Didon (review)

The Italian town of Bari, where Piccinni was born in 1728, continues to commemorate its native son with an extended salute to the bicentennial of his death in Paris in 1800. The Teatro Petruzzelli, the chief venue for opera in Bari, has an honorable history, but except for a certain eagerness to respond to challenge, this offering exposes a company underequipped to present convincingly a monument of classic French tragedy.

The absence of native French-speaking singers sadly deflates the incisiveness of diction and clarity of outline that are essential ingredients of the style of works such as Didon, the sixth of Piccinni's French serious operas. Didon (1783) was the most successful of Piccinni's French operas, holding the stage until the 1830s. The three-act libretto by Jean-François Marmontel was derived from both a tragedy by the Marquis de Pompignan and book 4 of the Aeneid. The title role was created by Mme de Saint-Huberty (1756-1812), a spirited soprano with an enterprising disposition; her success as the Carthaginian queen was the capstone of her career.

The plot, each act centering on a main scene of confrontation, focuses not only on Enée's departure from Carthage and Didon's subsequent suicide but also on the claims of the Numidian king Yarbe (Iarbas), who threatens to take Carthage by force and marry Didon if she will not consent peaceably to his menacing proposal. Didon steadfastly refuses him and plans to marry her beloved Enée, but Yarbe informs her that her intended is planning to leave Carthage to set up his Trojans in Italy. Shaken but unwilling to believe Enée could desert her, Didon goes ahead with her plans. Enée defeats and routs Yarbe but sails away to fulfill his destiny. As Didon's pyre is ignited, her people express their grief and their promise to avenge her in waging eternal warfare against Enée's compatriots.

Piccinni's music for Didon reveals a variety of structures and an adroit melodic sense, as well as a flair for orchestral detail. It is written effectively for the voices (as far as one can tell from the vagaries of the Bari performance). The overture surrounds a beguiling andante with two vigorous allegros. The first act contains some attractive dances, as well as some ceremonial marches and fanfares. The choruses, especially those in act 3, convey deep emotion. The recitatives often contain arioso passages. Arias, in a variety of forms, predominate, though there are several duets; near the end of act 2 a duet develops into a trio, suggesting the movement toward an ensemble finale of the sort common in Italian operas of the period.

It is a shame that unfamiliar works, often revived with a laudable spirit of exploring neglected corners of the repertory, are all too often performed by casts ill-adapted to the particular stylistic demands of the score. However praiseworthy the effort, the results frequently prove a disservice. Regrettably, such is the case here.

In a less formidable assignment than the tragic queen of Carthage, Sibongile Mngoma might appear to better effect. As it is, she has a long-ranged voice that turns glassy when there is pressure on the top octave. Combine that flaw with her unclear diction, and this singer's plight evokes sympathy rather than admiration. Tenor Daniel Galvez-Vallejo has a pleasant voice of modest size; although his Enée would never be mistaken as authentically Gallic, he nonetheless succeeds to some extent in sketching the Trojan hero's purposefulness and remorse. Baritone Davide Damiani sings Yarbe as though it were Alfio or some other veristic role, with plenty of hectoring but little focus, growling his lowest notes. As Elise, Didon's sister, Teresa di...