A Baroque balance

Pimpinone, a one-act comic opera written by the prolific Baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann in 1725.

By MAXIM REIDER
Pimpinone, a one-act comic opera written by the prolific Baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann in 1725 as an intermezzo for Handel's opera Tamerlano, was staged Saturday night by the Ramat Gan Chamber Orchestra and directed by Julia Pevzner, a young Israeli director with an international career. The story is simple: an unemployed servant, Vespetta, convinces the wealthy Pimpinone to hire her and then tricks him into marriage. "This is a story about a woman before and after marriage," says Pevzner. "When Vespetta becomes the mistress of the household, she decides not to keep any of her promises to her fiancé. But nothing works out exactly as she planned. A balance of power is struck, though, which makes for a happy ending." Pevzner explains that there is a special challenge in Baroque operas for directors, as well as for singers and conductors. "The challenge is to keep it from being static, boring and repetitive - to invent a dramatic solution which gives the audience the feeling of character development." "I'm not aiming for an authentic performance of a Baroque piece," says conductor Aviv Ron. "My idea is to bring it closer to the audience, to create a fresh and more contemporary rendition. This is why we translated the opera into Hebrew and changed the recitatives to spoken dialogue. I also added two fragments from other Telemann suites. That said, I have kept the harpsichord as it was in the original score." Soprano Maria Kabelsky, who has appeared with the Israel Opera, the Israel Philharmonic and other orchestras, sings the role of Vespetta, and baritone Yair Goren is Pimpinone. The next concert will take place Thursday evening at Heichal Hatarbut in Bat Yam.