|
|
|
|
The Stage, Mar 22, 2019 |
by George Hall |
|
Verdi: La forza del destino, London, ab 21. März 2019 |
|
La Forza del Destino review at Royal Opera House, London – ‘a star-studded production’
|
|
Rumour on the operatic street has it that tickets for Christof Loy’s new
production of La Forza del Destino are reselling for as much as £4000. There
are two obvious reasons: Anna Netrebko, who sings Leonora, and Jonas
Kaufmann, who sings Alvaro – the two operatic megastars of the day, who
share the stage in just four performances out of the run.
Neither of
them disappoints. With voices of the requisite size, quality and coloristic
range, both are fine actors who portray superbly the two individuals whom
fate pursues implacably over the course of many years and halfway across
Europe until it has had its malign fun with them. As Leonora’s
revenge-obsessed brother Carlo, Ludovic Tezier supplies a third performance
of true star quality.
But just to add him would be to do an injustice
to other exceptional interpretations: Alessandro Corbelli’s darkly malicious
Melitone – Verdi’s scathing parody of the Catholic priesthood – Ferruccio
Furlanetto’s noble and grandly resonant Father Superior, and Veronica
Simeoni’s vital, showbizzy Preziosilla, the war-mongering Roma woman.
What makes the evening a success is Loy’s ability to meld the disparate
elements in this complex piece together: the scenes of ordinary people
victimised by war and poverty are here dovetailed into (and an implicit
criticism of) the high-born characters and their obsessions with honour and
racial purity. Christian Schmidt’s period-mixing costumes work well.
Overseeing the musical performance is the Royal Opera’s greatest single
asset, Antonio Pappano, under whose dynamic lead the orchestra, chorus and
principals blaze away in this ambitious and far-reaching operatic epic.
|
|
|
|
|
|