United Kingdom Salieri, La locandiera (The Landlady): Soloists, CHROMA / Andrew Griffiths (conductor). Sinfonia Smith Sq., London, 16.9.2025. (MB)
Manufacturing:
Director, Designer – Jeremy Grey
Assistant director – Harriet Cameron
Costumes – Pauline Smith, Anne Baldwin
Lighting – Ian Chandler
Motion – Karen Halliday
Forged:
Mirandolina – Siân Dicker
Fabrizio – Samuel Pantcheff
Lena – Rosalind Dobson
Baron Ripafratta – Osian Wyn Bowen
Depend of Albafiorita – David Horton
Marquis of Forlimpopoli – Aidan Edwards
My second Salieri opera of the yr: it’s not so usually one has alternative to say that, though (relying how one counts) it’s arguably not my first time both. At any charge, the bicentenary of the composer’s loss of life has afforded alternatives one can solely hope will result in others after this yr. Bampton Classical Opera has lengthy been an advocate for Salieri, this its fifth manufacturing of considered one of his operas. This spring, the Salzburg Landestheater’s revival of the 1795 Il mondo alla rovescia proved a revelation (assessment right here). Now BCO has turned to a significantly earlier dramma giocoso, the 1773 La locandiera, written with Domenico Poggi, after Goldoni, when the composer was however a Mozartian 22. (I do know I ought to attempt to keep away from mentioning him on this context, but it surely not often proves attainable.) Fact be informed, this early work is way from a masterpiece, nor do I believe it compares with any of his operas, nonetheless early, although it could merely be that I do know them higher and/or am reflecting mere private choice. La locandiera is, nonetheless, competently written, was greater than competently carried out, and, with what I presume to have been considered cuts, definitely didn’t outstay its welcome, affording a chilly September London night a reminder of the departed Cotswold summer time wherein Jeremy Grey’s manufacturing would have seen the sunshine of day on the Bampton Deanery.
Furthermore, musical comparisons with Bohuslav Martinů’s frankly trivial Mirandolina, based mostly on the identical play (and that I noticed at Garsington in 2009), stand very a lot in Salieri’s favour. I shall admit to having questioned to start with, each with respect to work and orchestral sound. Whether or not it was my ears adjusting or one thing akin to an goal enchancment, I’m not totally certain; maybe it was somewhat of each. At any charge, it could be churlish to harrumph unduly on the small variety of CHROMA gamers, for the reason that different would likewise have been to not hear the opera in any respect. For essentially the most half, Andrew Griffiths set affordable and different tempi, proved supportive to the singers, and vigorous enjoying imparted a eager sense of drama and onward movement. At the least as essential, a way of accelerating musico-dramatic involvement, as we obtained to ‘know’ the characters and their predicament, that sense likely born of a duly operatic mixture of virtues: work, singing, staging, and orchestral/general path.
Grey’s manufacturing stood in a recognisably Bampton line, with out in any method seeming off-the-shelf. I believe the English nation atmosphere helps counsel one thing of its personal ilk: the world of Agatha Christie, blazers, tennis, and witty one-liners (moderately, in Grey and Gilly French’s translation, rhyming couplets). The transposition fitted nicely the noble-and-servant world of Goldoni; it enabled plentiful, color, motion – by no means a boring second – and reference in a properly resourceful staging. A momentary visitation from the longer term, ‘Se vuol ballare, signor barone’, rightly raised a number of chortles and reminded us what number of opere buffe sprang in the end from related soil. That ‘different’ composer most likely got here closest, if with significantly higher musical sophistication, in La finta giardiniera, and the dramatic scenario itself most likely stands closest there too. I couldn’t assist however assume somewhat extra might need been carried out with gender and sexuality, as was definitely the case within the Salzburg Mondo alla rovescia. Baron Ripafratta, suspicious to an absurd diploma of ladies, might need been ‘unpacked’ somewhat, as we now prefer to say. Maybe, although, there’s something to be stated for treating a little-known work kind of straight, because it have been.
I’ve confused ‘scenario’, as a result of that felt just like the beating coronary heart of the night’s leisure: not totally not like a ‘scenario comedy’, albeit with out the reruns. From that, although, inventory characters couldn’t solely step forth, which in ready vocal performances they definitely did; they might additionally maybe shed somewhat of their inventory nature within the particular magic of precise efficiency. On the hub was the landlady herself, Mirandolina, in a spirited, correctly realizing portrayal by Siân Dicker, nicely matched in each respect by Samuel Pantcheff’s Fabrizio. Our not-quite, not-yet Susanna and Figaro – okay, I surrender for now; teleology wins – displayed wonderful chemistry, born equally of stage encounter and lyricism, in addition to duly outwitting a trio of male aristocratic buffoons. Of their vocalism, although, Osian Wyn Bowen, David Horton, and Aidan Edwards all hinted – with out over-egging their respective puddings – at higher frames of reference, not least via wonderful line and phrasing. Solely on one event did considered one of them sound parted, and that was quickly forgotten. Rosalind Dobson’s Lena supplied a high quality animating presence too; my solely remorse was that she didn’t have extra to sing. Right here, then, on the cusp of autumnal blues, was served a landlady’s lyrical tonic — and much from solely that.
Mark Berry
Featured Picture: Rosalind Dobson (Lena) and Samuel Pantcheff (Fabrizio) © Bampton Classical Opera
