Paisiello: Nina [DVD] [2003]

Giovanni Paisiello (1741-1816) is best known for having written the first opera based on 'The Barber of Seville.' It was so popular in its day that when, thirty years later, Rossini wrote his version it was considered an outrage. We all know how THAT turned out. Nonetheless, Paisiello was a talented opera composer who had the misfortune not to be Mozart. And thus although his operas have pretty much disappeared from the world's stages they deserve periodic revival.

This DVD captures a production of 'Nina, o sia La Pazza per Amore' ('Nina, or The Girl Driven Mad by Love') done at the Zurich Opera in 1998. It also includes a fascinating 40-minute documentary on Paisiello and 'Nina' done by Reiner Moritz that includes commentary by the opera's director, Cesare Lievi, in which he describes his ideas about how the opera has a proto-feminist subtext; he claims that Nina doesn't actually go mad, but simply pretends to be driven mad by her father's refusal to let her marry her lover, Lindoro, all in the service of punishing him and securing some freedom for herself. All that is well and good, but the production itself doesn't lean too heavily on this conceit and we are better off for that. It is, actually, a pretty conventional--and dramatically effective--staging, thank goodness. None of the post-Freudian Eurotrash production values one so often sees in continental opera stagings.

The story is fairly simple. Nina loves Lindoro, but her father, the Count, wants her to marry a wealthy rival. Lindoro and the rival duel, in Nina's presence, and Lindoro is killed. Nina goes mad immediately. All this occurs before the curtain rises. In Act I we meet Nina, who is under the care of her duenna, Susanna, on the grounds of the Count's castle. She is under the illusion that Lindoro is not dead and she awaits his return eagerly. This delusion is fostered by Susanna in order to spare Nina's delicate nerves. The Count is very sad for his daughter and regrets his earlier tyrannical behavior. But Nina doesn't even recognize her father. A shepherd appears, accompanied by a bagpiper, and sings a pastoral air. Nina remarks that he sounds like her beloved Lindoro and is reminded of her cruel fate. She becomes agitated and sings an interpolated rage aria by Mozart, 'Ah, io previdi!' (K. 272). Susanna prevails upon her to go into the village and bring presents to the peasants. Act II opens with the Count thanking Susanna for taking such good care of Nina when the major domo, Giorgio, arrives breathlessly to announce that Lindoro hadn't died after all, that he has returned in disguise as a shepherd, because although he cannot marry her, he wants to be near his beloved Nina. So it turns out Nina was not wrong to think the shepherd sounded like her dear Lindoro. The Count encounters Lindoro, greets him as a son, accepts him as a prospective son-in-law. Nina enters but takes a while to recognize that the stranger is her long-lost lover. They reunite and a happy finale ensues, but not before--in a clever touch--Lindoro begins acting like the lord of the manor and one gets some sense that all may not live happily ever after.

Cecilia Bartoli stars as Nina and sings up a storm. Her fioriture are a marvel, of course, and her acting quite good, although she does tend to chew the scenery in her mad scenes. The distinguished Hungarian basso, Laszlo Polgar, sings and acts the Count very effectively. Juliette Galstian is a particularly moving (and humorously very bossy) duenna, Susanna. A young and handsome Bavarian tenor, Jonas Kaufmann, is extremely effective as Lindoro, both as himself and in his disguise as a shepherd. Angelo Veccia sings the major-domo, Giorgio. The chorus and orchestra of the Zurich Opera are conducted expertly by the Hungarian Adam Fischer, a well-regarded opera conductor who was first made known to me twenty-five years ago in a stunning recording of Karl Goldmark's neglected 'Die Königin von Saba' ('The Queen of Sheba').

I was delighted to make the acquaintance of this rare Italian opera buffa. It makes me wonder whether we might enjoy Paisiello's 'Barber of Seville.'

Scott Morrison

This is rare opera work on paisiello, paisiello wrote over one hundred opera but rare to work at present. cecilia bartoli sung beautifully and acts wonderfully in this opera. she was the heroine of also. i think many fan of cecilia bartoli don't hesitate to pick up the title. the opera is not big scale but the mood is extraordinary. this title is world first thing to acts on paisiello of Nina. everything are stable and good command of performance. it it worth to have it.

After viewing this excellent Opernhaus Zurich production of Nina one can only wonder why it is that its composer, Giovanni Paisiello, has for so long been 'out of fashion'. I loved every moment of this production in which Cecilia Bartoli plays the lead role of Nina who has, ostensibly, lost her memory. She was perfect for the part, which she performed in realistic fashion as, indeed, did all the other performers play their roles. If Pasisiello composed other operas of this calibre, it surprises me that he ever fell out of fashion. Maybe it was simply a case of his eventually being eclipsed by Mozart. Be that as it may, one can only hope that more of his operas will be revived. It's interesting to note that Mozart was, to begin with, accused of plagiarizing Paisiello's very popular version of 'The Barber of Seville'.

Once again Zurich wins out by not indulging in over-elaborate staging, a style that helps direct the attention of the viewer to the singing and inter-action of the performers. I found I could relate well to the characters, which are all well within the ambit of reality with myself often thinking: 'I know/knew someone just like that.' I liked it when first a bagpiper and then an oboist played solo on stage. I don't know of any other opera in which bagpipes are involved. The ones in use here are, of course, what is known as 'cold wind pipes': that is to say, bagpipes into which the wind is blown by an underarm bellows and not blown into by mouth wind. The Northumbrian pipes, the Irish bagpipes and the Old English bagpipes all fall into this 'cold wind' category as do several other varieties.

The bagpipes originated in the Middle East. Greece was one of the first European countries to have them and Scotland was the last country to get them. Anyway. I loved having them in this opera as, indeed, I also enjoyed the on stage playing of the oboe. Mostly when an actor is seen playing a musical instrument on stage in an opera, it's a dummy with the music coming from a real instrument played by a musician in the orchestra; but not so in this opera, in which Michael Reid played the cold wind pipes and Bernhard Heinrichs played the oboe, both on stage. I'm so pleased I decided to buy this DVD. I love it to bits and have already watched it three times. Even better, there's a 40 minute section about the life of Giovanni Paisiello and his works with special emphasis on how this particular opera came to be composed. All round, it's great stuff and I thoroughly recommend it.