Search - Raimund Herincx, Robert Massard, Hector Berlioz :: Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini / Davis

Sparkling and Innovative Score

Christopher Forbes | Brooklyn,, NY | 10/04/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I must admit, with the advent of the Berlioz Bicentennial I?ve become Berlioz mad! So needless to way, this is going to be a rave review of the composer least known and least performed work. But it is one that I think is deserving of such a review. Berlioz to me represents the absolute best in French opera, uniting the forms and dramatic innovations of Gluck and Spontini to music that is rich, colorful and beautifully written. As Jacques Barzun claims, Berlioz is emerging as perhaps the key and quintessential figure of the Romantic period before Wagner. As such, his output is worth getting to know for the serious listener.Unlike the stereotype most people have for Berlioz, based on the Symphony Fantasique and the Requiem, the composer is quite a comedian. Benvenuto Cellini was the composer?s first opera and has an almost Shakespearean wit, at least in the music. Based loosely on the life of the Italian sculptor, the work centers on events leading to the casting of Cellini?s most famous work, the Perseus. Cellini is in love with Teresa, the daughter of the Papal treasurer, Balducci. Balducci is angry that Cellini has been commissioned by the Pope to create a statue, when Balducci is partial to another sculptor, who will incidentally work cheaper. Balducci wants his daughter to marry the other sculptor, Fieramosca. Cellini and Teresa plan to elope during the Shrove Tuesday fair in Rome, but Fiermosca and a friend attempt to foil the escape. In the ensuing scuffle, Fiermosca?s friend is killed in a duel. Balducci and Fiermosca then determine to denounce Cellini as a murderer and a fraud to the Pope himself. The pope agrees to reprieve Cellini if he can finish the Perseus statue in one day. Though threatened with disloyal assistants Cellini triumphs. When informed that there is not enough metal for the casting, Cellini throws all of his previous artwork into the crucible and melts it all down for the new statue. The statue is unveiled before the Pope and Cellini and Teresa are free to marry. Benvenuto Cellini was a terrific failure when it first appeared in 1838 and was a major blow to the composer?s career. The failure almost certainly had more to do with an anti-Berlioz claque than with the work itself. It?s hard to imagine how a work so light in touch and inventive in spirit could have alienated French audiences otherwise. But the Parisians were mad for Italian opera at the time and since the opera is so radically removed from Rossini or Donizetti it is in retrospect not so surprising. The opera is not radical in structure. But the instrumental details are. The use of the orchestra in the Carnival scenes and the casting scene in particular is stunning. The orchestra becomes in Berlioz? hands, another character in the drama. Though the musical interest remains with the singers, this greater orchestral role would have profound ramifications in later opera. Berlioz also packs a punch when it comes to vocal melody. Teresa?s opening cavatina is rapturous. The duets between Cellini and Teresa are some of the finest love duets in the French repertoire. The score is also driven by an almost Mendelsohnian energy and lighthearted drive. From the first notes of the justly famous overture, the predominant mood is of a scherzo, making it one of the most lively Berlioz scores until the late Beatrice et Benedict. This opera is missing the stark drama of Les Troyens and the chiaroscuro of the Shakespeare opera, and is perhaps not quite at the level of those two masterpieces, but it is a wonderful opera all the same and deserving of a place in the repertoire...certainly more deserving than many operas that are currently performed ad nauseum. The performance here is very good. Colin Davis is a terrific conductor and champion of Berlioz. In fact, he almost single-handedly initiated the current Berlioz revival in Britain rescuing the operas from obscurity. Davis? virtues are solid and understated, but make him one of the supreme conductors still on the world stage. He is not a showy conductor. A Davis performance is about the music, not about the interpreter. As such he is outside of either the dominant Toscanini or Furtwangler traditions. He just sits back and lets the music do the talking, always giving a careful ear to orchestral balance and leaving room for the singers to project their characters. Nicolai Gedda is in fine voice as Cellini and one could not imagine a better one. Christiane Eda-Pierre is good as Teresa though there are some moments of unsure pitch, particularly in her arias. Jules Bastin and Robert Massard as Balducci and Fiermosca respectively are in the best buffo traditions, particularly Bastin, who?s gruff voice gives just the right edge of the comic to the self-important Balducci. This disc makes the best case imaginable for Cellini as a real French opera masterpiece. Unfortunately, though this CD was released in the 60s, and since then Les Troyens has gone on to become a staple of several international companies, Cellini still seems to remain obscure. Hopefully the Met premiere of the work later this season will accomplish for this piece, what the 1983 Met premiere of Les Troyens did for that one, make it safe to program in any large house. Very few neglected operas are as deserving as this one.One further note...if you are a Berlioz fan I highly recommend Phillips? boxed set of the complete Berlioz operas. For the price of one of the operas, you can get all three in the classic Davis performances. This is an incredible deal actually. The one drawback is that the boxed set does not include the libretti, but they are available online at the Berlioz Homepage. The boxed is not carried by amazon.us but can be obtained at the amazon.uk site for a steal. I highly recommend this set, as all the operas are terrific and the performances couldn?t be better."

Truly bravado performance by all involved, especially Gedda

Rod Tierman | 10/31/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have little to add to the very excellent and educated review of wierdears. This is an outstanding performance of a, regretfully, overlooked masterpiece. Davis' conducting is masterful and Gedda's singing of this torturous Tenor role is absolutely exquisite. The one correction I have to wierdears' astute review is that the recording was made in the early 70's (at least that's when it was originally released), not the 60's (close to the time Davis made his wonderful recording of Le Troyens). The reason, I feel, you don't see this opera performed often is because you need a Nicolai Gedda to perform the title role. Cellini's aria "Sur Les Monts Les Plus Sauvages" is very demanding, requiring the Tenor to effortlessly soar up to a full throated high D flat, which Gedda does as no other Tenor before or after him could accomplish with such ease. I wholeheartedly agree with the learned reviewers assessment of Eda-Pierre, Bastin, and Massard. This is a must have recording. Get this recording for the music, get this recording for the masterful conducting, but above all purchase this recording to witness the artistry of a Tenor who is unsurpassed and whose presence is sorely missed today."

Colin Davis is masterly in mercurial Berlioz opera.

Janos Gardonyi | Toronto, Ontario Canada | 01/29/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"During his studies in Italy Berlioz became aquinted with the biography of the famous Florentine sculptor, goldsmith and rogue, Benvenuto Cellini, in whose life he found parallels with his own. He was one of the first of the Renaissance `hero artists' ,where great talent seemed to justify everything,including breaking the law. Berlioz was also a very reckless character, one of many, in fact, in the Romantic era, he was followed by Lord Byron,Wagner (Die Meistersinger) and much later Richard Strauss (Ein Heldenleben). In fact, Die Meistersinger bears some resemblance to the Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini: being a grand scale comic work, the hero artist's struggle against his dectractors, his fight against mediocrity in winning his beloved. Unfortunately Berlioz's opera never gained the popularity Die Meistersinger did, due to perhaps its virtuoso score, high demands on singers, double and triple choruses of extreme difficulty and extravagant stage settings plus requiring a master conductor who can hold all this together.
We are fortunate however of having found the right man for this job: Sir Colin Davis, who devoted a large portion of his career to studying and rediscovering Berlioz, that marvel and "enfant terrible" of Romanticism. This is definitely the best of the two available recordings of this tremendous work. It comes from 1958, but digitally remastered and is as fresh as new. Sir Colin Davis is the most attractive drawing card here, he conducts with masterful control and concentration, whipping the orchestra thru the long and virtouso score with never a dull moment. One must listen to the finale of the first act, the incredibly complex Roman Carnival with all soloists, several choruses and orchestra going in all directions, cross rhythms and the like -an extremely difficult conducting achievement. Also, the last scene, when the statue is cast, the excitement mounts and mounts to such degree that one is glued to the edge of his seat.
The singers are also very good: Nicolai Gedda (whom you might have guessed is one of my favorite singers) has a strong and also sensitive voice and excellent French pronounciation in the title role. In the soprano role Christiane Edda-Pierre stands up well against Gedda, her voice is somewhat light and lyrical.
(It should be mentioned that this being a dramatic opera,like Wagner, there are no coloraturas and other unnecessary vocal fireworks.)
I like the mezzo soprano Jane Barbie in the role of Ascanio whose aria is probably the loveliest piece in the score and she does it very well. In the remainder roles, Roger Soyer as Pope Clement is impressive and the two comic characters (Balducci and Fieramosca- the detractors- a la Beckmesser/Hanslick in Die Meistersinger)-are also very creditable.
To sum up: If you haven't heard this opera before, you are in for a delightful surprise. It is full of melody,excitement and fun throughout. Just now, the Met revived it for this season under Levine very successfully. I just wish it would be turned into a DVD, as there is a lot to see and hear.
Highly recommended."