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M22: LUCIO SILLA from the 2006 Salzburg Summer Festival.

This is a 2 DVD set of a live performance of the opera from Salzburg, Austria.

Mozart wrote this 1772 opera seria in 3 acts based on a historical fiction by Giovanni de Gamerra when he was 16 years old. The original score has 3 ballets and is a heck of a long show. This version is obviously massively cut, but without the score I have no clue on what is left out.

The story is of the return of the exiled Roman senator Cecilio to Rome to find that his wife Giunia is being rigorously pursued by the ruthless Roman dictator (and his arch-enemy) Lucio Silla, who had spread the rumor of Cecilio’s death and enlisted his sister Celia to persuade Giunia to marry him. Cecilio’s friend, Lucio Cinna, helps him to reunite with Giunia as she comes to pay respect to her dead father at the Mausoleum. The couple’s defiance and failed assassination plot against Silla earns Cecilio the death sentence. Giunia steadfastly refuses to give in to Silla’s marriage proposal in return for her husband’s life, preferring to die with him instead. In the original story, this virtuous display of love and loyalty move even the stone-hearted Silla to forgive the couple and allow Celia and Cinna to marry. In this modified version, the ending is more believable and dramatically satisfying in explaining Silla’s sudden ‘benevolence’ at the end and his retirement from politic.

The music is very virtuosic, especially in the individual arias by Giunia, Cecilio, Cinna, and Celia. That there are loads of them and that all are long and full of coloratura passages (virtuosic ornamentation of the vocal line) make the whole thing a boring affair after a while, however. The occasional ensembles really help in breaking up the string of vocal firework. I wish there are more for the chorus to sing. Mozart clearly developed his choral style early on and the few numbers in this opera show flashes of what is to come of his later seria work Idomeneo. You can find great samples of the music from this opera (but not from this production) by going to this website: http://213.188.106.66/serie32.htm

Cast:
Lucio Silla (Roman dictator) ::: Roberto Sacca (tenor)
Cecilio (Exile Roman senator) ::: Monica Bacelli (mezzo-soprano)
Giunia (Cecilio’s wife) ::: Annick Massis (soprano)
Lucio Cinna (Cecilio’s friend & enemy of Silla) ::: Veronica Cangemi (soprano)
Celia (Silla’s sister, loves Cinna) ::: Julia Kleiter (soprano)
Aufidio (Silla’s friend and Tribune) ::: Stefano Ferrari (tenor)
Conductor ::: Tamos Netopil / Chorus & Orchestra di Teatro la Fenice
Stage director ::: Juergen Flimm

See photos from this production at:www.salzburgfestival.at/fotoarchiv.php?lang=de
See clips from this DVD at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMyritwG8Ys
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwV2IpQvzyM

In 2006, the Salzburg Summer Festival staged all 22 operas written by Mozart and taped them for posterity. The project is called M22.

In this co-production between the Salzburg Festival and the Teatro la Fenice (Venice), the staging by Herr Flimm is very busy and hard to follow (disregard the sung lyrics, it doesn’t have anything to do with what you’re seeing on-stage!). The stage is a jumble of roughly compartmentalized stage with people frozen in their various daily task. Once the first scene commences they move about and are distracting. An arch gateway (on wheels and gets turned about a lot) in the middle stands as the entrance to Rome (among other places). The set doesn’t change. The loads of dust covering the floor and being played with by the singers boggles me a bit (how would you like to inhale a lungful of the thing just before you’re supposed to start singing?). Everything is mis-matched... down to the costumes. They're like something from a music video of Madonna in the 80's... you know, conservative top over a fluffy tutu kind of stuff.

The bloody tyrant Silla of the light-voiced Roberto Sacca is very convincingly acted and only adequately sung. I think he was miscast as the voice is too light for this role, especially when staged in this big a hall and accompanied by the orchestra-loving and very energetic Maestro Tamos Netopil. The orchestra sound is so unyieldingly dense that Sr Sacca is hardly audible at singing volume below mezzo forte! The orchestra under this maestro yields nothing to any voice. Tempo-wise or volume-wise, you either keep up with him or you don’t.

The boyish Cecilio of Monica Bacelli is more believable as a man, though of a very sappy and dreamy kind, than the long-haired and prone to hugging Cinna of Veronica Cangemi (if you get within 5 feet of this Cinna, he'll hug you!). Vocally, Ms Bacelli does very well, with beautiful floated high notes, and coping well with her coloratura runs (Cecilio and Giunia get the best showy music in this opera). The entrance aria ‘Il tenero momento’ is a severe test for her in lower passage where she clearly strains to be audible. She doesn’t shift volume easily, which lessen the dramatic effects somewhat. She is well warmed up by the time of the gorgeous Mausoleum duet with Genia; however. Sra Cangemi is vocally fine as Cinna (though her attempts at the trill are ...weird). She is wonderful in virtuosic coloratura passages, especially in Act II bravura aria 'Nel fortunato istante'. With her lean physique, she really doesn’t need to act such a butch to portray a man (but a shorter and less flowing hair would help, I think).

It was the MAGNIFICENT Julia Kleiter’s Celia who convinced me to keep watching this DVD after the first 15 minutes with her sterling rendition of ‘Se lusinghiera speme’. That pays off spectacularly when she is followed by the vocally astounding Annick Massis’ Giunia.Their contributions in this show boost my reaction to it from ‘a lousy waste of time’ to a ‘WHOA! Holy cow! There is a god after all!!’ ...or should I say goddesses? These 2 soprani are names to remember.

Repeat after me... JULIA KLEITER and ANNICK MASSIS.

Both in singing and acting, they are nothing short of excellent, making the most out of every gestures and conveying more in their still moments than the busy staging does most of the time. Mozart’s obnoxiously difficult music doesn’t prevent them from being able to go beyond singing the notes to also put personal stamp on their character. Mme Massis’ Guinia is rather constrained by her character to be either angry or in distress through out the opera (though vocally she is stunning, especially in the Act II show piece ‘Ah se il crudel periglio’), but Frau Kleiter’s Celia is offered more chances at displaying many different emotions and misgivings, and she makes the most of them all.

This is one of only 2 DVDs of this extremely rarely staged opera available (the other is from Bruxelles in 1985, of dark and blurry quality, but with a vocally superior Silla in Anthony Rolfe Johnson, and a more traditional staging). It is a good to great performance on the music front... the theatrical front is a mixed verdict. If you enjoy Jurgen Flimm’s or Peter Sellar’s psychedelic, very abstract, and very busy style of staging, you will probably enjoy it. If you are more inclined toward less is more, and traditional staging.... you’ll likely hate it. There isn’t a lot of room in the middle. I’m more inclined toward minimalistic and more coherent staging, so I will occasionally endure this thing again purely for the sake of the singing.

There is no real nudity but there are some sexually suggestive scenes.

2 DVD (region 1). Sung in Italian with subtitle in: Italian, English, German, French, Spanish.
Extra: ‘Making of’ documentary, trailers of 2 other opera from the Salzburg Festival, a brief look at the Mozart22 project. Booklet contains cast list, track list, and synopsis in English, German, French.

My reviews of other Mozart operas:
Apollo et Hyacinthus (Salzburg 2006), Ascanio in Alba (Salzburg 2006), Bastien und Bastienne/Der Schauspieldirektor (Salzburg 2006), La clemenza di Tito (Salzburg 2003), La clemenza di Tito (Zürich 2005), La clemenza di Tito (Munich 2006), La clemenza di Tito (JE Gardiner), Cosi fan tutte (Ponnelle film), Don Giovanni (Met 2000), Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Salzburg 1998), La finta giardiniera (Salzburg 2006), La finta semplice (Salzburg 2006), Idomeneo (Salzburg 2006), Idomeneo (Met 198-), Lucio Silla (Salzburg 2006), Mitridate (Salzburg 1997), Mitridate (Rousset), Le nozze di Figaro (live performance- SDO 2007), Die Zauberflöte (ROH 2001), Die Zauberflöte (Modena 2005), Die Zauberflöte (Zürich 1999)

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older