Vicente Martín y Soler -
La capricciosa corretta (The Taming of the Shrew)
Press reviews
invariably slick, …cleverly imaginative...
Opera Now, November
2006
Another Mozart? Maybe not quite. But Vicente Martín y Soler, along with Salieri, Paisiello and Cimarosa, enjoyed massive popularity in Joseph II's Vienna. Later he went on to a similar success at the court of Catherine the Great, and from St Petersburg made his way in the 1790s to London's King's Theatre.
It was Lorenzo da Ponte who partly accounted for this success. La capricciosa corretta (usually, slightly misleadingly, dubbed The Taming of the Shrew, although Shakespeare's Petruchio and Katharina have nought to do with it) was the fourth of five collaborations between the pair (three for Vienna, including Una cosa rara; two for London). It's an amiable tale about a wilful new spouse won back to the family fold by the wiles of two servants, with the offsprings' amours confusing the issue. Shades of Figaro? To a degree, yes.
The setting is Pompeii, AD79, with Vesuvius in sight; and during the opera the balloon actually goes up. It is typical of Bampton's ingenuity to attempt something as bizarre as staging an eruption amid the herbage and shrubberies of an English country garden, and even more typical of them to pull it off. The lighting and set effects were both hilarious and chokingly realistic. I still have the smoke in my nostrils.
Invariably slick, always cleverly imaginative, Bampton was ready to move up a notch, and this show arguably achieved it. Its casts are always characterful and well chosen; it has a rare gift for marrying professionalism with the tongue-in-cheek and making the mix work. This time, all the elements came together. Strong and lucid playing from the orchestra tent, well-nursed and paced by Paul Hoskins, ensured the music had plenty of punch and lots of character and colouring.
Adrian Powter kept the comedy flowing as the hapless merchant husband, Bonario, a character straight out of Goldoni or Beaumarchais; as the wayward spouse, Kim Sheehan came fully into her own as the evening unwound, serving up a delicious aria in the second half. Eamonn Mulhall and James Harrison provided entertaining diversions as boyfriend and wan suitor, and there were characterful vignettes from Tamsin Coombs and Peter van Hulle as the put-upon, long-suffering offspring who have marital plans of their own. The love scenes between Mulhall and Coombs furnished some of the most immediately winning music, but the quality rarely dipped overall, although one did miss that unique flair for obbligato special to Mozart. Pick of the cast were John Lofthouse and Amanda Pitt, who found plenty of 'Figaro and Susanna' spirit in Da Ponte's servant pair, Fiuta and Cilia, with pliant arias for good measure.
Robert Thicknesse was the wag behind the humour, serving up a sly
and wrily rhymed translation up to Bampton's usual high standard. All
in all, this was terrific value for money, with sizzling explosions
thrown in.
Roderic Dunnett
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first rate...
Opera News
It takes a fiery imagination to stage a full-scale eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in an Oxfordshire country garden. All credit, then, to Jeremy Gray’s set and production of Lorenzo da Ponte and Vicente Martín y Soler’s La capricciosa corretta (The Tamed Wife) for pulling off this cheerful opera’s thunderous climax with such delightful aplomb.
Martín y Soler (1754-1804) - a contemporary of Mozart - collaborated with da Ponte not once but five times: thrice during the Figaro years (1786-7) in Joseph II’s Vienna, and twice in the mid 1790s, when he switched his attention to Russia, where he served Catherine the Great, and then England.
La capricciosa corretta – quite different from Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew - involves the cheerful shenigans of two curiously Figaro-like servants as they seek to head off inappropriate suitors and restore their warring master and mistress. Chief culprit is the new mistress of the house, Cipregna (sung with increasing beauty and poise by Kim Sheehan). Her increasingly flighty fancies have distanced her from her wealthy spouse, Bonario (Adrian Powter), who has rashly embarked on a second marriage. Even the children, Valerio (Peter van Hulle) and Isabella (Tamsin Coombs) threaten to leave home.
It’s cheerful stuff, nicely rooted in Roman Comedy, with perhaps a milder moral undertow than Mozart’s Cosi or even La Grotta di Trofonio, da Ponte’s collaboration with Salieri, staged recently by Opera de Lausanne. In a capable cast, both of the central sparring duo served up handsome arias in turn. Much of the work’s success centred on the quick-fire scenes, reminiscent of Figaro, whereby the wily da Ponte makes pairs of characters interact in subtly-planned sequence. Bampton’s ensemble work is invariably first-rate; here it was rarely less than outstanding; several duets were excellent.
Bampton has played its part in encouraging some pristine young talent (the most recent being the fine soprano Rebecca Bottone). One of the company’s most valuable assets is Amanda Pitt (here, as the Despina-Susanna figure, Cilia): it was she, along with baritone John Lofthouse as her fellow-servant Fiuta, who brought out the fun and the fizz in this amazingly swift-moving, clever production. Bampton stagings always look good; spiced with imagination, this one looked terrific. The evening sprouted numerous finely-honed exits and wittily-contrived surprises.
Soler’s arias can seem a little more pert than Mozart, his ensembles less fulsome, his obbligati plainer, but there were some splendid orchestral touches enlivened by unexpected harmonic dalliance. These the thoughtful conductor Paul Hoskins allowed to beam through, culminating in the musically vivid eruption sequence. Robert Thicknesse’s artful English translation greatly enlivened the evening.
Roderic Dunnett
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the magnetism of Bampton Classical Opera...
The Oxford Times, July 2006
La capricciosa corretta is hardly a name that trips off the tongue. And Martín y Soler is not, I suspect, a composer whose works feature in many music-lovers' CD collections. Yet such is the magnetism of Bampton Classical Opera that the Deanery garden was full last weekend with eager opera-goers, enjoying a fun-filled piece that fitted perfectly into this idyllic setting.
The title translates as The Taming of the Shrew – the 'shrew' in this instance being Ciprigna, second wife of a wealthy merchant Bonario. Poor Bonario is driven to distraction by his wife's vanity, spitefulness and erratic behaviour. His daughter and son from his first marriage, and his two faithful servants, have reached the end of their tether, and threaten to leave. Bonario manages to forestall them by promising to assert some measure of control over his wife. But he fails miserably, pandemonium ensues, and it is left to the servants, Fiuta and Cilia, to sort out the mess. Eventually, of course, all is put right; Ciprigna admits the error of her ways and promises to be a dutiful wife, and the opera ends with general rejoicing.
This 18th-century operatic romp has been given a fresh, raunchy feel by Robert Thicknesse's witty new translation. Some of the unsubtle visual innuendo may not sit well with Bampton audiences, but otherwise director Jeremy Gray has masterminded another triumph, with some slick staging and a cast that performs with style and panache.
Adrian Powter is full of voice and suitably pathetic as the brow-beaten husband, who, strangely, really seems to adore his unlovable wife. John Lofthouse nearly steals the show with his comic portrayal of Fiuta, the servant who engineers Ciprigna's downfall. But it is Kim Sheehan, as Ciprigna, who gives the star performance – by turns sexy, tetchy, scheming and vain, and vocally strong throughout.
Nicola Lisle, The Oxford Times
