| . | 08/13/2009
Semiramide at Caramoor
By: Michael Patrick Hearn
The 13th Season of Bel Canto at Caramoor ended auspiciously with a concert version of Gioachino Rossini's majestic Semiramide on July 31. As Woodstock so dramatically demonstrated back in 1969, open air concerts during the summer in New York are unusually vulnerable to the whims of the weather. This year has been especially cruel to outdoor theater. A brutal afternoon storm threatened to repeat itself that night. It was impossible to entirely enjoy the beautiful but now dampened grounds at Caramoor. The company announced before the performance commenced under a large tent in the outdoor Venetian Theater that the production might have to stop intermittently to let the rain pass. Fortunately the glorious music had to compete only with the rude bullfrogs about the estate and an occasional airplane overhead.
Known primarily for his classic comic operas The Barber of Seville and La Cenerentola as well as the William Tell Overture, Rossini (1792-1868) wrote in all 39 operas. The last of his Italian operas was Semiramide (1823) with a libretto by Gaetano Rossi based on Voltaire's tragedy Semiramis. Combining matricide, incest and a murdered king's ghost, it might be subtitled "The Hamlet of Babylon." It has its problems. The overcomplicated plot concerns Arsace's Oedipal struggle to rest eighth century Babylon from his evil mother Semiramide, who has murdered her husband King Nino to replace him with their other son Assur. Exiled Arsace returns as the triumphant commander of the Assyrian army to claim Princess Azema as his bride. Unaware of who he really is, Semiramide falls in love with the handsome younger man. Throwing Assur aside, she declares Arsace king and consort and promises his beloved to his rival, the Indian king Idreno. Her love is no less ardent knowing that Arsace is her own son. Nino's ghost demands of Arsace that his death must be avenged. After the high priest Oroe reveals who murdered the king, Arsace finally confronts his mother and brother in his father's tomb, kills Semiramide instead of Assur by mistake, and becomes king.
From the spirited overture, one of Rosini's most popular, Caramoor's Director of Opera Will Crutchfield conducted the Orchestra of St Luke's (minus the brass section specified by the composer) swiftly and energetically. He kept things moving. The cast was superb. Arsace is traditionally a trouser role and mezzo-soprano Viveca Genaux was every inch a king. Rossini wrote the title role specifically for his wife, a famed diva in her own right. Soprano Angela Meade effortlessly embodied this complicated queen. She demonstrated a delicate vulnerability that prevented the murderess from being entirely unsympathetic. One of the chief draws of opera lovers to Semiramide are the passionate duets between Arsace and Semiramide: Genaux and Meade did not disappoint. The beautifully sung "Giorno d'orror!..e di contento!" in the second act in which Semiramide learns that Arscace is actually her son was a highlight of the evening. Wiry bass-baritone Daniel Mobbs was chilling as demonic Assur. Christopher Dickerson as the high priest, John-Andrew Fernandez as the captain of the guard, Djoré Nance as Nino's Ghost and the Caramoor Festival Choir were also first rate. The exciting young tenor Lawrence Brownlee was perhaps underutilized as love-besotted Idreno as was soprano Heather Hill in the underwritten role of Azima.
Although the libretto was edited by the celebrated Italian opera scholar Philip Gossett, there was nothing academic about the superb production. Gossett even added a little performed death scene for the queen. It was a long night: the opera took nearly four hours and ended about midnight. But no one seemed to mind. The intrepid audience vigorously applauded throughout the evening and groggily slogged home drenched and quenched.
For further information, visit Caramoor
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