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The Independent, 22 MARCH 2019 |
Michael Church |
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Verdi: La forza del destino, London, ab 21. März 2019 |
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La forza del destino, Royal Opera House, London, review: Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann are on top form
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For their joint appearance Verdi’s ‘La forza del destino’ at Covent Garden,
black-market tickets were going at £7,000 a pair, even a month before
curtain-up
It’s always news when Anna Netrebko or Jonas Kaufmann
grace the stage, and doubly so when they appear together: breath is bated
not only over whether these sacred monsters will be up to scratch, but
whether they will appear at all. For their joint appearance Verdi’s La forza
del destino at Covent Garden, black-market tickets were going at £7,000 a
pair, even a month before curtain-up.
Kaufmann sings Don Alvaro who
has killed the Marquis of Calatrava, the father of his beloved Leonora, here
sung by the fiery Russian soprano. Alvaro had hurled his pistol to the
ground in a gesture of submission, and it had gone off by accident: such was
Verdi’s capricious “destiny” at work in this labyrinthine story studded with
disguises and mistaken identity. Cursed by her dying father, Leonora takes
refuge in a monastery, while her brother Don Carlo, sung by Ludovic Tezier,
pursues Alvaro in search of vengeance. Destiny decrees that Leonora and
Carlo shall die, thanks to a malign series of improbable accidents, and that
Alvaro shall live on in incurable remorse. The protagonists are all noble
and tragic characters, but the rules of the blood-feud transcend those of
basic humanity.
Christof Loy’s production is set in 20th-century
Spain and Italy, though its period references fluctuate confusingly between
the Thirties and Sixties. The designs are elegantly restrained, apart from
the occasional appearance of a huge video of the original murder projected
onto a back wall; there are times when Loy’s blend of naturalism and
stylisation, supported by finely-nuanced lighting and smart-as-a-whip
movement-direction, sets up a lovely synergy with the music. Loy has managed
to reflect the huge and variegated canvas on which Verdi and his librettists
conceived this work, and he’s given it compelling visual momentum.
The scene in which Leonora, surrounded by monks, bids her farewell to the
world and enters her cave as an anchorite is beautifully imagined (though
one does wonder why the monks aren’t at least mildly excited by the fact
that they’re importing a young woman). The off-duty high jinks in the army
camp where the disguised protagonists are holed up spurred Verdi to write
some infectiously carnivalesque dances, and Loy and his choreographer Otto
Pichler have in turn been spurred to create something which is pure
Broadway. Antonio Pappano spins this exhilaratingly along from the pit; all
it lacks is a lead gypsy singer with the vocal charisma to carry it off.
The cast includes two great Italian performers – Allessandro Corbelli as
the travelling pedlar, and Ferruccio Furlanetto as Padre Guardiano, whose
wonderfully resonant bass grounds the whole production. Ludovic Tezier’s
Carlo makes the perfect foil for Kaufmann’s Alvaro, and it’s nice to report
that the central pair are at the very top of their form. Netrebko’s Leonora
is a mature woman in her splendid prime, rather than a vulnerable girl, but
her singing is simply sublime, power and pathos under the smoothest control.
Kaufmann’s top notes have the usual heroic gleam and his pianissimi are
gorgeously focused.
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