SOLER : L'ARBORE DI DIANA

Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 15th of August  2010  3.04 - 5.30 pm

INTRODUCTION
COMPOSER
SYNOPSIS
PREVIEW
REVIEW
REVIEW

SOLER: L'arbore di Diana, an opera in two acts
Diana............................ Ekaterina Lekhina
Amore.......................... Ketevan Kemoklidze
Britomarte..................... Ainhoa Garmendia
Clizia............................. Marisa Martins
Cloe.............................. Jossie Pérez
Silvio............................. José Luis Sola
Endimione..................... John McVeigh
Doristo.......................... Simón Orfila
Teatro Real Orch/Ottavio Dantone (Radio Spain)

Soler (Spanish) and Salieri (Italian) were two rivals of Mozart in Vienna, and Lorenzo da Ponte wrote opera librettos for all of them (including this one, about the goddess Diana). This Soler does not receive much airing on our radio; the other Soler (the priestly and scholarly Padre Antonio Soler) has his keyboard music played as fill-in sometimes when there are gaps before the next program begins. This one is Vicente Martín y Soler, and he is new to me; and Spain has only just begun to revive his music in its opera houses; the recording of this one, which is traveling the world (Australia had it in June, see SYNOPSIS) was made in Madrid. It is reported that this opera had more success than Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, at the time.

The Tree of Diana (in transparent Italian : L'arbore di Diana). Diana is the goddess of hunting, and in this story she learns to stop enforcing strict chastity in her garden-realm, and to love lovers, and with avid ardent assistance from Cupid (Amore) she becomes a lover herself. And so everything in the garden is lovely.

The tree in the title glows when chastity abounds around it, but anyone giving in to their desires is pelted with its apples (black and rotten).