Royal Opera (HD broadcast), 02/04/2019
Verdi : La forza del destino
Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Sir Antonio Pappano
There's little denying that Forza is a strange work; one of the operatic catalogue's more absurd plots swathed in acres of glorious music. The music is certainly the primary reason for ever staging it, but as a piece of theatre it must give directors headaches (if not indigestion!) attempting to cope with its eccentricities. I still don't know quite why the last scene of Act 3 exists, it does absolutely nothing to advance or otherwise clarify the plot and, technically, you could cut it without any difficulty. Except you would then lose a splendid chorus scene and half the mezzo's role.
Christof Loy has mostly allowed the piece to speak for itself, without trying to prod and shove it in a particular direction. Visually, it's more or less all set within the one room, in the Calatrava palace where the action begins, although the walls expand and contract as required to create additional spaces, even mostly disappearing for the battle scenes of Act 3. Costume would broadly appear to be early 20th Century, between the wars and going into WWII. The direction of the singers was straightforward, the handling of the chorus was well done and interesting. To occupy the time during the overture (unnecessary, it's arguably Verdi's best) we were shown some of the Vargas family backstory, but I don't really see what difference it made that the family had already lost one child in infancy, save to skew the internal dynamics even further.
However, on the whole, the production did not interfere, and that, frequently, is as much as one can ask of a production these days. With other, lesser, musical forces in play, I might have called it dull, instead it served as a discreet and inoffensive cadre for some of the finest singing and playing I have heard from the Royal Opera (or, indeed, any opera company) in many years. The Royal Opera Chorus was at its considerable best, and the role of the chorus is important in this opera, while Pappano and the orchestra ensured a beautifully balanced and lovingly detailed reading of the score, with never a dull moment, and the fullest possible panoply of colours and effects to match whatever moods Verdi required at any given instant.
The strength of the casting was conspicuous right down to the smallest roles, with, for example, the veteran soprano Roberta Alexander, firm and bright-voiced as Leonora's confidant Curra, or Carlo Bosi's impertinent Trabuco. Of the secondary principals, weakest was Veronica Simeoni's Preziosilla, her voice not powerful enough, not weighty enough in the lower register, and not agile enough. However, that was just vocally - dramatically, she was exemplary, vivacious and compelling. Irascible Fra Melitone was superbly rendered by Alessandro Corbelli, bringing all his years of experience as a Rossinian comic bass into play to excellent effect. Ferruccio Furlanetto's bass voice is showing its age, spreading a bit in tone, but he was on particularly good form tonight, and here too, years of experience imbued his Padre Guardiano with a true sense of authority.
Ludovic Tézier's ample, bronzed baritone was admirably suited to Don Carlos. There was just a hint of gravel in the voice in the top notes tonight, but it did not detract from the focused performance, grimly obsessive to the end. He matched well with Jonas Kaufmann, who was ideally suited to the brooding Don Alvaro, the dark timbre of his tenor and the dynamic variations at which he excels all deployed to the best effect.
However, all of this was, ultimately, as a beautifully crafted setting for the real diamond of the performance, Anna Netrebko's Leonora. It's a new role for her, it fits like a glove, both vocally and dramatically, and she sang with immense depth of expression, and a magnificent tone throughout the vocal range. Her "Madre, pietosa Vergine" was delivered with absolutely heart-rending pathos. I have never disputed Netrebko's place amongst the foremost singers of this age, but tonight, she joined the ranks of the greatest sopranos of any age, certainly up there with the likes of Tebaldi or Leontyne Price, and it is the first time that I have felt able to say that without hesitation or qualification. She was outstandingly surrounded and supported, but it was her interpretation that has surely given this evening's staging anthological status.
[Next : 5th April]
Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Sir Antonio Pappano
There's little denying that Forza is a strange work; one of the operatic catalogue's more absurd plots swathed in acres of glorious music. The music is certainly the primary reason for ever staging it, but as a piece of theatre it must give directors headaches (if not indigestion!) attempting to cope with its eccentricities. I still don't know quite why the last scene of Act 3 exists, it does absolutely nothing to advance or otherwise clarify the plot and, technically, you could cut it without any difficulty. Except you would then lose a splendid chorus scene and half the mezzo's role.
Christof Loy has mostly allowed the piece to speak for itself, without trying to prod and shove it in a particular direction. Visually, it's more or less all set within the one room, in the Calatrava palace where the action begins, although the walls expand and contract as required to create additional spaces, even mostly disappearing for the battle scenes of Act 3. Costume would broadly appear to be early 20th Century, between the wars and going into WWII. The direction of the singers was straightforward, the handling of the chorus was well done and interesting. To occupy the time during the overture (unnecessary, it's arguably Verdi's best) we were shown some of the Vargas family backstory, but I don't really see what difference it made that the family had already lost one child in infancy, save to skew the internal dynamics even further.
However, on the whole, the production did not interfere, and that, frequently, is as much as one can ask of a production these days. With other, lesser, musical forces in play, I might have called it dull, instead it served as a discreet and inoffensive cadre for some of the finest singing and playing I have heard from the Royal Opera (or, indeed, any opera company) in many years. The Royal Opera Chorus was at its considerable best, and the role of the chorus is important in this opera, while Pappano and the orchestra ensured a beautifully balanced and lovingly detailed reading of the score, with never a dull moment, and the fullest possible panoply of colours and effects to match whatever moods Verdi required at any given instant.
The strength of the casting was conspicuous right down to the smallest roles, with, for example, the veteran soprano Roberta Alexander, firm and bright-voiced as Leonora's confidant Curra, or Carlo Bosi's impertinent Trabuco. Of the secondary principals, weakest was Veronica Simeoni's Preziosilla, her voice not powerful enough, not weighty enough in the lower register, and not agile enough. However, that was just vocally - dramatically, she was exemplary, vivacious and compelling. Irascible Fra Melitone was superbly rendered by Alessandro Corbelli, bringing all his years of experience as a Rossinian comic bass into play to excellent effect. Ferruccio Furlanetto's bass voice is showing its age, spreading a bit in tone, but he was on particularly good form tonight, and here too, years of experience imbued his Padre Guardiano with a true sense of authority.
Ludovic Tézier's ample, bronzed baritone was admirably suited to Don Carlos. There was just a hint of gravel in the voice in the top notes tonight, but it did not detract from the focused performance, grimly obsessive to the end. He matched well with Jonas Kaufmann, who was ideally suited to the brooding Don Alvaro, the dark timbre of his tenor and the dynamic variations at which he excels all deployed to the best effect.
However, all of this was, ultimately, as a beautifully crafted setting for the real diamond of the performance, Anna Netrebko's Leonora. It's a new role for her, it fits like a glove, both vocally and dramatically, and she sang with immense depth of expression, and a magnificent tone throughout the vocal range. Her "Madre, pietosa Vergine" was delivered with absolutely heart-rending pathos. I have never disputed Netrebko's place amongst the foremost singers of this age, but tonight, she joined the ranks of the greatest sopranos of any age, certainly up there with the likes of Tebaldi or Leontyne Price, and it is the first time that I have felt able to say that without hesitation or qualification. She was outstandingly surrounded and supported, but it was her interpretation that has surely given this evening's staging anthological status.
[Next : 5th April]