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Contents:
DDD Total time Disc 1: 58.09 Recorded at Fahnensaal of Herzogschloss Ingolstadt Germany
on 23 - 25 November 1998 Johann Simon Mayr, 1763 was born in Mendorf near Ingolstadt, a compatriot of Haydn, Beethoven and Rossini, was one of the most famous Opera composers in the beginning of the 19th century. Metropolitan, Rome, Milan, London and Paris, Vienna and Lisbon saw his works. He is said to be "The father of Italian Opera" His most famous pupil was Gaetano Donizetti, his most successful comic Opera, composed in Venice in 1798 Che Originali! CHE ORIGINALI! AS A MIRROR OF CHARACTERS AND A SATIRE OF THE PERIOD The comic opera takes up elements of the intermezzo and the opera buffa. Mostly a one-act play, divided into different scenes, the comic opera lives on the easiness of its plot and the spontaneity of its language. Mayr’s and Rossi’s Che Originali! is a satire on the culturally narrow-minded bourgeois who is prominently impersonated by Don Febeo. He replaces his wanting artistic standards by a manic enthusiasm for art. In Don Febeo’s great, "self-composed" bravura aria, a polynomial, intentionally short-winded rondo, Mayr brilliantly draws the contrast between the protagonist’s dramatic emotions and the musical expression that turns out worse and worse despite the expenditure of both music and time. This disproportion mounts up to the cheerful cabaletta with the tragic words: "O heavens, open your floodgates, for love has been conquered". Her wonderful aria in A major shows Rosina not so much as a hypochondriacal character, which befits her in the recitatives and ensembles, but rather as a young girl capable of an affectionate yearning for love. Aristea and Carolino are the typical courting couple of the 18th century opera. With Aristea’s cavatine "Chi dice mal d’amore" Mayr succeeded in creating a popular tune: the piece was printed and performed in innumerable adaptations in those days. Aristea’s and Carolino’s love duet, which text wise takes up Metastasio’s metaphorical language and is commented by Biscroma’s dry remarks, ends in an exhaustive cadence of the lovers - a ingenious artistic device Mayr utilised frequently. Carolino, actually utterly unmusical, is forced to sing the most difficult tenor passages at an extreme pitch in the duet with Don Febeo. Mayr set the "singing lesson" with Don Febeo and his daughter Aristea to music quite charmingly in the duet "Con pazienza". For the servant couple Celestina and Biscroma, both cunningly having an eye on their interest within the turbulent happenings, Mayr composed a solo each. Celestina’s aria has a rebellious expression with some virtuosic jumps in the line of singing and an orchestral accompaniment that provides a dramatic background. Biscroma’s aria bears a more folkloric character. The bugle calls are not to be missed - an ironic "farewell" motif of the vanished lovers, of whose amorous adventures the servant knows a tale to tell. A both musical and dramaturgical climax of the work is the quintet "Il cor mi palpita". It rises from a faltering beginning to a raging furor. Also the long chain final that lasts almost half an hour possesses a verve to the point. Here, in many passages there seems to have been included Venetian folklore music. Aristea’s love song, accompanied by guitar, flute, bassoon, two horns, viola and the stringers’ pizzicato, shows Mayr’s sense for instrumental effects especially well.From a late 20th century point of view, it is at times difficult to grasp Rossi’s and Mayr’s various satirical allusions to contemporary trends and fashions; perhaps we have to open up to the wit and the playful cheerfulness of the Italian comedies anew. However, Simon Mayr and Gaetano Rossi did a magnificent job with Che Originali!, which already then, in the fast moving period of the opera production, extended beyond the day: Che Originali! is a masterpiece of it’s kind.
Page revised 30.06.03 |
