Mercoledi Musicale

I haven't done a Mercoledi Musicale in a few weeks and even now am a day late. However given that I saw the incredible Mariella Devia on Tuesday night in this role at San Carlo I thought I'd post this excerpt from Donizetti's Maria Stuarda. Devia is one of my favorites and this was the third time I've seen her since coming to Italy: first in a remarkable concert here in Roma, then in I Capuleti e i Montecchi in Genoa and now in Napoli. She did have a career in North America for a while but for the past two decades has centered most of her work here in Italy specializing in the bel canto roles of Donizetti, Rossini and Bellini.

As she receives news of her pending execution Mary Stuart voices a prayer to heaven. Devia has just turned 61 and though the silver of her voice may be a bit tarnished she still has all the skill to tear at the heart strings with this brilliant piece of musical theatre.



I'm looking forward to another one of her signature roles - Violetta in La Traviata later this year in Bologna.

The cast of Maria Stuarda take their curtain call at San Carlo Napoli on Tuesday Night: Sonia Gonassi, Andriy Yurkevych, Mariella Devia, Ricardo Bernal, Caterin di Tonno and Carlo Cigni.

25 marzo - Annunciazione del Signore

On Both Your Houses

I've been remiss in postings about my various opera going forays in and around Italy. On my trip last month I caught, and reported on, the last night (October 22) of the Torino Medea and then went on to Genova for the opening night (October 24) of I Capuleti e i Montecchi at Teatro Carlo Felice.

After the fussiness of Hugo de Ana's "concept" Medea, Robert Carsen's Capuleti was a revelation as to what can be done when a director has a straight forward desire to tell us the composer and librettist's story. Carsen's production, from the Bastille Opera, is simple, elegant and lets Bellini's music guide the drama. Michael Levine's arrangement of walls in a deep, almost blood, red allowed the action to move forward without pause and his Renaissance inspired costumes - again in deep reds for the Capuleti, black for the Montecchi, off-white for Guiletta - were simple but beautiful.

The libretto that Felice Romano gave Vincenzo Bellini to set is based on the early Italian tellings of the story of the ill-fated lovers rather than the more familiar Shakespeare version. There is no Mercutio to steal the limelight from Romeo, no Nurse vainly attempting to amuse us and Tybalt is Giulietta's intended not her cousin, Friar Lawrence has become the family doctor and friend. The action moves swiftly and at times almost violently - confrontation is always at the fore. And Carsen emphasises it when the curtain rises on rows of rapiers embedded in the stage floor being retrieved by Capuleti retainers as they prepare for a war council. Even as the curtain falls the two warring sides confront each other, swords drawn, over the bodies of the dead lovers. Unlike in Shakespeare the two sides have not buried their enmity.

I will have to admit that Bellini is not one of my favorite composers, I find his music is often dull or perhaps just too romantic for my taste. But Capuleti is an exception: the music has a drive and drama that I find lacking in his other works. Though I will probably be racked for saying this, I prefer Capuleti to anything else he wrote - yes I'm including Norma in that statement.

The one thing you can count on in Bellini is that the writing for his women will be both beautiful and demanding. Giulietta was written for a soprano and Romeo is a travisti role written for a mezzo and their duets are the great centre pieces of the work. And so they proved to be when sung by Mariella Devia and Sonia Ganassi.

I've written before about the remarkable Mariella Devia, one of the greatest bel canto singers active today, and though she seemed to be having a bit of an off-night, I'll take her off-night to many other singers good nights anytime. Oh! quante volte lacked the freedom and sheer brilliance of her concert performance in Rome back in September As the evening progressed and she launched into the big duets with Ganassi's Romeo her voice became freer and regained its familiar lustre.

Ganassi was the star of the evening; though physically she may not look the fearless leader of a warring household demanded by Romani, she was in total command of the stage. Her second act lament was gut-wrenching in its simplicity and intensity and in the duet that followed tenor Dario Schmunck matched her in a manner that was a surprise after his lacklustre delivery of Tebaldo's first act aria. In the final scene Ganassi and Devia (now completely on form) showed us the drama that can be achieved by two singers in perfect command of their art. It was breathtaking and heartbreaking.

Conductor Donato Renzetti, in a well-judged reading, allowed the singers plenty of breathing room for the grand lyrical passages but knew when to push the drama onward. And the recent retrenching of forces - administratively and artistically - at the Carlo Felice showed well in the work of both orchestra and male chorus, not always a given in Italian opera houses.

One final thought. I would have like to have seen both the Medea and Capuleti in more a traditional Italian opera house - that is the horseshoe palci/poltroni style auditorium. Torino and Genova have modern houses designed in the North American amphitheatre model and I found it robbed both works of an intimacy that I have come to appreciate over the past year or so of opera going here.

Production photos from Teatro Carlo Felice by Jacopo Morando.

30 novembre - San Andrea apostolo

Addio del passato

Like Violetta in the last act of La Traviata I've been wandering around the cold empty apartment - okay it's not really empty but it's cold - hacking delicately into a lace handkerchief. Alright, another half truth - I've been coughing up my lungs into anything I can find.

As my friend Subtle Knife mentioned earlier this week the coughing season is upon us in full force. The sudden change of weather from 31o to 12o overnight, concrete apartments with marble floors and no central heating until late October makes for a very unhealthy climate.

Fortunately I work with a group of woman who are mothers - in the good sense of the word; and even better yet they are Italian mothers - if only by adoption. Christine ran out and bought me a box of those honey-citrony sachets and eucalyptus lozenges which got me through the Cecilia Bartolli concert on Thursday.

But yesterday I was still sounding like the poor-man's Lady of the Camillas. Gail recommended a cough syrup that she swore worked every time with her two girls. Now we all know about cough syrup don't we - that icky horrid stuff: over sweet, chemical tasting, vile aftertaste. As I prepared to take the first 15ml (in a little measuring cup thoughtfully provided by the maker) my taste buds were already shriveling at the memory.

But wonder of wonders this was like a slightly sweeten apple juice and with no aftertaste. And miracle of miracles its works. Last night I slept, this morning I am doing delicate coughs if still into anything I can find. So unlike Violetta there is a good chance I will live to see another day.

Grazie tanti ladies!

And that would be one of my opera goddesses, the incredible Mariella Devia singing Violetta earlier this year in Ancona. I will see her in this before I leave Italy!

27 settmbre - San Vincenzo de' Paoli

La Devia - La Diva

A week ago Monday night we head out into a wild thunderstorm to the first of our concerts for this season. This was part of a series under the title Bel canto Festival and featured one of Italy's best loved sopranos: Mariella Devia. La Devia has spent most of her career in Europe. Though she did appear at the Met it has been some 14 years since she graced that stage - mores the pity for New York opera lovers. Here in Italy she is in constant demand for works by Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti as well as Verdi's La Traviata, one of her signature roles. And her programme featured the first three and her encore was the from the last named.

From the minute the lights went up on the stage of the Sala Petrassi and Devia swanned on the whole thing took on the air of a love-in and it wasn't just her psychedelic gown. The place erupted in wild applause and cries of "brava" and she hadn't sung a note. "My god! Every opera queen in Rome must be here tonight," I muttered to Laurent. "Guess so," he replied with a sidelong glance at me! Though what he meant to imply with that glance I really don't know!

I'll get any carping I may have out the way right now; though pianist Rosetta Cucchi made big sounds this type of concert demands larger forces. If you are going to do Grandi scene della prima donna then do "Grandi scene"; you need an orchestra for those lyric introductions and a chorus to comiserate with the soprano and spur her on to greater heights of dizzying colouratura. A single pianist plonking away - however well - just doesn't cut it.

The other thing may sound like a strange carp is that Devia was consistent. The problem with a programme like this is that she dazzled us from the start and continued dazzling us until the end. She was exhausted by the encore and frankly we were a little bit beat ourselves. How much better it would have been to hear her in a complete performance - preferably Pirata or Anna Bolena - where things would have been paced.

She has a voice that is secure throughout and problem-free at the top - and keep in mind she is in her 60th year. The sound is light but she is capable of subtle shadings and when it comes to firework colouratura she is fearless. There was a lack of drama in her Rossini numbers - only the aria from Adelaide di Borgogna had the required fire and again the colouratura was brillant. It may be that Rossini is no longer her cup of tea but certainly Bellini is. She sang the complete last scene of Il Pirata - senza chorus - with drama and a fine sense of tension that left us cheering at the end of the first half. And Giulietta's aria from I Capuleti e i Montecchi had me rushing to the Teatro Carlo Felice website to book tickets for her performance there in October (damn tickets don't go on sale until October 1!!!)

The second half was devoted to Donizetti and we got a fair serving of heroines bemoaning their fate in fine bel canto style. But things reached a meltdown stage when Devia launched into the final scene from Anna Bolena. Her dramatic grasp of Henry the VII's second wife as she awaits execution was nothing short of breath taking. There wasn't a sound out of her that didn't convey the foolish woman's plight. Sadly we only got the first part of the scene as the rest required a quartet of singers, chorus and an orchestra. Damn the Parco di Musica for scrimping on that one. I positively ached to hear the wedding bells for Henry (Enrico) and Jane Seymour (Giovanna) peel forth and Devia launch into Anna's curse on the guilty couple. The video clip from Palermo last year shows us what we missed.

For an encore we got the Traviata Addio del passato and Chi il bel sogno di Doretta from Puccini's La Rondine. Franky the later sounded slightly tired but given that Devia had been giving her all for over two hours it was understandable.

She declined to sing any further encores but it did not stop us from spending another ten minutes on our feet cheering and clapping. And okay I may have behaved a little bit like an Opera Queen!

25 settembre - San Nicolao della Flüe