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New Tricks?
GIUSEPPE PENNISI
discusses
a sexy 'Falstaff' at La Scala
Daniela Barcellona as Mistress Quickly and Irina Lungu as Nanette in
Act I of Verdi's 'Falstaff' at Teatro alla Scala. Photo © 2013 Rudy Amisano. Click on the image
for higher resolution
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The action moves from Shakespeare's times to the prudish nineteen fifties when
the aristocracy was disappearing, the upper middle class was gaining money and power, the Board of Censors was excessively puritan,
but there was quite a lot was going on behind the curtains and under the
bed sheets. Brigitte Reiffenstuel's costumes for the ladies are a sample of the haute couture of the
time; the second scene of the first act takes place in a
quintessential British restaurant such as Simpson's-on-the-Strand. This
may just seem to be gimmicks -- eg for the last ten years in Vienna, Falstaff has been set in the nineteen
sixties [A Perfect Falstaff,
28 February 2010] -- but Carsen and
Harding develop an interesting approach to one of the best 'comedies in music' of the nineteenth century.
From left to right: Irina Lungu as Nanette, Daniela Barcellona as
Mistress Quickly, Carmen Giannatasio as Alice Ford and Laura Polverelli
as Meg Page in Act I of Verdi's 'Falstaff' at Teatro alla Scala. Photo
© 2013 Rudy Amisano. Click on the image for higher resolution
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This Falstaff is
not -- as generally performed -- a 'comic' opera, full of gags and with a very fast rhythm where Verdi's intention is to make the audience laugh. Boito (the author of the libretto) and Verdi labelled Falstaff a 'lyric comedy in three acts', not a 'comic opera' or 'opera
buffa' for a good reason. Falstaff is a serious opera turned upside down or reversed: the
ageing protagonist is looking at the intrigues of life with melancholy, irony and detachment. It is also the only Verdi opera
where there are outright erotic expressions, as seen through the memory of the protagonist in his last attempt to
seduce a woman, through the very carnal love of a young couple as well as through the games of a
middle-aged husband and wife in search of new tricks.
Daniela Barcellona as Mistress Quickly with Ambrogio Maestri in the
title role of Verdi's 'Falstaff' (Act III) at Teatro alla Scala. Photo
© 2013 Rudy Amisano. Click on the image for higher resolution
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Harding emphasizes the score's lyrical moments, where C is the key tonality and old
musical elements (polyphony and fugue) are updated, anticipating twentieth century music (even that of Berg and Zimmermann). The orchestra follows Harding very well in showing the
intricacies of the score. The conductor also has a first rate cast to work with. Ambrogio Maestri is probably the
best Falstaff on the world scene. The 'merry wives' of Windsor (Carmen Giannattasio, Daniela Barcellona and Laura
Polverelli) are all top-notch, with their 'chit chat' anticipating Strauss.
Carmen Giannatasio as Alice Ford and Ambrogio Maestri in the title role
of Verdi's 'Falstaff' (Act III) at Teatro alla Scala. Photo © 2013 Rudy
Amisano. Click on the image for higher resolution
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The young lovers (Francesco Demuro and Irina Lungu), starving so
much for one another that they sing and make love under the kitchen table, were
just delightful.
Fabio Capitanucci as Mr Ford, Carmen Giannattasio as Alice Ford and
members of the chorus with, under the kitchen table, Francesco Demuro
as Fenton and Irina Lungu as Nannette, in Verdi's 'Falstaff' at Teatro
alla Scala. Photo © 2013 Rudy Amisano. Click on the image for higher
resolution
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Ambrogio Maestri in the title role of Verdi's 'Falstaff' with members
of the chorus, at Teatro alla Scala. Photo © 2013 Rudy Amisano. Click
on the image for higher resolution
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There were ten minutes
of applause at the curtain calls and ovations for Carsen and Harding, even
though in the foyer some old timers regretted the approach and recalled
funnier and less sexy productions.
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