A. Scarlatti: Griselda [Hybrid SACD] [Hybrid SACD] [SACD] [Box set]

I guess the main initial reason for the disappointment was due to the same artists earlier (1998) set of Scarlatti's oratorio "Il Primo Omicidio" which was a revelation to me and to many other listeners around the globe. After such an amazing achievement, the next one was either going to be equally amazing or a let down. In addition, we had (2001) a terrific set of another Scarlatti oratorio, "Sedecia", from Gerard Lesne (on Virgin) which kept the Scarlatti stakes high.

The longer term disappointments are with the opera itself and with elements of both performance and sound. The libretto to Griselda is an adaptation by the playwright Zeno of Boccaccio's original tale of a century and a half earlier. It stinks and bears comparison with the worst opera subjects ever devised. To modern sensibilities the story is both utterly implausible but more seriously, grotesque and sick. Even by Scarlatti's time, tastes for such pantomime melodrama had changed and that was surely a factor in Griselda's short theatrical life. What was absurd and implausible in 1700 is quite nauseating 300 years later (as a story that is). I've found that when following what laughably passes for a plot (and YES, believe it or not, it IS worse than most of its time) the best thing to do is skip reading the recitatives as they can make you gag with irritation.

However, opera has always struggled against rubbish libretti and there may well have been other plots as stupid as Griselda's (but not many). So what about the music? Well, without a real story to support it, is becomes a series of character arias that you end up listening to as a collection of arias rather than a dramatic or musical whole, unlike "Omicidio". There is, truthfully, some delightful music. And Jacobs conducts with flair and a fine sense of pulse (as you'd expect) so that your toes will tap. However, it's also largely formulaic. Even the big affetuoso arias and duets (like the mother and daughter who don't know they're mother and daughter duet in Act 3) aren't really that affecting, pretty though they are.

The singing doesn't help. It's generally serviceable without being great (and without being bad, to be fair). Laurence Zazzo has far too feminine a voice to be convincing as King Gualtiero, especially in a cast that already features two mezzos and two sopranos. The Griselda of Dorothea Röschmann (soprano) is disappointing. She featured on the "Omicidio" set but here sounds underwhelming. The character of Ottone is already a totally non-credible pantomime villain, so mezzo Silvia Tro Santafé's melodramatic snarls in her recitifs just seem like moustache twirling and cape tossing. Bernarda Fink is her usual reliable self in a minor role but she is let down by a recording which seems barely able to cope with her voice in loud passages, just teetering on the edge of congestion.

The usually excellent Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin is another set of people who are done no favours by the recording. The strings in particular sound thin and anaemic and even at low volume have a near distorted sound. Woodwind is good, brass adequate and percussion thud rather than resonate. I refuse to believe that the Academy is at fault, and suspect an unbalanced balance engineer. This suspicion is confirmed by a tendency to let the continuo drown out the entire string section at times.

The DSD logo appears on the box, but I refuse to believe that this was a DSD recording. It's just too constrained.

And, once again, H-M is guilty of misrepresentation in claiming multi-channel sound. Okay, so there is some artificially generated white noise in the rear speakers and it does help to "fix" the sound, but this is basically an in-the-two-boxes stereo recording with no surround feel at all. And it should declare what it is, or SACD will get a bad reputation for failing to deliver on its promises. I’d be willing to buy stereo SACDs (I have quite a few, including some of my favourites) and if I did I wouldn’t be disappointed not to have surround sound. But to get a m/c disc and still not get surround is irritating.

I'm glad I've heard Griselda. I'm not sure, however, that the effort of getting to know it well over a period of time has been particularly rewarding. It's not a bad baroque opera set, but there are so many better ones out there that "not bad" is not good enough. I'll probably keep it, but I'm not sure I'll rush to play it again for a while.