WFO, 27/10/2022
Rossini - Mascagni - Saint-Saëns - Verdi - Donizetti
Daniela Barcellona, mezzo-soprano
Wexford Festival Opera
Francesco Cilluffo
It was a very nice touch, to begin her part of the programme with Tancredi's entrance aria, because the recitative "O Patria" rhapsodises about returning to his homeland, and Wexford is where Daniela Barcellona's international career was launched, back in the mid-90s. All of the first half of the concert was devoted to Rossini, allowing Barcellona to display her belcanto technique to good effect. She was not, however, expected to bear the full burden of the evening, and her numbers were interspersed with orchestral passages.
The orchestra on stage was a chamber-sized orchestra, good for Rossini, okay for Donizetti, but a little small for the later repertory. Cilluffo, who is the orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor, is an enthusiastic conductor, quite expressive on the podium, but the two Rossini overtures - Barbiere and Italiana in Algeri - were fairly neat, yet lacked that extra little sparkle that puts a smile on your face (well, on mine, at least) within three bars of music. That they were capable of that extra degree of vitality had already been demonstrated in the rendition of the Irish National Anthem, which was probably the best played national anthem I've heard outside of Cardiff, and was confirmed when Barcellona came on to sing "Cruda sorte!". The rustling, pastoral introduction to "O Patria... Di tanti palpiti" was also beautifully delivered, and extraordinarily reminiscent of Gluck's "Che puro ciel".
"O Patria" was certainly heartfelt, but the start of the cabaletta was plagued with some slightly faulty intonation, as Barcellona's deep, cello-like voice warmed up to the acrobatics of Rossini's writing. "Crude sorte!" was much better, the take-charge attitude leavened with real humour. Her last Rossini was Malcolm's entrance aria from La donna del lago, also delivered with brio.
The second half was from the later Romantic repertory, with Mascagni the closest to the turn of the century, in two numbers from Cavalleria rusticana. The famous Intermezzo was where the orchestra was at its weakest, the violins sounding thin and a bit bloodless, and Cilluffo over-egging the pudding with exaggerated ritardandi in the famous melody. Fortunately, they later redeemed themselves with a vibrant Overture from Nabucco, still perhaps a little under-powered, but excitingly paced.
As for "Voi lo sapete", I've always been a little dubious about casting mezzos as Santuzza. Lola is already a mezzo, and although she doesn't have much to sing, you still need a good contrast between the two women. Also, a really dark mezzo, like Barcellona, has a tendency to sound a bit matronly, rather than like a naive and passionate young woman who has been sorely abused by her faithless lover.
Then came the best-known number from Samson et Dalila, for which that rich, dark timbre was perfect, and would have been ideal had Barcellona's French been better. That impression was only reinforced by the Donizetti, "O mon Fernand" from La favorite, and I was seriously wishing she had chosen to do the Italian version, because her text was unintelligible, but the interpretation was superb, both in the aria and the cabaletta, and rightly brought the house down. The encore was Carmen's "Habanéra", a bit heavy-handed, in poor French, but a crowd-pleaser nonetheless.
Pluses and minuses, therefore, in this concert, but the overall impression was positive, an enjoyable foray into the kind of mainstream repertory that the Wexford Festival normally eschews, and a reminder that this event has long been a launching pad for the starriest of careers.
[Next: 28th October]