Rameau - Les Indes Galantes / Petibon, Croft, Hartelius, Agnew, Rivenq, Berg, Strehl, Christie, Les Arts Florissants, Paris Opera
by Thomas Grimm DVD-Director
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DVD details
Actor: Danielle de Niese, Patricia Petibon, Paul Agnew, Richard Croft, William ChristieDirector: Thomas Grimm DVD-Director
Brand: Naxos OF America INC
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); German (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Italian (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); French (Original Language)
Format: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 190 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-08-16
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC / Opus Arte
DVD Reviews of Rameau - Les Indes Galantes / Petibon, Croft, Hartelius, Agnew, Rivenq, Berg, Strehl, Christie, Les Arts Florissants, Paris Opera
DVD Review: Nathan Berg Stands Out in a Dazzling Entertainment
Summary: 5 Stars
_Les indes galantes_ is atypical in Rameau's output -- instead of a lyric work with a single plot, we have an entertainment composed of four "entrees" with a prologue. It's a somewhat loose framework that Rameau invests with his customary vigor of invention. The music is sublime, with a nice handful of showstoppers. All in all, this is a superb performance and production that showcase Rameau's brilliance, wit, and refinement.
SINGERS - THE PROLOGUE --
The musical company is quite lavish, with no doubling of roles between entrees, except for Nathan Berg who excels in his two roles. In the prologue, I rather relished the buffoonish travesti portrayal of the goddess of war Bellone, and Valerie Gabail is sweet-voiced and puckish as Cupid. Danielle de Niese has the important role of Hebe, goddess of youth, here employed as something of the mistress of ceremonies. Ms. de Niese's physical allure and (often overplayed) stage charm fail to compensate for her deficiencies as a singer. Her voice is simply too broad, too coarse in texture, too unrefined in technique to do service to the music. (To my sensibilities, she was the one great liability in the DVD of Giulio Cesare under Christie, her Glyndebourne acclaim notwithstanding.)
SINGERS - FIRST AND LAST ENTREES--
The first entree has in Anna Maria Panzarella and Paul Agnew two protagonists ideally suited to each other -- temperamentally, physically, and vocally. The last entree has the admirable Nicolas Rivenq as the native hero Adario, and the two European suitors are well played and sung. But Patricia Petibon, whom I normally adore in this repertoire, was downright irritating. Her characterization of Zima is tediously coy ... she minces around coquettishly while singing of the simple unaffected virtues and pure love of the natives. Perhaps she intended to come off as unself-conscious, but it doesn't work and seriously hinders enjoyment of her fine voice. The big "production number" in this entree, "la danse du grand calumet," comes off splendidly; it features those dancing bison and an enormous golden turkey dominating the stage. I do wonder, though, why the choreographer had the chorus and principles dancing the "Egyptian" ... !? Perhaps this touch was done in the naive spirit of the general production design, i.e., to underscore that what we are seeing is a not-always-informed European notion of certain faraway places, which can devolve into a generalized exoticism.
SECOND ENTREE - NATHAN BERG'S TOUR DE FORCE--
It was the second and third entrees, however, that impressed me most in this performance ... The second entree is titled "Les Incas du Perou" and has a plot involving a high priest of the sun who is in love with Phani and wants to compel her to serve in his cult. She however is in love with a conquistador, Don Carlos. On the surface, the high priest Huascar seems a transplanted representation of the abuses of Church leadership. But given that the libretto has Don Carlos making reference to the superior faith of the Christians, any identification of Huascar with the Church must be considered ambiguous. Furthermore, Huascar is clearly the protagonist, the tragic hero of the piece -- with about 80 percent of the vocal music in the entree, he is no mere villain. His conflict, his torment are contrasted with the bold arrogance of Don Carlos.
All three parts are expertly sung. As Phani, Jael Azzaretti doesn't have the most distinctive timbre, but she delivers her big aria, "Viens, hymen," with considerable fervor and poise. Her characterization is a strong one, convincingly balanced between trepidation and determination. The tenor Francois Piolino has a ping to his voice that distinguishes his moments in the small part of Don Carlos, and his sense for Rameau's nuanced but alert recitative is truly a marvel. His portrayal is an odd mix of heroic and effete that is just right in bringing out the tensions in the plot. Nathan Berg as the high priest Huascar delivers a tour de force that electrified me. His bass-baritone voice has a grainy texture that gives it a rare warmth and emotional flexibility. He is also a superb actor. He allows us to see flashes of Huascar's brutishness, but he also reveals a man consumed by love and religious duty, pride, cultural identity, and sense of moral order. He has two hymns to the sun: "Soleil, on a detruit tes superbes asiles" is almost devastating in the depth of its melancholy, and "Clair flambeau du monde" is a tender air shared with the chorus. His confrontations with Phani are impressively forceful. The trio where the lovers' contentedness is sung in counterpoint to Huascar's torment was particularly vivid. From there, Huascar plummets headlong into tragedy. Berg's voice loses some steam at this point, as might befit a man at the end of his rope. The stage effects and dancing for this entrée are quite successful, although the Gavottes and Rondeau are not well-integrated, disrupting the dramatic flow. _Les indes galantes_ is thought of as light fare, but I found this entree to be gripping and disturbing.
THIRD ENTREE - LOVE SWEETLY COMIC, MUSIC SUBLIME--
What's amazing is that after this intense performance, Berg returns to sing a romantic-comedy role in the next entrée, "Les Fleurs," which has a Cosi-like plot involving two couples, romantic suspicions, and cross-dressing disguises. Three of the four singers are just splendid: Richard Croft has a vibrant high tenor with rather more substance than the haut-contre voice you might typically find in this role (much as I like haut-contres). Berg's deep voice adapts with ease to the completely different musical and expressive demands imposed in this entrée: He (and the others) bring warmth and elegance of tone; and, with a light touch, he delivers the copious plot-advancing recitatives with apt comic timing. Malin Hartelius as Berg's love interest is another poised singer and actress. Only Gaele Le Roi as Croft's paramour is less than wholly satisfying--thanks chiefly to her tortured-looking facial tics. Still, the romantic pairings are convincing and fun to watch. The quartet "Tendre amour" is for me the high point of the opera. It is a miracle of vocal ensemble writing, as delicious as the Three Women and Three Spirits in Mozart's Magic Flute. Rameau, without resorting to a round, manages to give each singer a vocal line worthy of solo performance. The bass voice here doesn't underpin the other singers but buoys them. This is one of my favorite pieces of music in all the world.
THE PRODUCTION--
The sets, costumes, and dancing all have a naive flavor that works well here. The occasional deliberate peek at the stage machinery, behind the curtain as it were, adds to this effect. (The costumes work best when they are in the same bold strokes as the sets, but some of the wardrobe comes off as cheesy.) The production is crowded but somehow not as cumbersome as a more garish, baroque design sensibility would have rendered it. There is a lot of superfluous business, but it is deliberately being staged as a grand entertainment so the over-the-top goings-on didn't get in the way for me.
THE DANCING--
Two other Christie-Rameau DVDs, _Les Boreades_ and _Les Paladins_, are afflicted by precious or excessively high-concept dancing. After that, it is a relief to report that Bianca Li's choreography is a consistent asset -- we are treated to dancing flowerpots, dancing bison, acrobatics and balancing acts. It falls short of the seamless inspiration of the choreography in Minkowski's DVD of _Platee_, but it works well within this production design.
THE DVD PRODUCTION VALUES--
The camerawork is only slightly too jumpy for my taste, but at least we are spared rapid-fire MTV-style editing. The "interview" extras are fairly routine, but at least the designer and choreographer are likable and helpful in explaining what the music brings out in them -- In most other opera DVDs the designers are so pretentious you just want to pack them off to an arteest gulag.
FUTURE ROLES FOR BERG?--
This is a beautiful set, presented on two DVDs to optimize quality. Nathan Berg is a performer I will be paying attention to. I could see him in some choice modern roles as well as baroque repertoire: as Golaud, Wozzeck, Claggart, or Jochanaan; as Christ in the St. Matthew Passion; and in Bach's comic secular cantatas (Coffee and Peasant).
More Rameau - Les Indes Galantes / Petibon, Croft, Hartelius, Agnew, Rivenq, Berg, Strehl, Christie, Les Arts Florissants, Paris Opera reviews:
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Description of Rameau - Les Indes Galantes / Petibon, Croft, Hartelius, Agnew, Rivenq, Berg, Strehl, Christie, Les Arts Florissants, Paris Opera
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