Handel Poro, Re dell'Indie
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: George Frideric Handel
Genre:
Opera
Label: Opus 111
Magazine Review Date: 11/1994
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 167
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: OPS30-113/5
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Poro, Re dell'Indie |
George Frideric Handel, Composer
Bernarda Fink, Erissena, Mezzo soprano Europa Galante Fabio Biondi, Conductor George Frideric Handel, Composer Gérard Lesne, Gandarte, Alto Gloria Banditelli, Poro, Alto Roberto Abbondanza, Timagene, Bass Rossana Bertini, Cleofide, Soprano Sandro Naglia, Alessandro il Grande, Tenor |
Author: Stanley Sadie
Poro is the second, and certainly the best, of the three Handel operas based on texts by the young Metastasio—suitably doctored, of course, for English audiences, with shortened recitatives and generally a greater focus on the music than on the elegant Italian verse as the prime expressive force. It was a fair success and was twice revived. Metastasio's Alessandro nell'Indie, influenced by Racine, was to become one of the most popular of his librettos (Handel was the second to set it, within months of the Vinci original; the third was Hasse, whose very different version, Cleofide, is of course also available on CD from Capriccio, 2/88). Handel's setting still, however, explores the different kinds of heroic virtue of Alexander the Great, the conquering but unfailingly magnanimous invader of India, and the local king Porus, proud and unswervingly regal in defeat and also driven by his fierce love for Cleophis (whom Alexander also admires, to the point of inviting marriage). Of course, everyone wins in the end, even the traitorous general Timagenes, who repents and is duly forgiven; both loving couples are allowed to marry and Alexander goes off to fresh conquests of another kind.
Handel had a strong cast, on the whole, for his premiere, at the beginning of 1731: the great castrato Senesino had now come back, to sing Porus, with Strada as Cleophis and (exceptionally) a tenor, Fabri, as Alexander; there were two good contraltos, Bertolli and Merighi, and the only weakness was the bass, to whom Handel allowed only recitative (later, for a revival with a better singer, he put in some arias borrowed from other operas). Until near the end of Act 1, I think one would rate it as not more than a bit above average in quality among Handel's operas; then it rises, as the drama thickens, to a fine Act 2 and an Act 3 with some very distinguished music.
Poro has been recorded before, a quite terrible Eterna (East German) set of the 1950s, gloomy, slow and earnest, reflecting the Halle performances on which it was based. The new set is certainly one that lovers of Handel will want to buy, even though I have to express a few reservations. The cast is headed by that very capable musician Gloria Banditelli, in the title-role, with confident manner and clear, disciplined singing—very expressively sustained in the slow Act 1 aria, ''Se possono tanto'', fiery in the passagework, but somewhat undermined by the direction (to which I shall return) in the grandly mournful F minor final aria in which he thinks himself betrayed by Cleophis. The relationship between these two is central to the opera: in Act 1 they swear mutual fidelity, but Porus is later tortured by her apparent interest in Alexander and that Act ends with a duet in which they tauntingly fling each other's vows in their faces, making a new duet out of two arias already heard—a brilliant and thrilling stroke of musical drama (on Metastasio's part as well, one must say, but Handel makes the most of it). Rossana Bertini is not without charm in Cleophis's music, and she sings it with care and accuracy, but the tone is oddly constricted and this seems to narrow the whole scope of the performance: her expression of profound desolation in the aria at the end of Act 2 (A minor, with a finely detailed solo violin obbligato) seems shallow, and earlier in that act the mood of ''Digli, che son fedele'' is surely misjudged and its force lost.
Alexander's music is sung, on the whole rather blandly, by Sandro Naglia, with a smooth, slightly grainy tenor of modest weight, but fluent enough and with a touch here and there of rather self-conscious eloquence. The vigorous manner and demanding passagework of his final, triumphant aria however defeat him. An Alexander the Great ought really be more strongly projected and emerge larger. The role of Porus's sister Eryxene is neatly and precisely sung in a lightish mezzo voice by Bernarda Fink; it is a pity that her charming ''Son confusa pastorella'', a show-stopper in Handel's day which ought to be now too, is done so slowly as to forfeit much of its gentle pastoral character. I do not quite see the logic of engaging a countertenor to sing a part composed for a contralto, especially in what is supposedly a 'period' performance, but Gerard Lesne is certainly a useful recruit to the limited number of good countertenors, clear and light with firm tone and excellent articulation.
Fabio Biondi is clearly a conductor who knows what he wants, but I am not always convinced that this is the same as what Handel wants. Tempos, with only a few exceptions, are generally well judged. But Biondi is not well attuned to the Handelian idiom and seems reluctant to let the music speak for itself. I wish he gave more functional shape to the bass line. He often accents notes in a curiously arbitrary way. Listen for example to Porus's F minor aria in Act 3. Here the accompaniment, with no dynamic markings, moves in pairs of steady crotchets, the second usually an octave below the first (a favourite Handel device): by making the general level piano with an occasional fortissimo the sombre breadth of the utterance is destroyed and false emphases introduced. The effect, here and elsewhere, is often uncomfortably choppy with many 'pecked' notes from the strings. Sometimes Biondi alters Handel's phrasing without reason: put slurs into regular quavers and you cannot but adjust their sense. He also has a rather romantic mannerism of pausing before cadences (and sometimes in full flow too). The changes he permits in the arias often involve a simple rewriting which is in no true sense embellishment and several times makes nonsense of Handel's elaborate imitative writing. Alexander's arias are sometimes simpler in the da capo than first time round.
I don't wish to be too hard on a set that has many fine things in it; but it might so easily have been much better! Still, it's a fine opera, now available in complete form with a very capable cast, decently recorded and with a good note by Ivan Alexandre and full libretto, and all admirers of Handel will surely want it.'
Handel had a strong cast, on the whole, for his premiere, at the beginning of 1731: the great castrato Senesino had now come back, to sing Porus, with Strada as Cleophis and (exceptionally) a tenor, Fabri, as Alexander; there were two good contraltos, Bertolli and Merighi, and the only weakness was the bass, to whom Handel allowed only recitative (later, for a revival with a better singer, he put in some arias borrowed from other operas). Until near the end of Act 1, I think one would rate it as not more than a bit above average in quality among Handel's operas; then it rises, as the drama thickens, to a fine Act 2 and an Act 3 with some very distinguished music.
Poro has been recorded before, a quite terrible Eterna (East German) set of the 1950s, gloomy, slow and earnest, reflecting the Halle performances on which it was based. The new set is certainly one that lovers of Handel will want to buy, even though I have to express a few reservations. The cast is headed by that very capable musician Gloria Banditelli, in the title-role, with confident manner and clear, disciplined singing—very expressively sustained in the slow Act 1 aria, ''Se possono tanto'', fiery in the passagework, but somewhat undermined by the direction (to which I shall return) in the grandly mournful F minor final aria in which he thinks himself betrayed by Cleophis. The relationship between these two is central to the opera: in Act 1 they swear mutual fidelity, but Porus is later tortured by her apparent interest in Alexander and that Act ends with a duet in which they tauntingly fling each other's vows in their faces, making a new duet out of two arias already heard—a brilliant and thrilling stroke of musical drama (on Metastasio's part as well, one must say, but Handel makes the most of it). Rossana Bertini is not without charm in Cleophis's music, and she sings it with care and accuracy, but the tone is oddly constricted and this seems to narrow the whole scope of the performance: her expression of profound desolation in the aria at the end of Act 2 (A minor, with a finely detailed solo violin obbligato) seems shallow, and earlier in that act the mood of ''Digli, che son fedele'' is surely misjudged and its force lost.
Alexander's music is sung, on the whole rather blandly, by Sandro Naglia, with a smooth, slightly grainy tenor of modest weight, but fluent enough and with a touch here and there of rather self-conscious eloquence. The vigorous manner and demanding passagework of his final, triumphant aria however defeat him. An Alexander the Great ought really be more strongly projected and emerge larger. The role of Porus's sister Eryxene is neatly and precisely sung in a lightish mezzo voice by Bernarda Fink; it is a pity that her charming ''Son confusa pastorella'', a show-stopper in Handel's day which ought to be now too, is done so slowly as to forfeit much of its gentle pastoral character. I do not quite see the logic of engaging a countertenor to sing a part composed for a contralto, especially in what is supposedly a 'period' performance, but Gerard Lesne is certainly a useful recruit to the limited number of good countertenors, clear and light with firm tone and excellent articulation.
Fabio Biondi is clearly a conductor who knows what he wants, but I am not always convinced that this is the same as what Handel wants. Tempos, with only a few exceptions, are generally well judged. But Biondi is not well attuned to the Handelian idiom and seems reluctant to let the music speak for itself. I wish he gave more functional shape to the bass line. He often accents notes in a curiously arbitrary way. Listen for example to Porus's F minor aria in Act 3. Here the accompaniment, with no dynamic markings, moves in pairs of steady crotchets, the second usually an octave below the first (a favourite Handel device): by making the general level piano with an occasional fortissimo the sombre breadth of the utterance is destroyed and false emphases introduced. The effect, here and elsewhere, is often uncomfortably choppy with many 'pecked' notes from the strings. Sometimes Biondi alters Handel's phrasing without reason: put slurs into regular quavers and you cannot but adjust their sense. He also has a rather romantic mannerism of pausing before cadences (and sometimes in full flow too). The changes he permits in the arias often involve a simple rewriting which is in no true sense embellishment and several times makes nonsense of Handel's elaborate imitative writing. Alexander's arias are sometimes simpler in the da capo than first time round.
I don't wish to be too hard on a set that has many fine things in it; but it might so easily have been much better! Still, it's a fine opera, now available in complete form with a very capable cast, decently recorded and with a good note by Ivan Alexandre and full libretto, and all admirers of Handel will surely want it.'
Handel Poro, Re dell'Indie
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