Handel: Partenope
by Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Francisco Negrin, Peter Borgwardt
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Andreas Scholl, Bo Kristian Jensen, Christophe Dumaux, Inger Dam Jensen, Tuva SemmingsenDirector: Francisco Negrin, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Peter Borgwardt
Brand: Universal Studios
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); Chinese (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Italian (Original Language), DTS 5.1
Format: AC-3, Classical, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.77:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-10-26
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Decca
Movie Reviews of Handel: Partenope
Movie Review: American Opera Fans, Beware!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a thoroughly absurdist staging, in modern dress (more or less), with lots of lascivious postures and Ionesco-like incongruities ... exactly the sort of "Euro-trash" production that conservative fans love to rant against. And it's true that surreal stagings have become the norm in many European Opera Houses, especially for productions of Handel, Rameau, Vivaldi and other baroque works. But if it takes a nude or two and an atmosphere of dissolute absurdity to attract an audience, so be it! Listen up, impresarios! I'd be willing to put up with Handel staged in flour sacks on a bare stage, if it would bring us some relief from the provincial parade of Puccini, Wagner, and Verdi!
Still, it's only fair to note that this production has some obvious flaws. It has been assembled from several filmings, and the editing will be obvious to sharp-eyed and sharp-eared viewers. The camera work is too busy, and there are close-ups that focus rather distractingly on nostrils. The hammy acting gets annoying at times, especially when the camera hops away from the character singing the aria to another character upstaging the singer. The most serious flaw is the singing of Andreas Scholl, the only member of the cast with a large reputation. Scholl has often shown more skill than voice, but in this recording his voice is thin and unconvincing. Gossip has it that he was suffering a rotten head-cold or flu when the recording was made. He is certainly "outsung" by every other member of the mostly Danish cast.
It's also fair to say that the libretto for Partenope is unfocused and meandering, my personal choice for the weakest drama Handel ever chose to set to music. But Handel wasn't alone; the libretto, written in 1699, was set by at least ten other composers and was perennially popular in Italy, perhaps because of its implied decadence and irreverence. That would, in turn, justify the slightly raunchy staging given it by the Royal Opera House of Copenhagen. Handel's Partenope was the composer's first 'comic' opera in England. It was staged in London in 1730, but not well received by the critics. The music is good, of course, but doesn't (to my ears anyway) generate much excitement until the third act. Then it's sublime, one achingly beautiful love-aria after another, building to a climactic duet between Partenope and her true love Armindo, a duet that rivals Monteverdi's exquisite duet at the end of Poppea. By the third act, dear viewer, any resistance to the goofy staging will have dissipated; you'll be more than glad you've stayed the course. Those arias and that duet are what justify my five-star rating.
The two women in this cast -- Inger Dam-Jensen as Partenope and Tuva Semmingsen as Rosmira -- vocally as well as emotively dominate their counter-tenor lovers. As it should be, perhaps: Scholl is an utter wimp as Arsace and Cristophe Dumaux is a limp-wristed Amindo, though he sings elegantly enough. The orchestra, Concerto Copenhagen conducted by Lars Ulrik Mortensen, performs very stylishly and transparently; even the archlute can be heard at times, and the singers are never forced to bellow. But the erratic editing/assembling of the DVD does present the listeners with odd shifts in dynamics, as if suddenly the mikes had all conspired to scatter to the back of the theater.
Sooo... It's not Handel's most distinctive music, except for the last act, and it's not the most coherent modern staging, but it's well worth hearing, and likely to be the only DVD production of Partenope available for a long time.
Summary of Handel: Partenope
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