Fine art and folly
I have managed, after some months of not-watching, to get back into the swim of things with Netflix (I am not sure why it took me so long to drop La Dolce Vita into the DVD player, except that it took me an awfully long time to do anything over the winter. It's a miracle the laundry and the dishes got washed with any regularity, or that the trash was taken out.) At any rate, the latest offering in the Opera category was Vecchi's L'Amfiparnaso, which isn't so much as opera as a series of musical pieces with a sort-of plot based on the conventions of commedia dell'arte. For the sake of their audience members who don't live and breathe that theatrical form, I Fagiolini (and is that a great name for an early music group?) have added a narrative, delivered by Simon Callow (at times enjoying a drink with a little umbrella in it) that threads the vignettes together with something that resembles a plot. They also have non-signing masked characters acting things out in dumbshow. Because there's no such thing as too much fun.
If you like early music, this would be good. If you don't like early music, you might not like this either. If you like Simon Callow and don't mind early music, here you are. If you are willing to listen to early music (subtype, Italian madrigals) because you enjoy seeing things done differently, here you are. Although they all wear black and some of them are barefoot, there is no way this can be confused with a German opera production, because these people have discarded the concept of willful decadence as a pose that gets in the way of having a good time.
If you like early music, this would be good. If you don't like early music, you might not like this either. If you like Simon Callow and don't mind early music, here you are. If you are willing to listen to early music (subtype, Italian madrigals) because you enjoy seeing things done differently, here you are. Although they all wear black and some of them are barefoot, there is no way this can be confused with a German opera production, because these people have discarded the concept of willful decadence as a pose that gets in the way of having a good time.