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| Photo: Eliahu Feldman |
British composer Stephen Storace (1762-1796) lived and wrote at a time when
Londoners loved their entertainment. His comic operas were highly popular in
18th-century England. The son
of an Italian double-bass player/composer and an English mother, the composer's
youth was spent entirely in the company of musicians, since his father was
musical director of Vauxhall Gardens, one of the leading venues for
public entertainment in London from the mid-17th century to the mid-19th
century. The Gardens drew enormous crowds, with its romantic paths, tightrope
walkers, hot-air balloon ascents, concerts and fireworks; the Rococo
"Turkish tent" became one of the Gardens' structures, the interior of
the Rotunda became one of Vauxhall's most viewed attractions, and the
“chinoiserie” style was a feature of several buildings. This was the climate
from which Storace’s comic opera “The Pirates” emerged. Premiered
on November 21, 1792 at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London, the opera created
quite a stir, being performed 23 times in the 1792-93 season and mounted for
King George III in 1794.
As to the young Storace’s musical education, in around 1776, he went to
Naples in order to study the violin and, after some years back in London,
he then went to Vienna in 1784, where, it is believed, he studied with Mozart,
whom he had met through his sister. Returning to London, he spent the rest of
his life writing comic operas for Drury Lane. Storace also published chamber
music, songs, and an anthology - “Storace’s Collection of Original Harpsichord
Music” (1787–89) - which included music he brought back from Vienna. His operas
show the influence of the Italianate style as well as that of Mozart.
His sister, Anna Selina (Nancy) Storace (1765–1817), was a noted soprano who
sang her first leading role in Florence at age 15. She also created the role of
Susanna in Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro” (1786) after singing the role of
Rosina in the Viennese production of Giovanni Paisiello's “Barber of
Seville” in 1783.
The Israeli premiere of “The Pirates” (libretto: James Cobb) was a
collaboration between Ensemble PHOENIX (music director: Myrna Herzog) and the
Israeli Opera’s Meitar Opera Studio (music director: David Sebba), with support
from the Felicja Blumental Music Centre and the Israeli Ministry of Culture.
Stage director was Shirit Lee Weiss. The singers, guided in the appropriate
Classical style of sound production and tuning by Herzog herself, were all young music academy graduates,
their Meitar Studio training preparing them for future opera careers in Israel
and abroad. Dr. Myrna Herzog conducted the PHOENIX musicians playing on
Classical period instruments. This writer attended the performance at the
Jerusalem International YMCA on July 11th 2019. In her program notes, Herzog
explains that “The Pirates” and Storace’s other London operas were no longer
performed after 1809, when a fire at Drury Lane Theatre destroyed the
orchestral scores. What remained of “The Pirates” score was a vocal score, with
a rough piano reduction of the orchestral score. David Sebba stepped in to
reconstruct the orchestral score.
Together with his servant, Blazio, Don Altador sets out
to rescue his love Donna Aurora from her guardian, the wicked Don Gaspero,
who wants her to marry his nephew, Guillermo. The daring duo try all they can
to rescue Donna Aurora, but with Don Gaspero always one step ahead of the game,
things do not go to plan. Shirit Lee Weiss’s production consisted of a play
within a play. Costumes and props were all on stage, with singers donning
clothing items and effects over black clothes. Translation of the text into
Hebrew appeared on screens. That, however, was where any correlation between
the libretto and what was happening on stage ended, even for Hebrew speakers,
it seems. With none of the original saucy text to follow, we English-speakers missed out
big time. The constant action on stage amounted to slapstick hi-jinx unrelated
to Cobb’s libretto or to any form of authentic British drollery, sophistication
or stage magic as would have been experienced at the sumptuously decorated
Theatre Royal, a venue featuring the latest stage- and scenic technology and
boasting pitch-perfect acoustics, a place to see and be seen, no matter what
your social class! But all was not lost: the Jerusalem audience delighted in
dedicated, polished performance on the part of the Meitar Studio members - Efrat HaCohen Bram, Liat Lidor, Veronika Brook, Pnini Leon Grubner, Shaked Stroll, Tom Ben Ishai, Yuli Rorman - their
splendid voices and natural musicality reflecting understanding of 18th
century voice production and offering much to enjoy from the arias, duets and
choruses. Neither did the PHOENIX Ensemble players (concertmaster: Yaakov Rubinstein), conducted on stage by
Herzog, disappoint the audience, as they presented us with suave, informed and carefully balanced
ensemble playing of genuine beauty and lushness. So, the hero of the evening
was indeed Storace’s music - graceful and melodious - inviting the listener to
indulge in its refinement and allure.
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