Search - Various Artists :: Spontini: Olympie

Fascinating work, great perfornance

madamemusico | Cincinnati, Ohio USA | 11/24/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Spontini's "Olympia" (1819) was his last opera written for Paris, 16 years after his first "real opera" (his own description), "Milton," and 13 years after his masterwork "La Vestale." Based on a story by Voltaire, the plot concerns the rivals Cassander, Prince of Macedonia, and Antigonus, former General in the service of Alexander the Great, for the hand of Alexander's daughter Olympia. Standing in their way, however, is Statira, Alexander's widow, who demands to know who the true murdered of her husband was before she will consent to any marriage. The remainder of the plot revolves around the accusations and confessions of the principals, and the eventual outing of Alexander's true murderer.What could easily have been a cheap, tawdry melodrama is turned by Spontini into a noble expression of hatred, jealousy, deception and redemption. Unlike Rossini, who until "William Tell" had little luck handling serious subjects, Spontini was a past master of music drama. Drawing on the inspiration of Gluck and Beethoven, but applying his own unique gift for melody, Spontini here fashions a score which sounds like an astonishing mixture of mature Mozart and mature Verdi (parts of the score will remind you of both "Idomeneo" and "Otello") while retaining his own individual style.The present recording, unlike the Orfeo version of "La Vestale," is a superbly dramatic reading of the score. Gerd Albrecht conducts with both lyricism and flair, Julia Varady sings Olympia with a rare sensitivity of phrasing and vocal coloration, tenor Franco Tagliavini (Cassander) has never sung better, and both mezzo Stefania Toczyska and the little-known bass George Fortune reveal plangent, dramatic voices (though Toczyska has some serious problems with her French diction). In the role of Antigonus, 59-year-old Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is rather dry of voice and infirm of tone, but compensates for this with his usual incisive, dramatic reading of the text...and the sonics are excellent, being recorded in modern digital sound. Don't miss this one!"