As opera plots go, La Finta Giardiniera (loosely translated as The Pretend Garden Girl) is particularly out of sync with modern times. The garden girl, Sandrina, lost her lover when he stabbed her in a fit of jealousy and fled from the scene. In today’s day and age, he’d be facing jail time, but in Mozart’s opera, she goes undercover, dressed up as a gardener, to find him and win him back.
Operatic plots are all too often out of touch with the accepted values of today. For example, take Donizetti’s comic opera, Le Mari Battu, which pretty much makes domestic violence its punch line.
Canadian Layla Claire plays the role of Sandrina in this production from the famed Aix-en-Provence festival in France. She struggled with the role, trying to come to terms with why and how her character returns to her abusive partner.
Among the other stars in this production is Canadian Colin Balzer who plays the Mayor in this early Mozart opera.
You’re forgiven if you’ve never heard of Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera. Mozart wrote it when he was just 18 years old. It’s early Mozart, but it already shows a composer capable of sustaining an opera, musically speaking, through three acts.
This performance was recorded outdoors at the Aix festival, so you hear birds (as the opera commences) and as night falls, the increasing undertones of crickets. It all seems appropriate given the garden theme of the opera.
And the orchestra plays brilliantly. It’s the Cercle d’Harmonie led by Andreas Spering.
The librettist is a mystery for this Mozart opera. Good thing as we don’t have someone to blame! It’s a convoluted plot involving a number of romantic triangles. Best to sit back and bask in the music. But if you’d really like to figure it all out, a synopsis can be found here, and a libretto here.
Here's a complete cast list:
Colin Balzer, tenor: Don Anchise, Mayor of Lagonero, in love with Sandrina.
Layla Claire, soprano: La Marchesta Violante Onesti, thought to be dead and pretending to be a gardener under the name of Sandrina.
Julian Pregardien, tenor: Il Contino Belfiore, formerly in love with Violante and now with Arminda.
Ana Maria Labin, soprano: Arminda, a Milanese lady, formerly in love with Cavaliere Ramiro and now engaged to Count Belfgiore.
Julie Robard-Gendre, mezzo-soprano (originally written for castrato, but adapted here as a pants role): Il Cavalier Ramiro, in love with Arminda, but deserted by her.
Sabinhe Devieilhe, soprano: Serpetta, the Mayor’s maid and in love with him.
John Chest, baritone: Roberto, Violante’s servant, who pretends to be her cousin and a gardener under the name of Nardo, in love with Serpetta who does not return his love.
There’s more information about the production online, including videos and interviews.
Related Links:
Layla Claire as seen on the BBC documentary, What Makes a Great Singer?
Layla Claire works with Maestro James Levine
From the Festival Aix-en-Provence, Mozart's Don Giovanni featuring Colin Balzer