Salieri Was No Joke
Antonio Salieri: Cublai, gran kan de’ Tartari. Les Talens Lyriques; Christophe Rousset, conductor; Mirco Palazzi, bass; Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani, tenor; Marie Lys, soprano. Aparté (AP379); 2 CDs; total time: 2hr 40min.
DIGITAL REVIEW — Christophe Rousset and his ensemble, Les Talens Lyriques, seem determined to undo the long-term damage that the play and film Amadeus has done to Antonio Salieri’s reputation for the past few decades. Cublai, gran kan de’ Tartari is their sixth Salieri release, and this one has a bonus feature: It’s the world-premiere recording of a work the composer himself never got to see performed.
In 1788, when the opera should have been premiered, Emperor Joseph II was forming an alliance with Russia in its conflict with the Turks. The opera, a thinly veiled satire of the monarchies of its own day, pokes fun at Russia’s Peter the Great in the form of Kublai Khan. Thus, the work was banned. Les Talens Lyriques gave not only the modern premiere but also the world premiere in 2024 at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien. This studio recording was made a few months later. Unlike the heavily reworked libretto in the Vienna production, which included the spoken role of Salieri himself, this version apparently sticks closer to the composer’s intentions.
In brief, Cublai, gran kan de’ Tartari, with a libretto by Giambattista Casti, is a tale of the familial and political troubles facing Kublai Khan, ruler of Cathay. His courtiers are after his power. His disappointment of a son, Lipi, has been mesmerized by his tutor, Posega, into believing that women and marriage are equally useless.
Still, Kublai sends a trusted official, Timur, to fetch a neighboring princess, Alzima, for Lipi to marry. Needless to say, Timur and Alzima are secret lovers. Meanwhile, two visitors from Italy have convinced Kublai’s Tartars to shave off their traditional beards. It’s all a bit much for a Great Khan to deal with.
There is eventually a happy ending, however. Timur is named heir to Kublai’s throne (don’t ask), allowing him to marry Alzima while maintaining Kublai’s political alliances. Lipi is thus free of his obligation to marry, and Kublai is pleased to ship his son back to Posega’s questionable care.
Rousset captures the manic, comic spirit of the story from the opening Sinfonia, its high-energy rhythm textured with crunching, slapping bows and blatting trumpets (all carefully controlled). Salieri, an imaginative orchestrator, brings in the flutes to carry the melody at one point when violins are expected and employs surprising bursts of furious repeated notes in the cello. The Chamber Choir of Namur, as the proud, pro-Kublai Tartars, opens the libretto against a glorious brass sound.
Bass Mirco Palazzi has a rough, heavily vibrating comic voice, just the right touch for the beleaguered old Khan. As the ideologically extreme tutor Posega, baritone Äneas Humm conveys a sincerity in his beliefs that makes his arias funnier. Not popularly thought of as an operatic innovator — Mozart’s innovations overshadow everyone else’s — Salieri bravely steps outside the norm at times. For example, in Posega’s aria “Nei fasti del mondo,” Kublai joins in at the end of what should conventionally have been a solo piece.
in the role of Alzima, soprano Marie Lys has clarity and power behind her often tongue-in-cheek delivery. Great flexibility of voice, too, which she demonstrates in her fiery, melisma-filled final aria, “Fra i barari sospetti.” Any soprano who loves singing the Queen of the Night should add this jewel to her repertoire.
As the son Lipi, a trouser role, soprano Lauranne Oliva demonstrates appropriately ditzy, blustery teenage rage and obsession. The court’s master of ceremonies, Orcano, who has his nose in everything, is sung by Fabio Capitanucci with the sniveling determination of a career corrupt official. His aria “M’inganno, se vedo” is one of the most deliciously orchestrated moments in the opera, with an obbligato flute preposterously replaced in other phrases by brass. Its lyrics straddle wisdom and nonsense:
I deceive myself if I see,
I deceive myself if I listen,
if I speak, if I believe,
if I act, if I think,
for me all is deceit
Like his more famous, younger colleague/rival, Salieri was skilled at ensemble vocal writing. There are many fine quartets in the opera. The one in the first Act for Alzina, Orcano, Timur, and Kublai shows solid contrapuntal writing. Later, “Il vostro consiglio” has quite a different style, with Memma and Bozzone (the two Italian visitors, sung by Ana Quintans and Giorgio Caoduro) and Orcano answering as a trio to Kublai’s solo lines. Besides the expected duet for the lovers Alzina and Timur — the latter sung with passion by tenor Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani — there’s also a heartfelt duo between young Lipi and his teacher, which ends with “motto” singing that imitates a trumpet fanfare and ends with a comical screech.
As the Viennese cognoscenti were well aware at the time, Salieri is a composer to be taken seriously. There could not be a better case made for his worth than the growing collection of recordings by Les Talens Lyriques, presented with exquisite attention to detail and loving vivaciousness.
