Niccolò PICCINNI (1728-1800)
L’Americano - Intermezzo for four voices in two acts (1772)
Donna Aurora, Lisandra’s fiancé - Giovanna Dondadini (mezzo-soprano)
Cavaliere Lisandro, an Italian aristocrat - Domenico Colaianni (baritone)
Villotto, an American - Simon Edwards (tenor)
Silvia, Aurora’s friend - Patrizia Ciofi (soprano)
Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia/Eric Hull
rec. live, Festival Valle d’Itria di Martina Franca, July 1996
DYNAMIC CDS 743/1-2 [75:04 + 74:28]
Niccolò Piccinni was one of the most prolific opera composers in his
own day. He worked for a long time in Rome before moving to Paris where he
was caught up in a high profile dispute with Gluck. He lapsed into obscurity
in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Of his operas 119 survive - the
whole total may have been as high as 300 - but he is hardly ever performed
nowadays. Somewhat like Cherubini and Meyerbeer, his historical importance
is far in advance of his popularity. On paper he is a prime candidate for
revival, but I very much doubt that L’Americano will spark any
sort of renaissance.
The Festival Valle d’Itria specialises in promoting obscure operas and
they have a lot of experience in it. The musical performances given here are
noble and trusty. However, I regret to say that the work itself struck me
as utterly conventional and entirely unremarkable. It’s as if you’re
listening to all the conventions that Mozart and Rossini superseded in their
works; it’s like listening in on a forgotten past. Nothing wrong with
that, you might think, but music moved on in the late 18th century
and left Piccini in the dust. Consequently, my predominant view of this recording
is that it is of historical interest only.
Take, for example, the character of Cavaliere Lisandro. He is a standard comic
buffo role, the rich elder man whose betrothal does not work out but who rescues
matters for the younger couple in the end. He is sung attractively enough
here by Domenico Colaianni, but his arias consist mostly of conventional harrumphing
with no psychological insight that I could detect. He manages to inject a
little sparkle into Questo e il Regno delle Femmine, his main rant
in Act 2, but there isn’t much else to write home about. Simon Edwards
has a very pleasant tenor voice, and his Act 1 aria, in particular, is pleasing
on the ear; but musically it is more diverting than interesting and all of
his musical material is easily forgettable. Furthermore, his tenor is quite
similar to Colaianni’s baritone, making them fairly difficult to distinguish
in the ensemble scenes.
Not even Patrizia Ciofi can inject much comic sparkle into the role of Silvia.
The arias of pathos suit her voice better, especially Mi cercano l’agnelle
in Act 1. Only Giovanna Dondadini manages to inject some consistent verve
into her part. The orchestral playing feels regrettably heavy. I wonder would
it have had more zing with a period band? Also the live acoustic is plagued
with echo, which doesn’t help matters. Nor does the texture vary much
with only four singers and no chorus.
The biggest sin of all, however, is committed by Dynamic themselves, whose
packaging for this release is unforgivably slight. We get an interesting enough
essay giving some of the work’s background but there is no libretto
in either English or Italian. There is a very slight synopsis - which isn’t
cued - which only reinforces the feeling of the opera’s conventionality.
Most of the time I had to deduce what was going on but was entirely divorced
from the details. This really isn’t good enough: how can they hope for
an obscure work to catch on if they’re not going to give you any help
with it? This one is only for historians, I fear, and even then only if they’re
prepared to work pretty hard at it.
Simon Thompson
Only for historians and even then only if they’re prepared to work pretty
hard at it.
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