Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756 - 1791)
The Mozart Album – Daniele de Niesse
1. Sacred Arias
Exultate, jubilate, K165
Exultate [4.37]
Fulgit amica dies [6.26]
Alleluja [2.44]
Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, K339
Laudate Dominum [4.31]
2. Concert Arias
Bella mia fiamma, addio ... Resta, oh cara, K528 [9.48]
O temerario Arbace ... Per quel paterno amplesso, K79/73d [6.51]
3. Opera Arias
The Marriage of Figaro, Alternative Aria in Act 4. K577
Giunse alfin il momento - Al desio di chi t'adora K492/577 [7.41]
Così fan tutte, K588
Una donna a quindici anni [3.43]
Idomeneo, K366
Quando avran fine omai ... Padre, germani, addio! [8.21]
Don Giovanni K527
Ah Fuggi il traditor [1.15]
Il re pastore, K208
L'amerò, sarò costante [6.34]
4. Duet
Don Giovanni
La ci darem la mano (with Bryn Terfel) [3.21]
Daniele de Niesse (soprano)
Apollo Voices; Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Sir Charles Mackerras
rec. Abbey Road Studios, London, 24-30 November 2008 and April 1 2009
DECCA 478 1511 DH [65.50]
Daniele de Niesse was born in 1980 to English-peaking Sri Lankan parents
who had earlier emigrated to Australia. Aged ten, and already showing vocal
prowess, Danielle was taken by her parents to America where she was cast in
children’s roles by the Los Angeles Opera. She entered Mannes Music College
and as a freshman was cast as Susanna no less in a prestigious college production.
It was bigger opportunity than she realised as it led directly to her being
cast as Barbarina in the Metropolitan’s Marriage of Figaro directed
by Jonathan Miller with Levine on the rostrum. She was nineteen years old
and joined a cast that included Bartoli as Susanna and Terfel in the eponymous
role. Not distracted, Danielle returned to her studies that included time
in Europe learning German and French to add to her competent Italian. Her
German lessons in Vienna were cut short after being cast in the film Hannibal.
At college she auditioned for the casting director of Netherlands Opera. She
was put in the alternate cast of the 2001 production of Giulio Cesare.
This set her on an ever upward path in the operatic world, albeit as much
for her stunning acting and looks as her rapidly developing vocal prowess.
She debuted at the Paris Opera as Handel’s Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare,
a role that she stepped into at Glyndebourne after a late withdrawal, with
massive success. As well as featuring on the front cover of Opera Magazine’s
Festivals 2006 she returned for that year’s revival at Glyndebourne,
in a substantially revised cast, and whilst something of a sex kitten hit
for some, others found her voice a little small and more suited to the soubrette
fach. She returned the following year for an acclaimed Poppea (Decca DVD 074
3339). She has now become a regular visitor at the annual Festival and may
become even more attached at that venue according to the rumour mill.
By all reports de Niesse’s voice has grown since the early Cleopatra and certainly
her CD of Handel Arias, conducted by William Christie, indicated a considerable
artist (Decca 475 8746 DH). In this collection she makes a further career
marker with a very varied selection of pieces by Mozart - that most demanding
of composers for the female voice in particular and where the music was often
originally composed with the qualities and skills of particular singers in
mind. For such a recording de Niesse could not have a better partner on the
rostrum than Sir Charles Mackerras. Here he conducts a period band, with its
lower pitching helping him and the singer cope with the ornaments of which
his knowledge is unequalled.
The opening sacred aria Exultate, jubilate (trs.1-3) has very varied
demands in its three sections and whilst showing the strengths of the singer’s
expressive skills, good articulation and accurate intonation, cannot disguise
something of a work in progress in the coloratura and declamatory passages.
The important matter in this collection is the promise and realisation elsewhere.
Notably, this is heard in Mozart’s early L'amerò, sarò costante (tr.8)
from Il re pastore with its gentle melody underpinning the vocal line.
There are plenty of ornaments with the soprano also glorying in a concluding
trill. A little more vocal expressiveness would have been perfection. From
the composer’s later Così fan tutte the soprano chooses a role she
has sung on stage and gives a wholly delightful and characterful rendition
of Despina’s Una donna a quindici anni (tr.6). Also from Mozart’s Da
Ponte trilogy, and perhaps influenced by Cecilia Bartoli in those Met performances
when she was a student, de Niesse chooses the alternative act four aria Giunse
alfin il momento, - Al desio di chi t'adora from
Figaro I (tr.5). This was written for a revival of the opera in Vienna
in 1789 with Mozart’s first Fiordiligi singing the role of Susanna. After
the recitative, which it shares with the original Deh vieni non tardar,
the vocal demands are significantly different and more wide-ranging than
those in the original. At this stage in her career, and in this collection
I would prefer to have heard the original. With its delicate and expressive
vocal line, and particularly with the ornaments that Mackerras normally encourages
and which Nuccia Focile sings so delightfully on his complete recording on
the Telarc label (see review
of highlights), de Niesse would have done it more than justice and made it
a highlight of this collection.
There are in this collection plenty of markers for de Niesse’s future as well
as vocal challenges. I am relieved she only sings Elvira’s brief Ah Fuggi
il traditor from Don Giovanni and which puts sufficient weight
on her voice. Likewise I was worried about the challenges of the concert aria
Bella mia fiamma, addio (tr.4) that Mozart composed for the wife of
his host whilst he was in Prague for the staging of Don Giovanni. As
the informative, but difficult to read, sleeve note by Brian Dickie states,
it is one of the most difficult arias, “filled with bold harmonies, sequenced
augmented fourths” (the so-called Devil’s interval). It seems de Niesse is
fond of the piece having included it in her Met Young Artists graduation.
Fair enough, she makes a good shot at it. I merely hope that she is not one
of those promising singers who demands too much of her instrument too early.
She is a delightful singer and a natural stage presence. Her current fach,
as it sounds on this recording, is in the lighter repertoire as Despina and
Zerlina with Ilia in Idomeneo to come (tr.7). De Niese’s lighter voice
is also evident to excellent effect in her singing in Zerlina’s duet with
the licentious Don Giovanni whose seductive tones are those of Bryn Terfel,
the Don of the past decade (tr.11). At this stage of her career, which will
all too soon pass, I would have liked her to have included Zerlina’s Vedrai,
carina and batti, batti o bel Masetto where I am sure she would
have invested the phrases with real meaning and pathos. As it is the disc
concludes with a well-sung Laudate Dominum (tr.12).
This CD will join my Mozart collection alongside the very different voices
of Margaret Price (see review),
Lucia Popp and Cecilia Bartoli. It will give me great pleasure in the future
as de Niesse’s career unfolds. The only major frustration is in the matter
of the sleeve-notes and included libretto. It’s displays contemporary vogue
of style over function and is barely readable at times with offset printing
of pale black on patterned grey and likewise white on red. A pity as Brian
Dickie’s notes in particular, in three languages, and the singer’s personal
thanks, are well worth reading. Preferable without eye-strain! Also why only
give the K (Köchel) numbers for the Sacred and Concert arias?
In the old days Decca would have done the job properly as can be seen on Bartoli’s
Mozart disc 430-513-2.
Robert J Farr
An interesting and enjoyable collection from a young singer on the crest of
a wave. ... see Full Review