Colette Lam / Recensioni

The good news is that is Musica Viva’s four-performance run of Carmen was completely sold out. * * * George Bizet’s opera, precisely because it is well-known to the point of being iconic, presents a challenge. It can all too easily tip into cliché or routine. The challenge takes two forms: the first to keep the music fresh and, second, to bring out the dark psychological drama that underlies the familiar marches, gypsy dances and love duets. The tension of Carmen, why audiences keep on going back to it, lies precisely in this interplay between surface cliché and deeper truth.

Written when the composer was just 12, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s La Finta Semplice qualifies as a real rarity. After a performance the year following its composition, it dropped from the repertoire and was not staged again until modern times. That Musica Viva’s recent production at Hong Kong’s City Hall was a premiere seems beyond doubt, the only question being over how large a geographical area The opera dates from 1768 when Leopold Mozart and his son were spending the year in Vienna. When the Emperor suggested that young Wolfgang, already renowned throughout Europe as a musical prodigy, might write an opera, his first, for performance in Vienna, Leopold chose La finta semplice (which might be translated as “The Fake Ingénue”), a Goldoni comedy which had been set to music and performed in Venice only four years before. After some further work by Florentine librettist Marco Coltellini, the not-yet-teen composer produced an opera fully three acts long. But all of Leopold’s plans fell through. It seems that certain members of Vienna’s musical establishment were unhappy about being possibly upstaged by a mere boy. Rumors were put about that the real composer was the father; the impresario found reasons to delay the production and the artists began to worry about their reputations. Leopold, alleging a conspiracy, pulled the plug and the pair returned to Salzburg, where the opera was finally performed the next year. It must be acknowledged that La Finta Semplice is not a great opera, but it is an astonishingly good one for a 12-year-old. Mozart’s older rivals had reason to be concerned. The story of multiple love affairs, deception, intricate plots, clueless yet overbearing men, put-upon and clever women is the sort of rom-com produced by the dozens in 18th-century Europe. And yet one can hear Mozart finding his voice, one that will be heard again, more developed and mature, in such later works as Le nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte. Vicky Wu as Ninetta Vicky Wu as Ninetta Opera from Hong Kong’s leading companies now comes in two varieties: relatively large productions with, on the whole, international leads, and smaller productions cast entirely with local singers. One of the joys of these latter productions is the chance to hear fresh voices of young singers who might just be going places. Last night did not disappoint. In both voice and bearing, Vicky Wu sparkled as the maid Ninetta and Valentina Tao flirted and floated her way through the visiting Baroness Rosina’s high notes. Opening night was anchored by the (only relatively) more veteran mezzo Samantha Chong as Giacinta, the somewhat self-effacing sister of the two off-the-wall brothers Cassandro and Polidoro, Collette Lam as Rosina as Phoebe Tam as the maid Ninetta. As is often the case, the women get the better music and the more interesting characters, but Henry Ngan imbued the officer (and Rosina’s brother) Fracasso with some personality and was a dab hand with a sword. The casts were rounded out with Denis Lau and Bonnie Liu sharing the roles of Fracasso and Giacinta respectively; Law Kwok Ho and Frankie Fung shared the role of the elder brother Cassandro with Frankie Liu and Samson Chow alternated as the younger Polidoro. Alex Kwok and Pan Lo shared the role of Simone, Fracasso’s soldier sidekick who woos Ninetta. The opera was performed in the smaller of the two stages of Hong Kong City’s Hall, whose more intimate space suited the work. The simple staging, dominated by symmetrical planes parallel to stage, provided atmosphere without being intrusive.

Musica Viva’s new production of Norma—Vincenzo Bellini at his bel canto best—is perhaps an omen: it is just one letter shy of “normal”. This was not the first opera performance this year, but it was the first without masks on stage. Bellini is not often performed in Hong Kong; that the City Hall Concert Hall was about as full as the (relatively lenient) social distancing rules allow, is also a good sign. Although conditions in Hong Kong have eased, any production of this size requires planning many months in advance; scheduling it at all requires a considerable leap of faith. Hong Kong’s COVID regulations directly and indirectly caused casting difficulties, and all overseas singers had to persevere through a three-week mandatory quarantine. Any singer on stage had to want to be there; it showed. Hilary Ginther as Adalgisa Hilary Ginther as Adalgisa This was very much a traditional performance: no resettings away from the dark forests of Gaul to establish some elusive contemporary relevance; the “stand and up sing” moments were left as that. The title role was sung by young American soprano Meryl Dominguez, who had stepped into the opening night performance in a schedule change. If this, or the fact that it was her role debut, caused any jitters, none were evident. Hearing Norma sung by a singer not far off the age that the Celtic priestess herself would have been, lent a welcome freshness and immediacy to the part. Dominguez was well-matched by Hilary Ginther’s Adalgisa, very much the fetching ingénue. One can (almost) understand the Roman soldier Pollione’s switching his affections from the by now maternal Norma. But it was Dominguez and Ginther’s duets that were arguably the highlights of the evening: the pair’s relative youth added a lightness well-suited to who the characters actually are. Both were likeable, and hence believable. The men get short shrift in Norma. Neither the glorious music nor the robust singing from tenor Dominick Chenes can really do much to change the fact that Pollione is one of the least attractive characters in opera, without even much in the way of villainy to make up for his fecklessness and infidelity. At least he had the good grace to look appropriately terrified when confronted with Norma’s fury. Norma’s father Oroveso, sung by Puerto Rican bass Ricardo Lugo, is a somewhat stolid character, but has a sonorous bass aria that kicks off Act I. Among the local singers, tenor Henry Ngan continues to develop, with a strong presence in the smaller role of Flavio, Pollione’s sidekick. Collette rounded out the cast as Clotilde and Vivian Ip was in the pit.