The Telegraph, 22 MARCH 2019
Rupert Christiansen
 
Verdi: La forza del destino, London, ab 21. März 2019
 
La Forza del Destino, Royal Opera review: Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann are in magnificent voice
 
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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