Jane Burnell Gasparina; Dominic Mattos Apollonia; Jonah Halton Don Pelagio; Helen Maree Cooper Don Ettore; Toby Hession Conductor; Lysanne Van Overbeek Director; Elliott Squire Designer
I’m reading Thayer’s Life of Beethoven at present – the first person to have systematically tracked through by personal interview all those who knew Beethoven and were still alive in the 1850’s, and all the official sources of information to be found from records and archives. It’s striking how many operas the local court in Bonn (where Beethoven grew up) was putting on in the 1770’s and 80’s – dim names from the past like Reicha and Paisiello, as well as Mozart’s Idomeneo and Die Entfuhrung, Clearly most composers didn’t expect their operas to last more than a season or two (even Handel) and Haydn at the beginning of his career would have had even less expectation of a continuing existence for his work.
According to Wikipedia, La canterina (The Songstress or The Diva), Hob. XXVIII/2) is a short, two-act opera buffa by Joseph Haydn, the first one he wrote for Prince Esterhazy. Based on the intermezzo from the third act of Niccolò Piccinni’s opera L’Origille (1760), it lasts about 50 minutes. It was written in 1766, and was premiered in the summer of that year. Haydn I am sure would have agreed that it is a slight piece and he would probably have been amazed to find it being revived 250 years later.
The stage of the Pavilion Arts Centre had both a small orchestra (10 people at most) on the stage, towards the back of stage right, and the diva’s dressing room, looking appropriately 18th century. The actors all looked the part – Jonah Halton was appropriately superior-looking, Dominic Mattos plays a wildly over-the-top pantomime dame-type Mother. But the show really hangs on the person playing Gasparina, who must both sing well, be a good actor, and look stunning. Jane Burnell offered all three attributes in spades, and held the audience’s attention securely throughout the show. Haydn’s music trundles along enjoyably enough – and the musical experience is arguably better than hearing the Salieri comic opera I went to last September………………..
John's musical journey 