Mercoledi Musicale

Sevilla has served as the setting for several of the more famous operas. Rossini's Barbiere not only practices his tonsorial talents there but proudly proclaims his home town in song and title. Mozart's Don spectacularly fails to seduce any of the maidens in his birthplace (or at least not in DaPonte's version). Leonore, disguised as Fidelio, rescues her husband from the clutches of the evil Don Pizzaro after his long stay at a suburban prison. Verdi's Leonora plans to run away from Sevilla with her Peruvian boyfriend get botched in Act 1 and then she doesn't see him again until Act 4 then promptly dies.

And Bizet's Carmen - well now that's a story isn't it? She works in the Real Fábrica de Tabacos rolling cigars when she isn't rolling customs guards in the nearby Sierra Madres.   And I'm told tour guides in Sevilla are more than happy to show you were she worked and, though I'm not sure how true this is, the odd one can show you the spot, if not the blood stain, on the the Plaza de Toros where Don Jose stabbed her!

I've oft recorded that one of the great evenings I spent at the opera was back in May of 1980 at the Opéra Comique in Paris.  Teresa Berganza had agreed to sing Carmen the year before at Edinburgh provided that the "Spanish" cliches were avoided.  Conductor Claudio Abbado, producer Piero Faggioni and designer Ezio Frigerio built a production around her that was low-keyed, restrained and superbly successful.  Unfortunately by the time it reached Paris Abbado - in a dispute over which orchestra was to be used - had bowed out and was replaced by Pierre Dervaux,   But the main draw remained: Teresa Berganza as Carmen.

In 1984 in conversation with Bruce Duffie she had this to say about the role:

BD:  Is Carmen at all a nice lady?

TB:  Yes, she’s a delightful lady – enchanting.  The problem with audiences going to see Carmen is that they don’t understand who she is.  She has so often been presented as a bad prostitute, and she is not a good or a bad prostitute.  She is a gypsy woman.  Audiences don’t often understand that.  If she were a prostitute, she wouldn’t be working in a cigar factory.  She would have accepted Don José and then given him horns [deceived him] with 5 or 6 men at the same time.  If she were a prostitute, she would have a rich lover and be covered with jewels.  And, if she were a prostitute, she wouldn’t have stood up to José and let him kill her.  She would have fled.  But she is not that.  She is a free spirit, a special woman. . . a liberated woman.

BD:  Do these kinds of women still exist?
TB:  Of course.  It is important to understand the gypsy people, because they are free people.

BD:  Does Carmen plan a few steps ahead or does she just let things happen around her?
TB:  Carmen believes in destiny.  She believes in the cards, so as to preparation, she doesn’t believe that it would make any difference.  The destiny is there.  She has read it in the cards and she goes forward to meet this destiny at the end.  This is the story that Mérimée wrote in his nouvelle and this is the story that Halévey and Meilhac wrote in their libretto and what Bizet put into the music.

BD:  So she goes to meet it rather than fight it?
TB:  She does not fight.  She accepts.

© 1984 Bruce Duffie

And that's exactly how she played and sang it - and when she suggests to poor Don José (Placido Domingo) what happens Près des remparts de Séville he doesn't stand a chance.

You might just hear me - from my first row Circle seat - amongst the cheering audience that glorious night in May.  This video brings back some wonderful memories of an glorious evening.

Mr Duffie's interview with one of, in my opinion, greats of the operatic world is available here. 

March 26 -1351: Combat of the Thirty : Thirty Breton Knights call out and defeat thirty English Knights.

A Short Evening of Petit

December was an eventful month musically with much going on operatically, orchestrally and on the dance scene. Couple that with holiday happenings and schedule conflicts meant some things had to be missed. But some fancy footwork and manipulating of TrenItalia schedules did allow me to see a Riccardo Muti conducted Moïse et Pharon at the Teatro dell'Opera on my birthday and then make a run to La Scala for the new Die Walküre the next night. Observations on both those performances should follow shortly. I had been looking forward to the mid-month Academia Santa Cecilia Christmas concert - note not Holiday Concert but Christmas Concert - and the opportunity to hear both Arthur Honegger's Une cantate de Noël and the much talked about young baritone Jacques Imbrailo but other commitments made it impossible.

However I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to see Eleonora Abbagnato, the Sicilian born premiere danseuse, of the Paris Opéra Ballet in Roland Petit's L'Arlésienne at the Teatro dell'Opera. And the fact that it was being paired with Petit's ground-breaking Carmen starring Polina Semionova, one of my favourite dancers, made the evening a must-see. So on the second last night of the year our friends Simonetta, Brigitte, Lorraine, Simon and Laurent and I ensconced ourselves in a palco at the Teatro dell'Opera for una Serata Roland Petit.

Abbagnato is as much known here in Italy for her commercials and magazine appearances (including a few of the gossip rags) as she is for her dance work but that all falls in the shadows when she steps on stage. This is a dancer who has "star" in every step she takes and even her stillness has impact. Though the role of Vivette doesn't have the showy opportunities that Petit gives to his male dancer in this tale of obsessive love it is technically and theatrically one of nuance and Abbagnato makes every moment on stage electric.

As often happens at the Teatro dell'Opera the originally announced cast list qualified as a work of fiction - Benjamin Pech, Abbagnato's frequent partner in Paris, was scheduled to dance Frederi but was replaced by Alessandro Riga, a dancer who received his major training here in Roma. It was an impressive substitution. Petit's choreography for the village boy driven mad by his love for an unfaithful girl from Arlés requires virtuosity as both a dancer and an actor: after a slightly tentative beginning Riga delivered both. That final desperate descent into madness was electric and the suicidal leap breathtaking. He is listed as a "guest artist" for several productions in the coming months - it will be interesting to see him in other types of roles.

I had seen L'Arlésienne many years ago when Petit's Ballet de Marseilles brought it to Ottawa along with the Carmen that he had revived for Karen Kain. I don't recall it having the same impact as it did in this performance. Even with the less than stellar company of the Teatro dell'Opera the power of this piece of dance-making, with the central drama set within the framework of the folk-inspired movements of the Corps de Ballet, came through.

Here is Eleonora Abbagnato with her frequent partner (on and off stage) Jérémie Bélingard in the final scene of L'Arlésienne. Unfortunately it is split in two clips and the dark setting does obscure some of the complex leg work that Petit demands of the male dancer - but Bélingard is incredible in this performance as is Abbagnato in a quieter way.

My friend Simonetta and I turned to each other almost simultaneously at the end of the Carmen and muttered "dated". This is arguably Petit's most famous work and one of his earliest - it was created in 1949 for his Ballet de Paris and more particularly for his wife the great French ballerina-performer Zizi Jeanmarie. Looking at it now it is very much dance theatre of its time - even the once striking decor and costumes by Antoni Calvé have a musty feel to them. On the way home Laurent remarked that he kept thinking "Gene Kelly" and there was a certain truth to that - the choreography has a quality to it that marks it as a piece of dance from the 50s. Perhaps with a Carmen of more sensuality than Semionova - she's just too nice - and a José of more passion than Robert Tewsley it would have had more impact. I recall seeing Semionova and Roberto Bolle dancing the pas de deux at a Gala two years ago and feeling at that time that there was something missing. In both instances the technique was there but not the sexuality.

The company put a good deal of energy into the performance and notable amongst the gypsies, cigarette girls and riff-raff of Seville was Alessandra Amato as the chief bandit. She is a dancer who has demonstrated rare skill over the past few years and it has been interesting watching her develop. Hopefully the Company's new director, Micha van Hoeck, will give us more opportunity to see her in other roles.

Though there have been great dancers who have assumed the roles of Carmen and José there have never been any to challenge the sensuality and sexuality that Zizi and Petit brought to those first performances. Fortunately it was caught on film in Black Tights, a 1960 dance film that featured four dance pieces choreographed by Petit for Zizi, Moira Shearer and Cyd Charisse.

It was an enjoyable evening but as I made note in the title a rather short one. Perhaps budgetary constraints stopped van Hoecke from programming a third Petit work to fill out the evening. It would have been interesting to see another of his works - Le Loup, Le jeune homme et la mort or even the Company's lead male dancer Mario Marozzi in Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune which he danced here several years ago. However given the current financial situation - the Company is only presenting 4 programmes this season - I should just thank the gods he was able to give us an evening of dance at all.

04 gennaio - Beata Angela da Foligno

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

Mercoledi Musicale

I mentioned that we were getting Elina Garanca here during the summer run of Carmen at the Baths of Caracalla. Here's the Latvian diva herself doing the Seguidille from that opera.



And just to add to the pulchritude here she is with Anna Netrebko in a familiar piece by Offenbach.


The opera queens operaphiles may not necessarily agree but I find both renditions more than enjoyable. I can hardly wait to see Garanca at the Baths - that doesn't sound right but you know what I mean!


06 maggio - San Giovanni ante Portam Latinam

Ma Carmen Adoré

Let me start off by saying that if anyone is looking for a Bocelli-bashing you should stop reading right now. Likewise if you're expecting a gushing endorsement of his appearance last Friday night perhaps it would be best to look elsewhere. And just as an aside all flames will be extinguished the minute they are set!

Last Friday evening the Teatro dell'Opera was almost full - something I haven't seen since that incredible Roberto Bolle Gala last December. It wasn't a regular subscription night except for those of us on what, for marketing purposes, is called Fantasia Opera so these were mostly off-the-street ticket sales. It is notable that only one of Mr. Bocelli's scheduled evenings was subscription the other three were box office and agency sales only - Francesco Ernani, the Teatro director, seems to have recognized the drawing power of his name. And its a good guess that most of the audience were there to see Mr. Bocelli more than Carmen. Which is just as well, as this production did poor service to Bizet's masterpiece and was almost as vulgar as the giant red lips they used for the poster.

Since arriving here in Italy I've seen two productions staged by director-designer Pier'Alli - the first was Oberto in Parma last October - and I can only hope I will never see another. However I'm not counting on it as he seems to be everywhere. The staging began promisingly enough with a holograph bullring projected onto a scrim at midstage but P'A doesn't like an unpeopled space. So we were treated to members of the less than stellar Teatro ballet all tarted up in Spanish-drag doing their morning calisthenics in time to the overture. And they just never stopped - every number was accompanied by cape swirling, mantilla twirling, cigarette puffing, pose striking dancers doing their best to distract the audience from the bothersome singing that was going on. And though that midstage scrim allowed for some picturesque effects the truth is that a cloth between singers and audience dampens the sound and in the case of most of the voices left one wishing for that bugaboo of all opera lovers - amplification!

Power was not the problem with Ildiko Lomlosi's Carmen. Mme Lomlosi is a large raw boned Hungarian mezzo with a large raw voice to match. She and P'A's concept favoured the Carmen as slut school. Her gypsy seductress was brash, brazen and frankly gave the impression that she could arm-wrestle any man in the audience and win. Poor Don Jose didn't stand a chance. And if her Carmen lacked charm so did Cinzia Rizzone's small-voiced Michaela. Simone Alberghini cut a good figure as Escamillo and managed a nicely-judged Toreador Song despite having to dodge bouncing banderilla bearing ballet boys. The smaller roles ranged from the unhearable to the adequate. And despite being stuck behind that bloody scrim - are you getting the idea I don't like scrims - our fine Teatro chorus turned in some stirring sounds. Its bad when the chorus turns in the best performance in Carmen!

However the big question was - how would Bocelli fare in all this? The staging worked around any difficulty he might have had reasonably well. Dramatically he was no less wooden and unresponsive than a few José's I've experienced - my first, Raoul Jobin springs to mind. The fights were brief but effective and the death scene worked reasonably well. The opéra-comique version was used and he delivered his dialogue convincingly. His "La fleur que tu m´avais jetée" was pleasant if thin sounding but by no means unacceptable. But the problem still remains that he is not an opera but a concert singer and there is a big difference between singing in front of an orchestra and singing surrounded by other singers, a full chorus and the depth of an Italian Opera House orchestra pit separating you from your audience. By the third act his voice was sounding tired. Fortunately at that point most of José's big sings are over but that third act ensemble is a killer and he just wasn't able to get there. His next appearance here is scheduled for October, as the Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier. It a brief cameo in the first act - one and a bit stanzas of a pseudo-Italian aria. Unfortunately it smacks of stunt casting but one can hardly expect his fans to flood in for the three hours of Strauss's musical Sacher Torte if all they are going to get is two minutes of their Divo as whipped cream topping.

I mentioned in an earlier post that at times Alain Lombard did tend to let his orchestra swamp the singers - I should say that this did not apply to Bocelli. Lombard was careful to ensure that during his solo passages the orchestra was held in check. In other places his handling of the score suggested an affection and knowledge that would have worked wonders with a stronger cast.

For a taste of P'A's busy staging and the final scene the Teatro dell'Opera's video clip can be found here.

27 giugno - San Cirillo

Mercoledi Musicale

One of the great nights - and in the past 50 years there haven't really been all that many - I've spent at the opera was May 14, 1980. I shared this memory in a posting back in February of 2007:

Standing in line for five hours at the Opera Comique waiting for a cancellation for the Berganza-Domingo Carmen. Enduring the abuse of the lumpy spun-sugar blond vendeuse at the box office. "Vous-etes fou d'attender" she heckled repeatedly, then magically produced a front row 1st loge seat 2 minutes to curtain time. The abuse was worth it - one of my great evenings at the opera.

The performance was being broadcast that night by Radio France and when I finally got my hands on a copy of the DVD memory had not deceived me or romanticized the event.


Teresa Berganza simply was Carmen - sly, seductive, playful and ultimately tragic. Not for her the hip wagging slattern that so often passes for Bizet's gypsy. And she did it all while singing like an angel.


And though Domingo may have sung "La fleur que tu m´avais jetee" with more subtlety on other occasions that night it was the dramatic core of the opera. The tragedy that followed found its impetus in that aria.

It's the standard by which I've - fairly or not - judged every other performance of Carmen since.

25 giugno - San Guiglielmo

Searing Question - Answered!

I was surprised at a few of the comments left in response to my little poll as well as astounded by 2 of the several e-mails I received. Being a devoted fan is one thing, being abusive to anyone who isn't is another.

Here's the results of my totally unscientific poll:

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And I'm glad to say the majority were right. There was no miking of any sort involved. Would it have benefited from it - to be honest more than a few of the singers could have used some increase of volume. However that was chiefly because of Director-Designer Pier'Alli's fondness for sound-deadening scrims and a tendency of conductor Alain Lombard to allow the orchestra to swamp the singers.

I will be putting up a posting of Bizet's Carmen as presented at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma last Friday night in the next day or so, you all know how long it takes me to write that sort of thing - thank god I'm not working to deadlines anymore. And I emphasis I'll be talking about Bizet's Carmen!

23 giugno - San Giuseppe Cafasso

Searing Questions?

Okay tonight is the night we see Andrea Bocelli singing Don José in Carmen. And here's the big question:



Answer on Monday.

20 giugno - San Silverio