsome young folk all sing handsomely, as befits their characters. In proverbial terms, "handsome is as handsome does." Physical, musical, and ethical beauty are all congruent in Prokofiev's comedy.

Anna Netrebko as Luisa and Marianna Tarassova as Clara... the whole cast is Russian. A case could be made, based on this production, that all operas should be sung by native speakers of the libretto language. I don't understand a word of Russian, yet I heard the words of this opera as real tongue, with the full expressiveness of speech. Other productions of Russian opera, with mixed casts, have not made this impression. I've had the same good experience hearing Czeck singers sing Janacek and Italian singers sing Donizetti, and the corresponding ill experience hearing Europeans sing Britten. The peculiar vocables of Russian are part of the fun in Bethrothal. I wonder if Russian sounds as bizarre to Russians as it does to "us." Listening to Betrothal, I realized for the first time that Prokofiev's queer lurching melodies are precise imitations of Russian elocution.

Carnival is underway in Seville as the drama progresses, providing ample pretexts for a chorus, for dancers, and for fanciful dress. This is a period staging, with splendid sets and costumes. Each character's costume is a manifestation of that persona's moral and aesthetic stature. Fortunately for filming, the principals in this production all look physically convincing, with the gross Mendoza as ugly as an ape and with Luisa performed by the most beautiful woman in the world. I'm serious! If you know of a woman more beautiful than Anna Netrebko, please send me her photo! Her only rival is that Junoesque tennis star, Sharapova. There's an unfair distribution of talents here, friends! Netrebko sings as beautifully as she looks, and she can act, too! In any case, Betrothal in a Monastery is a visual feast.

The musical highlights are the quartet at the end of Act II and the meetings of the lovers in the garden of a nunnery in Act III, where Prokofiev mutes his sardonic jaggedness and lets his melodies flow gracefully.

Then there's the burlesque revel of the drunken monks, so vulgarly anti-religious that it might have served to placate Uncle Joe despite the composer's musical modernism. Satire of hypocritical monks was a standard element of European comedy from the Middle Ages onward, but I suspect "western" audiences will feel squeamish at these grotesqueries, as they might about the Jewishness of the greedy Mendoza, even though no overt anti-Semitism is expressed. Remember Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice? Prokofiev's humor is innocent by comparison.

This DVD has it all - great singing, gorgeous visuals, vivid acting, belly laughs, and fine technical work with cameras and mikes. I can't imagine not enjoying it, even if opera is not your usual choice of entertainment.

I really can't add much to the above, but I too wanted to rave about this DVD. I recently bought this for my opera-expert father-in-law, and now he is raving as well. It's the top-notch technical quality of the DVD, the superb casting and performances, and the wonderful staging and costumes that combine to make this all so impressive. Add to that a Shakespearean comedy storyline (women trading identities to fool men, all in the name of love), and it can't help but be delightful.

If you want to impress the opera lover in your life, go for this one, and get one for yourself, too!

`Betrothal in a Monastery' is admittedly a difficult opera to stage. The libretto is ridiculous, with pantomime characters and situations throughout; and yet Prokofiev's score contains sinister, menacing elements and traces of sincere passion. Prokofiev himself stated that his score deliberately highlighted the ROMANTIC over the `buffa' themes in the story, while remaining firmly in the genre of comic opera. For any production to be truly effective a balance must be found between these important components - the `buffa' and the `seria' - and this Kirov Opera production unfortunately fails in this respect. Yes, it's fun. But when every scene and aria is played with the same overly stagy and affected histrionics a certain dissatisfaction begins to set in. It is as if a whole level of music and drama is being omitted.

The set is spectacular rather than effective or convincing. The singing is great on the whole; Yevgenii Akimov's unconvincing Don Antonio an unfortunate exception. Larissa Diadkova is perfect as the duenna and Anna Netrebko is charming - if too stagy - as her young charge, Louisa. But for me it is Marianna Tarassova's beautiful Clara that really steals the show. She alone reveals the deeper levels of the music, which is wonderfully powerful and tender, as well as deliciously comic. Her singing was beautiful and effective, and I found myself longing for her to take over every scene.

But perhaps it's my Anglo-Australian sense of humour that is embarrassed by less subtle European comedy, which usually resorts to self-deprecating slapstick. The verdict: it's fun, but one-dimensional.

Firstly, if you're wondering if this offers a good opportunity to gaze at the beauteous Anna Netrebko, then -- YES! She has a plum role and she's gorgeous in this with enuf medium closeups to satisfy the most hormonal of men.

But, remember, this is Prokofiev's opera, not Puccini's, so expect the music to be atonal and expressive rather than melodic. Once you get used to it, it's kinda fun.

But... oiy!... that plot! Surely it was ancient when Richard Sheridan came up with his version ("The Duenna") in 1775 -- which was the source of this opera. Stop me if this sounds familiar: a pair of lovers attempt to get married despite the designs of a controlling father and a grotesque suitor, so the clever young woman with the aid of her clever servant generate a scheme which sometimes employs crossed identities.

At 2-1/2 hours, some of it is bound to bore. But this is blessed with a pretty good cast performing on colorful sets that just manages to stay shy of garishness. At least, it's well lit.

Which reminds me: this is a filming of the St Petersburg stage production. I prefer those since it gives me a sense of what it would be like to be sitting in the auditorium. But, alas, then there wouldn't have been any closeups of Anya.

This performance put a smile on my face! It is one of the more enjoyable opera DVD's I've seen... Netrebko is perfect!

Although there are no show stopping arias that the viewer will remember, the music is very pleasant and full of melody, and the performance is excellent. If you are looking to broaden your collection to include more than the standard operas such as Boheme, Aida, etc, this light comedy is a very good choice. Not only do the singers sing and act their parts well, but they also look their parts (which is frequently not the case in opera).

Operas composed in the 20th century
were rarely ever funny. This is
Prokofiev one more time as
he did with his first symphony
paying his respects to the past.
This story is not only set in
the 18th century but also carries
the stylistic trends of what Mozart
would of done in his day. I am
not saying that it sounds like
Mozart because, it does not, in
fact, the music is 20th century.
The vein in which it was written,
and some operatic technicalities are
indeed from the 18th century. There is
also a ballet on this opera which would
have fit very good to the French taste.
A wonderful performance and recording...

Frankly, I do not enjoy Prokofiev's music in this work as much as say, Glinka in Ruslan and Lyudmilla, another starry production of Kirov Opera.
So only 4 stars. HOWEVER, admittedly, this is a first class production conducted by none other than Valery Gergiev, and headed by none other than Anna Netrebko and Larissa Diadkova. All three gave terrific performances in this work.
The supporting cast is nothing less - the Don Jerome is funny to the utmost. The Mendoza, though weird in appearance with a false nose, sung well and acted impeccably. The scene and duet with Diadkova in the house of Don Jerome is the most funny operatic scene I've yet come across. Bravo!
The tenor role Don Antonio is finely acted out, though vocally not outstanding as the rest of the cast. Lousia is a very vivacious and cheeky girl vividly portrayed by Anna Netrebko.
The star of the show is again Larissa Diadkova's duenna. This contralto is so versatile and dramatic that rightly should be considered as the current best.
Very entertaining, whether you like Prokofiev and Russian stuff or not.