F.J. Haydn - L'infedeltà delusa (Deceit outwitted)
Press reviews
from MusicOMH.com
Whilst the last seven of Mozart's operas continue to pop up in the repertoires of most opera companies on a regular basis, and Beethoven's Fidelio is never far away, Haydn's wonderful and innovative works for the theatre linger in obscurity. In consequence, it has been difficult to judge whether their reputation of not being stage-worthy is justified.
Certainly, Antal Dorati's pioneering series of recordings of several of the mature operas, in the wake of the scholarly Complete Haydn Edition of the scores, helped to bring them back into the limelight. But they still receive only a spattering of staged performances, as Haydn is considered box office death.
So it was all the more commendable that the sprightly Bampton Classical Opera company brought their summer 2004 production of the 1773 work L'infedeltà delusa to St John's, Smith Square, for a semi-staged performance in English.
Not that there was anything half-done about this sparklingly witty evening's entertainment, which delighted in almost every respect. That the venue was practically full also showed that people are eager to see Haydn's stage works, and one hopes that the company will turn its attention to more of his masterpieces in future years.
Deceit Outwitted, as the libretto's translator Andrew Porter calls it, was only given three times in Haydn's lifetime (as far as we know), the result of his being stuck as the court composer at Esterháza for the majority of his productive career. Certainly the post had its artistic benefits, and allowed Haydn to write no end of fascinating works - from the unusual story of Il mondo della luna to the five or so marionette operas he composed to satisfy the current fad in court society.
But it's a shame that Haydn never really had the chance to write a series of operas for a major city opera house, which would have thrown light on his talents for dramatic pacing.
One of the many strong points of Bampton's excellent performance was their complete conviction in the quality of the work. With only five singers, minimal sets and coloured lighting, they conjured up all the pictures necessary to convey this charming comedy.
The story tells of the shepherdess Vespina's cunning in winning her lover, Nencio, back from a pre-arranged marriage to Sandrina. Meanwhile, she paves the way for her brother Nanni to marry Sandrina in Nencio's place - and all to the disgust of Sandrina's father, Filippo.
It's a brilliantly composed piece, full of the most inspired arias, and the two act finales and the opening ensemble show an unprecedented level of dramatic craft in Haydn's stage works.
Of the five soloists, one was outstanding. The soprano Kim Sheehan is an artist to watch, a natural Mozart singer if ever there was one. I'm not surprised that her teacher is the great Lillian Watson. If the opportunity arises to hear her as Susanna in Mozart's Figaro, it will be a knock-out, as her solo singing in her four difficult arias, especially those done in various disguises, was brilliantly projected and elegantly phrased.
Also impressive was Huw Rhys-Evans as Filippo, who made an instant impact in his Act 1 aria when he orders his daughter to marry Nencio whether she likes it or not. His conveyance of the text was the best of the five, in fact, allowing us to hear very word without straining.
Perhaps Cheryl Enever needs a little more experience before she takes on more difficult roles of the size of Sandrina, but she did sing her final aria with emotion and was always dramatically engaging. Nicholas Merryweather warmed up in the role of Nanni after a wooden start, but the really stylish singing came from Nicholas Sharratt as Nencio, gracefully sung indeed.
Jeremy Gray's direction was much appreciated, incorporating the entire space available and really drawing the audience into the action. It was also mercifully unpretentious, allowing the farce to play for what it is.
The brilliant accompaniment came from the London Mozart Players, a period orchestra with bite, and Jason Lai was the talented young conductor.
Despite the odd reservation, this was always an enjoyable evening, and the only shame is that there are no further performances. Their summer 2006 production of an opera by Martin y Soler, Mozart's Spanish friend and contemporary, is certainly something to watch out for.
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from Musical Opinion, 2004
Bampton Classical Opera’s triumphant forays into rare repertoire in an Oxfordshire Garden have yielded witty revivals of Storace, Salieri and (this summer) Gazzaniga. For the English Haydn Festival at St. Leonard’s Church, Bridgnorth, Bampton’s inventive director, Jeremy Gray, mounted a modest staging of L’Infedelta delusa whose main assets were some entertaining comic detail, a clutch of useful voices, and sheaves of sizzling, well-honed Haydn playing from the English Haydn Orchestra under the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra’s young assistant conductor, Jason Lai.
Best of all was the heroine, Vespina (Sinead Pratschke), a ‘girl of spirit’ whose ingenious disguises (yielding the most entertaining music) - finally get her man.
The young tenor Nathan Vale is a rising star too, less for his embryonic acting than for his vocal qualities : there is a marked pathos to the voice, as revealed in his recent song recital for the combined Housman and Ivor Gurney Societies, which came over refreshingly in Nencio’s enchanting aria, carpeted by guitar-like strumming strings.
Haydn’s ensembles shone – including a wonderful quintet (‘bella sera’) and one punchy plotting duet for Vespina and her brother Nanni (Cologne-trained Nicholas Merryweather, a youthful baritone to watch out for). Sandrina’s angry outburst (Cheryl Enever) was suitably shrill.
Given the venue constraints, any staging was of needs limited. But when Gray turned the comic tap up and Vespina donned her successive disguises – notary, elderly crone, tipsy German serving lad - there was much to savour, despite librettist Marco Coltellini’s over-telescoped conclusion. The violins, both muted and at full throttle, and finessed oboes played handsomely, thanks to Jason Lai’s clear-thinking, crisp Haydn pacing.
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from Opera Now
With Bampton you have to go with the flow. The company has its own style - quirky, witty, zestful, even slightly silly – which, when it works, endows late 18th opera with rapid momentum, showing a constant empathy with its subject.
Director/co-translator Jeremy Gray and producer/translator Gilly French make a virtue of rare repertoire : Storace (Gli Equivoci), Mozart-Henneberg (The Philosopher’s Stone), Paisiello (Nina), Salieri (Falstaff) and Gazzaniga (Don Giovanni) have all had the Bampton treatment. It has served them well.
This season Haydn’s La vera costanza (1778-9) was staged in Bampton’s Oxfordshire Garden venue. Preempting that, a rough-and-ready staging of L’Infedelta delusa delighted Haydn aficianados by providing a cheeky climax to this year’s English Haydn Festival at rural Bridgnorth.
Not all seemed ideal. Makeshift staging, over-raised for sound and sightlines, lent a ragged look dispelled by neither set nor costumes (slovenly hangings, gamma-standard props) : all areas Bampton, despite forgivable restricted budget, must attack seriously in order to be taken seriously itself. Some looked like Garden Opera cast-offs; an artist’s eye seemed absent.
But Bampton invariably scores with musical verve and quick-fire delivery – here admirably led by a new conductor, Jason Lai, the BBC Philharmonic’s assistant (taking over from the Halle’s Edward Gardner) – plus here, a second half staging that soared above seedy beginnings.
Rocky horns marred the opening music; yet even they came good latterly. String and oboe tone was admirable, whether in a lovely Handelian minuet, or rising chromatically through Filip’s aria (a seasoned, grumpy old pater from David Hillman).
The cast had some real plums : Nicholas Merryweather (a gloriously gloomy Bardolph in Salieri and blistering as Storace’s Dr.Pinch) set the ball rolling as the heroine’s streetwise brother, vivid in rollicking siblings’ duet. If neither girl galvanised initially, tenor Nathan Vale’s thinly acted, two-timing Nencio stopped the audience in its tracks with his first aria, where Haydn slows the action (and quickens hearts) to perfection. An early quartet and later quintet (with stunning slow diminuendo), proved pure enchantment.
The real joy was Sinead Pratschke’s Vespina, in a set of Act II disguises designed to have Esterhazy’s audience hooting. A Harry Potter in drag (shades of Despina), then rustic know-it-all lad in hostelry mood, plus accented German servant, Pratschke’s comedy rivalled Mark Wilde’s Texan pilot and Amanda Pitt’s German spy-meets-French Resistance in last year’s side-splitting Falstaff. Abetted by ludicrous blue feather pen, hee-hawing horns, Vale pirriping “How delightful, how delicious” plus Lai’s perceptive Haydn pacing, she turned the latter half into sheer delight.
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from the Shropshire Star June 2004
What a delightful way to bring the acclaimed English Haydn festival at Bridgnorth to a close. Bampton Opera’s production of L’infedelta delusa (Deceit Outwitted) was a joy from start to finish.
This comic opera from the musical pen of Haydn in 1773 with libretto by Marco Coctellini had sharpness, wit, pace and humour by the bucket load – and what is more an audience in St Leonard’s Church that really appreciated this most famous of Haydn’s operas.
The cast of five were ideally matched and obviously relished working together on this tale of farmers and their love lives.
It was the usual recipe of star-crossed lovers, a father who believes he knows best for his daughter, a little bit of disguise and deceit but with the end result that everyone is happy.
Sinead Pratschke as Vespina was superb making the most of Haydn’s music with her soaring soprano voice and also the most of her other considerable talent – for comic acting. And the comic scenes in the second act were particularly entertaining with all the cast proving their worth as actors as well as singers.
The English Haydn Orchestra, as usual, was excellent and there was the added bonus of the conductor – the very talented Jason Lai. This young man (he won the BBC Young Conductors Workshop in 2002 and is currently assistant conductor to the BBC Philharmonic) is surely destined for even greater things in the future. He set the pace for the evening moving the music pace up by several notches and keeping it full of energy and moving on, while losing none of the essential tenderness of some parts.
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from Opera, September 2004
Although it was well received, I didn’t enjoy Jeremy Gray’s workmanlike Bridgnorth production of Haydn’s L’Infedelta Delusa as much as usual; yet Gray and Gilly French, Bampton Classical Opera’s imaginative producer-translators, have a knack of advancing prodigious young talent (tenors Mark Wilde and Benjamin Hulett, for instance). Sinead Pratschke, whose disguised Vespina elicited yet another classic of fine honed Gray comedy (compare Amanda Pitt’s witty disguise in Salieri’s Falstaff), proved a fine find; Nathan Vale’s strumming serenade revealed a tenor of lovely timbres and shy beauty; and Jason Lai judged the pacings like a Haydn specialist inspired.
