patrikpen: Grand Tableaux in M&V 1 October 2017

domenica 7 gennaio 2018

Grand Tableaux in M&V 1 October 2017

Grand Tableaux

'Jérusalem' at the 2017 Verdi Festival,
reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

After a few lukewarm years, things are looking up for the Verdi Festival. Most of the past debt has been cleared up. Under new management, industrial and financial sponsors came back. The central Government included the Festival under the few Italian musical events of 'international relevance', implying an additional subsidy of a million euros. Finally, even before the 2017 Festival (28 September-22 October) started, a million euros' worth of tickets had been sold. Thus, business is thriving.

This year's festival included four new productions (often in joint ventures with other theatres where they will be staged later in the 'season'): Jérusalem, La Traviata, Stiffelio and Falstaff. There also concerts and a special section named 'Verdi Off' to attract youngsters to opera. The festival has also announced the four new productions for 2018: Macbeth, Un Giorno di Regno, Le Trouvère (French version of Il Trovatore) and Attila. Due to other commitments, this year I could see and listen to only the first two operas; Jérusalem and La Traviata. This review refers only to the performance of Jérusalem I saw and heard on 28 September 2017.

This was Giuseppe Verdi's first French opera commission from La Grande Boutique, as the composer used to call the Paris Opera House. There has been a long dispute among musicologists: is Jérusalem an adaptation of I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata to suit French taste and style — complex plot, special scenic effects and ballets — or an autonomous work? I stand for the second hypothesis for the following reasons. Only eleven (of the twenty seven) musical numbers of I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata are reproduced in Jérusalem, often with adaptations and modifications — after all there are seven operas between I Lombardi alla Prima Crociataand Jérusalem, and Verdi's own style had evolved. The protagonist is a bel canto tenor, not the customary Verdian melodramatic tenor. Emphasis is on the atmosphere and on the grand tableaux, not on psychologicaldevelopment of the main characters. Jérusalem had a good circulation in France and Belgium until the late nineteenth century. It was revived in Venice in 1952. Performances are rare and far between.

This production is a joint venture with the Monte Carlo Opera, where it will be staged later in this operatic season. It has two strong points. First of all, the stage direction, stage sets and costumes by Hugo de Ana. With skilfull use of painted canvas scenes and projections (by Ideogramma srl and Sergio Metalli), De Ana is able to create the atmosphere of French grand opéra. The second aspect is the presence of three exceptional singers as the main protagonists, with voices as similar as possible to those of the leading cast when the opera was conceived. Mexican tenor Ramón Vargas, born in 1960, has maintained the fresh bel canto style and the High Cs which impressed the panel of the 'Enrico Caruso Prize' in 1986. Annick Massis is one of the few sopranos who can sing the four women's roles in Offenbach's Les Contes de Hoffmann. In the same evening, and during the same opera (as in Jérusalem), she can easily switch between coloratura soprano, lyric soprano and dramatic soprano. Michele Pertusi is an excellent bass and was covered by ovations.

All the others were of a good level. The chorus deserves a special mention for its ability to sing difficult parts in French. The ToscaniniPhilharmonic was conducted by Daniele Callegari with competence and care.