Now that Handel’s operas are in general available on CD, companies
are turning to his pasticcios. Handel’s self-pasticcios, where
he created a new opera from material from his existing operas,
are undergoing something of an operatic renaissance. We have
recently had a new recording of Oreste and now George
Petrou has added Alessandro Severo. The opera
was produced for Handel’s 1738 season, which took place after
his serious health scare in 1737. The season included the premieres
of Faramondo and Serse as well as Alessandro
Severo. For this opera, Handel selected 19 numbers
from Arminio, Giustino and Berenice, all
three of which had been produced in the previous season but
which Handel would never revive. The remaining 11 numbers came
from operas written between 1720 and 1726. Handel wrote the
recitatives from new, added a new overture and an accompanied
recitative.
The libretto was originally written by Apostolo Zeno, one of
Metastasio’s most influential predecessors. Handel’s only other
setting of a libretto by Zeno was Faramondo. Alessandro
Severo was originally written for Venice where it was set
by Lotti and premiered during the 1716-17 season. Handel seems
to have been fond of early 18th century Venetian
operas and often returned to this source for his libretti.
Zeno’s plot involves the Roman Emperor, Alessandro Severo and
the clash between his mother Giulia Mammaea and his new bride
Salustia. Salustia’s father, Marziano is also involved in the
complex plotting: attempted poisonings, divorce, reducing Salustia
to the rank of servant and so on. As if this wasn’t enough,
another pair of lovers, Albina and Claudia are also undergoing
travails. The opera is short by Handelian standards, with the
entire piece fitting onto 2 CDs.
Handel’s original cast included the soprano castrato Cafarelli
(the first Serse) as Alessandro Severo, La Francesina (the first
Semele) as Salustia and Antonia Merighi (the first Rosmira in
Partenope) as Giulia and the great bass Montagnana as
Marziano.
The late Anthony Hicks prepared a performing edition for performances
at the London Handel Festival in 1997 and it is this edition
which George Petrou has used for this disc. Because the opera
is relatively short, the balance between the arias for different
characters is closer than in the longer operas. Alessandro receives
five arias and a duet, Salustia four arias and a duet, Giula
two arias, a duet and an accompagnato, Albina has five arias
with Claudia and Marziano receiving three each. The surprise
here is Albina who seems to develop into a major character,
despite being part of the sub-plot.
Mary Ellen Nesi makes a fine Alessandro. Handel reduced the
virtuosity of some of the arias - Cafarelli was patently not
the equal of Carestini for whom the originals had been written
- but nonetheless Nesi gets to sing some pretty brilliant things,
including the fine Salda quercia in erta balza. With
Marita Solberg as a charming Salustia.
Kristina Hammarström makes good work of Giulia’s material, with
a vivid entrance aria Lo sdegno del mio cor with further
dramatics in other arias. Perhaps she could have sounded a little
more scheming in the recitative however. Irini Karaianni impresses
in Albina’s demanding sequence of arias, you don’t feel the
character is very necessary but Karaianni certainly makes you
listen to her. She has a nice mezzo voice with a bit of vibrato,
but used intelligently. As Claudio, Gemma Bertagnolli displays
a vibrant lyric coloratura voice which reminded me somewhat
of Roberta Peters.
Petros Magoulas has a lovely focussed grainy bass voice in the
Montagnana role. None of his three arias has quite the dramatics
that Handel wrote for the singer in other places, but Magoulas
impresses nonetheless.
The standard of musicality on the disc is impressive, with all
the virtuoso passages being more than capably taken. Petrou
has managed to put together a cast who are remarkably well balanced,
quite an achievement. The singing is of a uniformly high order.
As an appendix, the group gives the opera Don Crespuscolo
by Niccolo Manzaro, a Corfu aristocrat - his real name was
Nikolaus Halikopoulos Mantzaros. He is the composer of the music
used for the Greek National Anthem. He trained locally in Corfu
and Don Crespuscolo was premiered in 1815 at the San
Giacomo theatre in Corfu.
Don Crespuscolo is a one-act comic opera,
with just a single singing role though the libretto implies
that other characters appear silently. The piece concerns that
operatic standard, the search for a wife by an elderly man,
here sung by Christophoros Stamboglis. Musically the piece owes
something to Mozart and quite a bit to Rossini. The result is
charming and effective, never outstaying its welcome. I am not
sure I would be keen on a full three-act opera by Manzaro, but
this short one-acter is quite a delight. Quite why it should
be accompanying an opera by Handel written 78 years before,
I am not sure.
The booklet includes articles about both operas, plus texts
in Italian and English. As usual with pasticcios, the booklet
fails fully to identify the sources for the individual arias,
which is frustrating.
Though you may have never heard of either of these operas, the
standard of performance under George Petrou’s direction, makes
them worthy of notice. Handel’s pasticcio functions well as
a dramatic entity and as an omnium gatherum of his music,
plus the performances are terrific.
Robert Hugill
Giulia Mammea – Kristina Hammarström (mezzo) 
