Viva Vivaldi

Antonio Vivaldi made his reputation as a violin virtuoso and composer of instrumental concerti and it is this for which he is still best known. But from the age of 35 he was also involved with opera, both as an impresario and as a composer, and in recent years his operatic works have been enjoying something of a revival, especially on the continent.

Now Garsington Opera is offering British audiences the chance to experience a fully-staged Vivaldi work, L'incoronazione di Dario. The piece has not been performed since its first production in 1717. It is an early Vivaldi opera and the first in a series that Garsington is planning to revive - middle and late Vivaldi operas will appear in future seasons.

Historians differ as to the number of operatic works Vivaldi wrote. Some put the number as high as 80, although many of the productions with which he is associated are pasticcio operas, the music deriving from several composers.

These pasticcio works were put together under Vivaldi's supervision - on occasions in a matter of just a few days - with the composer-impresario rewriting some of the music. Vivaldi claimed to have written 94 operas, but this is almost certainly an exaggeration. L'incoronazione di Dario was first performed at the Teatro S. Angelo in Venice. The opera centres on events following the death of the ancient Persian King Ciro (Cyrus). Ciro leaves two daughters - Statira and her younger sister, Argene. Dario, a pretender to the throne, is in love with Statira, but Argene falls in love with him and determines to win both him and the Persian crown.

Two other nobles, Arpago and Oronte, also claim the right to succeed Ciro. Dario proposes that whoever can win the hand of Statira should also become king.

The plot is complicated by the schemes of the princesses' tutor, Niceno, who has designs on Statira, by the presence of Alinda, who is in love with Oronte, and by the duplicitous Flora, confidante to the princesses. A web of intrigue weaves around the naïve and guileless Statira as the action moves forward.

The opera is directed by the highly regarded David Freeman, and conducted by Laurence Cummings, one of Britain's leading young exponents of historical performance. I met Laurence at the rehearsal rooms in Southwark where the opera is being prepared and asked him why the company had decided to revive this particular work.

"Let's talk about Vivaldi first," he said. "Vivaldi doesn't get done much in this country, which is a shame. There is a treasure chest of music here. There are some great arias and the orchestration is fantastic. That's, after all, what we know Vivaldi for.

"As for this opera, the fact that it hasn't been performed since 1717 is, I think, a good reason to do it. It's witty, clever and complex, and the music is very strong. There's a fantastic obligato aria for viola da gamba, which would have been exotic even in Vivaldi's day."

It was this aria which, he says, caught his eye when he first looked at the music.

Cummings is the head of historical performance at the Royal Academy of Music and we talk about the challenges of bringing the work alive for a 21st-century audience. Cummings says British audiences are "quite sophisticated" in terms of Baroque opera, and he doesn't believe L'incoronazione di Dario poses any particular difficulty.

"The work is inherently dramatic, almost over-dramatic," he said. "The arias are shorter than we're used to in Handel. Nothing overstays its welcome. There's lots of interaction."

Act two contains 20 different scenes, far more than would be found in a Handel opera. Cummings says the wide stage and the gardens at Garsington help enormously in the production, allowing the opera to keep moving, each scene folding into the next. Much of the drama is carried by the recitative, which, he says, the company has worked hard on under the detailed direction of Freeman.

Will they be aiming for an authentic period' sound?

"In some ways, yes," said Cummings, "but, in some ways, it's impossible."

The continuo will include two theorbos and two harpsichords, one an 18th-century instrument. But the string players will use modern instruments. The humidity at Garsington presents a challenge when using period instruments and constant retuning would undermine the dramatic tension.

Cummings describes the opera as "quite psychological" and I ask what he makes of the character of Statira.

"We're still discovering her," he said after a pause. "She's not without her own will, and determination. But she's had a sheltered upbringing and her inexperience exposes her to potential exploitation. She's not a comic character."

Will Dario win her? You'll have to wait to find out.

L'incoronazione di Dario opens on Wednesday. For details see www.garsingtonopera.org.