Paisiello - Nina / Bartoli, Kaufmann, Polgar, Galstian, Veccia, Fischer, Zurich Opera

Rating:
Summary: A Worthy Revival for Cecilia Bartoli
Review: Giovanni Paisiello (1741-1816) is best known for having written the first opera based on 'The Barber of Seville.' It was so popular in its day that when, thirty years later, Rossini wrote his version it was considered an outrage. We all know how THAT turned out. Nonetheless, Paisiello was a talented opera composer who had the misfortune not to be Mozart. And thus although his operas have pretty much disappeared from the world's stages they deserve periodic revival.

This DVD captures a production of 'Nina, o sia La Pazza per Amore' ('Nina, or The Girl Driven Mad by Love') done at the Zurich Opera in 1998. It also includes a fascinating 40-minute documentary on Paisiello and 'Nina' done by Reiner Moritz that includes commentary by the opera's director, Cesare Lievi, in which he describes his ideas about how the opera has a proto-feminist subtext; he claims that Nina doesn't actually go mad, but simply pretends to be driven mad by her father's refusal to let her marry her lover, Lindoro, all in the service of punishing him and securing some freedom for herself. All that is well and good, but the production itself doesn't lean too heavily on this conceit and we are better off for that. It is, actually, a pretty conventional--and dramatically effective--staging, thank goodness. None of the post-Freudian Eurotrash production values one so often sees in continental opera stagings.

The story is fairly simple. Nina loves Lindoro, but her father, the Count, wants her to marry a wealthy rival. Lindoro and the rival duel, in Nina's presence, and Lindoro is killed. Nina goes mad immediately. All this occurs before the curtain rises. In Act I we meet Nina, who is under the care of her duenna, Susanna, on the grounds of the Count's castle. She is under the illusion that Lindoro is not dead and she awaits his return eagerly. This delusion is fostered by Susanna in order to spare Nina's delicate nerves. The Count is very sad for his daughter and regrets his earlier tyrannical behavior. But Nina doesn't even recognize her father. A shepherd appears, accompanied by a bagpiper, and sings a pastoral air. Nina remarks that he sounds like her beloved Lindoro and is reminded of her cruel fate. She becomes agitated and sings an interpolated rage aria by Mozart, 'Ah, io previdi!' (K. 272). Susanna prevails upon her to go into the village and bring presents to the peasants. Act II opens with the Count thanking Susanna for taking such good care of Nina when the major domo, Giorgio, arrives breathlessly to announce that Lindoro hadn't died after all, that he has returned in disguise as a shepherd, because although he cannot marry her, he wants to be near his beloved Nina. So it turns out Nina was not wrong to think the shepherd sounded like her dear Lindoro. The Count encounters Lindoro, greets him as a son, accepts him as a prospective son-in-law. Nina enters but takes a while to recognize that the stranger is her long-lost lover. They reunite and a happy finale ensues, but not before--in a clever touch--Lindoro begins acting like the lord of the manor and one gets some sense that all may not live happily ever after.

Cecilia Bartoli stars as Nina and sings up a storm. Her fioriture are a marvel, of course, and her acting quite good, although she does tend to chew the scenery in her mad scenes. The distinguished Hungarian basso, Laszlo Polgar, sings and acts the Count very effectively. Juliette Galstian is a particularly moving (and humorously very bossy) duenna, Susanna. A young and handsome Bavarian tenor, Jonas Kaufmann, is extremely effective as Lindoro, both as himself and in his disguise as a shepherd. Angelo Veccia sings the major-domo, Giorgio. The chorus and orchestra of the Zurich Opera are conducted expertly by the Hungarian Adam Fischer, a well-regarded opera conductor who was first made known to me twenty-five years ago in a stunning recording of Karl Goldmark's neglected 'Die Königin von Saba' ('The Queen of Sheba').

I was delighted to make the acquaintance of this rare Italian opera buffa. It makes me wonder whether we might enjoy Paisiello's 'Barber of Seville.'

Scott Morrison

Rating:
Summary: Y otra vez.... El show de Bartoli!
Review: Sea bienvenida la aparicion en dvd de 'Nina, ossia la pazza per amore', esa rareza, cada vez mas difundida por fortuna, de Giovanni Paisiello. Mas bienvenida aun debe ser cuando la protagonista es ni mas ni menos que CECILIA BARTOLI, que, ademas de cantar toda su parte de una manera absolutamente sobresaliente (se incluye como aria añadida el aria de concierto 'Ah lo previdi' de Mozart) crea a una Nina aplastante escenicamente, 'pazza' de verdad. LAZSLO POLGAR rinde a gran nivel como Conde, con un canto interesante y JONAS KAUFMAN cumple con eficacia en su doble rol de Lindoro y el Pastor. JULIETTE GLASTIAN es una Susanna de gran altura.
El Coro de la opera de Zurich no pasa del aprobado, y la orquesta suena muy bien al mando de ADAM FISCHER.
La produccion escenica es convencional y sobria (buscando acrecentar el sentimiento de carcel que es para Nina esa casa oscura donde pasa el tiempo encerrada) pero acertada.
El dvd incluye, ademas, un documental bastante amplio sobre 'Nina' como obra y sobre la figura del compositor Giovanni Paisiello, con entervistas a muchos de los cantantes (curiosamente la Bartoli no esta incluida en estas entrevistas), así como a los directores de orquesta y escena.
Muy recomendable es la adquisicion de este dvd, para disfrutar del arte incomparable de la Bartoli, en una representacion bien hecha, de una obra 'menor', pero con muchos momentos de sumo interes musical.