After Glyndebourne’s thought-provoking L’Orfeo, it struck me it was a good idea to cover Jordi Savall’s 2000 Barcelona performance, staged by Pauline Bayle, first of all because the staging is a masterpiece of Minimalism (sets Emmanuel Clolus): especially compared with William Kentridge’s markedly overcrowded Sussex take (see my review on the Critics’ Circle website).
The backdrop of the opening black, perhaps implying the darkness of the tale to come, but flowers after La Musica has held forth (Luciana Mancon) offer at least a glimpse of the Arcadian, however removed by artifice. The emphasis lies squarely on the music, and how Savall is at home here. His singers use minimal vibrato, allowing for real purity, not least the standard doubled part of La Musica and Euridice, here Luciana Mancini. who launches the performance.
Colour comes from costumes (Bernadette Villard); even then, with that pitch black backdrop, when the camera moves back for a full-stage view, they seem in danger of being subsumed. But the staging really comes into its own in the crucial third and final act,
Here’s thee promo video so you can get a flavour:
From his “Rosa del ciel,” Marc Mauillon’s Orfeo is exceptional: we previously met him in Cavalli’s L’Egisto from Versailles and in Couperin’s Messe pour les Paroisses, also from Versailles. Alone on stage, dressed in white against a black backdrop, Mouillon’s performance of the great aria “Possente spirto” (along with two of Le Concert des Nation’s first violins, and cornetts) is extraordinary in its intensity (the still captured above is of this). And his “Addio, terra'” is remarkable in its grief, echoed by the superb chorus, counterpointed by those flowers.
The stand-out of the balance of the cast is Sara Mingardo (who has never yet failed to impress in whatever she sings, as the Messenger (Messaggiera) in the second act. Everything is perfectly paced by Savall. who conducts his ensembles, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, along with Le Concert des Nations.. He is, after all, no stranger to the score: in addition to this, there are sound recordings on Alia Vox and Château de Versailles Spectacles.
But it is Savall that captures the tintà of this opera so perfectly, his warm-sounding continuo section shining a mediterranean warmth on Monteverdi’s score. Don’t miss it. The DVD Is available at Amazon here.
