If one may be permitted a little chauvinism from this side of the pond this
article, from this morning's Sunday Times, may prove - in the course of
time - to be of interest.
Britain is at last catching on. HUGH CANNING meets Rosemary Joshua
< She can Handel it >
Handel's Semele is the original dumb blonde of opera - vain and silly,
but utterly adorable. She is, in the Handel scholar Winton Dean's
memorable phrase, "an immortal sex kitten", although immortality is
what Semele rashly and ambitiously aspires to. Duped by Jupiter's
jealous wife into persuading the Almighty Thunderer to appear to her
in his godly guise - Semele is one of the Olympian serial adulterer's
many mortal conquests - she is burnt alive by his divine radiance,
though not before giving birth to Bacchus, god of wine and debauchery.
The young Welsh soprano Rosemary Joshua sings the title role in
English National Opera's staging of Handel's "opera". (He performed it
in 1744, "in the manner of an oratorio", in concert, but it was quickly
recognised by his contemporaries as "a bawdy opera"). Joshua, in her
early thirties and one of the brightest singers of her generation, is
already an experienced Semele. She sang the role at the Aix-en-Provence
Festival conducted by William Christie, at the Flemish Opera in Antwerp
under Marc Minkowski - both in the Robert Carsen production they share
with ENO - and in Innsbruck with Rene Jacobs. Both Christie and Jacobs
want her for their forthcoming recordings, a flattering indication of
her pre-eminence in the role, but a difficult choice to make since she
enjoys working with both conductors. She owes to Jacobs her meeting
with her husband, the French baritone Olivier Lalouette - her married
name means "the lark", appropriately enough for a baroque prima donna.
When we meet at her west London home, husband Olivier is in his native
France rehearsing his first English role at the Nantes Opera: Junius
in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia - "So we've had him singing, "Er
vertu is ze mesure of ma shame' around the house," she mimics in a
Clouseau-like franglais.
"The thing about Semele," she suggests, "is that she can be treated
in so many different ways, and I hope, in this production at least,
that Robert [Carsen] gives her character real credibility. She is,
after all, very real: at the beginning her marriage to Athamas is
a 'society' wedding and he's a nice enough guy, but with Jove she's
had a taste of something else - the grass is greener on Olympus."
She ends Act I, translated to Heaven, singing: "Endless pleasure,
endless love, Semele enjoys above."
So, grasping good-time girl or incorrigible hedonist? "Well, I think
there's more to her than that because there's a tragic aspect to the
role; she's so vulnerable and so easily manipulated. Jove is an
absolute bastard - he wants her to sleep all the time, dreaming erotic
dreams, and he brings her presents, but he never explains to her that
their relationship is not going to last."
The archetypal kept woman, then, strung along, kept happy with baubles
and sex - one of the funniest lines in the work is Jove telling Semele
that she needs "time to rest and to repose" - but never the acknowledged
consort. The formidable Juno is too clever a politician for that.
It is occasionally alleged that Semele is a satire on George II and
his mistresses, but scholarly Handelians tend to dismiss this as
speculation.
Semele is only one of the roles that has secured Joshua's international
reputation as one of the finest Handel heroines of our day. Although,
like most singers, she hates being pigeonholed - she sings lots of
Mozart, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier; Janacek's Vixen and Stravinsky's
Anne Trulove are on the horizon - she has made Handelian seductresses
something of a speciality. Her Poppea in Agrippina has been acclaimed
at the Cologne Opera and she will take the part in two new productions
in the coming seasons: for ENO at the London Coliseum and the Theatre
de la Monnaie in Brussels. Later this year she will make her debut
as Cleopatra opposite the Julius Caesar of the American star
countertenor, David Daniels. Although she has the perfect voice for
Handel's soprano roles - a brilliantly focused, silvered timbre with
crystalline high notes and effortless coloratura - Joshua seems
genuinely surprised that she is in such demand for them.
"Well, it just seems to have transpired that way. I don't think this
is something I've tried to engineer. I had a success with Angelica
in Orlando at Aix and that led to my being offered Semele there.
Then I repeated Semele in Antwerp, where I was put in touch with Rene
Jacobs, and he then asked me to sing in his Brussels Agrippina next
year." So it's a sequence of "accidents" that have a coincidental
logic.
Joshua spent the early part of her career as a junior principal with
ENO at the Coliseum, where she often covered Lesley Garrett. Although
Garrett enjoys unquestionable celebrity in this country - largely as
a result of her bestselling records - her services are considerably
less coveted in the international arena than Joshua's. Ironically,
Joshua is considered more of a star outside the UK than she is at
home. She is conscious that she has perhaps neglected her career in
Britain, but she has recently changed agents and intends to spend
more time in and around London.
She has come a long way since she was Garrett's understudy. "Jumping
in for her was difficult, of course, because she's so larger-than-life
and everyone wanted to see her. I remember once I had to replace
her in a performance of Die Fledermaus - I was just out of college.
She was ill, and I had to take over."
But she didn't - as Garrett, in the role of the saucy maid Adele,
notoriously did - show her bum. "No, I didn't. There was such
disappointment. The audience groaned because they knew they weren't
going to see a bare bottom! But I might be making up for that in
Semele!" she half-promises, sex-kittenishly.
John G. Deacon http://www.ctv.es/USERS/j.deacon
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