"Le Nozze di Figaro": Interpretations challenges.
Sun, Sep 2 2012, 6:24PM
This Opera constitutes Mozart's absolute masterpiece in musical and interpretation terms. It contains some extremely charming music which is supposed to serve a politically subversive play by the French Baumarchais. Thanks to a very cleverly prepared libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, Mozart managed to compose music of the ultimate grace, while the "subversive" political message is most beautifully and well accommodated in the music of the Opera.
The psychological characterisation is of a nature of a constant subtlety: Figaro's humour changes from the superficial happiness to the sardonic. Suzanna might appear frivolous but also profound. The young Countess has not problem to build alliances with the servants. The abnoxious Count is exercising his charme to the ridicule, let alone Cherubino's travesty role...as the most sensual character of the work.
Out of the 28 numbers of the score, half are musical ensembles. The arias rarely are monologues; normally, one actor addresses another. So, it's the constant and general dialogue: between the singers, between the voices and the orchestra, even between the instruments themselves. The Arias may be beautiful, but can they make "Le Nozze" a success? The spirit of the group, the verbal ping-pong, the progression of the tempi, the rhythm of the ensemble are of prime importance. The extended Final ensemble music for Act II and Act IV are some of the greatest and most sublime music ever composed in the whole History of Opera!
The actual prima donna is Suzanna, since it is she who leads the action and because her role is musically more and by the librettist better served. Mozart poses some interesting challenges in interpreting, in very subtle ways, the subversive plot and message of Beaumarchais: three brilliant arias for the servant versus one more conservative to the Master. The "comic" roles now deserve the accompagnying recitatives, normally reserved for the roles of the noble characters of the work.
Based on all these challenges, which recording, you think, did actually manage, in the best possible way, to capture the essence of this magnificent work of Theatre in Music?
Parla
Mon, Sep 3 2012, 4:17PM
#2
RE: "Le Nozzle di Figaro"
No Man, me cannot agree with what you is saying here. Figaro is a silly opera of silly people in silly situations. Cosi and Giovanni are far better operas. yah coming.
Mon, Sep 3 2012, 6:32PM
#3
RE: "Le Nozze di Figaro": Interpretations challenges.
Thanks a lot, Chris for your thorough reply.
You're absolutely right about the merits of the legendary performance of Erich Kleiber and his "dream cast". Siepi is the worthy heir of the incoparable Pinza, Della Casa is the vocal (and visual, for those who had the chance to see her) glamour. However, Gueden and Danco, good as they could be, are not the very best for Cherubino and the critical role of Suzanna. Alfred Poell is the least desirable of the Counts. However, it's Kleiber and a "Nozze", the most Viennese in style, with impeccably brilliant orchestra and ensemble parts.
Another legendary recording is the one on Emi (around early 50s; it sounds not bad at all for its age), with a young and idiomatic Karajan, conducting (and directing) another dream cast, with the arguably best Suzanna in Seefried, a superb Countess in a young Schwarzkopf, a natural Cherubino in the sensual Jurinac and a charming Figaro in Kunz.
Then, we should not forget the legendary Karl Boehm, who revisited the work three times on record, twice on studio and one "live from Salzburg", issued rather recently by Orfeo D'Or, with a similar super cast, such as Fischer-Diescau as the Count, Christa Ludwig as Cherubino (!), Schwarzkopf (she sounds here as the most beautiful Countess of all) and the couple Kunz and Seefried in the key roles of Figaro/Suzanna.
From the recent ones, I always got excited with Solti's 1982 recording with a super female trio of cristallyne voices (Te Kanawa, Popp, Von Stade) among the important features of this most sensual version. However, the impetuous Muti raised the bar a bit higher with the glorious Vienna Philharmonic and a sort of "sacred ensemble", lead by the tender subtlety of a generous voice such as Margaret Price as the Countess, Kathleen Battle as a convincing and sensual Suzzana, Thomas Allen as a furious and vocally superb Figaro and Jorma Hynninen as a noble but also nervous Count. Ann Murray is a different, more "male" (but always charming) Cherubino.
From the more recent recordings, the one of Rene Jacobs, on HM and in glorious SACD sound, gives a fresh, more authentic and very exciting version, but with voices that have almost nothing to do with the legends of the past. However, the overall result of the whole vocal and orchestral ensemble is outstanding.
Of course, in between, there are plenty of other recordings that may serve, in different ways, this very challenging as for the interpretation and musically quite demanding masterpiece of Mozart.
Parla
Tue, Sep 4 2012, 4:39PM
#4
RE: "Le Nozze di Figaro": Interpretations challenges.
Hi Parla,
You are right, I omitted several interesting recordings.
Yes indeed, the singers available in Vienna in the 50s were truly amazing. And we haven't even mentioned the superb Sena Jurinac, the countess being one of her greatest roles. (To be heard on the 1950s Philips set from Vienna, Bohm conducting, and on the Glyndebourne recording with Gui).
I didn't mention the Karajan set from 1950 for a good reason. As you say, it had a near perfect cast, reasonably good recording and the young Karajan never again conducted Mozart quite so well as in those early years. BUT - unbelievable, for a second time, EMI decided to record Figaro without any of the secco recitatives, so we're left with a sort of super-highlights recording.
It is unfortunate that the greatest of all Susannas (Seefried) is to be heard only in this recording and in the live Salzburg performance you mentioned (Bohm), which unfortunately, is sung in German. There is another Bohm recording which we have not mentioned before (on DVD only though) with Kiri te Kanawa, Mirella Frena, Maria Ewing, Prey as Figaro, and DF-D as the Count. Slow but less heavy than his Berlin recording, and in a beautiful production by Ponnelle.
I completely forgot the fine Muti version you mentioned, even though I have the CDs! Excellent it is too, especially Margaret Price.
One thing, not strictly 'musical' that can also affect the success of a performance is the timing of pauses, especially between the sections of the long ensembles. Too long and the tension is broken. This is sometimes a problem in the Muti version. I suppose this is down to the recording producer. Anyway it is yet another thing that is judged to perfection in the Kleiber set (Peter Andry was the producer I think).
We surely can't be the only two who adore this wonderful opera can we?
Chris
Tue, Sep 4 2012, 6:00PM
#5
RE: "Le Nozze di Figaro": Interpretations challenges.
No, we cannot, Chris. However, if you have noticed, there has been no "activity" in any section of the Forum for the last week or so. So, either our friend-forum members decided to go for good or they are on...strike, simply watching...and waiting...
Anyway, we'll see. We cannot do anything ourselves, can we?
Back on topic, thanks for your kind and informative second post.
Parla
Tue, Sep 4 2012, 10:49PM
#6
RE: "Le Nozze di Figaro": Interpretations challenges.
How to keep the audience awake is probably the biggest challenge. Figaro is a 'chick flick' at best and a soap opera mostly. If ever an opera was best served by CD it is this one.
Wed, Sep 5 2012, 10:51AM
#7
RE: "Le Nozze di Figaro": Interpretations challenges.
SK, I think "soap opera" would be very honoured to be served by a divinely sublime music as the one of Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro", which might mean that either "soap opera" could be treated, in musical terms, very seriously or serious works can take the deceptive form of a "soap opera" to pass some more profound messages, with some of the greater music ever composed in this genre.
Parla
Wed, Sep 5 2012, 11:17AM
#8
RE: "Le Nozze di Figaro": Interpretations challenges.
S-K, I'm sure many of your friends, such as Alice and Hugh and Dr Brodsky are much more appreciative of Figaro than you. You should try it again (like the repeat of a **** opera.
Chris
Wed, Sep 5 2012, 8:30PM
#9
RE: "Le Nozze di Figaro": Interpretations challenges.
Ah but perhaps Parla & Chris we haven't all heard so many versions. For me it has to be Boehm with Janowitz meltingly glorious in the countess's famous arias and superb orchestral playing.
The Gui Glydebourne version has wonderfully alive spontaineity and EMI's early stereo sounds superb on the CfP transfer, better in fact than on the later EMI Barenboim version, which is a good listenable version too.
I bought the Jacobs after it won the Gramophone award but for me it's the joker in the pack. I've still not played it all through as I become increasingly irritated by the period instruments' sound and fortepiano continuo.
Wed, Sep 5 2012, 8:51PM
#10
RE: "Le Nozze di Figaro": Interpretations challenges.
Hi 33lp! Nice to hear from you again!
I have that very fine Bohm version too. As you say Janowitz (together with Bohm)is the star of the recording. It's worth trying the DVD too! I agree that the Gui Glynbebourne version is excellent. I first heard extracts from that recording on the BBC. You too may remember early stereo experimental broadcasts with one channel on the radio (Third Programme) the other on the television. They broadcast part of the Finale of Act II.
I find I cannot get on with Jacobs. He is just too interventionist (Gimmicky?) for me. Muti uses a fortepiano but is otherwise conventional, and very well sung and played. I listened to it again last night after Parla's reminder.
Another one I have is Klemperer. He brings out the revolutionary aspects but is a bit heavy. Harnoncourt a big disappointment, so mannered.
I really do have too many versions, but it is such a wonderful opera; and then there's Don Giovanni, and Cosi fan Tutte........
Good listening.
Chris
Thu, Sep 6 2012, 1:08AM
#11
RE: "Le Nozze di Figaro": Interpretations challenges.
How to keep the audience awake is probably the biggest challenge. Figaro is a 'chick flick' at best and a soap opera mostly. If ever an opera was best served by CD it is this one.
Hmmm... not sure I agree with the polemic here. My impression of Mozart and his music is that there is so much more there than the usual Salzburg 'chocolate box' appeal that was so finely crafted in the lead up to the bicentennary of his birth. The music is Figaro is supremely crafted, both beautiful and at times deeply touching. Daponte and Mozart set out to create a true ensemble feeling and the performances that I enjoy the most (form my limited range - I only have access to a couple of recordings) nobody stands too far above the others. Others may well feel the emotions on display are more suitable for a 'soap opera' but to me there are truths on display - playful display perhaps but still very satisfying for an audience. And in the context of its time I cannot help feeling Moazrt and Da Ponte were poking fun at their audiences.
All of the above said I have to admit that I much prefer Don Giovanni, which I think is Mozart's finest opera and withstands crutiny on ever level. Giovanni himself is a fascinating character. As ever, I do feel Mozart always short changed his tenors (Idomeneo and Tito excepted) with rather dull roles.
I know many enjoy Cosi but I really do find that a much less appealing work. The music is fantastic but I just can't handle the plot, where I do find the characters 'puppets on a string' with Da Ponte pulling the strings. It's rather like Gethe's "Elective Affinities" - the conceit is just a tad heavy-handed.
Thu, Sep 6 2012, 6:29PM
#12
RE: "Le Nozze di Figaro": Interpretations challenges.
Hi Chris, you remember those early stereo trials better than me; I thought it was all ping-pong and trains rushing past!
I have a VHS tape of a studio filmed Boehm performance with some of the cast as the sound recording which I bought after it was broadcast on TV. Presumably that's what's you mentioned now on DVD.
Thu, Sep 6 2012, 8:21PM
#13
RE: "Le Nozze di Figaro": Interpretations challenges.
Yes, I too saw the Bohm performance first on BBC TV, then had the VHS. Lovely performance, even though it is 'voiced-over'. And you're quite right: those early BBC stereo tests were mostly trains, ping-pong and the like. A musical extract was rare enough to be remembered even now.
I'd hate to have to select one only of the Da Ponte/ Mozart operas but I suppose, pushed, I'd choose Cosi fan Tutte first, then Don Giovanni. But now that I'm listening toFigaro, perhaps.....
But I don't agree with you about the characters in Cosi being merely puppets on a string. Certainly they are manipulated by Don Alfonso, but then so is Otello by Iago. Anyway, once we're finished with Figaro, perhaps Parla, the thread director, will consider letting us move on to Giovanni and Cosi!
Finally, I have to admit to giving some false information. I said the 1957 Bohm live performance of Figaro was sung in German. I was confusing this performance, which is sung in Italian, with one recorded three years earlier, conducted by Furtwangler, with many of the same singers. This is in German. Sorry, memory is not completely reliable I'm afraid.
Chris
Fri, Sep 7 2012, 5:05AM
#14
RE: "Le Nozze di Figaro": Interpretations challenges.
Bt all means, Chris, 33p, Naupilus or any other member wishes to move on the other late big Operas (instead of creating new threads), feel free and be my guest.
However, before we do so, allow me some remarks on what has already been said on "Le Nozze", from my perspective:
Gui is a fine performance indeed, but the cast is a bit less than perfect: Sciutti is not one of the greatest Susannas, Bruscantini or Calabrese too, Jurinac is the Countess, when two years earlier sung Cherubino in Karajan' version on EMI. In this recording of Karajan, I forgot to mention the incredible (almost over the top or larger than life) young George London as the Count!
33lp, I have listened and still have a great number of "Le Nozze di Figaro", since is my beloved one out of the great ones Mozart wrote. Bohm's one on DG is an excellent one, with Janowitz giving more a perfect singing lesson rather than interpreting the role. Prey is a "warm" and bright Figaro, Dieskau is always a sure bet in the role of Count (once more), but Edith Mathis is not the leading role Susanna (though always a secure and graceful singer) and Troyanos is a very "big" and "generous" Cherubino, far from being sensual enough. Bohm, however, is brilliant as ever.
I confined myself to the recordings I trust they serve, as for the interpretation challenges, better the work. There are plenty of less successful to simply decent performances to mention. It is interesting that great conductors have failed, in one or the other way, in this really difficult work to perform: Barenboim twice, Abbado, Giulini, Leinsdorf, Fricsay (!), Klemperer (some musican-friend mentioned once that Klemperer managed to transform a day of folly to a...funeral march!).
Harnoncourt was very subversive in his first recordig, but quite impressive in the second one, with VPO and a larger than life but impressive Susanna in Netrebko...Great and very analytical recording too.
I chose Jacobs, because there is a strong movement for the "original instruments" or "period" performances. Starting in the late 70s (or early 80s) with Ostman (in L'Oiseau-Lyre), with a great Aurleen Auger as the Countess, Kuijiken, Gardiner (with an exuberant Terfel as Figaro) and the first Harnoncourt, Jacobs managed to bring this work to a sort of perfection, at least as for the interpretation, and with a very decent to bright cast and a very detailed and impressive recording, particularly the one on SACD.
In sort, apart form Jacobs, on the "period" performance, I believe the classic Viennese Kleiber, one of the Bohm's and one between Solti or Muti can serve the work as good as it can get...so far.
Parla
Fri, Sep 7 2012, 10:32AM
#15
RE: "Le Nozze di Figaro": Interpretations challenges.
Excellent summary Parla! I have not heard the second Harnoncourt recording (only on DVD?). Sounds interesting. On the other hand, I've just listened right through the Muti recording again. Very powerful and indeed 'impetuous', and so much attention to detail in the orchestra. Margaret Price fabulous as the countess. 33lp, you might not like the fortepiano continuo: rather inventive playing, which some might find too 'gimmicky'.
Anyway we can in due course move on discuss the other Da Ponte operas. I think keeping them in the same thread is good because they have much more in common than separates them. All the important characteristics and criteria summarised by Parla apply equally to the other two. I suspect Bohm's name will resurface! Kleiber alas did not record either of the others (Did he ever conduct them?).
I'm away for the weekend. Best wishes to all!
Chris
PS: I wonder who is responsible for determining the arrangement of the music on the CDs. Both Kleiber and Muti have a break in the middle of Act II, Muti in Act III too. Both recordings (on 3 CDs) could have perfectly well fitted the music without mid-act breaks (Act I, CD1; Act II, CD2; Acts III & IV, CD4).
Lovely subject for a thread this, Parla. Thanks!
The three Da Ponte operas of Mozart are all so wonderful, I sincerely hope I will never be sent to a desert island with just one of them!
Your summary of the requirements for the perfect 'Figaro' recording (and indeed performance) seems absolutely spot-on to me. I remember long ago 'highlights' discs on lp which contained almost entitrely arias, usually giving a completely false impression of the complete performance.
Because of the intricate balance between the recitatives, arias, duets and ensembles I have generally found pereformances based around a regular ensemble of singers to be the most successful (for me). Even before the war Glyndebourne was showing the way it should be done (but the recording was sabotaged by someone's decision not to record the secco recitatives). When I started collecting, two complete recordings (just two!) were available, the 1955 Glyndebourne version with Gui (HMV), and Kleiber's version from around the same time (Decca) with the incomparable cast of singers who were members of the company at tghat time and who had all worked with the greatest Mozarteans of thge day, Boehm, Krips, Kleiber, Krauss. Both these recordings have survived well and for me, Kleiber's Figaro (along with the equally superb Rosenkavalier) remains my benchmark, and the stereo recording still sounds splended. Each of the singers (Della Casa, Gueden, Danco, Poell, Corena and the superb Siepi as Figaro) work together hand-in-glove with the conductor to deliver a perfectly balanced and perfectly paced performance. Just listen to those great finales in Acts II and IV. That one has to be my No.1 choice. Giulini's (which appeared soon adfterwards) seems to me less successful than his superb Don Giovanni
Every choice is of course biased and this recording was the first I ever heard when the local library in the town I lived in, started lending LPs. First impressions, especially when justifiable, can be difficult to erase. I'm interested to hear what others have to say about more recent recordings: none of those I've heard suppass Kleiber for me!
An afterthought: what do others feel about the two arias added in Act IV (for Marcellina, and Don Basilio)? I've never been convinced by these, even though Basilio's aria especially is a fine piece.
Chris
Chris A.Gnostic