I must have mentioned many times that I am a huge fan of baroque operas. Unfortunately they are rather rare in Finland, but fortunately they are more common in other parts of Europe. This time I had a chance to see the last performance of this season of Georg Friedrich Handel’s opera “Serse” from 1738 in the Frankfurt Opera.
The opera is about King Serse, who has abandoned his betrothed princess Amastre. Now he falls in love with Romilda, who is the beloved of his brother Arsamene. Romilda’s sister Atalanta is also in love with Arsamene. After various twists and turns Arsamene and Romilda get married, Serse returns to the arms of Amastre and Atalanta decides to find herself another man. The opera is a weird mixture of fun and drama – as if the writer could not decide whether it is a comedy or a tragedy.
I didn’t particularly like Tilmann Köhler’s direction. It wasn’t the worst modernization I have seen, but throwing food and drink on the table and around the stage was not to my taste. I suppose it was meant to symbolize something deep, but in my opinion it was rather tasteless.
Fortunately Handel’s music compensated the direction. Serse is full of the most charming arias and the listener has barely had time to recover from one, when the next musical fireworks starts. And when the group of soloists is without exception as good as in Frankfurt, the audience definitely gets what it has paid for. Even though the first aria of the opera “Ombra mai fu” is doubtless the best known, it is just the beginning. Each soloist has his or her star moment or several of them. And fortunately several arias were performed on the little bridge between the orchestra and the audience, so that the audience had a chance to really hear them as close as possible.
It is truly impossible for me to choose the favourite among the soloists. Perhaps, if I think about the minute details, I could say that Katharina Magiera’s Amastre had the most impressive aria of the evening; her superb alto and the orchestra together created an incredible enjoyment in her first aria. Zanda Švēde’s Serse had just the right amount of cockiness for the role. Louise Alder’s Romilda had stellar arias and Lawrence Zazzo’s countertenor was in excellent form. And when Elizabeth Sutphen’s Atalanta had just the right amount of girlish selfishness in her unbelievably beautiful arias, you could only admire the music of the evening.
The Frankfurt opera and museum orchestra played the opera with period instruments. In the beginning I doubted if they could be heard throughout the vast opera house, but based on the applause from the whole audience I doubted in vain. All in all a fantastic opera despite the weird modernization.
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