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Bachtrack, 05 Dezember 2020 |
Mark Pullinger |
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Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana, Teatro San Carlo, Napoli, 1.12.2020 (im Internet-Stream ab 04.12.2020) |
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The stars shine in Naples: San Carlo inaugurates its season with Cavalleria rusticana in concert
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A consequence of pandemic postponements and corona-cancellations is that
leading opera singers’ diaries are more flexible than normal. Usually booked
years in advance, suddenly they can pitch up at the drop of a hat. When
Stéphane Lissner’s (already revised) plans to open the new season at Teatro
San Carlo with Marina Abramović’s vanity project The 7 Deaths of Maria
Callas had to be scrapped, a concert performance of Cavalleria rusticana was
laid on at short notice. Jonas Kaufmann, no less, was flown in to join Elīna
Garanča and Maria Agresta (salvaged from the Callas cast) on the star
billing.
San Carlo sold tickets for just € 1 – an absolute steal –
resulting in some 12,000 punters tuning in to watch the live stream.
Although the sound was pristine, stuttering image problems plagued the first
15 minutes (cue lots of Italians making sarcastic jokes about dodgy wifi in
the comments section). Kudos to whoever made the decision to pull the plug
and reboot the system; within a few minutes the stream was replayed from the
start, and I suffered no glitches at all. Those who abandoned the feed have
three days to watch “on demand”; Facebook indicates that up to 33k folks
were “going”.
Juraj Valčuha led a finely honed account of Mascagni’s
score – the better half of the Cav’n’Pag double bill pairing (don’t write
in!) – with sensible tempi, if sometimes over-cautious. Although this wasn’t
the earthiest reading, the San Carlo strings played with eloquence (tender
in the famous Intermezzo), while there were distinguished woodwind
contributions. “Experienced” would be the polite word for the mature San
Carlo chorus however, with scrawny soprano lines in the Easter Hymn and
tentative attack in the big moments. Social distancing is unkind in exposing
individual weaknesses.
There was no lack of attack from the stellar
quintet of principals. Elīna Garanča’s resplendent chest register has gained
fruity ripeness having taken on heavy Verdi and verismo roles these past few
years. Her grandiose, glamorous Santuzza ruled the roost, showing tremendous
disdain for Turiddu’s excuses. I’d happily luxuriate in Garanča’s Rolls
Royce of a mezzo for hours. “Voi lo sapete” was simply majestic.
Jonas Kaufmann is also in great voice at the moment. Following a lovely
Rodolfo for Bayerische Staatsoper at the start of the week, his Turiddu was
terrific, more inclined to verismo sobs in the vocal line than Garanča.
There were plenty of tenor thrills – the duet with Santuzza sizzled – but it
was his farewell to Elena Zilio’s Mamma Lucia that tugged the heartstrings.
Zilio, 80 next year, still has a big, rasping mezzo and her performance was
soaked in sincerity.
In the “real world”, Maria Agresta wouldn’t
take on a tiny role like Lola, but she made her flirtatious mark here.
Claudio Sgura’s baritone was on the slim side as Alfio, outgunned by Garanča
in their big duet where he swears vengeance, but his carter’s song was
jauntily sung.
Although a concert performance, the video director
added a few bits of pre-recorded slow-motion “action” during orchestral
scene setting – a tousle-haired Kaufmann canoodles with Agresta in one of
the boxes, spied by a pensive Garanča; Sgura and Kaufmann square up in the
corridor, that sort of thing. Cheesy, perhaps, but who doesn’t love a
sprinkling of pecorino pepato on their alla Norma?
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