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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Rare Gluck revived, 10 Oct 2007
Interest in the operas of Gluck, the great 18th century reformer, is now extending back into his early unreformed period when, like so many other European composers of the day, he served the fashionable Italian opera seria, a type of opera dominated by singers and requiring the composer above all to provide opportunities for them to shine. Gluck could turn his hand to doing that as well as anyone, but 'Ezio' also contains sufficient premonitions of his mature style to be more than just a representative period-piece. Act 1 includes an early version of the piece which became one of the most characteristic highpoints of reform opera, Orpheus' wondrous arioso, 'Che puro ciel.'
The libretto by Metastasio unfolds a typical story of intrigue and romantic imbroglio surrounding the Roman emperor Valentinian III (he ruled in the fifth century A.D.) and his general Flavius Aetius (Ezio) who defeated the army of the famous Attila the Hun. As was customary in this form, the opera consists of a sequence of arias, some lengthy, elaborate and essentially decorative, others more succinct and integral to the plot - the arias separated by passages of simple recitative, though at certain points of high drama Gluck writes more expressively charged orchestrally accompanied recitative such as he was to use throughout in the later operas.
The new recording uses the original version of the opera presented at Prague in 1750 (Gluck later revised the work for performance in Vienna after the premiere of his first reform opera, 'Orfeo ed Euridice'). The orchestra is yet another tip-top period instrument group, this time from Düsseldorf, while the singers, with one exception, are likewise German: the cast is neatly symmetrical with two female soprano roles, two for castrati and two for tenors. To the Chilean mezzo Mariselle Martinez falls the unenviable task of emulating Cecilia Bartoli in the fiery and remarkable aria for Fulvia, the prima donna role, in Act 3 which Bartoli included in her disc of Gluck arias. Martinez does not quite match the incandescent theatricality of Bartoli's singing (some find it exaggerated), but she certainly packs a powerful punch both here and in the rest of the role. Hers is easily the most impassioned and dramatic performance on offer.
I wish I could warm to the two counter-tenors who take the castrato roles of Valentiniano and Ezio. Musically they cannot be faulted, but the falsetto voice with its hollow and hooty quality seems to me fundamentally inappropriate in operatic music. It is not a close substitute for the castrato, and it is worth noting that in the 18th century when castrati were not available, especially outside Italy, female singers took the parts. There were women who specialised in male roles, so it was clearly not the gender of the singer that mattered: the same should apply today. I realise, however, that not everyone shares my aversion to falsettists and anyone interested in acquiring this set need not hesitate, especially since there are unlikely to be many more chances to hear a typical opera seria of Gluck. But who knows? The airing of this opera is a minor miracle, so maybe there are more to come. Bartoli in 'La clemenza di Tito' ... ?
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~ Baldassare Galuppi
~ Johann Adolf Hasse
