Conductor, André Callegaro; Orchestra, Early Opera Company; Arminio, Gabrielė Kupšytė; Tusnelda, Sarah Dufresne; Segeste, Josef Jeongmeen Ahn; Varus, Michael Gibson; Sigismondo, Isabelle Peters; Ramise, Kamilla Dunstan; Tullio, Kamohelo Tsotetsi. Director, Mathilda Du Tillieul Mcnicol; Set and Costume Designer, Noemi Daboczi; Lighting, D.M.Wood
This opera is based on events surrounding the Germanic leader Arminius’ leadership of an alliance of Germanic peoples to ambush Roman legions and their auxiliaries, led by Publius Quinctilius Varus at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9,. The story also involves Arminio’s wife Tusnelda and Varus’ love for her, together with the collaborator King Segeste who is her father. I am sure this is something I will never hear again live before I kick the bucket, so I really wanted to hear it. The opera was performed for the first time at the Covent Garden Theatre on 12 January 1737. Handel was working on several other operas at the same time. The opera was apparently liked by Handel’s admirers but not by the ticket-buying public. Anthony Ashley Cooper, 4th Earl of Shaftesbury wrote in a letter that he found Arminio to be “rather grave but correct and labour’d” (well worked-out) “to the highest degree & is a favourite one with Handel…. But I fear ’twill not be acted very long. The Town dont much admire it.” Arminio only saw six performances, the last one on 12 February. It was not performed again until it was revived in 1935, at Leipzig.
This may not be in the front rank of Handel’s operas and of course public neglect normally has some sort of reasoning behind it – perhaps in this case not enough truly memorable melodic material and no show-stoppers; in something like Alcina there’s just one ‘hit’ after the other…… But this was still a very interesting and enjoyable evening, lasting about two and a quarter hours, so I assume quite a lot of music had been cut. That may explain in part why the pace of the opera seemed admirably brisk in terms of narrative and musical pacing.
The set was simple – and all the better for that. There were two square platforms on either stage – one being Varo’s and Segeste’s office, the other a cell and Arminio’s bedroom. Action took place on these and an otherwise bare stage which sort of worked as a no-mans land between the ‘two camps’ . There was a spectacular battle scene at the conclusion, during which (maybe a cut aria here?) Varo meets Arminio in battle, is unable to kill him and then kills himself before the final happy ending – though it wasn’t quite clear whether Ramise was mixing whisky and ice or a poison for Segeste at the very end! The dress was modern – Romans wearing military uniforms, Segeste a suit. The ‘junior’ couple of Sihismondo and Ramise wore hoodie and puffer jackets. The only oddity was the curtains surrounding the two squares which swished electronically to open and close for different scenes as and when the singers were on the squares- this seemed to have no dramatic purpose and was a distraction (I overheard someone say in the interval they reminded him of being in hospital. Maybe another slight question in my mind, given the importance of the character, was the relative lack of arias for Varo – again were some cut, I wonder?
The story – one of whether to collaborate or revolt against an occupying power – was fairly clear, and obviously remains highly contemporary in theme, though the relationships were the usual opera seria farrago and I had trouble remembering who Sigismondo and Ramise were related to…..As said above, the work as handled by the director Mathilda Du Tillieul McNicol moved with great narrative briskness and with a lot of action happening too in the da capo arias – which could be dangerous in some Handel works but here was justified.
Hearing a period instrument band in this theatre is a joy – the violins zing and buzz. In addition to strings and various sorts of theorbo/lute, there was an oboe, beautifully played. There were also excellent solos by cello and violin in two of the finest arias, both sung by Arminio.
The singers were mostly those being given experience at ROHCG under the Jette Parker Artists scheme. Happily from my perspective there were no hooty counter-tenors – the originally castrato roles of Arminio and Sigismondo were played by women. All the singers justified the support they are being given. Perhaps the standout singers were those in the three main role. Gabrielė Kupšytė as Arminio was outstanding – she has a commanding presence on stage, very clear diction and the ability to point phrases beautifully, as well as dealing capably with the florid bits. Although he sometimes seemed a bit awkward or stolid on stage, Josef Jeongmeen Ahn as Segeste had a rock solid expressive voice with again very clear diction . Finally Sarah Dufresne as Tusnelda hit some lovely high notes and like the other two had the capability to tackle the florid runs in the big arias.
All pictures above and below by Marc Brenner
John's musical journey 