Ariodante, directed by Richard Jones

Opera premiere

The society we see on stage is in the process of difficult liberation from the dogmas that bind individual freedom
Photo: Pascal Victor / ArtcomArt

One of the main events of the European festival summer was the premiere of a new stage version of Handel's opera Ariodante, directed by English director Richard Jones. The first performances of the play took place at the Festival d`Art Lyrique in Aix-en-Provence, France. Narrated by ROMAN DOLZHANSKY and DMITRY RENANSKY.

The new version of Ariodante is one of the rare examples of an opera production in which impeccable musical execution was combined with subtle, precise in detail, restrained and at the same time inventive direction. The plot, which seems to have nothing to do with reality - the Scottish princess Guinevere, who is in love with Duke Ariodante, is slandered, her lover is deceived by a rival villain and hides in the forest, but in the end everything is fine and ends in a wedding - is presented and played so accurately that the audience often freezes not only from music lover’s delight, but also from the fullness of dramatic empathy for the heroes of the history of the 8th century.

On stage, however, these are not mythological times, but quite recognizable ones - without insisting on the signs of a specific era, the artist Ultz moved the action to the conventional 70s of the last century. The imaginary Scottish kingdom here is more like a strong rural community in which they build good houses and try to share both joys and misfortunes with their neighbors. It is important that the society that we see on stage is in the process of difficult liberation from the dogmas that bind individual freedom - it is no coincidence that the main villain of the plot, Duke Polinesso, was turned by Jones into a local clergyman, who, before embarking on deceptions and deceits, reads a moralizing sermon to the characters .

Richard Jones also dealt wittily with dance interludes - for the premiere at Covent Garden they were composed for the ballerina Maria Salle and her troupe, and now directors must agonize over the problem of filling large (and far from the most expressive in this opera) musical pieces with action . Jones replaced the ballet with a puppet theater: in the first act, dolls depicting Guinevere and Ariodante act out for them future pictures of their own happy family life. In the second, when happiness is broken and Guinevere is accused of debauchery, a similar performance predicts her career as a dancer in a nightclub. When the happy ending comes, the dolls again paint pictures of a family idyll. And then something unexpected and not foreseen in the libretto happens: the liberated Guinevere, like Ibsen’s Nora (she, however, leaves not imaginary, but already born children), packs her bags and decisively, alone, leaves her own holiday - after such strong experiences in happiness with She no longer believes in Ariodant and wants some other life for herself.

The performing history of "Ariodante" is rich in iconic interpretations - one can say that each generation of early musicians considered it an honor to offer their own view of this Handelian score: the mid-1990s passed under the sign of the interpretation of Nicholas McGegan and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, at the turn of the century it seemed the standard - and, in essence, remains so to this day - the performance of Mark Minkowski and Anne Sophie von Otter, in the current decade, "Ariodante" is listened to in recordings by Alan Curtis and Joyce Di Donato. The casting directors of Aix-en-Provence had to work hard to assemble a line-up of vocalists at the festival that could compete with the interpretations firmly ingrained in the auditory memory, but the result, as they say in such cases, exceeded even the wildest expectations. The conductor and harpsichordist Andrea Marcona, who took over the podium of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, fell into the hands of a whole scattering of jewels - Europe's leading specialists in the Baroque repertoire were engaged in all the parts of "Ariodante" without exception.

The main attention of the public was, of course, focused on the quartet of four female voices: Patricia Petibon, who filled the role of Guinevere with Shakespearean tragic power, was favorably set off by the reverent Dalinda Sandrine Piot, and the colorful Italian contralto Sonia Prina competed in the two “trouser” roles, the insidious Polynesse and the title character of the opera and distinguished British mezzo Sarah Connolly. The performance in Aix-en-Provence once again made us admire the versatility of her talent: in recent years, Connolly has performed particularly successfully in the operas of two Richards, Wagner and Strauss, while the benefit performance in Ariodante reminded the singer’s fans of how close to the nature of her voice is Handel’s. repertoire. Connolly’s equally impressive vocal and acting work was sensitively supported by the musical director of the production: the work of Andrea Marcona generally deserves special praise - few people’s continuo in baroque operas sounded so diverse, plastic and bright, few people in recent years had such a subtle feeling musically rich and psychologically intense writing of the late Handel.

Handel in the latest fashion