Even the dates of Francisco António de Almeida are speculative,
although it is thought he was killed in the Lisbon earthquake
of 1755. His comic opera La Spinalba was definitely given
in Lisbon in 1739, and seems to have been his last essay in
the genre. It was subsequently neglected until a revival
in 1965, and has been performed in London.Although contemporary
with Handel’s last operas in London, it looks forward
to those of the classical period rather than back to those of
the baroque, despite its continued adoption of the da capo
tradition of arias. Given that it was an opera buffa
rather than an opera seria, the use of castrati
was avoided and at least all the roles are taken by singers
of the correct gender.
Not that gender seems to be a particular concern in the plot
of La Spinalba. What we have here is the usual baroque
farrago of cross-dressing, disguises, mistaken identities,
misunderstandings and so on, which not surprisingly causes the
father of the heroine to have a mental breakdown and which are
only finally resolved at the curtain.
Reviewers have detected pre-echoes of Mozart’s comic operas
and even - in the bewitchment scene for the deluded Arsenio
- influences on Salieri’s Il grotto di Trifonio
and hence on Don Giovanni. Well, not really: any influences
come from the common source of Neapolitan comic opera rather
than this work, which never seems to have travelled outside
Portugal until recently. The main problem with operas of this
type can be the acres of recitative unaccompanied except by
continuo. This is largely avoided here although the longest
passages of this sort last several minutes. It is a very long
opera indeed, but we are correctly given it here at full length
and we can always decide for ourselves what to cut after an
initial listening.
The main problem with this ‘comic opera’ is that
it is not really very funny. It is not known who wrote the libretto
- which is available online, in Italian only - but suspicion
falls on the composer himself; Wagnerian in this as well as
in length! The situations, which are explained at length in
the comprehensive booklet synopsis, simply do not engage our
sympathy in the way that Mozart was to do working in the same
style. The arias, often in a thoroughly effective style not
devoid of original touches, are good without ever rising to
the level of greatness. Handel in Rinaldo approached
the subject of madness by the use of irregular musical metres
such as 5/4 (so, for that matter, did Wagner in Tristan)
but there is nothing here that rises to the situation in any
way that catches the attention. There is only one aria which
displays a degree of originality: that is Volle talo per
gioco (CD2, track 7) where the main body of the accompaniment
is given throughout to pizzicato strings, producing a
mandolin-like effect which contrasts well with the use of bows
during the middle section of the da capo. Otherwise the
score is efficiently written in the standard baroque manner,
demonstrating a skill by the composer that is the equal of those
working in more central locations such as Graun or Bononcini.
The performance itself is really very good. The period instrument
band has plenty of character, and bounces along with great industry
and skill under the sympathetic baton of Marcos Magalhães,
who also produces some imaginative touches in his playing of
the recitatives. The singers are, by and large, not baroque
specialists. Oddly enough the only performer whose repertoire
does not extend beyond the baroque era, Fernando Guimarães,
is the least satisfactory technician although he does a good
job with the pizzicato aria referred to earlier. João
Fernandes, who has at one stage to impersonate a doctor - for
no very obvious reason - manages with some skill to create a
completely different sound for those passages. The cast is well
suited to the music, and manage all the difficulties in the
sometimes elaborate parts with poise, and sometimes more.
Not an essential acquisition for anyone other than those with
an interest in the byways of baroque music, therefore. Still,
a well performed recording in a nicely natural acoustic of a
rarity of which we are unlikely to have another version at any
time in the immediate future.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
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Ana Quintans (soprano) - Spinalba; Luis Rodrigues (bass) - Arsenio;
Inês Madeira (mezzo) - Elisa; Mário Alves (tenor) -
Leandro; Fernando Guimarães (tenor) - Ippolito; Joana Seara
(soprano) - Vespina; João Fernandes (bass) - Togno; Cátia
Moreso (mezzo) - Dianora) 