Cimarosa - Il Matrimonio Segreto / Barbara Daniels, David Kuebler, Carlos Feller, Claudio Nicolai, Hilary Griffiths, Schwetzinger Festspiele

Customer Reviews:

Cimarosa's Secret Marriage twice in 1986: a comparison.......2007-06-08

If you've seen all Mozart's mature operas and are looking for something similar, Cimarosa's "Matrimonio segreto" (1791) is the obvious next choice. It was clearly modeled on Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro", adapting a similarly high-quality classic comedy (Garrick and Colman's "The Clandestine Marriage"), using a similar ingeniously varied sequence of arias and ensembles, and capping its two acts with similar extended multi-movement finales. Not that it's an imitation. Cimarosa was a highly experienced composer and writes in his own distinctive idiom, not Mozart's. But it's extremely Mozartian in style and stance.

Two much-loved stage productions, both now on DVD, were filmed within a few months in 1986:

Georgine Resick (Carolina), Barbara Daniels (Elisetta), Marta Szirmay (Fidalma), David Kuebler (Paolino), Claudio Nicolai (Count), Carlos Feller (Geronimo), conductor Hillary Griffiths, stage director Michael Hampe, at Drottningholm.

Antonella Bandelli (Carolina), Valeria Baiano (Elisetta), Carmen Gonzales (Fidalma), Paolo Barbacini (Paolino), Roberto Coviello (Count), Enrico Fissore (Geronimo), conductor Francis Travis, stage director Filippo Crivelli, at Lugano.

Both are ensemble productions for teams of mainly young, strong-voiced, confident singing actors, not display pieces for a celebrity. In both, sets, costumes, and staging are 18th-century and consistent with everything said by the characters. Instruments are period at Drottningholm, modern at Lugano. Lugano includes all the musical numbers; Drottningholm omits Elisetta's "Se son vendicato" (No. 18).

Drottningholm is typical Hampe: vividly realistic, relatively serious, with an almost photographic set; you feel as if you've been set down in a "real" 18th-century household. In keeping with this approach, it mutes the popping-in-and-out-of-bedrooms finale -- which doesn't bother us, but may disappoint some viewers. Nevertheless, it's a happy, good-humored event, not a glum concept production construing the work as a thinly disguised tragedy.

Lugano is played in a more overtly comic way, with a set suggesting a sketch by an 18th-century caricaturist, yet its gags and jokes are stylish and not too slapsticky. (Example: Paolino is writing; his bride, tiptoeing stealthily up behind, sneaks the pen from his grasp. It tells you much about the characters, and it's suitably 18th-century, being taken from Reynolds's famous painting of Mr. and Mrs. Garrick.)

Drottningholm's secret bride is more serious, more worried -- you're constantly aware of her (utterly understandable) fears of pregnancy and discovery. Lugano's is more impulsive, more high-spirited -- you can see instantly how she got herself into this mess. Similar differences elsewhere in the casts. Drottningholm's father is played more realistically, Lugano's more caricaturally. Overall, Drottningholm feels more polished and more thoroughly rehearsed (the cast had been playing this production in various parts of Europe, on and off, since at least 1979); Lugano seems a little more amateurish, but it's funnier too.

Both, in our view, are 5-star productions; we've returned to each repeatedly, and always with great pleasure.

There's a third famous filmed "Matrimonio segreto", not yet on DVD: Lamberto Puggelli's Piccola Scala production (also 1980s!) with Ferrarini, Guglielmi, Gonzales (again), Alva, Desderi, and Dara. That has more abstract sets, a few (very few) production quirks (e.g. a piece of Count/Elisetta duet suddenly interpolated into the finale), and probably a stronger male cast. It's fun too; but we don't find it quite as coherently conceived or quite as entertainingly executed as the two already on DVD.

Beautifully staged, well acted, well sung.......2007-02-06

Captain Fitzroy, whose review preceeds mine below, has condescended to give Cimarosa four stars and to suggest that "you" might not be unamused by watching Il Matrimonio Segreto, even though it's pre-Romantic. I must be an easier audience! I loved it. The sets and costumes are excellent, and the photography captures their excellence with fine cinematographic flair. The acting is as plausible as you're ever likely to see on any opera DVD. And the music is great! Cimarosa is always perceived as a half-way stopover between Mozart and Rossini. Well, he belongs in that company, and his fame during his own lifetime was not inappropriate. You will hear a lot of Rossini in Il Matrimonio Segreto, largely because Rossini borrowed a lot from Cimarosa. Mozart, by the way, was more than willing to contribute incidental arias to performances of Cimarosa's operas when singers demanded such. Give this disk a chance! If you enjoy it, I urge you also to find the CD of Cimarosa's concerto for oboe. It ranks with Mozart's and Vivaldi's for grace and pathos.

Obscure Artists.......2006-07-06

About 20 years ago while pulling out some LP's to offer to play, one such ancient LP was by Biff Rose ( whatever happened to...); and one wag in the room piped up with "Frank prides himself on his collection of obscure artists"...hmmm...I thought. He's right. I do.
We are all good at name dropping; God forbid that it be a name that is not well known! For how could we impress someone if we name unknown people?!
I also search out obscure but great painters; wondering always why no one would Not recognize the name Pontormo... or Guercino who painted the most breath taking Mary Magdalene one could ever hope to see. I suppose the fear of the "unfamiliar" is what keeps church folk all looking alike, and talking alike, and dressing alike, and thinking alike, and succeeding , mostly , in making us all ill, like wheat stalks bowing in the wind.

This Cimarosa had a tough act to follow - namely Mozart. Isn't it sad that such an ouvre would cast everyone nearby in shadow for all eternity?...Well...on earth, perhaps ; not in "Eternity"-eternity... where all those who insist on going along with the crowd are on the "Broad Road to Destruction" we are told on High Authority!

If you are fond of opera, I would give this one a chance. If you find anything "Pre-Romantic" tedious, I can at least assure you of an overture par excellent in this one.
You should also not be disappointed in the opening duet between the two lovers that carry the title role. Indeed, all the singers are very, very good. The libretto?...wellll....it is the era of fake moles and powdered wigs, is it not? The cover art is appropriate...delicate china figurines, so apropos for this era. We might find it cloyingly antiquated that the entire household would live in abject fear of wagging tongues in town, should any salacious rumor get bandied about...or is it really so antiquated?...Isn't that what all those church folks also live in abject fear of still today...which keeps them all dessicated with affected polite distance? Try making friends with church folk sometime...try to wrangle an invitation to their home, and you will see what I mean. You'll get the blank stare, the stumbling excuse...and the never get too close to you again, posturing. The only thing missing is the powdered wig.

What one has to admire is the simple fact that if they all the performers stood up there and just did side straddle hops to music for two hours, you would just have to applaud them lustily for that feat alone. But they do more than that..they have to learn an encyclopoedia of lines, an unimaginable number of notes, and exceedingly difficult to remember melody lines, and walk about, and act and sing all at the same time! Who among us can even come close to chewing gum and walking at the same time like that?

I give this one only four stars...which is better than the three stars I gave Verdi's "Falstaff", (Von Karajan production) - which is saying something, I suppose. There are worse operas than this one - like The Wolftrap production of "The Daughter of the Regiment; and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra production of "L'Italiana in Algeri". I hope this helps; I hope no one's feelings are particularly crushed by that - for there are always great performers even in bad productions. It is critically important to hire a Real Artist ( that is to say= not the big contributor's "cousin, grandson of that famous, so and so from years ago"- "therefore, he must be good"...groan... )...a Real Artist, please, when designing a set, and casting the parts, and hiring a director. In these three areas , great music can be so sullied, that the opera may not be performed again for a generation! And please, for the Love of God...no more minimalist sets. More than one reviewer has expressed the genuine emotion that they felt "cheated" by such stupid , lame sets. Alll of these artistic travesties , more often than not, can be traced to the directors and set designers.Or perhaps the control freak in the bean counter's office...also the big contributor's "cousin"

The seamstresses, unsung heroines that they really are...are usually spot on, with their designs by the way, even on a bare stage the costumes can help carry the day...but not really.

A good director , unfortunately , is not in the business of being "liked" by the performers....he often has to be "the bad cop" in order to stop the performers from being so full of themselves that they ruin the show by trying to steal the show. It's especially problematic in opera buffa. To be really effective at getting smiles out of the audience, you have to take yourself dead seriously, and "Not Realize that you are funny at all"!

This comment reminds me of "Gianni Schicci" by Puccini which I must reveiw next. That was very nicely done...one of those that stand out in your mind for a long time. I still can't get "O Mio Bambino Caro " out of my mind. and isn't that what we all want in an opera?

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