L’isola disabitata (The Uninhabited Island) is a comparatively late opera by Haydn, or rather an azione teatrale, which calls for only four soloists and an intimate setting. Indeed, it may not have been staged at all when premiered for the nameday of Haydn’s employer, Prince Nicholas Esterházy, in 1779. Simon Valastro’s new production at the Olivier Messiaen Amphitheatre of Paris’s Bastille Opera preserves that immediacy with a dark, barren environment in the central space of the auditorium (which is exactly like a Greek amphitheatre). An open landscape of pebbles is dominated by a huge rock – rather than a remote island at sea, one might think that, in a humorous nod to Haydn’s most famous opera Il mondo della luna, we had actually been transported to the moon on a meteorite. The rock is like a half open receptacle or dwelling, but at the end, once the two sisters are reunited with their lovers and misunderstandings are resolved, it is mounted by them triumphantly as though they are on the prow of a ship, sailing back to civilisation.
During the orchestral preludes to each of the work’s two parts, dancer Nicolas Fayol sets the scene as an untamed creature, like Caliban, scrambling around in this remote and bleak environment. Nevertheless, as choreography, it embodies culture at the same time as representing untempered nature, and so neatly encapsulates debates in the 18th century about the effects of nature and nurture which this opera alludes to. But also, like the unsettled music of the opening, the choreography perhaps articulates in other media the volatile emotions which Costanza and her young sister Silvia experience during the course of the drama, having been shipwrecked on the island for the past three years: Costanza believes that she has been abandoned by her husband Gernando, while Silvia, more innocently, can only wonder, like Miranda, at ‘the brave new world that has such people in it’ when he and his friend Enrico appear.
The young singers of the Paris Opera Academy are well matched to the types of the two pairs encountered in the drama – Costanza and Gernando more noble and serious, corresponding to the principal roles of an opera seria, Silvia and Enrico more whimsical and flirtatious, like the servants of an opera buffa. Isobel Anthony and Clemens Frank exploit the latter parts well, with their vivacity and nuance, Anthony in particular expressing whimsy with delicacy and charm. Amandine Portelli sounds as committed and deliberative in her singing as she appears in her despairing actions, until Liang Wei’s cheerfully lyrical Gernando appears.
Supporting them are François López-Ferrer and the Ostinato Orchestra, providing lithe, supple accompaniment throughout. Recitatives are lucid (which are all accompanied in Haydn’s score, showing the influence of Gluck’s reform operas) and arias are nimbly driven but not rushed. Agile solos from violin and cello near the end of the second part offer additional colour and enliven the sequence of events to the happy conclusion. This is an ultimately playful realisation of a stage work that starts from a more serious premise.
Curtis Rogers
L’isola disabitata
Composer: Joseph Haydn
Libretto: Pietro Metastasio
Cast and production staff:
Costanza – Amandine Portelli; Silvia – Isobel Anthony; Enrico – Clemens Frank; Gernando – Liang Wei; Dancer – Nicolas Fayol
Director – Simon Valastro; Designer – Lucie Mazières; Costumes – Angelina Uliashova; Lighting Designer – James Angot; Conductor – François López-Ferrer; Ostinato Orchestra
Amphithéatre Olivier Messiaen, Opéra Bastille, Paris, 11 March 2025
Photos: © Vincent Lappartient @ Studio j’adore ce que vous faites