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I spent some time watching a very early, very odd, very well performed Baroque opera: Il Sant'Alessio, by Stefano Landi. It was written in 1631 by a future Pope and initially performed at the Palazzo Barberini by an all-male cast that included castrati from the Vatican choir, and the plot (such as it is) concerns a holy man who goes off on pilgrimage, comes home after 17 years, and spends another 17 years living as a beggar under the staircase of his father's home. Best of all, the protagonist dies about 2/3 of the way through.
As you can imagine, modern performances rather rare.
Fortunately for the curious, early music guru William Christie and his group Les Artes Florissants did a fully staged performance five years ago. The costumes, sets, performance style, and even the lighting were as authentic as possible, and the work was virtually uncut. Best of all, Christie got around the castrato issue by casting no fewer than EIGHT countertenors in the high roles, including Max Emanuel Cencic as Sant' Alessio's rejected wife, Jose Lemos as a comical semi-villain who ends up begging for redemption from a rather bemused treble playing an angel, and Phillipe Jaroussky in the title role. Jaroussky in particular was inspired casting, since not only does he have the right sort of very high, very clean voice for the part, he's thin enough to look convincingly emaciated as an angel assures him that his suffering and religious faith have pleased God and now he can go straight to heaven when he dies.
Like I said, it's a very odd piece, and all jokes about finding castrati (or countertenors) aside, it's little wonder that this one hasn't been revived very much. It's more like a staged oratorio or Passion than an opera, and the very serious, very Catholic, very Counter-Reformation religiosity of the piece is not exactly to modern tastes. The music is lovely, though, and the authentic lighting (all candles, which must have driven the camera crew *nuts*) is soft enough that I finally knew on a visceral level just how early operas and plays that cast males in the female roles looked convincing and not like a slash lover's dream.
Odd, yes, but fascinating nonetheless. I definitely would pay to see a staged version even though the odds of that happening in this area are pretty minimal.
As you can imagine, modern performances rather rare.
Fortunately for the curious, early music guru William Christie and his group Les Artes Florissants did a fully staged performance five years ago. The costumes, sets, performance style, and even the lighting were as authentic as possible, and the work was virtually uncut. Best of all, Christie got around the castrato issue by casting no fewer than EIGHT countertenors in the high roles, including Max Emanuel Cencic as Sant' Alessio's rejected wife, Jose Lemos as a comical semi-villain who ends up begging for redemption from a rather bemused treble playing an angel, and Phillipe Jaroussky in the title role. Jaroussky in particular was inspired casting, since not only does he have the right sort of very high, very clean voice for the part, he's thin enough to look convincingly emaciated as an angel assures him that his suffering and religious faith have pleased God and now he can go straight to heaven when he dies.
Like I said, it's a very odd piece, and all jokes about finding castrati (or countertenors) aside, it's little wonder that this one hasn't been revived very much. It's more like a staged oratorio or Passion than an opera, and the very serious, very Catholic, very Counter-Reformation religiosity of the piece is not exactly to modern tastes. The music is lovely, though, and the authentic lighting (all candles, which must have driven the camera crew *nuts*) is soft enough that I finally knew on a visceral level just how early operas and plays that cast males in the female roles looked convincing and not like a slash lover's dream.
Odd, yes, but fascinating nonetheless. I definitely would pay to see a staged version even though the odds of that happening in this area are pretty minimal.
