Antonio VIVALDI (1678 - 1741)
Motezuma (Montezuma) (1733) [153:00]
Motezuma - Vito Priante
Mitrena - Mary-Ellen Nesi
Teutile - Laura Cherici
Fernando Cortés - Franziska Gottwald
Ramiro - Theodora Baka
Asprano - Gemma Bertagnolli
Il Complesso Barocco/Alan Curtis
Director: Stefano Vizioli
Teatro Comunale di Ferrara, 2008
Region Code: 0; Sound format: 16:9; Picture format: LPCM 2.0
Booklet notes: Ita, Eng, Fre, Ger
Subtitles: Fre, Eng, Ger, Spa, Ita
World premiere recording
DYNAMIC DVD 33586 [75:14 + 74:46]
Surviving as a fragment, Vivaldi’s 1733 opera Motezuma - known
as Montezuma prior to the recovery in 2002 of the surviving manuscript
- requires modern intervention for execution. This new recording is based
on the Bärenreiter edition prepared by the conductor Alan Curtis and
includes Alessandro Ciccolini’s reconstruction of the missing material.
Already available in another performance conducted by Curtis and also a recording
by Malgoire, the new DVD benefits from a fine cast and an effective staging,
which have much to recommend. As a Baroque opera, the subject-matter alone
shifts from the tales of antiquity that usually find expression in librettos
involving the gods of the Greeks and Romans to present instead the more recent
and immediate tragedy of Cortez’s conquest of Montezuma’s empire
in the New World. It adopts a sympathetic stance in defense of the indigenous
people, not the European explorers. In conveying this sense of tragic loss,
Vivaldi’s libretto focuses on Montezuma, his consort and their daughter
as they face the machinations of the Spanish general Fernando, his brother
Ramiro, and Asprano, the governor of what would become Mexico.
Within the timely nature of the story, the numbers as Vivaldi conceived them
put a familiar and accessible face on the native characters. Mitrena, sung
by Mary-Ellen Nesi, is a powerful character, as wife of Motezuma and mother
of Teutile. Her aria “La figlia, lo sposo” is persuasive, and
demonstrates Nesi’s finesse in the role. Her sense of line renders the
figuration and ornaments with exemplary clarity, along with the tone colors
she uses to bring out the sense of this number and the others in this opera.
Franziska Gottwald is similarly adept at the style, with a stunning presentation
of Fernando Cortez. The aria “L’aquila generosa” stands
out for the virtuosity she exhibits in that number, a tour de force
that demonstrates the strength of this score.
As persuasive as Vito Priante is at the opening of the opera in the number
“Son vinto, eterni dei!”, the piece in which Motezuma fears the
gods of his nation have abandoned them to the Spaniards, his aria “Dov’e
la figlia,” near the conclusion of the opera, demonstrates an intensity
at the loss of his daughter Teutile and the despair his character perceives
at the loss of his kingdom and family. The emotional pitch of latter number
is powerful, with his impassioned presence translating well into this film.
In fact the effect on the audience can be seen at the conclusion of the aria,
when he moves to the end of the stage and a patron in the nearby box moves
away at his approach. His lyrical bass is effective in bringing out the florid
passages cleary and expressively.
As Teutile, Laura Cherici merits attention. Her reaction to the conquest of
Mexico is expressed well in the early part of the opera in the aria “Barbaro,
piu non sent”, a piece that demonstrates her vocal facility well. Later,
as a captive, Teutile, who loves the Spaniard Ramiro (here played by Theodora
Baka), is ready to sacrifice herself, and her conflicted emotions are expressed
well in the aria “L’agonie dell alma affitta,” a piece that
is builds in intensity through the slow tempo that allows the details of the
vocal line to unfold like a good narrative. Cherici’s approach to the
vocal line has the precision of a keyboard instrument, yet she bends the pitches
as necessary and allows the rhythmic steadiness of the number to suspend in
ornamentation she brings to cadences.
The orchestra, Curtis’s Il Complesso Barocco offers a solid accompaniment,
with a sound that supports the voices well, with a cohesive string sound that
emerges well from the pit used in this production. The overture, a rare chance
to hear the orchestra by itself, is properly extroverted in setting the tone
for the drama. In other, similar exposed passages, Il Complesso Barocco responded
well to Curtis’s direction.
A modern discovery Motezuma is already known through Curtis’s
early CD recording of the opera as well as Malgoire’s release. Yet this
DVD allows audiences to apprehend the work on stage, as it was intended, and
the production serves the opera well. The stage design is minimal in suggesting
the period and various locations in Mexico, and its sparseness allows the
performers to make full use of the stage in working with each other and projecting
nicely the audience present for the recording. The film itself makes use of
close-ups and other perspectives that bring the viewer to the stage in ways
that would be physically impossible from the audience.
In this sense the DVD serves the opera well in giving it a sense of theater
that does not always emerge from audio recordings alone.
In a compelling performance like this one, though, it is useful to know more
about the origins of the work, and while the essay by Mariateresa Dellaborra
is useful, the information is general. The plot summary is keyed to the presentation
of the work on two discs, and so has the artificial division of the opera
into two parts, and the description of the action in the text lacks references
to any specific numbers. This could be easily remedied by the inclusion of
such details or the publication of the libretto used for this production.
With the latter, it would be useful to include with the production the details
about the opera found in the booklet with the Deutsche Grammophon CD of Motezuma,
to explain the derivation of the score from existing music by Vivaldi. While
the reworkings of Händel are a matter known to scholarship on that composer,
the situation is different with Motezuma, which required the repurposing
of existing music by Vivaldi to perform the piece. The pieces derived from
existing numbers from Griselda and other operas are familiar enough
to merit attention in the accompanying booklet or even as an “extra”
on the second disc. Further, while information is available on the Internet
and elsewhere, the second disc could benefit from a short “extra”
on the historic Montezuma, so that viewers can understand how the facts of
Cortez’s conquest found the shape the librettist gave them.
That stated, those interested in Baroque opera and, specifically, Vivaldi’s
contributions to the genre, will find it useful to view this production of
Motezuma by Stefano Vizioli. It is compelling visually and aesthetically
satisfying, so that it is possible to gain a sense of the opera’s impact
on stage, granted within a reconstructed score. More than that, the performance
merits attention for the fine efforts of the musicians involved in bringing
the extant music of Motezuma to the stage.
James L Zychowicz
Fine efforts in this this production of Motezuma … visually compelling
and aesthetically satisfying.