Russian ingenuity in L’Elisir d’amore: from stark tragedy to opera buffa

Gaetano Donizetti, November 29, 1767 – April 8, 1848

This performance of L’Elisir d’amore by Gaetano Donizetti; libretto by Felice Romano was staged by Ludmila Noletova at the Moscow Theater named after Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Memirovich-Danchenko on May 28, 2001.

To most of today’s opera critics in the Western world, performing an opera in two languages in the same production is suspect, almost subversive. Fortunately for the audience gathered at the Moscow Aca demic Music Theater for Gaetano Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore on a May evening in 2001 there were no critical detractors present for this bilingual presentation. On that evening, in that historic theater named after Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, the audience was allowed to enjoy L’Elisir without any bothersome out bursts of disapproval. The production, bordering on the experimental and slightly daring, was carried off with sufficient panache to do away with any misgivings the audience might have had.

This production of L’Elisir, with its recitatives dashed off in Russ ian and the main arias piquantly rolled out in Italian, was so delightful in its approach and so well thought-out by stage director Ludmila Nale tova, that her approach dovetailed smoothly with Donizetti’s gifted mu sical invention and librettist Felice Romani’s deftly humorous text. It became apparent as the performance progressed that the Russian and Italian text, each in its own way, had sparked a descriptive and colorful interpretation filled with tender diminutives highlighting the good-na tured personalities of the comedy’s two main protagonists – the gawky Nemorino and the saucy Adina.

(more…)

Macbeth – intimate dialogue makes opera grand

Often the Russians are able to delve deeper into an opera score and find a different slant to the composer’s intent which other companies do not always perceive. Thus it was when Artistic Director and Conductor Valery Gergiev, and Stage Director David McVicar, brought the Kirov Opera’s new production of Verdi’s Macbeth to the Kennedy Center. Some producers do not see the moments of intimate dialogue depicting the covert plottings between Macbeth and his Lady as a force equal to the musically-charged finale of Act One. There we find the court, hor rified on learning of King Duncan’s murder, raising its voice in a tremendous fff and then dropping to a reflective ppp in which Verdi combines the court’s anxiety about who the new king will be with the most imploring plea to Heaven for mercy ever to be found in any of his operas.

As powerfully as this finale strikes us, it is the preceding duet be tween Macbeth and his Lady which permeates their dank and musty quarters. The duet comes right after Macbeth imagines seeing the dag ger which will lead him to murder King Duncan and then, after the deed is done, return quickly to rejoin his wife. Here, Verdi and his librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, combine poetics with uneasy musical undercur rents following Verdi’s implicit stage directions that the duet “… must be projected in a hushed and dark voice, except for some outbursts clearly marked “with full voice.” The Kirov’s production clearly shows up the difference between its vocally hushed approach and the mixed loud and soft dynamics that many other productions are prone to take even when the score is not marked in that way. The Russians, in their unwavering respect for Verdi, take him at his word and do not compromise his intentions. The duet, couched in secretive, hushed tones, sweeps the audience along, making it privy to the couple’s dia bolical plotting. As we listen to their revelations, we are jolted to dis cover that this is the first time the ill-fated duo is voicing their evil in tentions and, along with them, we experience an unsettling sensation: no matter how often we may have heard this duet in the past, we grasp anew how singular an opportunity this is to eavesdrop on their plotting. Our surprise is now complicit with their machinations: the Macbeths have made us partners in their crime.

(more…)

Don Alvaro: Giuseppe Verdi’s ‘man of conscience’

The following observations are on the video of La Forza del destino, KULTUR Copyright Reiner Moritz Associates Limited, 1998

When Francesco Maria Piave, Verdi’s librettist for La forza del destino traveled to St. Petersburg in 1862 with the composer, he kept a production book in which he commented on many aspects of the new production and included a list of the protagonists’ characteristics. Piave described the tortured hero, Don Alvaro, as being “an Indian of royal stock, of the most passionate spirit, indomitable and always generous.” These are only a few of the personality traits Verdi took to heart as he composed his grand opera inspired by Don Alvaro, o La Fuerza del sino, the Spanish drama by the Duke of Rivas. Attracted by the sprawl ing and at times unfocused play, Verdi realized the Duke of Rivas had presented him with characters that could grow emotionally in stature in a large multi-layered opera.

(more…)