L'Italiana in Algeri (review)

L'Italiana in Algeri. Gioachino Rossini
Isabella: Doris Soffel	Conductor: Ralf Weikert
Lindoro: Robert Gambill	Director: Michael Hampe
Mustafà: Günther von Kannen	Sets and costumes: Mauro Pagano
Taddeo: Enric Serra	Video director: Claus Viller
Elvira: Nuccia Focile	Schwetzingen Festival production, 1987
Ali: Rudolf A. Hartmann	ArtHaus/Musik (distributed by Naxos of
Zulma: Susan McLean	America) 100 121
Radio-Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart	DVD, color, 140 minutes
Bulgarian Male Chorus Sofia

During the 2000 season of Wolf Trap Opera Company in northern Virginia, I savored an intoxicating production of L'Italiana in Algeri. Working with a cast of young and brilliantly talented young Americans, the artistic team (conductor J. David Jackson, director Ned Canty, and designer Andrew Lieberman) created a sexy, sassy, and consistently hilarious vision of Rossini's farce, updated visually with tremendous imagination. The performance simply exuded the sparkle so essential to this music, while the stage action had the entire audience in a state of virtually continuous mirth.

I thought about that production many times as I watched this Schwetzingen effort. The performers are reputable, and their collective stage experience would exceed that of the Wolf Trap group many times over. And yet the whole enterprise, while not a total loss, falls singularly and distressingly flat.

The fault lies above all with the stage direction, of which there is actually comparatively little. The renowned Michael Hampe has done many other Rossini works for Schwetzingen, a number of which have been released on video. I haven't seen them, but I hope they offer something more memorable than what is on display here. As one episode of Italiana follows another, it is clear that, although all is presented in a straightforward manner, nothing remotely illuminating or even amusing in the way of stage interplay will be given to any of the principals or chorus. A great deal of material is performed in a basic stand-and-deliver manner, which is appropriate only in a few isolated instances (Lindoro's entrance aria, perhaps). Generally it appears that Hampe lacks interest in the work and is simply content to leave people to their own devices. The only unusual touch is completely superfluous: a diminutive actress made up with disturbing effectiveness to resemble a monkey, who accompanies the Bey onstage in all his scenes.

Alas, Hampe's colleague, the equally estimable Ralf Weikert, certainly a practiced leader of Italian repertoire, does not present Rossini with particular verve. Ensemble is well maintained throughout and the Stuttgart orchestra is accomplished, but beyond that one can't add very much. Weikert could do well to sit down with a batch of Vittorio Gui recordings with the hope that some of the old man's quintessentially Rossinian zest will rub off.

Whatever joy one finds in the performance comes solely from the spunky heroine and her dashing lover. The former is in the capable hands of Doris Soffel, one of today's few German mezzos to achieve success in this sort of role. She has neither the vocal thrust and panache of a Horne nor the lushness of a Larmore, but her own qualities are strong enough to see her through this challenging assignment. There is her attractive appearance, especially in the lovely Empire gown, auburn curls, and hat in which she first appears on the scene. A mezzo in what is largely contralto territory, she takes pains not to inflate or force her lower-middle register, but her overall slimness of voice seems insufficient only in a few isolated passages (the legato section of "Cruda sorte," for example). The interpolated high Bs lose quality, but Soffel scores with her spotless coloratura, her security in very wide leaps, and her ravishingly elegant soft singing. The characterization, never overdone, exhibits a certain appropriate pride and, in "Oh, che muso" (excellent staccati there), a charming flirtatiousness. Her face lights up with seductive mischief when she smiles, which is often. Overall, a satisfying portrayal, frequently much more than that.

Soffel is an excellent physical match for...