Partenope
Saturday night New York City Opera pulled off a rare coup. It presented not one but two smashing New York performer debuts in a rarely produced opera of exceptional quality. The opera was George Frideric Handel’s 1730 comedy Partenope.
The singers were two brilliant young countertenors, Iestyn Davies and Anthony Roth Costanzo, in the roles of Arsace and Armindo, respectively. The two singers both took on the role of princes, and they were princes as singers. The production even offered a third impressive debut in the form of its handsome and talented tenor Nicholas Coppolo.
This was opera-singing by beautiful, unspoiled voices, and it was a powerful testament to the special part that New York City Opera can play in the musical life of our city. Had this been presented at the Metropolitan Opera, these gifted new singers would have been compelled to shout to be heard.
A sense of delight
A larger orchestra would have been employed, diminishing the music’s delicate textures, the magic and luster of the singers’ tone would have been lost, and the singers might well have damaged their voices to boot.
Instead, the smaller - if still considerable - confines of the David H. Koch Theater permitted audiences to get a sense of the delight which these operas must have offered their first audiences, who would have listened to castrati taking on the countertenor roles.
The story of the opera is both slight and silly, but it was presented in an arch and contemporary style that was often amusing and not infrequently delightful.
An ancient queen of Naples, which we are informed was once called Partenope, is pursued by two Princes, Arsace and Armindo. In addition, a would-be conqueror is so taken by her beauty that he offers him his hand as well.
One of her suitors is meantime pursued by his erstwhile lover, a Cypriot princess, who has disguised herself as a man. When the Cypriot princess challenges him to duel, he demands that she fight him barechested, and she is forced to confess that she is an impostor.
In this version, the queen of Naples is fond of pink sweater sets - in the manner of Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail - and her would-be conqueror wears wrap-around shades. John Conklin’s sets are an inscrutable if often fetching amalgam of 1920’s Bloomsbury and what might be called early period Bed, Bath and Beyond scented candle section.
The other singers in the cast, including Stephanie Houtzeel in the trouser role, are appealing and well-cast, and Christian Curnyn’s conducting let the singers shine. True, the three hour, fifteen minute production might have benefited from another ten minutes of cutting in the first act. As it is, City Opera has trimmed Handel’s original score by forty-five minutes or so. But there is no denying that this was a great success.
It is hard to imagine that we will not hear much more of the solid and powerful voice of Mr. Davies and the affecting and lovely sound of Mr. Costanzo. Let us hope that we will hear them both again soon at City Opera in more and equally delicious, if hardly familiar works of Handel.
This production provided a glimpse why Beethoven said that he thought Handel was a greater composer even than Bach.
