Vivaldi’s 1737 opera is a pasticcio, a work constructed of previously existing music, refashioned to a new text: Vivaldi effectively recycled some of his own hit numbers, along with arias by his contemporaries Broschi, Giacomelli and Hasse. This was a familiar practice in the 18th century, and L’Oracolo in Messenia was popular in its day. The original score is lost, however, and the work as we know it is a reconstruction prepared by the violinist-conductor Fabio Biondi for a 2011 revival in Vienna, a tremendous performance, mercifully preserved on disc.
Biondi and his period band, Europa Galante, have now brought the piece to London. There have been a few cast changes, which don’t always work in its favour, though dramatically, the opera remains engrossing. The exiled Eptide returns to his native Messenia to find it in disarray. An oracle demands he rid the city of its “monsters”, which turn out to be the adherents of corrupt king Polifonte, who is implicated in the murder of his predecessor Cresfonte, and now has designs on the latter’s widow, Merope. The twisting narrative draws disparate emotional strands together as destiny gradually works itself out through human affairs.
Biondi, directing from the leader’s stand, has an innate understanding of Vivaldi’s grandeur and grace, while Europa Galante are fastidiously elegant, albeit darker toned than some ensembles in his music. The evening’s vocal stars were Magnus Staveland and Julia Lezhneva. Staveland’s Polifonte was a beautifully honed study in Machiavellian evil. Lezhneva, as his dithering minister Trasimede, earned standing ovations with the score’s two big showstoppers, delivered with silver-toned aplomb. Other plus points were Marianne Beate Kielland’s implacable Merope and Franziska Gottwald’s suave, principled Licisco. Less successful were Vivica Genaux’s tired-sounding Eptide, Marina de Liso’s blowsy Elmira, and Rupert Enticknap, pushed to his limits, as Polifionte’s vicious sidekick, Anassandro.
