Carlos Gomes: Il Guarany on CD
Relatively obscure Brazilian composer, his style is very close to Verdi's (who respected him). I have just finished listening to his most known opera Il Guarany, with Placido Domingo (available commercialy on 2 CDs with the libretto in Italian, translated into English, French, and German).
A non-commercial DVD is available from House of Opera.
Here is what I thought:
Beautiful overture (
Sinfonia)
Nice start with the chorus of the 'cacciatori.' It does sound like Verdi. Quality without originality, I see.
Wow, this is very beautiful, Cecilia's second aria (after a very brief and tuneful pollaca) is very good, with a very effective choral punctuation.
Deh! Riedi... deh riedi!
Antonio's Ave Maria is beautiful too.
Salve, possente Vergine.
All these arias turn to ensembles and the effect is impressive.
Now I got to the gorgeous duet
Sento una forza indomita. Excellent!
End of first act. Homogeneously good. A+
Act II starts with a scena and a nice Pery aria,
Vanto io pur superba cuna, majestic. Wow, this is a really good opera!
It is followed by a rather theatrical scene full of action, then a dramatic duet -
Serpe vil. The steady high quality continues. We're getting to a chorus piece now -
Udiste? - L'ore è un ente sì giocondo. Verdian again.
What a nice, tuneful waltz-like rondò follows -
Senza tetto, senza cuna, Canzone dell'Avventuriere!
Now, Cecilia's ballata,
Oh, come è bello il ciel! - C'era una volta un principe. Delicate orchestration with guitar sounds, light, with beautiful opportunities for the soprano to work the musical lines and do some coloratura. Very lyric, very romantic. I like it!
Here, in a Brazilian production (nice soprano!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=GRXK...eature=related
The duet between Cecilia and her assailant Gonzales is very dramatic, with a good dose of pathos.
Donna, tu forse l'unica
Some more good theatrical action, and we get to the finale of Act II. Majestic and impressive ensemble, in two parts, the second one start with the attack of the Aimorès and is appropriately solemn with a moment of frozen fear, then everybody jumps to the arms and prepares for the fight. Good Verdian orchestration.
Poor Carlos Gomes, if only Verdi hadn't done it before him! I mean, if only he had Verdi's creativity as well and weren't just a copycat...
Regardless, even if it's a copy, it's a pretty good copy and Act II earns from me another A+.
Act III now. Opens with a ballet - which unfortunately I can't see. But I can look at it on YouTube later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=8L0Q...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=aHEt...eature=related
Chorus piece,
Aspra, crudel, terribil, pretty good, finishing by a rather effective line, Ferro e fuoco (steel - or rather, iron, and fire).
Next, the chief Aimorè indian sings a bone-chilling aria, it does feel salvage and evocative of the fierce tribe's warring ways (the Aimorès historically were very bellicose indians). He turns more mellow and romantic as he sees the beautiful face of his prisoner and falls in love with her, addressing her more gently. The change in tone is striking. Well done, Gomes!
Then, we get to a big gaffe from the Italian librettists, I don't know why a genuine Brazilian like Carlos Gomes didn't correct it. The Cacico calls Pery 'the desert tiger.' What desert, and what tiger??? LOL, the Rio de Janeiro surroundings at the time in 1560 were a luxurious subtropical forest, no desert in sight for thousands of miles, and tigers were not part of the Brazilian fauna. A metaphor, sure, but how would the chief Aimorè even know about these things to be able to formulate such metaphor??? [laugh]
Another quite dramatic and theatrically rich scene, when the Cacico is calling for Pery to be killed and eaten, Cecilia pleads for him, etc. Pery's line is exquisite and plaintiff,
Ah! tu me vedrai morir! (Ah! You'll see me die!).
The theme of the overture comes back briefly to a beautiful effect. The Cacico grants to Pery and Cecilia a moment alone to express their love for each other before Pery is killed.
Then, a duet between the two protagonists, pungent and tearful. Superb!
Ebben, che fu - Perché di meste lagrime. A+ quality material.
All right. Pery drinks poison. Why does opera like poison so much?[laugh]
Now a chorus with the Cacico and his tribe. The overture theme comes back in full force while the indians kneel and pray to their gods. The effect is very solemn and the orchestration is very beautiful. The choral piece is gorgeous, followed by a short finale to ACT III when the Portuguese come to the rescue.
Did I mention that it all deserves an A+? LOL
Act IV
Very beautiful orchestration again with elements from the overture (different ones) into which the voices of the coro di avventurieri melt; wavy music, again it starts well.
Another gaffe from the libretto - Pery is alive - what happened to that poison?!? Ah, OK, it is explained later that he got antidotes from forest herbs, how convenient.[eyes]
Beautiful aria for Gonzales,
In quest'ora suprema.
Good dramatic scenes continue, there is the baptism scene, this is turning more into theater than music, Act IV seems dramatic enough but less musical so far, they're having to pack too much action into a short span and there is no space for good arias. A pity, it's the first downside so far of his entire opera.
OK, Pery's soaring aria (although short - can't really call it an aria, it's more like a short arioso) when he converts *is* beautiful, so, never mind.
Al Dio che in me regenera.
Beautiful display by Cecilia.
Che sento? Ed io dividermi
Now, for the Gran scena e terzetto finale ultimo. Spectacular! Don Antonio gets to be a suicide bomber 450 years before they became fashionable[laugh] and it literally ends with a bang, with the overture theme returning for a - er... - bombastic finale. Goosebumps!
A+ all around. Excellent opera. I wonder why in the hell this is not part of the repertoire. Not very demanding, not too long, full of dramatic potential, beautiful orchestration, some outstanding arias, duets, and ensembles... A winner from beginning to the end.
The only way to explain its failure to endure is the fact that it is, note by note, done in the exact style of Giuseppe Verdi, and it was composed by an obscure South American composer.
But while not matching a
Don Carlo or
Aida in terms of majestic impact, or
Il Trovatore which is stylistically closer, if only we got Verdi out of our mind and just listened to this opera, we'd easily see that it is extremely good, and certainly much better than
I Lombardi which gets staged fairly often.
Folks, if there is anybody reading this long post about an obscure opera composer's least obscure work, get this one.