Saverio Mercadante’s Il Proscritto (The Outlaw) was first performed in Naples in 1842. Drawing a blank in its day, it was never revived, and has had to wait 180 years for its rediscovery by Opera Rara and this concert performance conducted by Carlo Rizzi.
A cosmopolitan in an era of growing nationalism, Mercadante (1795-1870) radically pushed against the formal boundaries of Italian opera by introducing harmonic, orchestral and dramatic innovations largely derived from French models, Meyerbeer in particular. In Il Proscritto, however, the amalgam doesn’t always work, and it’s an uneven piece.
Set in Scotland during Cromwell’s protectorate, it is a tale of divided loyalties. The outlawed royalist Giorgio, believed to have drowned in a shipwreck, returns to find his “widow” Malvina about to marry the Cromwellian Arturo, ostensibly as a result of family pressure, though actually, we gradually realise, out of genuine love. In the score, bel canto tradition and innovation don’t so much combine, however, as exist uneasily side by side. There are some terrific, albeit conventionally structured set pieces, including a showdown for Giorgio and Arturo, both tenors, and a bravura aria for Malvina’s royalist brother Odoardo, played by a mezzo. Elsewhere, Mercadante’s churning chromatic harmonies and striking instrumentation, sometimes reminiscent of Berlioz, are more in evidence. Unlike his major Italian and French contemporaries, however, he was not a great melodist. And the last act is anticlimactic.
It was, however, for the most part superbly done. Rizzi’s conducting was all fiery precision and drive. Ramón Vargas’s dark voiced, declamatory Giorgio and Iván Ayón-Rivas, lighter in tone and more lyrical as Arturo, sounded terrific, both in their arias and when squaring off together for their big confrontation. Irene Roberts’s Malvina, albeit beautifully sung, lacked some of the requisite intensity, though Elizabeth DeShong as Odoardo brought the house down with her act two aria, spectacularly done. Luxury casting in smaller roles allowed Sally Matthews and Goderdzi Jenalidze to make a considerable impact as Malvina’s fanatical mother and half-brother respectively. The playing (the Britten Sinfonia) and choral singing (the Opera Rara Chorus), meanwhile, were nothing if not exhilarating.
