Li zite 'ngalera at La Scala: exciting galley trip of the newlyweds

Li zite 'ngalera, by the Calabrian-Neapolitan composer Leonardo Vinci, is a commedia per musica, a genre halfway between opera seria and commedia dell’arte, which had a resounding success when it premiered in Naples in 1722, and then throughout Italy. At that time, the four conservatories in Naples taught dozens of excellent musicians and singers, who were then recruited in courts and theatres all over Europe.

Leonardo Vinci's style is characterised by a marked melodiousness, a key feature of the Neapolitan musical school. In contrast to other contemporary masters (Leo, Durante), Vinci only adds a minimum of counterpoint to the vocal line, which is therefore allowed to rise with some ease.

Li zite is the only one of Vinci’s ten operas in Neapolitan dialect that has survived; the music is a real treat, with vernacular flavours set in a rich assortment of musical forms: the lively vocal writing alternates with salacious recitatives and arias for eleven roles, many of them en travesti.

The singer-actors are entangled in a farcical play: errors, misunderstandings, disguised identities and relationships are broken and then restored. The libretto by Bernardo Saddumene is full of ambiguities, folkloric accents and exotic colours, with an abundance of sexual linguistic allusions and double meanings.

The plot is intricate. At the base, there is a love triangle: Carlo loves Ciomma who loves Peppariello who loves Carlo; the latter had broken up with Belluccia years before and now she, in disguise as Peppariello, reaches him in Vietri to recover her lost honour.  Here, the plot thickens even more: Ciomma lives with Meneca, an aged woman who also has the hots for Peppariello, while her son Titta loves Ciomma; to add on, also the barber Col’Agnolo has designs on the girl. The whole thing ends up in hilarity when mistaken identities are cleared: Ciomma accepts Titta’s courting, while Carlo and Belluccia reunite, get married, and leave on the boat of her father, Federico Mariani: Li zite ‘ngalera translates as “the newlyweds on the galley”.

Director Leo Muscato is good at managing all these contradictory and impossible love affairs, complicated by the interchange of male and female roles. He sets the story in an inn in Naples, often drawing inspiration from the commedia dell'arte, and compensates for the length of the recitatives with gags and counter-scenes, brilliantly supported by Federica Parolini’s scenography and Silvia Aymonino's costumes.

With the aid of Alessandro Verazzi’s lighting, Parolini recreates a lively corner of 18th-century Naples: an inn with its rooms and kitchen, the balcony, and Vesuvius in the distance.

Of the four young people dealing with unrequited love, a special mention goes to the soprano Francesca Pia Vitale, for her fresh, lively Ciomma, sung with a beautiful voice and extraordinary talent for comedy: her “Va’, dille ch’e ’no sgrato” is delivered with nimble sensitivity. Francesca Aspromonte is Carlo, exhibiting a brilliantly solid phrasing and fine musicality; Chiara Amarù as Belluccia has a suitably round and dense timbre; countertenor Filippo Mineccia’s Titta boasts a soft, nimble timbre. Also notable are the caustic, hilarious Alberto Allegrezza as Meneca, and the countertenor Raffaele Pe, bright and effective as Ciccariello. The cast is completed by a solid, thunderous Filippo Morace as Federico Mariani, a witty Marco Filippo Romano in the role of Rapisto and Antonino Siragusa a the scheming, envious barber Col’Agnolo.

Under the baton of Andrea Marcon, a specialist in Baroque music, the orchestra maintained a tense, sparking theatrical rhythm. The orchestra of La Scala, supported by elements from La Cetra Barockorchester, on historical instruments, performed in a convincing manner a warm-sounding, entertaining opera.