This is the start of an Arte Nova project to record all of Mozart’s operas by 2006, starting with the Da Ponte works. As I understand it, De Billy will be in charge of the musical side of the whole project which is being done in cooperation with Vienna Radio where he is chief conductor.
If we are to judge on this evidence it will be a case of fastening your seat-belts. The pace here is pretty breathless. Everything is based on crisp, clipped rhythms, with only the Andante movements given much time for singers or music to breathe. This approach has its advantages in siding with the cynicism of the story rather than Mozart’s equivocal response to it, but I do hanker sometimes for some relaxation from the conductor.
The singers are drawn from the more promising ranks of those now introducing themselves in Europe’s opera houses. In the index of Opera magazine for 2000, each singer, the Despina apart, has one entry, and on looking up each, I discovered they proved favourable to the artist concerned. Their techniques are just able to cope with the brisk tempos and Mozart’s exigent demands on his singers.
While none has a very individual voice, they combine into a disciplined ensemble and they all enter eagerly into a dramatic event that has obviously been carefully prepared for radio listeners – there is a deal of voice-placing that might have surprised even John Culshaw (who began this innovation for Decca many years ago). Sound effects include laughing, footsteps and even birdsong at the beginning of the second scene of Act 1, and a noisy sea when the men serenade the women in Act 2: some listeners may feel them too distracting on repetition.
Schorg is a positive Fiordiligi, able to cope with the histrionic demands of both her arias. Brunner is a firm and quite characterful Dorabella. Both tenor and baritone have pleasing but not very individual voices. The Despina is lively enough, but her tone is somewhat hard-edged. Best of the sextet is the Alfonso, whose rounded tone and perfect diction are evident throughout – no wonder he is much admired in Berlin where he is resident. The orchestra copes well with De Billy’s demands on it. The recording is a shade too recessed.
There is nothing here to challenge the hegemony of several cherished recordings of the opera at mid or full price, but in the bargain department it has only one rival, a 10-year-old Naxos set (3/91), and it is certainly an improvement on that