Ewa Podles makes a Haydn Concert an Event

Podles receiving an enthusiastic ovation for Arianna A Naxos. © Amati Bacciardi.

This summer Ewa Podles returned to ROF after an absence of eight years. Why so long between engagements? Well, that’s how long it has taken ROF and Madame Podles to settle their differences. It seems that while the Polish contralto was performing in Le Nozze di Teti e di Peleo in 2001, she had some unkind words to say about the working conditions during her stay at that time. Her comments didn’t strike me as being unreasonable, but still offense was taken. Finally this year ROF and Podles have buried the hatchet, and her recital at the Concerto Sinfonico, marking the bicentennial of Franz Joseph Haydn’s death, was the vehicle for her return.

And what an outstanding occasion it was for Madame Podles and the audience who attended the concert at 11:00 a.m. on August 16th.

The headline in Claudio Salvi’s newspaper review of the concert in El Resto del Carlino stated unequivocally the diva received 20 minutes of applause for her performance. If the headline struck one to be an exaggeration, rest assured it was not.

Podles was received enthusiastically by the audience as she stepped out onto the stage of the Teatro Rossini, but it was nothing compared to the thunderous ovation she received after her dramatic reading of Haydn’s cantata, Arianna A Naxos in the orchestral version. One reason for her outstanding performance was that it was a true meeting of artistic minds with the Orchestra Haydn Di Bolzano E Trento conducted by Podles’ compatriot Lukasz Borowicz.
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Verdi, Il trovatore

From Seen and Heard International
by: Harvey Steiman

Soloists, orchestra and chorus of San Francisco Opera, War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco. 19.9.2009 (HS)

There’s nothing quite like a Verdi opera with big, dramatic voices, and the cast in San Francisco Opera’s initial offering for the 2009 fall season unleashed something like a hurricane with Verdi’s familiar Il trovatore. Heard Friday, both soprano Sondra Radvanovsky as Leonara and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe as Azucena filled the 3,000-seat War Memorial Opera House with thrilling sound, and more importantly they delivered incisively dramatic singing to go along with their big volume.

In the title role, Manrico, tenor Marco Berti held his own with them, singing with clarity and power if not quite the individual distinction of the great tenors. Baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky lacked their heft, which made him the odd man out. Come to think of it, his character is the one Leonora rejects in favor of Manrico, who was raised by the Gypsy Azucena, so maybe that’s appropriate. On second thought, no. Di Luna should hold his own vocally, and he didn’t quite.

The staging, by David McVicar, used a unit set that rumbled around on a noisy turntable. A high gray wall separated the scenes, but it served the purpose and did not get in the way. That’s fine, as the plot is much less important in Il trovatore than the music, which reflects the emotional connections of the characters. McVicar understood this, and he did not impose any directorial flourishes. He just created relatively realistic situations, and let the singers sing.

That left it to the voices and the orchestra, whipped into a controlled frenzy by Nicola Luisotti, conducting his first performances as the company’s new music director. He might have pushed the climaxes higher, but the wealth of detail he drew from the score and the impeccable balances he created with the singers satisfied immensely.

In the end, the engine that drove this production musically was Radvanovsky. Hers is not a conventionally beautiful soprano voice but like Maria Callas did so memorably, she can make it beautiful when she needs to. I invoke Callas deliberately. There were times when the incisiveness of her interpretation, the way she used her voice for telling dramatic effect, called Callas to mind. Her Act IV aria, “D’amor sull’ali rosee,” was spellbinding for its emotional twists and turns, dramatic singing of the highest order. In duets, especially “Mira, d’acerbe lagrime,” the one that followed with Count di Luna, she conjured situations so vividly that it was impossible to pay attention to anyone else.
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