A superb evening: Mercadante’s Il proscritto from Carlo Rizzi and Opera Rara

United Kingdom Opera Rara – Mercadante, Il proscritto (concert performance): Soloists, Opera Rara Chorus, Britten Sinfonia / Carlo Rizzi (conductor). Barbican Hall, London, 28.6.2022. (CC)

Cast:
Giorgio Argyll – Ramón Vargas
Arturo Murray – Iván Ayón-Rivas
Malvina Douglas – Irene Roberts
Odoardo Douglas – Elizabeth DeShong
Anna Ruthven – Sally Matthews
Guglielmo Ruthven – Goderdzi Janelidze
Clara –  Susana Gaspar
Osvaldo – Alessandro Fisher
Official of Cornwall – Niall Anderson

Musical archaeology is seldom as successful as this. Here is an opera that has not been heard since its premiere in Naples in 1842. It was rediscovered during lockdown (2020) by Carlo Rizzi and appears here in live performance and subsequent recording. This is Opera Rara’s fourth (thank you for the correction below!) recording of Mercadante. Il proscritto (The outlaw) certainly exhibits some ‘reform’ traits, including the imagination and independence of the orchestral writing, but also brings back real lyricism in its vocal works.

Born in 1795 and died in 1870, Mercadante enjoyed a huge and prolific career, and yet his music has not quite achieved the recognition it deserves. Il proscritto is basically contemporary with Verdi’s Nabucco; and both works include notable choral writing (including in Verdi’s case one of the most famous choruses ever written). If Mercadante’s melodies are not quite as memorable as Verdi’s, they nevertheless touch the heart. And in a performance of such clear devotion and dedication as this one, the piece emerges as entirely convincing. The performance edition used was created from the original manuscript.

The plot centres around the loves of Malvina Douglas (née Ruthven) and is set in Edinburgh in the second half of the seventeenth century during the rule of Oliver Cromwell. Malvina was married to Giorgio Argyll (a Royalist) but is, at the start of the opera, believed dead in a shipwreck. Malvina is urged by her inner circle, her mother (Anna) and Anna’s son from another marriage, Guglielmo, to marry Arturo (a Cromwellian). The opera opens on Malvina’s and Arturo’s wedding day and unsurprisingly things do not go to plan. Giorgio of course shows up; Malvina’s affections are now torn into shreds (certainly at least two pieces) and, in the end, she decides the only fair solution is to commit suicide via poison. Not before duals are threatened between the testosterone-overflowing love rivals.

The piece does include some notable duets: one for two tenors (Giorgio and Arturo) and two mezzos (Malvina and the trouser role of her brother, Odoardo). There are some oddities: a massive lead-in to a supposed aria which then turns out to be a seven-bar vocal line for instance. In terms of key areas, Mercadante’s preference for flat keys takes him to G flat and even C flat, which creates quite a dark sound (which would surely have been accentuated on original instruments – the Britten Sinfonia does play on modern instruments, but I believe there were nods in a historicist direction – I am sure I heard half-stoppings and even stoppings from a modern compensating horn to colour a melodic line as if it had been on a natural instrument (valves allow for the total chromatic, of course). Whatever the case, I have never before heard the Britten Sinfonia play at this level: the passion and clarity of Rizzi’s conducting clearly inspires them to their best. Good to see a cimbasso amongst the brass as well! There are times (particularly in the first act) where one encounters passages that have real individuality about them: at those points, comparisons to nearby contemporary composers fail and one hears the true Mercadante – and those moments are always worth waiting for. Yes, one can hear references to other composers elsewhere (including the odd hint of a Rossini crescendo) but Mercadante has his own voice which comes from a real sense of dramatic awareness. It needs a strong crew of singers, and that is precisely what was on offer here.

Perhaps the true star of the evening, despite the presence of at least one major name amongst the singers, was Carlo Rizzi himself. His understanding of the score seemed to be one who had lived with this opera for decades (he obviously hasn’t); the way he handled the difficult corners between sections was impeccable. Interesting that his conducting is ambidextrous – when singers require a left-hand baton, that is what they get, otherwise it is right, and both are equally expressive and clear. He even managed coordination between the onstage orchestra and the banda, situated in the Barbican’s Circle.

The ill-fated heroine Malvina was sung by mezzo Irene Roberts, who seems to have a vast repertoire spanning Brangäne (Tristan), Smaragdi (Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini) and a role in Rued Langgaard’s Antikrist in Berlin. Her voice is incredibly strong, and if diction occasionally suffers, there is no doubting her heartfelt stance; the close was heart-breaking. Inevitably, it was Roberts who dominated the final act. The two tenors were nicely complementary and there is no higher compliment to Iván Ayón-Rivas as Arturo that at his finest he did not suffer in comparison to Ramón Vargas’s Giorgio (Vargas was the more consistently excellent though). The two are distinct voices, and that is absolutely how it should be, Ayón-Rivas lighter in timbre (differences we heard when Mercadante writes the same phrase for each, one after the other. Yes, Vargas’s high register is incredibly special (as we heard at the outset of the second act), and this certainly was luxury casting, but the fact none of the remaining cast was in his shadow speaks volumes.

In fact, it might be argued that it was Elizabeth DeShong who was the true star. She certainly brought the house down in the astonishing (and massive) ‘Ah! del giorno sanguinoso’ in the second act. Of all singers, it was DeShong who most obviously lived the part to the maximum.

There were no weak links in the smaller parts, and indeed it was wonderful to see Sally Matthews as Anna Ruthven (Malvina’s mother), while Goderdzi Janelidze’s dark bass was perfect for Guglielmo Ruthven. Even the smallest role (an official of Cromwell) kept up the standard through a vocally strong Niall Anderson. Susana Gaspar, who performed in Opera Rara’s 2016 Semiramide, was a superb Clara

A superb evening, with the Opera Rara Chorus on fire. The recording is eagerly awaited, as are more Mercadante operas from Opera Rara. Carlo Rizzi and Opera Rara’s Artistic Dramaturg Roger Parker are a formidable filtering mechanism – in the pre-concert event they revealed that many operas they look at just don’t make the grade. Il proscritto certainly does – a most memorable evening.

Colin Clarke