Customer Reviews

Spontini - Le Vestale / Huffstodt, Michaels-Moore, Kavrakos, D. Graves, Teatro alla Scala, Muti

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Given the remarkable quality of Spontini's "La Vestale," it is incredibly unfortunate that this is the only major label recording of the work available, and a hard find. "La Vestale" is captivating from the opening notes of its moody, stirring Overture. This live 1995 La Scala recording leaves a certain amount to be desired in terms of sound quality, but it's nonetheless solid in this regard, largely, and it's the best recording of "La Vestale" available absent a modern studio recording. "La Vestale" is the reason to invest in this recording; not the recording itself. This is not to denigrate the recording. It's a sophisticated interpretation with strong performances. The same cast of players in a studio would no doubt yield a superb recording, rather than a very good recording that suffers from the familiar distractions germane to live opera recordings. Of course, many listeners may have no qualms whatsoever with live opera recordings, in which case this recording is a perfect buy.

Accordingly, best to focus, here, on the work. "La Vestale" is a rich, moving tragedy, with much that gives it a quite unique sound for 1807, the year of its composition. Spontini is a clever, progressive orchestrator; something which likely contributed to Berlioz's admiration of "La Vestale." (Berlioz devoted numerous critical writings in whole or in part to championing Spontini.) Further, Spontini has a skill with capacious melodic ideas; hence, perhaps, Wagner's admiration of "La Vestale." (In addition, Beethoven was purportedly a great admirer the libretto of "La Vestale.") Spontini's melodic ideas have a freedom of form that separates them from later bel canto efforts by composers such as Bellini and Donizetti. Spontini's music rarely feels artificially constrained -- he has a greater interest in dramatic storytelling than structured set pieces, making "La Vestale" a work more in the spirit of, say, Gluck than of, again, Bellini and Donizetti, or for that matter Rossini. "La Vestale" is distinct Italian operatic writing for its time, or any time. In addition to elements of "La Vestale" already mentioned, but relatedly, there's a fluidity to Spontini's writing in "La Vestale" that's forward looking and occasionally downright daring. An obvious compare-and-contrast is Spontini's contemporary Cherubini. Here, Spontini is the less formulaic and more adventurous composer. For instance, there are few hard-and-fast lines in "La Vestale" between recitative and aria, or other nominal set piece. The work simply continues to move with first and foremost a dramatic impetus, again harkening back to Gluck, and foreshadowing Berlioz.

"La Vestale" deserves a place of its own within the modern operatic repertoire. Absent that, "La Vestale" is a one-of-a-kind opera, with an influence that weighed heavily on many of the most prominent 19th Century opera composers, evident in such operas as Belioz's "Benvenuto Cellini" and Wagner's "Rienzi," and a sound that traced back deep into the operatic tradition of works like Gluck's "Iphigenie en Tauride."

A strongly recommended recording for listeners with an interest in or curiosity about this magnificent work.