What are the ingredients for the success of a lyric production? Music and voices supported by staging. If everything aligns, the magic happens. This not only affects the audience but also the artists themselves. Such was the case last Friday for the dress rehearsal of “Teseo,” the third opera composed by George Frederic Handel and premiered in London on January 10, 1713.
The audience was charmed, if not captivated, from the first scene – and yet the enchantress Medea doesn’t appear until the second act! It was enough for them to hear the laments due to the love transport of Agilea, who waits, consumed by anxiety, for news of the warrior “Teseo” with whom she is in love. The role was beautifully played from start to end by Brigitte Hool, whose crystalline voice purity seems to fill her with ease during the virtuosic musical pieces required by the composer. These vocal flourishes, exhilarated by love, notably in the aria “Justi Dei,” also provide an opportunity to appreciate from the outset the admirable interpretation of the role of Arcane by Damien Guillon. His aria on the anxious suffering of a jealous love towards Agilea’s lady-in-waiting literally plunged the hall into a moment of shared dramatic intensity, signaling the first cathartic applause meant to convey emotion. The hero Teseo, whose part is often sung by a mezzo-soprano, reveals a remarkably high vocal range. The upper registers of Jacek Laszczkowski, more breathed than shouted, whispered even to the public’s ear, provide the latter with the sensation of a soul’s depth, of a sincerity unmatched to which they remain sensitive.
Such was the level raised by this first act that one might legitimately fear the possibility of a disconnection during the following four acts. It also made us forget that a dress rehearsal gives artists the freedom not to fully project their voices. The initially more hesitant voice of King Egeo reminded us of this. However, the accumulation of dark clouds soon heralds the tumultuous appearance of Medea and her vengeful anger. The call of the betrayed enchantress to the Furies and other infernal monsters to punish Agilea in the third act accelerates the drama and thrusts the audience into a malevolent world, a sort of “dark continent” of betrayed femininity. Love, however, will ultimately triumph, not without a final poisoning plot thwarted by the discovery of a lineage between the hero and the king. The intervention of the goddess Minerva in strict parallelism of forms, since her divinity is central in the very first moments of the opera. Before the final curtain falls, the love duet between Teseo and Agilea, “Cara!, Caro!” offers as a gift to the attendees the orgasmic point of the infinite sweetness of the vocal sonorities elaborated by Handel. Coupling in an astonishing and complex proximity, of two particularly high but sufficiently distinct voices to allow their mutual consecration. Complete osmosis with the audience and, note it as a positive proof, with the musicians in the orchestra pit who, when not playing, turned, captivated themselves too, towards the stage or seemed to submit to the voluptuous spirit of the arias. The artists themselves gave the feeling of being under the empire of the work and naturally increased in vocal power.
The staging relies more on gestures – notably those of threatening daggers at a chained Agilea – and on the mimics that complete an exceptionally expressive acting game. We regret the papier-mâché statue of Minerva in the first act, the only false note, so to speak, among the undisputed efforts of scenic mechanics which seem to scrupulously follow the original libretto: final appearance of Medea in a chariot pulled by dragons, setting the palace on fire, transforming the underworld into a paradisiacal garden as soon as Agilea renounces her love for Teseo.
Even though the action takes place in ancient Greece, the eighteenth-century costumes with plenty of powdered faces (the wigs of the Louis XIV era) reflect the undeniable French influence – the final trumpets of the divine intervention unmistakably remind one of the Te Deum – which weighed on the rewriting work of Handel’s librettist inspired by Lully’s “Thésée.”
Brilliantly successful 25th Anniversary for the Baroque Ensemble directed by Gilbert Bezzina, returning to the Nice Opera after two years of absence. Handel had not been played locally for much longer. The Nice audience should not miss this new production and the indescribable pleasure it is likely to offer.
“Teseo”, Lyrical Drama in 5 acts by George Frederic Handel
Nice Baroque Ensemble, Sunday, March 18, 2:30 PM, Tuesday, March 20, 8:00 PM, Thursday, March 22, 8:00 PM.
Nice Opera, 4, 6 rue Saint François-de-Paule, Reservations: 04 92 17 40 00
