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The Telegraph, 22 MARCH 2019 |
Rupert Christiansen |
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Verdi: La forza del destino, London, ab 21. März 2019 |
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La Forza del Destino, Royal Opera review: Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann are in magnificent voice
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This is without doubt the biggest event of the current operatic season – a
new staging of one of Verdi’s most grandly scaled works, conducted by
Antonio Pappano and sung by a gold-plated cast led by two of the world’s
last remaining superstars, Russian soprano Anna Netrebko and German tenor
Jonas Kaufmann.
They rarely perform together, and these joint
appearances have been sold out for months, with rumours of touts offering
stray tickets for thousands more than their face value.
Meanwhile,
fans dreaded that either of these main attractions might cancel – the odds
rising earlier this week when Kaufmann ducked out of the dress rehearsal, to
be replaced by Netrebko’s husband Yusif Eyvazov (scheduled to take over some
performances later in the run).
So expectations could hardly have run
higher, even though La Forza del Destino is generally rated as one of
Verdi’s less consistent and least lovable operas. Composed for St Petersburg
in 1862 but customarily performed in a revised version dating from seven
years later, it tells a bizarrely tortuous tale of accidents and
misunderstandings in which the “force of destiny” – or more accurately, the
likelihood of coincidence – operates to ensure that no sinner gets away with
anything.
The opera has a score with magnificent patches, including a
superb role for soprano, great tenor-baritone and soprano-bass duets, as
well as an enthralling denouement: if only it wasn’t undermined by a
hopelessly implausible narrative, banal choruses, deeply unfunny comic
interludes, and an interminable central section. There’s always a sense in
performance of trying to square a circle and over the 20-odd productions I
have witnessed, I’ve never felt the piece adding up to a convincing whole.
At Covent Garden, Christof Loy’s version fares no better than anyone
else’s in bringing coherence to the drama. But mercifully it doesn’t attempt
to compensate by over-conceptualising the mess – this is basically quite a
conventional approach, pleasing to look at, nodding at images from
neo-realist cinema and resorting to various clichés (video, dumb shows
during the overture, showbizzy chorus lines) while keeping it all bright and
pacy. The audience liked it, which makes a nice change.
What lifts
the evening heavenwards, however, is fabulous singing of Golden Age quality.
The superstars Netrebko and Kaufmann are both in magnificent voice, bringing
delicate and thoughtful musicianship as well as full-throttled power to
their big arias – Netrebko in particular impresses with her inexhaustible
generosity and commitment. Fully their equal is the astounding French
baritone Ludovic Tézier as the heroine’s vengeful brother – we must hear
more of him. Two seasoned masters, Ferruccio Furlanetto and Alessandro
Corbelli, do a fine double; Veronica Simeoni makes a feisty if squally
vivandière.
With the chorus in sparkling form, and Pappano conducting
with turbocharged intensity, this must be about as good as this flawed but
rewarding opera can get.
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