Vivaldi's
Farnace was originally written in 1727 and presented
in Venice. Sadly, the materials for this version have been lost.
Farnace was
praised at the time for its 'sublime' and 'tender' qualities.
Vivaldi revived it again in the Autumn in a revised version and
presented yet a third in Prague in 1730. Then in 1731 he produced
it in Pavia, in another and final revision. Pavia at the time
was something of a backwater, its theatre rather overshadowed
by the Ducal theatre in Milan. In any event it is this Pavia
edition that has been preserved and is recorded here.
The score is one of the best from Vivaldi's late operatic period.
In it he has assimilated influences from the latest Neapolitan
operas, with extended virtuoso arias. But the music is still
recognisably Vivaldi's, especially in the profoundly rich handling
of the orchestra. He also includes rather more arias for the
lower male voices than was generally the case and is less inclined
to the
da capo aria-form than his contemporaries.
The libretto is, frankly, a bit of a farrago even by the standards
of the time. It was rather cobbled together and based directly
on an earlier text.
Farnace was first set by Vinci in
1724. The story concerns the invasion of Pontus by the Romans.
Pontus is ruled over by Farnace, King of Pontus (Furio Zanasi)
and his wife Tamiri (Sara Mingardo). Farnace is at war with the
Romans, led by Pompeo (Cinzia Forte). He is driven out of his
kingdom. Pompeo is supported by Berenice (Adriana Fernandez)
who happens to be Farnace's mother-in-law and hates him. Farnace
orders Tamiri to kill herself rather than fall into the hands
of the Romans and when she fails to obey him he denounces her.
Things are further complicated by Farnace's sister, Selinda (Gloria
Banditelli) who has been seduced by Aquilio (Fulvio Bettini),
another Roman.
The engine of the opera is the hatred of Berenice. One wonders
what Handel would have made of such a wonderfully vengeful character.
But the main interest for Vivaldi and Vinci was that the libretto
put Farnace and Tamiri into so many terrible situations, thus
requiring them to display a wide variety of noble emotions. Vivaldi
has responded to this with three hours of glorious music.
This recording was originally released in 2002 on Jordi Savall's
own Alia Vox label. As originally recorded, the piece included
extra material added to the opera in 1739 for performances in
Madrid. Here it is re-issued by Naïve as part of their Vivaldi
Edition and has had the extra material (by Francesco Corselli)
edited out. The recording was made live at the Teatro de la Zarzuela
in Madrid, conflating two performances. The advantage of this
is that the recitatives have fine dramatic impetus, so that they
bat along at speed and really sound like drama. The disadvantage,
apart from one or two slightly fudged moments, is that the acoustic,
as caught on this recording, is rather over-resonant for the
opera; though you do get used to it.
The basic problem is that though Vivaldi has responded to the
libretto with some fine music, he only really skims the surface
of the characters. Too often, when a character is expressing
extreme emotions, Vivaldi's music is rather too charming and
equable. He writes wonderful virtuoso vocal lines, but rarely
manages the sort of simple, pathetic effects of which Handel
was capable. Also, too often the main interest is in the orchestra.
In fact Vivaldi often treats the voices rather instrumentally
and there are moments when you could imagine the voice being
replaced by a solo instrument. That said, this was one of the
prevailing styles of the time.
This can be illustrated by the final three arias at the end of
Act 1. First Berenice sings
'That sword which shed my hapless
husband's blood has taught me to be cruel'. Then Tamiri has
a simile aria about a fierce lion and finally Pompeo has another
simile aria about a tempest. Vivaldi gives Berenice and Tamiri
wonderful toe-tapping arias which barely scratch the surface
of their anger. And Pompeo's aria is a glorious evocation of
a storm, which says more about Vivaldi's ability to conjure such
music from the orchestra than it does about Pompeo's state of
mind.
The opera receives a glorious performance from the cast. All
of them sing very strongly and, as I have said, they deliver
the recitatives in a very involving fashion. Time and again I
was struck by the rich inventiveness of Vivaldi's orchestration
and by the talented virtuosity of the singers. The title role
is written for a baritone and Zanasi gets plenty to do including
a lovely aria in Act 2 which includes a ritornello highly reminiscent
of
Winter from 'The Four Seasons'. In the aria, Farnace
realises that his son's death - in fact only presumed death -
is his fault. It is a wonderful piece and performed like this,
is highly arresting.
Don't buy this opera if you want to have an intensely involving
dramatic experience. By the best baroque
opera seria standards
Vivaldi fails to deliver this. His characters do not really develop
and his music only skims their emotions. But if you want three
hours of top quality Vivaldi, then please don’t hesitate.
It’s full of musical gems and listened to out of context,
can provide much enjoyment, particularly as it receives such
a strong performance from Savall and his cast.
Robert Hugill
Farnace - Furio Zanasi
(baritone) 
