Klarinet Archive - Posting 001096.txt from 1999/12

From: EbKlarinet@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Re: Marriage of Figaro alternate arias
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 1999 13:05:05 -0500

In a message dated 12/31/99 4:11:27 AM Eastern Standard Time,
klarinet-digest-help@-----.org writes:

<< saw a wonderful performance on Le Nozze di Figaro last nite on TV. It =
was a broadcast from a Met opera production. But I have a question. In =
the fourth act instead of performing Susanna's "Garden" Aria they =
substituted another aria with basset horns and, I believe, clarinets. =
It was quite a performance, Cecilia Bartoli played Susanna.

Does anybody know about this substituted aria, did Mozart write it to =
replace the Garden Aria ?

Thanks, John Gates
>>

If you caught the beginning of the broadcast, they explained the
substitutions--there were 2 of them, btw. The original premiere was in
Vienna in 1786, with Nancy Storace, a lyric soprano who was a very fine
actress, and she sang 'venite inginocchiateve' in Act 2, and 'deh vieni non
tardar' in the 4th Act. In the 1789 revival, a different soprano with a
different personality and style of singing was brought in, and she requested
2 different arias from Mozart, and he obliged her, with 'un moto di gioia' in
Act 2, and 'al desio' in Act 4. These were different in character from the
original two, and suited her better, as she was a coloratura soprano and also
not as fine an actress as Storace.

Cecilia Bartoli decided to do these two because, as you may know, she has a
very bubbly personality and is a coloratura soprano/mezzo, and perhaps
decided that they suited her better as well. I believe she said in an
interview in Opera News Feb. 99 that she thought there was no reason not to
sing them, as they were written by Mozart and are perfectly wonderful arias.
The original two are heard all the time, and why not occasionally do the
alternates? There was a big fuss about this at the time the opera opened
last season at the MET, with the stage director not even wanting to stage the
arias for Bartoli because he didn't like them, and the NY Times critic
attacking Bartoli for her choices.

I can tell you that, having sung all 4 arias, they are lovely, and I
certainly wouldn't put any of them above any of the others, with the
exception of 'deh vieni non tardar' which is one of those gorgeously simple
sublime things of Mozart's that always surprises you with how deep it can be,
when sung properly.

I'm glad La Bartoli chose 'al desio' if only for the fact that we get to hear
some more great basset horn music of Mozart!!!

Elise Curran
clarinettist/coloratura soprano

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