CAVALLI Il Giasone (Alarcón)
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Leonardo García Alarcón, (Pietro) Francesco Cavalli
Genre:
Opera
Label: Alpha
Magazine Review Date: 05/2019
Media Format: Digital Versatile Disc
Media Runtime: 182
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: ALPHA718
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Giasone |
(Pietro) Francesco Cavalli, Composer
(Pietro) Francesco Cavalli, Composer Alexander Milev, Ercole, Bass Capella Mediterranea Dominique Visse, Delfa; Eolo, Countertenor Günes Gürle, Besso, Bass-baritone Kristina Hammarström, Medea, Mezzo soprano Kristina Mkhitaryan, Isifile; Sole, Soprano Leonardo García Alarcón, Composer Mariana Flores, Alinda, Soprano Mary Feminear, Amore, Soprano Migran Agadzhanyan, Demo; Volano, Tenor Raúl Giménez, Egeo, Tenor Valer Sabadus, Giasone, Countertenor Willard White, Giove; Oreste, Baritone |
Author: Alexandra Coghlan
Jason (Valer Sabadus), the feckless lover caught between two women, is a linen-clad Edwardian Lothario, his tongue even smoother than his boyish cheeks. He drifts amorously into the various orbits of tattooed, modern-day muscle-boy Hercules (whose Argonauts come in matching camo-gear and wife-beaters), his abandoned wife Hypsipyle (Kristina Mkhitaryan), styled as a flapper with a bevy of drop-waisted ladies frothing around her, and gods in elaborate Classical get-up, feathered headdresses, gilded armour and all. Pick a period, any period.
The effect is boisterous, exuberant and just a little too much. Leonardo García Alarcón conducts an account by his own Cappella Mediterranea that’s very much in the same spirit. Instrumental ritornellos (borrowed, presumably, from other Cavalli scores) come liberally spiced with tambourines and castanets – unapologetically gaudy gilding on a lithe, light-footed account that throws itself headlong between moods. It’s when all the dancing stops, though, that this account comes into its own. A top-notch cast really savour the score’s lyricism, balancing all the cross-dressing camp with something disarmingly heartfelt.
Sabadus is well cast. Reports from Geneva suggest that his soft, bladeless voice struggled to carry in the house; but, with the balance tweaked for DVD, he’s the embodiment of vacillating, soft-focus sensuality, opening with a ‘Delizie contenti’ of dangerous sweetness. He’s caught between the sterner charms of Kristina Hammarström’s Medea (conjuring a ferocious ‘Dell’antro magico’, her mezzo suddenly as craggy as Ezio Toffolutti’s set) and Mkhitaryan’s Hypsipyle, who may be dressed in delicate pastels but whose delivery is much bolder, chilled right down to blanched stillness at the start of Act 2 before reverting to her habitually brighter, deeper tones.
Dominique Visse is an irrepressible Delfa, taking ‘her’ pleasure wherever possible, and there are fine cameos from the veteran tenor Raúl Giménez as the cuckolded Egeo (cruelly styled as Peter Ustinov’s Poirot in Death on the Nile), Willard White’s Oreste and Migran Agadzhanyan as a nervily energetic Demo.
A blissfully happy ending squares the circle of this ambiguous story, placing moral scruples firmly out of sight and tucking away any fraying psychological threads. Sinigaglia’s production is Cavalli at play, an unruly Babel of sensation. The DVD lacks any extras and a complete libretto, though a basic synopsis and essay are provided.
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