A search for recordings of Roma never used to yield much: barely a handful of individual arias dating from the 78rpm era by artists such as Lily Dupre, Leon Beyle and Carlo Fontaine. It is an ominous sign if even early singers declined to keep the music alive. But this first complete set of the opera, taken from live stage performances at the Valle d'Itria Festival at Martina Franca last year, defies expectations by showing Roma to be a typically effective piece of writing for the theatre on Massenet's part. Perhaps one should have trusted the old professional more.
Why has the opera, a late work dating from 1912, never merited greater attention? Probably because it is too predictable. The libretto of Roma, written by the ever-reliable Henri Cain, reads like a cross between Norma and Aida. All the usual ingredients are here: the private passion, the public duty, the choruses of imperial cohorts, even the lovers' tryst in the sacred grove. The one unexpected extra is the character of Posthumia, who discovers that the only way she can save her beloved granddaughter from the sentence of being buried alive is to kill Fausta herself. Massenet and his librettist pile on the agony in this final scene, as the blind old woman feels for the girl's heart before sinking in the dagger, but the listener's heart remains untouched. Neither of these two characters - in fact none of the five principals - has quite been drawn in sufficient detail.
Still, there is much to enjoy here, even if Massenet did tend to write his best music for more intimate subjects. It is only a small step from the sensuous beauty of the violin solo in the Meditation to the cool flute that floats above the tenor solo, 'Soir admirable', here. This aria is a winner and Warren Mok makes a fine job of it. His Lentulus has easily the liveliest vocal personality of the cast. The love duet that follows also contains some memorable music (a shame it gets split between the two discs) and introduces us late in the day to the heroine Fausta, grandly sung by Iano Tamar with a dark, brooding soprano. As a native French speaker, the baritone Nicolas Rivenq puts across the dilemma of Fabius Maximus, the condemned girl's father, as strongly as the role allows. Francesco Ellero d'Artegna is not very interesting as Lucius Cornelius, but the mezzo Svetlana Arginbaeva comes close to walking off with the opera in Posthumia's closing scene. (It is no surprise that Massenet intended the role for his favourite, Lucy Arbell.) The lovely aria 'Le soleil se couchait', the other solo number to have been recorded separately, is sung to fine effect by the soprano Francesca Franzil.
The orchestra does its best under the lively baton of Marco Guidarini and the recording quality is adequate. Altogether, this ranks as a first recording worth investigating. Now some enterprising company should move on to Le mage and Ariane.'