Verdi, Il trovatore

From Seen and Heard International
By: Bernard Jacobson

Seattle Opera, soloists, cond. Yves Abel, dir. José Maria Condemi, set designer Allen Moyer, costume designer John Conklin, lighting designer Thomas Hase, Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, Seattle, 16 and 24.1.2010 (BJ)

Music trumped drama in Seattle Opera’s new Trovatore, partly because vocal and orchestral values were so strong, but partly also on account of some idiosyncracies in the staging.

Let me first discuss those strengths. In the customary Seattle set-up of double casts, the eight singers in the four principal roles were for the most part immensely impressive. On opening night, Lisa Daltirus’s Leonora and Antonello Palombi’s Manrico made a compelling pair of lovers. Daltirus is a riveting actress, and aside from one or two moments of questionable intonation she sang superbly, with especially impressive pianissimos in the highest register. Palombi has one of the most easeful and luxuriant tenor voices I have heard lately, though above the stave it becomes a trifle pinched. It was a pity that at the end of an otherwise thrilling Di quella pira he did not heed Verdi’s comment, “If they’re going to add a C, let it be a good C.” His interpolated high note reminded me of George Bernard Shaw’s description of the famous 19th-century tenor Tamberlik as “a mere creaking wreck, whose boasted ut de poitrine [C from the chest] was an eldritch screech which might just as well have been aimed an octave higher.” In the second cast, Anthony Rawls committed the same sin, and I found his voice somewhat lacking in richness and timbral variety in comparison with Palombi’s, while Mary Elizabeth Williams displayed impressive vocal resources, without quite matching Daltirus’s vocal and dramatic intensity.

As Count di Luna in the first cast Gordon Hawkins, whose baritone I have in the past described as ‘honeyed,” was as fluent as ever, crafting an Il balen of telling nuances, with superbly controlled dynamics on the last note. His counterpart in the second cast was Todd Thomas, an equally accomplished performer: his tone is perhaps more cleanly focused, and he was even more convincing in delineating the inner torments of this basically unsavory character. It was in the role of Azucena that the biggest disparity between the two performers made itself felt. After her stunning Judith in last season’s Bluebeard’s Castle, Malgorzata Walewska’s Azucena came as something of a disappointment, fluently sung, but without the element of mezzo- or even alto-ish darkness that is surely essential to the part. Mary Phillips was much more convincing in sound, and surprisingly also in dramatic terms.

At both the performances I witnessed, Vira Slywotzky and Leodigario del Rosario offered strong portrayals of Inez and Ruiz, and Arthur Woodley’s Ferrando was exemplary both in vocal command and acting skills. What with excellent orchestral playing under Yves Abel’s baton, and the customarily powerful contribution from Beth Kirchhoff’s chorus, what we heard would have added up to a totally convincing Trovatore had it not been for some oddities in what we were given to look at.
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Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor

From Seen and Heard International
By: José M Irurzun

On my way to Valencia I was wondering how I would handle the transition from the Barcelona Tristan to Lucia in just three days. The jump from one opera to the other is not an easy one, unless you see in the Donizetti two protagonists as exceptional as those in Tristan, rather a scarcity in the world of opera today. In Valencia we were offred a number of positive elements that should have been able to give us a good performance of Lucia di Lammermoor, but there were not enough to make my leap successful.

I don’t know if the current economic crisis is the reason for shaking the dust out of old and successful productions, but the fact is that, following a 23 years old production of Tristan at Liceu on Saturday, in Valencia we had a production of Lucia which was premiered in 1996. It is this production that we saw at Teatro Real in November 2001, as vehicle for Edita Gruberova (alternating with Maria José Moreno) as the protagonist. The production is quite attractive to the eye but is not too brilliant in terms of direction, which is quite amazing considering that the production has the signature of Graham Vick on it. A floor covered with flowers and herbs and with looming dead trees is a constant in Act I, the mad scene, and the supposed cemetery of Ravenswood and all that changes is the cyclorama at the back of the stage, showing dark clouds. Interior scenes are shown by means of the movement of two dark panels that run through the middle of the stage. The costumes are attractive and place the action at the end of 18th century, while only some tartan bands give us the idea of Scotland and not Versailles. An attractive production, but not among Graham Vick’s finest.

Karel Mark Chichon was in charge of the musical direction and he was rather uneven. It is not easy to conduct a belcanto opera unless one is a consummate specialist in this repertoire, because there should be a good balance between purely musical direction and the support to the singers, who are the real protagonists of this kind of opera. Mr. Chichon’s reading was truly dramatic from the prelude onwards, which is not very surprising, when you have at your command an outstanding orchestra like Valencia’s. But there were also many moments where the voices were drowned by the sound coming from the pit. Tempi were somewhat erratic, moving easily from too slow to too fast, although his work was very careful and meticulous and he controlled perfectly both stage and pit. It should be noted that he offered the most complete version of the opera, including the anti-climactic recitative that puts an end to the Mad Scene which is, in my opinion, better cut.
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Verdi, Simon Boccanegra

From Seen and Heard International
By: José M Irurzun

After the brilliant performance of Ariodante last December, Oviedo finished its opera season with a greyish kind of tone from a Simon Boccanegra that left much to be desired.

Coming from the Santa Fe Festival with stage direction by Stefano Vizioli, discovering what the interest in this production is supposed to be, was a mystery to me. It was premiered in the summer of 2004 and has never again been revived -a fact which, now that I have seen it, seems distinctly less than a surprising. This is really a very poor production, unworthy of an opera house as important as Oviedo.

The staging consists of side walls, with one added at the back which opens to give a view of the sea, and also serves as an entrance for the Council Scene. A revolving section in the middle of the stage is where the supposed action takes place. The costumes are as poor as the sets and the lighting is also unexceptional. With all this disappointment, only really exceptional stage direction could catch the interest of the audience, but Stefano Vizioli did not achieve that either. The chorus and extras were static and the major roles were all directed with similar lack of stimulus. It is hard to imagine that the fight at the beginning of the last act could have been any worse. In short, this was an unacceptably poor production altogether.

Daniele Callegari was a safe and effective conductor and of the three aspects that form an opera – scenic, musical and vocal – it was the music which came out best in this performance. I don’t know if the Orchestra has improved much during the last year, under the baton of its musical director Friedrich Haider, or if the hand of Callegari deserves the credit, but I found the orchestra better than ever before and it was one the best performances I have attended from the always reliable Maestro Callegari.

Some people may think that the cancellation of Carlos Álvarez as the protagonist of the opera must have had serious consequences for the development of the performance, but this was not the case, since the new Simon Boccanegra was the very acceptable Marco Di Felice, a good baritone, although his voice has not quite the amplitude that the Doge needs. His interpretation of the role was fairly routine, but that was also partly due to the director.
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