Handel and Persian History

Handel and Persian History

In 2017, I had an opportunity to visit Handel's house and museum in London. That visit inspired months of reading about Handel's life and listening to many of his works. I was pleasantly surprised how many of Handel's operas and oratorios were set in Persia (currently Iran). Handel set many of the stories of The Old Testament to oratorios and operas. There are many references to Achaemenid, Askanid, and Sassanid Persian dynasties in the old bible. However, the stories of Xerxes, Sosarme, and Alexander's Feast are also based on ancient Greek historians' reports.  

There are no Persian melodies in any of these operas. Operatic productions I have seen use costumes that are nothing but Persian. The Royal Opera House production of Xerxes, available on DVD, does a good job of featuring symbols and arts of the Achaemenid dynasty. 

The operas cover the Medes (Sosarme), Achaemenids (Cyrus in Belshazzar; Esther; and Xerxes), and the Sassanid (Siroe) eras.  Here's a summary of 6 operas and oratorios that are set in ancient Iran:

1- Esther (1732)

This Hebrew biblical story is the topic of the first English oratorio ever written. Characters include Esther, Ahasuerus (Xerxes: Khashayar Shah), Mordecai, Haman, Herbinah, Israelite woman, and First Israelite. 

Esther was born as Hadassah, and became the Queen of Persia and prevented the genocide of her people. The Jewish festival of Purim is based on her story. 

Unknown to many, the tomb of Esther and Mordecai are in the Iranian city of Hamadan.

2- Belshazzar (1744)

Characters of this opera are legendary historic figures, including the Prophet Daniel, Cyrus the Great of Persia (Koorosh), and Belshazzar, King of Babylon, and his mother Queen Nitocris. Queen Nitocris warns Belshazzar against his mistreament of captive Jews to no avail. Ordered by God, Cyrus takes over Babylon, Belshazzar is slain, and Cyrus the Great assists the Jews to return to their homeland. 

3- Serse (1738)

The story of Serse I is loosely based on King Xerxes (Khashayar Shah) of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty. The idea of love triangles and complicated relationships was common among operas of the time. Xerxes was about to marry Amastre, however, he fell in love with Romilda, herself in love with Xerxe's brother Arsamene (Arsaamanesh or Arsaam).  Romilda's sister is also in love with Arsamene.  The story of the opera goes around these complicated relationships until at the end of opera Xerxes returns to Amastris and apologizes to her (somehow similar to Mozart's Marriage of Figaro and Clemenza di Tito). Read more about historical Persian Queens here. 

4- Siroe Re di Persia (1728)

Siroe (Sheeroo'yeh), was the crown Prince of Persia during the Sassanid dynasty. Son of Kind Cosroe (Khosrow), he was framed by Medarse, his brother, and Laodice, Cosroe's mistress, as plotting against Cosroe. Emira's father was killed by Cosroe but she loves Siroe and encourages him to turn against his father. In the end, all ends well after the plot is revealed and Siroe becomes the next King of Persia (Qobad).

5- Sosarme Re di Media (1732)

Sosarme's story is about the neighboring Lydian and Median monarchs (former Iran ruled by the Medes, current Kurds). 

Lydia is ruled by King Haliate. His son, Melo, has rebelled against him. Melo, believes his father favors his illegitimate son, Argone. 

Sosarme, the Median King, has been engaged to Princess Elmira, who is Melo's sister. He is planning a war on the Lydians to stop the royal family's war. Eventually, father and son make peace and Sosarme and Elmira marry. 

6- Alexander's Feast (1736)

Alexander's Feast highlights the celebrations after Persepolis was set on fire by Alexander and Persia was conquered by the Macedonians. 

Edited by: Leisl B-Jaberg

Tchaikovsky: Capriccio Italien

Beautiful mixture of Italian folk tunes/dances with Tchaikovsky's unique style. Some think of it as a Russian read of Italian folk tunes. He had Glinka's Spanish fantasies in mind while writing it. He started working on it after he finished his Symphony No.4. So the piece is a "break" after a very serious and compositionally demanding symphony. The work was inspired after Tchaikovsky's trip to Italy and after seeing a street carnival. It would more appropriately be called Capriccio Italiano, but who can deny the influence of French language in Russia's culture in 19th century!

The piece of includes 5 Italian tunes organized as follows: ABABCDAEBE. Apparently two of these themes are clearly identifiable Italian folk melodies.

A is a trumpet call Tchaikovsky heard every morning from the barracks near his hotel in Italy in 1880 (Hotel Constanzi in Rome). It is presented with two trumpets opening the tune and then a fanfare for the brass and then follows:

B a solemn darker melody with its brass rhythmic interjection. Kind of a funeral march.Tchaikovsky has to give a romantic vibe by repeating the tune with oboe playing it. Flute imitation of the tune is beautiful and characteristic of Tchaikovsky. It gets to a climax with a return to opening trumpet call and after another presentation of the march by English horn and bassoon through a bass transition we hear the next tune: C.

C is a swaying dance in 6/8 presented with two oboes in third, then two trumpets in third. The string passages after each motive is again another Tchaikovsky characteristic orchestra writing. When the violins play the tune wood winds response with the passages. This reaches another Tchikovskian climax that leads the piece to: D.

D is another dance in "aba" form. Some people think of it as being more Spanish than Italian? What do Italians say? A horn call transitions the piece back to the opening funeral march (A). Here we remember one of the transitional passages from 1812 overture. Then comes the tarantella (E).

E is the vivid tarantella (also known in Italy as the traditional Cicuzza) and provides the material for Capriccio's dramatic coda. This one is the second identifiable folk tune. Tchaikovsky develops the dance by repeating the tune forward and backwards. Here the excitement builds until with repetition of the 6/8 dance and then we reach another characteristic dramatic ending from Tchaikovsky in Coda when the tarantella comes back. This sounds like the coda of Symphony No.4.

The first performance I heard was played by BPO under Karajan. I have also listened to Solti's rendition with the CSO and BBC PO under... Just saw it on DVD with Kurt Masur conducting Gewandhaus Leipzig orchestra. You can get lots of details while watching it performed. I still have to check out the score.

Let's look at some performance reviews from BBC Music Magazine:

Tchaikovsky

Composer(s):

• Tchaikovsky

Works:

Manfred; Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture; The Tempest; Serenade in C; Capriccio italien

Performer:

USSR SO/Evgeny Svetlanov

Svetlanov’s muscular style suits Manfred down to the ground, and this is a riveting reading of a work which can easily ramble. The recording is good for its time, and the playing is committed, characterful, and very Russian. The Tempest has the same intensity and drive, but the other performances are routine. Svetlanov seems particularly out of sorts in a tame and lightweight Romeo and Juliet, and the excitement at the end of the Capriccio italien comes too late to redeem it. Martin Cotton

Performance:

*****

Sound:

*****

Tchaikovsky

Composer(s):

• Tchaikovsky

Titles:

Tchaikovsky

Works:

Symphony No. 5; Capriccio Italien; The Voyevoda

Performer:

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Jarvi

When this Tchaikovsky cycle began with an all too even-tempered Pathétique (October 2004), I asked ‘whatever happened to the creative conducting of Neeme Järvi?’. The question hangs over his Fifth, too. A disciplined master is clearly at work in the first movement – handsomely toning the lower timbres of the introduction, lifting the march of fate-as-providence and giving space around Tchaikovsky’s self-styled ‘theme of love’. The subtle colours of the woodwind-led reprise flash originality, too, in the handsome Gothenburg Concert Hall recording.

Performance:

*****

Sound:

*****

Tchaikovsky

Composer(s):

• Tchaikovsky

Works:

Capriccio Italien; Francesca da Rimini; Romeo and Juliet; 1812 Overture

Performer:

Israel PO/Leonard Bernstein

Bernstein is at his finest in magnetic accounts of the doom-laden Francesca fantasy (after Canto V of Dante’s Inferno), and the inescapably tragic Romeo and Juliet fantasy overture; both are viscerally exciting, super-charged performances drawn from 1979 analogue sources, now remastered and scarcely inferior to the digital offerings here. The Capriccio Italien and 1812 are delivered with swaggering virtuosity and panache; cannon salvoes, bells and processional brass approach overkill, but with Lenny before a live audience anything could happen, and often did! Michael Jameson

Performance:

*****

Sound:

*****

Tchaikovsky

Composer(s):

• Tchaikovsky

Works:

Symphony No. 5 in E minor; Capriccio italien

Performer:

LSO/Gennadi Rozhdestvensky

A serviceable, though heavy-handed account of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth from Rozhdestvensky and the LSO. At bargain price, this release combines detailed, if sometimes garish recorded sound with a deeply personal, and therefore uncompromisingly individualistic interpretation of this popular symphony. Despite moments of excitement, it’s all rather predictable; not all of Rozhdestvensky’s impassioned hectoring pays off, but at least the adrenalin flows freely in this unabashed, colourful and urgently projected reading. A simmering, highly charged Capriccio italien completes this issue. Michael Jameson

Performance:

*****

Sound:

*****

Verdi: Rigoletto

DG-DVD

This production is filmed on location and captures the essence of Renaissance Italy sublimely. Swirly mist rising from darkened canals and cloaked figures in dimly-lit alleyways certainly heighten the power of the piece. A young Pavarotti, who effortlessly sings the Duke of Mantua, even climbs a tree. This is Jean-Pierre Ponnelle at his best. His Rigoletto, Ingvar Wixell, is touching in his portrayal and sings the role with aplomb. Edita Gruberova is a sensational Gilda and Chailly and the Vienna Philharmonic are on cracking form.

Beethoven- Complete Symphonies on DVD

Beethoven Symphonies- BPO/Karajan

While the performances arc highly polished, these are really collectors' items. There is very little visual variation, and I found myself waiting in vain for a long shot of the whole orchestra, particularly at climactic moments. The discs don't make use of the most fundamental of DVD features: there is no menu, so you can only access individual movements by scrolling through each of the preceding ones.

Beethoven: Complete Symphonies- BPO/Karajan

On Beethoven complete symphonies:


Beethoven Symphony No. 1; Symphony No. 2; Symphony No. 3; Symphony No. 4; Symphony No. 5; Symphony No. 6; Symphony No. 7; Symphony No. 8; Symphony No. 9Gundula Janowitz (soprano), Hilde Rössl-Majdan (alto), Waldemar Kmentt (tenor), Walter Berry (bass) Vienna Singverein, Berlin PO/Herbert von Karajan
Label: DG Complete Beethoven Edition
Cat No: 453 701-2 ADD 1963
Run Time: 331:54 (5 discs)
Performance: ****
Sound: ***

One may feel that DG missed a golden opportunity here to offer a complete cycle featuring conductors such as Böhm, Jochum, Carlos Kleiber and Gardiner. Nonetheless, faced with a straight choice between their three Karajan cycles, I would probably opt for these Sixties performances. Current tastes may favour smaller-sized orchestral forces which place the first and second violins on opposite sides, a greater equality between the wind and string sections and a more consistent observation of all Beethoven’s repeat marks, but Karajan’s beautifully manicured interpretations compel admiration, not least for the outstanding playing of the Berlin Philharmonic. Erik Levi


Beethoven: Complete Symphonies (Karajan Gold) Berlin PO/Herbert von Karajan
Label: DG
Cat No: 439 000-2 DDD
Run Time: (20 discs, also available separately, 439 001/20-2)


Notionally to mark the 85th anniversary of Karajan’s birth, Deutsche Grammophon has re-released 20 CDs under the banner of Karajan Gold, available together or individually (also on DCCs), and consisting of the Eighties recordings of the conductor’s central orchestral repertory. Many of these were widely felt to be less than satisfactory when originally issued, especially the Beethoven symphonies, with an opaque and reverberative sound that marred the climaxes, and DG seem to have been prompted into developing a new remastering process, the grandly named ‘Original-Image Bit-Processing’. The results are indeed fairly impressive, removing the shrillness from the strings and clarifying the orchestral texture, in particular rendering the woodwind warm and immediate, so that now these recordings can stand direct comparison with their earlier counterparts. Those who found the 1977 Beethoven cycle oppressively slick might be more sympathetic to these accounts, recorded relatively quickly and in long takes: there is an unexpected spontaneity here, and the seamless Karajan sound is relaxed to the extent of allowing greater local detail and dynamic contrast, while (of course) retaining a magisterial rhythmic and structural control. Particularly fine are the intensely felt Eroica (439 002-2), coupled with the Egmont Overture, and an expansively Romantic Eighth (439 005-2), with the Fidelio and Leonora No. 3 overtures and a monumental Coriolan (Performances ***** Sound *****). The First and Second (439 001-2) are somewhat patchy, however, and the soloists in the Ninth (439 006-2) don’t quite match those in either the 1962 or 1977 DG versions (Performances **** Sound *****).

Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro

In early May of 2008 I started exploring Mozart's Le Nozze again. My main goal this time was to explore how different ensembles of casts, orchestras and conductor read it. Here are the reviews from BBC music magazine, and then my own views:


Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro, Anna Caterina Antonacci, Cecilia Bartoli, Sylvia McNair, Andrea Rost, Cheryl Studer, Boje Skovhus Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna PO/Claudio Abbado
Label: DG
Cat No: 445 903-2 DDD
Run Time: 169:48 (3 discs)
Performance: *****
Sound: *****

The choice here would seem to be clear-cut: between a big-budget, starrily cast, ‘traditional’ reading, under the direction of a conductor more attuned to late 19th- and 20th-century expressionismo, and a more modest, home-grown affair in the capable hands of one of our leading Mozartians. Life, however, is never that simple. For one thing, Abbado and the VPO are clearly au fait with the insights of the period-instrument movement. Every bit as deft and transparent as Mackerras and the SCO, the richer sound and polish of the Viennese players is just too hard to resist. For all Mackerras’s skills in tapping the Mozartian essence, the SCO can’t help but sound anaemic in comparison. Abbado, at one with his singers, also displays a more acute sense of theatre; Mackerras’s often undercharacterise. The exceptions are his Figaro (Alastair Miles) and Bartolo (Alfonso Antoniozzi). Otherwise Abbado wins hands down, with Sylvia McNair’s impish Susanna an absolute delight, Boje Skovhus every bit the virile young Count, and Cheryl Studer a touching, dignified Countess. The DG is the one to go for then (released mid-September), despite Mackerras’s added bonus of a substantial appendix of replacement numbers (not all by Mozart – and it shows!). Antony Bye


Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gundula Janowitz, Edith Mathis, Hermann Prey, Tatiana Troyanos; Deutsche Oper Berlin Chorus & Orchestra/Karl Böhm
Label: DG
Cat No: 449 728-2 ADD (Reissue)
Run Time: (3 discs)
Performance: *****
Sound: *****

Poised between the old certainties of the ‘great German tradition’ and the new freedoms/bonds of historically aware performance, Böhm’s 1968 Figaro still manages to steer its middle course rather well, spirited enough for those repelled by the weight of the Furtwängler/ Klemperer approach, but with enough expressive input and teleological drive to cater to those for whom today’s period performers seem impossibly lightweight and aimless. With no weak links amongst a stylish, largely German cast (among whom I would single out Janowitz’s radiant Countess, Prey’s laddish Figaro and Fischer-Dieskau’s dangerous-to-know Count), this is ensemble opera at its best and continues to justify its honoured place in the catalogue. Antony Bye


MozartMozartLe nozze di FigaroIldebrando d’Arcangelo, Anna Netrebko, Bo Skovhus, Dorothea Röschmann, Christine Schäfer; Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopenchor; Vienna PO/Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Label:
DG
Cat No:
477 6558
Run Time:
189:56 mins (3 discs)
Performance: **
Sound: *****
With these forces, how could anyone possibly make a hash of this Figaro? Not, it seems, by accident.This superb cast alone should outweigh most conceivable problems. You might perhaps find Counts and Countesses to match Skovhus and Roschmann, or a less black-voiced basso Figaro than D’Arcangelo; but surely none better. Even the hype-allergic could only applaud Netrebko’s Susanna, McLaughlin’s Marcellina, Schäfer’s Cherubino, and the rest of the ensemble. Ensemble it is, too, to an extent rare in such jetset festival stagings, with a genuine sense of interplay. Except that the interplay is consistently weird – either lifeless or agonized.These days, one automatically suspects the producer, but it’s eminently clear that Harnoncourt is driving the process. This is one of the slowest, most turgid Figaros since Klemperer’s famous disaster; but unlike Klemperer, witty beneath that granite exterior, Harnoncourt leaches every trace of Da Pontean wit and Mozartian sparkle out of the music, so systematically it has to be deliberate. Why? The man himself confidently assures us that Figaro is witty ‘only in the sense of intelligent’ and that playing it as fast-moving comedy ‘degrades Mozart to the level of a second-rate Rossini’. Whether composer or librettist would agree is seriously doubtful; but disregarding that – as fashion demands – does this approach actually work?Best answered, perhaps, by the DVD (see review, p84). But even if this intrigues you, I’d suggest you listen more widely – Gui, Giulini, Solti, Jacobs – before you risk good money. Michael Scott Rohan


I also listened to:
Le Nozze Di Figaro / Marriner / St. Martin-in-the-Fields / Van Dam, Hendricks, Raimondi, Popp, Baltsa, Lloyd, Palmer, Baldin

Hendricks is a great Susanna. Her reading fits the impish Susanna, her sonorous agile vibratos works great with thie operatic role. Van Dam is a a great lyric Baritone, Raimondi a nasty count.

Mahler Symphony No.2

My views about Rattle's performance of Mahler's 2nd symphony, from May 12, 2007.

Mahler: Symphony No.2
CBSO
Simon Rattle
1990

Performance: *****
Sound: ****




I found this performance very interesting. The first thing that caught my attention was the slower tempo compared to other performances I had heard (Klemperer, Abbado). Bernstein’s is slower than the latter performances but Rattle’s version sounds more sonorous. Slower tempo gives him a wider field to focus on the coloring of sounds. The opening bass is expansive and sonorous. Also his focus is more on the melodic line than the transitory motivic shifts in orchestration that characterizes Mahler’s orchestration. The effect is something very new. The closing of the first movement (the chromatic descent), however, sounded artificial to me. I liked the more “resoluto” fast ending of Abbado better. Of note, are the nicely audible harp notes within the movement and at the end of the movement. The first movement is long enough to occupy the first CD of the two CD set.

The sound is not as good as Bernstein’s DG recording, and Abbado’s first DG recording in 90s. The violins sound dull and the orchestra sound a bit remote altogether.

Rattle is very successful in creating the anxious atmosphere of the last movement. I specially liked the way he interpreted the crisis/climactic moment with stressing the bass drums. The finale’s organ is spectacular.

Penguin guide names this performance a “key” performance. But I am not sure about this. Sound-wise it is not as good as previous performances. Performance-wise it’s another reading, but is it better because it is newer and we are used to older performances?