And Music! Always Music! - I

That title will only mean something to CBC radio listeners who tuned into The Transcontinental on Sunday afternoons in the 80s-90s. Hosted for 22 year by Otto Lowy, a charming Czech who found a home in Canada after the war, it was a "musical excursion across Europe" stopping in various places for coffee, pastry, a bit of history and "music, always music!" And it - and he - was always a delight.

My August is going to be a bit like that - except I guess we could say seafood, wine, a bit of history and "opera, always opera". Over the next three weeks I'll have travelled, if not Europe, a fair bit of Italy and seen five operas.


It starts next weekend with a sort of mini-VerdiFest - in anticipation of the real thing in October in Parma. Saturday morning I'm heading up to Verona - five hours by train with a change in Padova now that there's no direct trains - for the opening of Il Trovatore at the Arena (above). Opera in the Arena has been a tradition since the first performance of, what was to become its signature piece, Aida in 1913. This is "GRAND" opera and gave rise to the tradition of elephants, horses and - in one production - giraffes as the stars of big productions of the Italian warhorses. Though it may not have all the glamour of the big names of the old days Saturday hasn't got such a bad line up - Russian barithunk Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Sondra Radvanovsky, Marianne Cornetti (okay she's no Simonato but who these days is?) and Marcelo Alvarez (okay I could do without Alvarez but who else sings Manrico these days?). The whole conducted by Marco Armiliato - who isn't such a bad stick waver.

And apparently directed and designed by Franco Zefferelli as indeed are all five operas at the Arena this year. I say apparently because I'm still trying to figure out how the Zeff will work his trademark bare-chested hunks, donkeys, children and, reportedly, a troupe of Spanish dancers into Verdi's great gloom and doom revenge tragedy. It should be interesting. (That's a scene from his production of Turandot above.)

Sunday its back to Rome on morning train and off to the Baths of Caracalla for the last performance of Rigoletto. Given the track record the past few seasons: a very good Turandot; an Aida that began with the ballet that Verdi forgot to write music for (so it was danced in silence); a Madama Butterfly where little Trouble was more audible than the tenor; a dreadful Tosca (only the second time I have left a theatre before the end of a performance in 57 years); and a disappointing Carmen I was almost willing to forgo this year's offerings. However my friend David Nice - of I'll Think of Something Later and so much else fame - mentioned that an up and coming soprano would be appearing here this year. So I will be heading off to the Via Appia and Caracalla's old bath house to see Jessica Pratt as Gilda. If David says she's someone to hear and keep an eye on - then hear and eye I will. The rest of the cast is so-so but at least conductor Donato Renzetti is a known quantity.

Then its my last two days at work - let's not go there - and then... 10 days on the road. Our annual ferragosto in Pesaro with a detour through San Franscico di Assisi country before coming back to Rome. A bit more about that will follow shortly.

03 agosto - Sante Mara e Lidia

Canoodling at Caracalla

There was more passion going on in the row in front of me at Friday night's Carmen then on stage. The young couple - she: pretty, green chiffon dress with a shoulder strap that wouldn't stay in place, big cascade of hair; he: slender, tanned and been told by his mother since birth that he was the most gorgeous boy on earth - cuddled, cooed and had a disagreement during the 3 hours we spent at Caracalla. Would that we had seen half that much passion on stage!

But of passion there was little evidence in conductor Karle Mark Chichon's interpretation of Bizet's best known work. His approach was flabby and lacked any sort of zest. Not quite lifeless but certainly not evocative of gypsy life and liberty. And there were moments when coordination between stage and pit went painfully awry - particularly the smuggler's chorus that opened Act 3. With the elimination of most of the dialogue/recitative it seemed he was conducting a "Carmen: the greatest hits" often with one well-known number following right after the last. It also meant that some of the action was a little confusing - what the hell was Zuniga doing back at the tavern? Oh yeah he told Carmen he was coming back, except that bit had been cut so who knew?

Director/Designer Renzo Giacchieri used the bridge from last year's Madama Butterfly very effectively to set the four scenes of Carmen. With budget cuts of up to 30% economy is the watch word in Italian culture today.

After the horror that was Tosca two weeks ago it was nice to see a more traditional approach without a director's subtext imposed upon it. Director/designer Renzo Giacchieri used the stage wide bridge from last year's Madama Butterfly as his main design feature and adapted it effectively for each of the four scenes. His direction - with one major and devastating exception - was inoffensive and any "innovations" did little harm to the drama. The exception? His - and perhaps mezzo Elina Garanča's - conception of Carmen. This was the hip swaying, legs splaying, thigh hugging, Carmen as slut school! Wrong! Wronger! Wrongest! Carmen is not, I repeat, not a prostitute! You take that approach and the whole story becomes nothing more than a tart getting her come uppence from an angry john. And ladies and gentlemen that is not the opera that Bizet, Meilhac and Halévy wrote. Hell it isn't even the novella that Mérimée penned.

And frankly Garanča had problems pulling it off. Physically she is a beautiful woman - unfortunately a black wig hid some of that beauty - and the voice has a slightly smoky seductive quality, though that wasn't evident until the Seguedille. Many of her videos have a highly charged sexuality when she just stands and sings but when she moved - or perhaps because of the way she moved - sensuality was a quality that was missing. And the dark tone needed for the Card scene just isn't there - the repeated "La morte" lacked the needed sense of immovable fate. Granted the sounds were never less than beautiful - not a given these days - and I can see why she is being regarded as one of the emerging stars of the operatic world. I would like to see her in one of her Rossini or Bellini roles because, without wanting to sound like commentors on some blogs, I just don't think she is on the same level as the Carmens of my experience.

Originally Marcello Alvarez had been announced as the Don José but his name disappeared from the notices about three weeks ago and was replaced by that of Valter Borin, who appears to be specializing in the role in Italy's outdoor venues this summer. His is one of those big blaring voices that seems to start at forte and gets louder from there. His Air de Fleur lacked the necessary lyricism but he did rise above the ordinary in some of the bigger moments. The same can be said for Carlo Colombara's beefy Escamillo who gave a respectable version of the Toredor Song, no doubt inspired by the large part of the audience who thought they would encourage him by humming along.

Though the character is a bit of cipher - come now who really cares about the girl he left behind when you got a hot blooded gypsy on stage - Ermonela Jaho's Micaela was the best performances of the evening. She sang with a lovely floating tone and brought real sense of the girl's plight to her Act 3 aria. She's a singer I would like to hear more of. With the exception of the very squally and strident toned Frasquita and Mercedes the smaller roles were adequately sang.

The generally reliable Teatro dell'Opera chorus marched, smoked, brawled, threw flowers, quaffed wine and generally behaved the way an opera chorus should while not making as beautiful a sound as they normally do. Both in the Tosca and in the Carmen they have been off form - perhaps it is the uncertainty of their future that is distracting them.

Elina Garanča leaving the stage to get conductor Karl Mark Chichon during the curtain calls at the end of Saturday night's Carmen. She was not pleased about something and gave both the conductor and tenor glaring looks - wonder what was going on backstage?

And things at the Opera are very uncertain at the moment - I won't rehearse the Byzantine turn of events that have put the future in question but performances of the level presented at Caracalla this year do raise concerns about artistic standards. Sure the tourists will buy tickets because its Rome, its Italy, its a historic site and some because they enjoy opera but for the first time in three years I noticed empty blocks of seats at both performances.

Oh and our canoodling couple - well by the time Don José got around to doing Carmen in they had made up and were on their way to the happy ending denied Bizet's gypsy.

03 agosto - San Nicolò Politi

The Shabbiest of Shockers

I have always disagreed with Joseph Kerman's famous assessment of Tosca as being Puccini's "shabby little shocker" (Opera as Drama 1956). When well done it can be the most exciting of operas - the drama of the Te Deum, Scarpia's pursuit of the frightened Tosca ending in his stabbing death and that final leap from the battlements - this is the stuff of great theatre - when well done!

Last evening at the Baths of Caracalla Teatro dell'Opera di Roma seemed bent into proving Kerman right and presented us with the shabbiest of shockers. This will have to go down as one of the worst evenings I've spent at the opera and only the second time in 57 years that I have left before the end of a performance. And though most of the members of our party remained I was not alone on my escape walk to the exit - there was a general exodus towards the Via Appia just after Tosca killed Scarpia with a well placed crucifix to the old Scarpian family jewels.

Yes you did read that right. Poor old Scarpia died not from multiple stab wounds but from a smack in the cullones! And this was just one of director Franco Ripa di Meana's many "innovations". Other fascinating concepts included turning Scarpia into a prelate of the church which meant that the stage was frequently filled with phalanxes of black soutaned priests bearing down relentlessly on the principals. Oh I get it the oppression of the church - very cutting edge but I still question turning the celebratory Te Deum into the auto-de-fe scene from Don Carlo. And the burst of flames and fiery cross that closed ACT I lasted all off 2 seconds and blinded most of the audience not astounded them. And why exactly was Tosca costumed like a 19th century hooch dancer - slit skirt, bustier and all - surely Queen Caroline had a stricter court protocol than that? And wasn't it rather louche of her to walk on Scarpia's dinner table. And since when was Cavaradossi a pavement artist spreading his canvases out on the floor and having them walked on by thoughtless sacristans? And what was with that murder? First she hit him in the stones with the crucifix then she brandished it at him like a vampire killer. And rather than the drama of the placing of candles around the body and retrieving the liaise-passe from the hands of the dead man she picked it up off the table/prie-deux/chair and as a platoon of priests bore down on the corpse, escaped through the audience - to a round of applause that destroyed the climax of Puccini's music. "Sadly" I did not see what "improvements'" had been thought up for Act 3 but I'm sure it was just as original.

Edoardo Sanchi's set was a gigantic map of Rome with the locales of the opera circled in red. And once again it was one of those singers' nightmares - ramps and rakes of various levels always great fun to negotiate in elaborate costumes. It was the first sign that we were in for an evening of "innovations".

Now all of this would have been acceptable if it had been possible to close your eyes and listen to incredible singing - though given the "wrong-headedness" there may not be singers alive who could make it acceptable. I never take pleasure in criticizing singers - theirs is a difficult profession and in many ways an ephemeral one. So believe me I take little or no joy in what follows. Aside from having to fight some of the most hideous costumes ever created poor Michaela Carosi spent a good deal of the evening fighting to stay in tune. At several points I was reminded of a comment made during a performance of Fidelio by my friend John: if that woman screams at us one more time I'm going to stand up and scream back. I would have spent a good time standing and screaming at Madame Carosi which would have made for a duet of out of tune voices, Fabio Armiliato is a singer I admire but he must have been having an off night - the sounds he produced where throaty and at points he sounded strained. He was not helped by having to singing Recondita armonia in a prone position. His Vittoria! Vittoria! was thrilling but does not a Cavaradossi make. Giorigo Surian gave a generalized Scarpia - the voice is more bass than baritone and was swamped by the orchestra on more than one occasion. The remainder of the cast did nothing to make up for the deficiencies displayed by the principals. The normally exceptional Opera chorus was having a bad night - the underpowered Te Deum was a real disappointment. And even the children's chorus were more members of some penitent youth organization than merry, prank playing choir boys. The miking was not particularly successful and on several occasions static and voice placement went awry. Paolo Olmi led a routine performance bringing no special insights into the piece and the orchestra gave yeoman service but again the miking seemed slightly awry.

I had heard some comments while waiting in line at Santa Cecelia the other day about how dreadful this Tosca was so word of mouth is spreading through the city. That and the general decline in tourists trade would account for many blocks of empty seats at the beginning of the performance. And a productin as bad as this would account for the growing numbers that left at each intermission.

Arts money is tight here in Italia - most budgets have been cut 30% - and it is sad to think so many people will go away thinking this is the best that Roma can do. This a company that has a beautiful (and dramatic) Zeffirelli Tosca in its repertory along with some very fine productions of both standard and little known works. This is a company that gives adventuresome seasons, like the one currently in progress - Le Grande Macabre, Pelleas, Iphigenia in Aulide. This is a company where Riccardo Muti has conducted Otello and Iphigenia in the past year and is scheduled to lead Nabucco and Idomeneo in the next. Despite what the Caracalla Tosca could lead you to believe it is not an inconsequential company - but sadly this is the impression many people will carry away with them.

PS: I felt particularly bad for several of our group who were coming to an opera for the first time. This was a sorry introduction and certainly didn't give them much encouragement to give it another try.

PPS: This comment from my friend Flipstinger who has a very good source:
oh my! very unfortunate indeed.... i think it was a good idea to leave after the 2nd act because after i found out more info; the shepherd boy came in on the 3rd act with a llama or a goat which started to make noises and the audience, confused with what's happening on the stage, just burst out in laughter....AND after the show, my informer told me the director, Olmi was frustrated that the audience behaved in such manner and was heard saying "the audience don't get it....how could they have acted that way....they are just clueless."

UHMMMM, i'd say...this director needs to be a part of the audience and watch carefully the product of his so called vision and then look at the libretto again! VERY FAR OFF!

I am so glad I didn't stick around for the 3rd Act - laughter would have been the least of their worries.

17 luglio - Sant'Alessio

Anticipation - Festivals

As summer approaches - and I have been assured that it is approaching despite the wet, cool, cloudy, very un-Italian spring - so does the Festival season. Last week the Maggio Musicale signaled the start of music making - classical, jazz, contemporary, rock, heavy metal, you name it - in almost any place that has a theatre, cloister or central piazza in Italy- and that means almost every city, town or village in the country.

Some are very local, others are of a more International flavour - but it would seem that all have one thing in common: massive budget cuts. The Maggio had to cancel two of its opera productions, the Rossini Festival replaced a major restoration of a grand opera with one of the Swan of Pesaro's one act farsas, the Verona Arena and Roma's Baths of Caracalla are playing it safe with old war horses and cutting the number of productions - its hard time all around. I won't go into how short-sighted it is of the current government considering what these events generate in tourist dollars - or even better Euros.

Our Festival schedule is starting to fill up - you may recall that as we left last year's Whitsun Festival in Salzburg - okay its Austria not Italy but its nearby - I was already booking tickets for this year. We're heading up at the end of the month for 5 days of Riccardo Muti, rare Napolentano opera by Jommelli and some killer concerts including one of our favorite groups Accordone. Plus some good food and I may even treat myself to a glass of one of those nice local wines. And in case anyone is wondering - no, we're not taking the puppies on this one. They are a bit too young for travel yet but never fear they will be well looked after.

The next one up is Spoleto's Festival of the Two Worlds and it has some of the most interesting programming around. After a disastrous few years of family in-fighting, Gian Carlo Menotti and Samuel Barber's Festival looks like its back on track with some off-beat but interesting offerings for its 52nd year. How about Woody Allen's production of Puccini's one act comedy Gianni Schicchi? Or a late night tribute to Nat King Cole in the beautiful Piazza del Duomo? Or a revival of Mozart, a French musical comedy that was all the rage on both sides of the Atlantic in 1925? Or an evening of Jerome Robbins ballets in the old Roman Amphitheatre? Or .. or.. and the list goes on. Classical, jazz, experimental, theatre, dance, exhibitions, lectures - the festival appears to be returning to its roots. The thought of all that, another meal at La Pecchiarda and the considerable charms of Spoleto has us planning two weekends as June turns into July - and yes the pups will come on this one.


Though the season at Caracalla has been cut down to one ballet and two operas and both of them standards, the Carmen stars Elina Garanca who has been burning up the stages in London and New York this past two months. And let's admit it there's a reason Carmen is popular - particularly when the Carmen looks this good! And there is still something magical about sitting in the open air at the Baths of Caracalla as twilight turns into a warm summer night that even last year's dreadful Aida couldn't dampen.

August brings the annual vacation trauma of Feragosto - that mass exodus to the beaches of Italy. We've tried to schedule our trip to Pesaro to avoid the traffic as much as possible but we won't count on the GPS's optimistic calculation of 4hr 32min driving time. Last year taught us a lesson. I am constantly amazed at the customer service levels at the Rossini Festival. I had submitted a ticket request via e-mail the opening day of ticket sales. A few days later a very pleasant lady phoned the house to talk about our choices. First she asked if I would be more comfortable speaking English then explained that the available seats for two of the performances I had requested weren't exactly the best and we discussed alternates. So different from the often take-it-or-leave-it attitude at a few other places I could name. That being said we get to see the highly-praised American mezzo Kate Aldrich and Rossini tenor par excellence Juan Diego Florez in Zelmira plus my favorite Rossini opera Le Conte Ory plus the charms of Pesaro and plus the incredible seafood. Plus we're planning a side trip to Rimini - just because its there!

And those are just the planned events as of today. Who knows what else is going to come up in the next month or so.

05 maggio - San Gottardo di Hildesheim

Opera at the Baths

And I'm not referring to the night Eleanor Steber played the Continental!

People who know me well were placing bets on how soon after our arrival I'd be dragging poor long-suffering Laurent off to our first opera. Well we arrive on Monday July 30 at 0800 and should be taking our seats at the Thermes de Caracalla on Friday August 3 at 2100. That's a good 109 hours after our arrival, quite long enough in my opinion.

I booked tickets at Charta On-line for a performance of Puccini's Turandot. I'm not sure I'll be doing that too often, there was a surcharge of 14 euros ($28.00) per ticket for "Internet service" so I may just stand in line at the box office when I want tickets for anything else, maybe even stopping for a leisurely "ombre" at a local cafe on my way back home.

Every summer the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma present opera and ballet amidst the spectacular ruins of the old Baths. The biggy is always Aida with horses, elephants - and I am told one year a giraffe - though what they have to do with poor Aida pining for her Patria by the Nile I'm not sure. These days the singers are often not the big divas and divos but its really more about the spectacle, a warm Roman summer night and the setting.

I've been told that this production of Turandot is unusual in that we don't get the entire population of China decked out in courtly splendor screaming for Calaf's head. Apparently it is more intimate though its hard to imagine intimate at Caracalla. I'm looking forward to it.

While looking on YouTube for videos of Caracalla I came across this newsreel footage of an opening night Aida at Caracalla in 1962. Stella, Simonato, Bergonzi - big operatic names at the time, were performing and the audience was filled with B-grade celebrities of the day.



It gives you an idea of the size of the stage and the spectacle. And that announcer cracks me up - he must be going for a speed record.