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Financial Times, Mar. 22, 2019 |
Richard Fairman |
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Verdi: La forza del destino, London, ab 21. März 2019 |
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Kaufmann and Netrebko make a dream pairing in the Royal Opera’s La forza del destino
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The tenor and soprano lead a first-rate cast on the London stage in Verdi’s
opera
At what point can a ticket be described as “hot”? According to
recent reports, tickets for the Royal Opera’s new production of La forza del
destino have been changing hands for as much as £3,500, which is scalding by
any standards and shows what happens when opera’s two hottest properties,
Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann, are brought together in the same
production.
Fate always seems to be waiting in the wings for a
company that is putting on La forza del destino. Verdi’s epic opera about
the inexorable power of destiny to govern human affairs has a reputation as
a work that courts disaster in performance, but the Royal Opera must have
done a backroom deal with the gods on this occasion.
The optimum
international cast of the day has been invited and none of them cancelled.
Although Christof Loy’s production, shared with Dutch National Opera, has
its faults, it provides a decent basis for a first-rate musical performance.
The audience get their money’s worth in one very particular respect. The
opera is played without the cuts that are sometimes made to the genre
scenes. This is important for balance, as one of the opera’s themes is to
contrast the masses struggling against war and famine with an aristocracy
who have the luxury of rich people’s problems, such as dynastic purity and
family loyalty.
Loy’s production is good on the big picture. He uses
Verdi’s longest overture to show us the settled life of the noble Calatrava
family and, after the tragic accident hits, that room in the family house
looms over every scene. We see that however far the members of this family
run, they can never escape the destiny that was theirs from that moment.
There is a price to be paid, though, in a big loss of atmosphere, especially
at the monastery, and dramatic reach. Nor does playing the war scenes as a
cabaret knees-up help.
The overriding emotion of this opera is
desperation, and nobody embodies that more powerfully than Netrebko. Aside
from one unmissable vocal blip, and some occasionally lumpy phrasing, she
sings the fated Leonora with beauty, strength (what rich lower notes she has
now) and an exhilarating determination to give her all. It is hard to
believe this is the same singer as the sweet young soprano I saw in Glinka’s
Ruslan and Ludmila in St Petersburg 20 years ago. What a journey she has
made.
In Kaufmann’s Don Alvaro she has the most romantic of tenor
leads. He also sings strongly, but it is his exceptional musicality,
searching out moments of heartfelt sensitivity, that sets him aside from
gung-ho Italian tenors, even if they are more obviously idiomatic.
In
this prestigious company, baritone Ludovic Tézier has no trouble holding his
own as a sturdy, forceful Don Carlo, while Ferruccio Furlanetto, a Padre
Guardiano of long experience, returns with authority and bass voice
undimmed. There is no better casting today for the irascible monk Melitone
than buffo bass Alessandro Corbelli and Veronica Simeoni is a
lighter-than-usual, flighty Preziosilla. It was good to see new young bass
Michael Mofidian as Alcalde and, at the other extreme, veteran Robert Lloyd,
80 next year, as a wonderfully patrician Marquis of Calatrava.
What
is there not to like? The chorus has never sounded better. Antonio Pappano
conducts with Verdi in his bones and the orchestra’s playing revealed beauty
of detail in every corner. Just take out a mortgage and that last seat in
the stalls could be yours.
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