(Photo: Jonas Lampens)

The great castrato, Carlo Maria Michelangelo Broschi, better known as Farinelli, had such impact on 18th century opera-seria that his fame has lasted down the centuries, so that even today his name remains well-known amongst opera-goers. His older brother, Riccardo Broschi, however is less well-known, few will recognize his name. Yet, during his lifetime he was a well-known and respected composer. This summer, Innsbruck’s Early Music Festival will be giving the first modern day performance of his opera, “Merope,” which was written in 1732 for his famous brother. For our second interview with the directors from this year’s festival, Operawire met up with Sigrid T’Hooft, a specialist in the baroque, who will be responsible for staging “Merope,” for what was a very interesting and informative interview.

Operawire: What attracted you to directing “Merope”?

Sigrid T’Hooft: The first thing that attracted me was that this was a baroque opera. I love early music, it has been part of my life ever since I was a teenager, and I feel very much at home in the art of the baroque, both as a dancer and choreographer, as well as a stage director. Obviously, this will not be the first time I shall direct a baroque opera, but it is the presence of dance in opera that always attracts me, which is the case for “Merope.”

The opera was first performed in Turin in 1732. At that time the Turin’s Teatro Regio had a well-known and large dance-troupe; they offered a ballet after every act , rather than a comic vocal entr’acte as was the more usual tradition in many other European opera-centres. The Artistic and musical Director, Alessandro De Marchi, asked me not only to stage the opera, but also to revive this dance-tradition, thereby using the original ballet music by Alessio Rasetti he discovered in a library in Rome. It is this combination, of researching and then transforming it into a living spectacle for today, that ultimately attracts me the most.

OW: Are you excited by the discovery of this new music?

ST’H: Notwithstanding being delighted when staging a masterpiece from the established repertoire, the excitement of being able to do a new opera, at least an unknown one, is far more so! It is a thrilling experience when sharing, discovering and exploring a novelty with a team in an open minded atmosphere: no one brings preconceived ideas, everyone is open and curious about the new music, about the text and about the dramaturgy. There are no points of reference, which makes the whole artistic team committed without bias to doing whatever it takes to make this new old jewel shine.

The music is just wonderful! It is a typical Neapolitan, high opera-seria, at times very virtuosic, but also full of gentle and emotional melodiousness. There are some heart-breaking arias and accompanied recitatives for Queen Merope, and as this opera was written for Broschi’s brother, the famous primo uomo Farinelli, (in the role of Epitide), the audience will be spoilt by some of the most exquisite castrato-music. Typical of the style there is only a small chorus, made up of the soloists, at the beginning and at the end of the opera. We have an outstanding cast and this score will ensure that they will be able to display their art to the maximum.

OW: What are main themes of “Merope?”

ST’H: As always in baroque libretti, the chiaroscuro of contrasting human passions drives the story.
On the dark side of the spectrum “Merope” is imbued with the hunger for power and revenge, the subtle art of evil manipulation, and tunnel vision, which both the queen and her tyrant tend to develop, blinded by an excess of emotions.

On the bright side, there are powerful positive passions: compassion, remorse, loyalty and heroism. They bring about the turning point in the opera which leads to the downfall of the tyrant. The blindfolds fall off and order is restored . Through the obligatory lieto fine, the happy ending, everyone recovers their safe place in society and can survive within it.

The opera is also a true thriller. It is full of suspense, and we’re in constant doubt as to whether or not it is going to end well. Normally in a baroque opera the audience knows more about what is going on than the characters on the stage, but not so in “Merope.” We are not fully informed. So until the last moment, we have no idea what the outcome will be. When Polifonte tells Merope that he has killed her son, the audience truly believes he is dead. When the curtain then raises for the last scene … …it is a shock!

OW: What is your starting point?

ST’H: My starting point is really the reason as to why I was asked to direct the opera, that is HIPP, Historically Informed Performed Practice, it is my speciality. People are very used to hearing historically informed music from the pit, played on baroque instruments, in the baroque style. I do the same on the stage, and this is my starting point. I want to give the audience an aesthetic sensation that is not just aurally, but also visually embedded in the same approach.

Using period costumes or historical sets is not unusual on the contemporary opera stage. But I go a step further: we will be attempting to recreate the lighting dimensions, as well as the acting style, which will probably be new for the audience as well as for the artists. So the singers will act within candlelight-dimensions, and with the light coming from the sides and the footlights, rather than from the auditorium; it creates a 3-dimensionality which is very different, and at times a mysterious realm of shadows.

So you will not see singers rolling around on tables or in beds, laying on the floor, embracing fervently their loved ones or attacking their enemies, nor will they be running up and down stairs while singing arias. Like in Brechtian theatre-style, they will direct their voice more to the audience than to their colleagues on the stage, and rarely show their backs to you. Just like in Farinelli’s time singers will mainly come to the front of the stage to sing their arias, and will thereby constantly use rhetorical hand-gestures, shift the weight of the bodies, and display a wide range of facial expressions.

This leads many people to think that baroque opera in an HIPP style is a static experience, and in certain respects it is the case. But don’t forget that there are also many directors with a non-HIPP approach who stage their singers with minimalistic body-language, thus this acting style is certainly all “new” or “inaccessible”. Yes it is more confined and subtle, less tactile and less violent in movement, and the hand-gestures are, maybe, more gentle, elegant and precise then we are used to today, but it’s everything but a sequence of static tableaux-vivants! The recitatives, which are traditionally played on the mid-stage, display vivid acting, and are amplified by the interaction of extra’s (for example, in the case of “Merope” a group of 12 soldiers and Greeks) and the constant shifting of positions & stage-movements in elaborate S-Lines. There is an abundance of period-information from the 17th and 18th century available on these theatrical aspects, which makes it not only possible, but also very inspirational to be guided by them while staging.

OW: Does your approach to baroque opera differ from other operas?

ST’H: No, I always use an historically informed approach. This always forms the basis of my stagings, but of course my research of operas of different periods will inevitably lead to different results. For example when I directed Borodin’s “Prince Igor” I researched acting and staging in the late 19th century, and obviously this will be different from an opera from the 1700s, so there will be significant differences in outcome. I am not against modern staging concepts or different approaches for baroque operas, but I like to bring the audience close to the original visual aspect of an opera. However, I recognise it is not simply a reconstruction (which would be impossible in any case), but rather a re-animation using certain tools from the time of its creation. It is also contemporary in every aspect, as we are producing this work today, with and for people of today; it is inevitable that our contemporary lives, traditions, experiences and visions play a role in the interpretation and implementation of historic information, be it an old score, an old libretto, or an old book on staging-mechanics.

OW: So you do not deliberately overlay the work with your own interpretation or concept?

ST’H: No, I let the libretto speak for itself and give the music its own place to highlight it. This is what Broschi did; he was given the libretto and he created the music to highlight the themes through his choice of rhythm, tonality, orchestration and melody. He highlighted each affect in a typical baroque way. I allow the music to do this to the fullest, and the singer to complete this with his art. I stand back and allow the work to speak for itself. I do not have a concept. I stay close to the original libretto, I won’t update it to, for example, Paris in the 1930s, and if the libretto states that a character exits the stage, then I will have him exit the stage. I want to serve the piece rather than the piece serving my ideas.

OW: Will a modern audience find it easy to relate the work, or do you feel that they require help in any way?

ST’H: No I don’t think the audience requires help. I never underestimate an audience. The theatre is magical place, it can open up people’s hearts, allows them to relate to the piece in any way they want, to question the things they want to. In Innsbruck we have an audience who understands and loves baroque music, they are a specialised audience, their hearts are in some sense already open to the HIPP approach.

But anyway, the themes of this story are so modern! We all have to cope with people who manipulate, or are striving for power; the feelings of having lost a child, or being forced into a marriage, are not confined to the past. We still have heroes today. Theses are all things we understand so I don’t need to do anything extra. Also the libretto, by Apostolo Zeno, is very clearly written. The quality of the text, the music and the dramaturgy are very high. The narrative is straightforward for baroque standards, the relationships between the characters are not difficult to follow. The only place in which the audience may get lost is in the web of manipulations by the bad guy; he never stops, one plan is followed by another, and then another, he is very clever. There is no need for me to add to this.

Maybe the audience may take five or ten minutes to adapt to the different style of acting, but they will soon get used to this visual aspect, and everything will become very clear. So I don’t do anything to make it “easier” for the audience or to highlight anything that isn’t already done through the text or the music. The power of the musical composition is the best tool in helping the audience to relate to the story! Maybe during rehearsals I will alter some emphases or deepen the colour of a character, and this will depend upon the acting capacities of the singers, and of course, as this is a new piece for all of us, things will be revealed as we work on it.

OW: What problems/difficulties do envisage in bringing the opera onto the stage?

ST’H: There are always two problems. Firstly, the finances and logistics for the technical equipment. With a festival-production, all the sets and costumes have to be made somewhere else due to not having our own workshops, and this comes with a whole range of limitations and potential problems. The theatre is rented for a short time, and the technical staff is not so large. But with the lavish costumes and the clever baroque sets designed by Stephan Dietrich, the audience will be truly amazed.

Secondly there is the problem of time. We have five weeks to prepare, and Alessandro De Marchi takes the first week for rehearsing the singing. Then there is three weeks rehearsing the staging, and in the final week we bring everything together. Three weeks for the staging is not much, especially for an unknown opera, which in addition lasts over four hours. Considering none of the singers has had an education in baroque staging techniques, this means that I have to teach and rehearse at the same time. But I’m convinced that the combined experiences and top quality of the whole artistic team will overcome this challenge with grace and conviction!