Search - Luigi Boccherini, Angelo Ephrikian, Maria-Grazia Ferracini :: Boccherini: La Clementina

It's a Singspiel, zo vhere are ze vords?

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 04/17/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Boccherini wrote this, his only work for the stage, on request from the wealthy Benevente Ossuna family, which maintained a private orchestra and kept a poet on the payroll. (Where are such families today!?!) La Clementina is not an opera but rather a zarzuela, a sort of Spanish Singspiel, similar to several of Mozart's early stage works. Most of the action and the humor is expressed in spoken taxts, rather than in recitativos. Boccherini's musical contributions are not typical arias but instead through-composed set pieces. Melodically they are rather well constructed. However, it's hard to imagine the impact they would have on an audience on the basis of this recording. The spoken portions of the drama are not included, and there are neither texts nor translations of the songs in the note booklet, merely a garbled synopsis of the play. Listening very carefully, I can understand the Italian of some of the cast, but for the others I have only guesswork. I'm fairly sure that the zarzuela was a comedy of a slapstick sort, the humor to be reinforced by the songs. The singers at any rate seem to be singing in an exaggerated, comical manner most of the time. But it's hard to tell; perhaps they're just amateurish singers, whose crudeness can be taken for comedy. This is a production of the Italian Swiss Television Orchestra. Frankly, it leaves me disappointed and puzzled. For all I hear, La Clementina might be a delightful work on stage, but in the format of this CD it's more of an enigma."