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Gloucestershire Echo, February 01, 2015 |
By Colin Davison |
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Giordano: Andrea Chenier, London, Royal Opera House, 29. Januar 2015 |
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Andrea Chenier, ROH relay
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Football isn’t the only game of two halves, and I was definitely losing this
one at the interval.
Umberto Giordano’s opera set during the French
Revolution was first performed just two months after La Boheme; both had the
same librettist and both were immediate hits.
But Giordano was no
tunesmith like Puccini, and the first two acts came as a reminder of why the
former’s only surviving work is so seldom performed.
He was in some
ways the more progressive composer, shunning big numbers for post-Wagnerian
melody without end. Alas, even in Chenier’s early poetic ode to nature that
can seem more like melody with no beginning.
The story too is slow to
start and an opening act that characterises the remoteness of aristocratic
life by staging a dull, stately ballet becomes – well, rather dull.
Things picked up immensely after half-time, as if the manager gave someone a
kick up the Umberto. The style shifts back to big numbers, and baritone
Zeljko Lucic immediately lifted the pace with Gerard’s stirring patriotic
number “Nemico della patria” to get the crowd going.
There is a
foreshadow of Scarpia as Gerard threatens to ransom the life of Chenier for
the physical favours of Maddalena, but having already saved the day with his
performance above, Gerard does the decent thing – standing aside for the
closing love duets that redeem the work.
The leading rolls are
immensely challenging, with fragmentary phrases and sudden leaps to top
notes, rather like attempting a high jump with a restricted run-up.
Even Jonas Kaufmann, one of the world’s finest tenors, admitted having
delayed singing the roll of the doomed poet on stage until now.
The
delay was evidently well-judged, for it brought a performance of
extraordinary control and consummate artistry. Eva-Maria Westbroek was
almost as good as Maddalena, the pair combining with particular delicacy
before their final exultant duet.
True to Giordano’s style of extreme
verismo, David McVicar’s production was impressive in its attention to
historical detail, down to the tumbrel rolling past with condemned aristos.
I caught this production not at the live relay but at an encore
transmission three days later. Why then does the Royal Opera not edit out
the delays between scene changes?
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