​Le Carnaval de Venise de Campra par La Co[opéra]tive in Besançon – Harlequinade on the lagoon – Report

Had we seen again The Venice Carnival by Campra since the modern resurrection of the work, in 1975 at the Aix-en-Provence festival? In France, at least, it seems not. And if a recording had not been released by Glossa in 2011, one might believe that Campra was well looked down upon. This is not true, because the Opéra-Comique proposed in 2015 Venetian Festivalsa later and much more complex work, enriched over the years to total eight entries instead of three! And on the lyrical tragedy side, the Lille Opera presented unforgettable performances ofIdomeneus. There remains, however, much to rediscover in the production of the Aix composer, and there is every reason to rejoice that La Co[opéra]tive made this choice, for a show intended to tour throughout France.

We are also delighted that the operation was entrusted to Camille Delaforge (1) and her ensemble Il Caravaggio. The harpsichordist and conductor can indeed boast a solid experience which has led her to explore the French lyrical repertoire (recently, The Geniusesopera-ballet by Mlle Duval) that Italian Music in its scholarly or popular facets (we remember the disc Our Lady of Grace released in 2021).

These two veins come together precisely in The Venice Carnivalwhere the southern Campra took pleasure in juxtaposing French style and Italian style, the entertainment being the pretext for various forays into a vocality coming straight from the other side of the Alps. The third act even includes the performance of a mini-opera retracing Orpheus' descent into hell, entirely in Italian, with the appropriate writing. Although limited to around twenty instrumentalists, which is few compared to what must have been in the pit of the Royal Academy of Music in 1699, the Il Caravaggio orchestra sounds superbly, and the conductor knows how to vary the climates, daring to give the dances and certain tunes a clearly popular character, with a marked rhythm.

Among the singers, we of course find the artists with whom Camille Delaforge has worked faithfully for several years: the mezzos Victoire Bunel and Anna Reinhold (the latter seems to suffer from some intonation problems, certain notes hesitating between several possible pitches, perhaps because of the stage fright linked to the premiere), the bass Guilhem Worms, who was among the protagonists of the disc of French cantatas Heroinesreleased in 2023 (CVS). They are joined by the high-contrast David Tricou, the baritone Sergio Villegas Galvain and the bass Mathieu Gourlet (who replaces Alexandre Adra for this first bisontine). Added to this are the seven “Singers from Studio Il Caravaggio”, from whom Apolline Raï-Westphal in Minerva or Clarisse Dalles in Fortune stand out for shorter roles. Given the “dual nationality” of the work, both flourish rather in the Italian style, or rather in the French style, but the numerous performances planned (until April 6) will allow them to better find their marks.

Even if Regnard's libretto hardly shines with its depth, treating the characters as simple puppets with stereotypical gestures does not really help one to be interested in a meager plot. As for making the Orfeo represented in the last act a parody of an opera, it is to forget that the music has nothing comical about it. The visual artists Clédat and Petitpierre impose dapper Harlequin costumes on everyone, but the decor seems to be mainly made to be seen from the balconies: from the floor, we see almost nothing of this labyrinth at ground level, which we pass a lot of time to move to modify it from one act to another. The “choreographic gaze” attributed to Sylvain Prunenec looks more like a quick glance, because the five dancers disguised as Tiepolo fils' puppets do not contribute to enlivening a show where not much is happening apart from the entertainment.

Laurent Bury