The 'Glory of God' through three Verdi operas Musc & Vision 2 agosto

Dramatic Strength
The 'Glory of God' through three Verdi operas
at the Sferisterio Festival 2010,
reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

Near to the Adriatic coastline and its bustling beaches, Macerata lies quietly on the 'Marche' green hills. Now a small provincial capital in central Italy, it is only a dot on the map of Italy -- a total population of forty-five-thousand in a province of some one-hundred-and-fifty-thousand -- but it has a long history. The University of Macerata is the third most ancient in the world (after those of Paris and Bologna). In 1797, the town made a strong impression on Napoleon Bonaparte who wrote to his wife about its beauty and elegance. It features a very well-preserved eighteenth and nineteenth century city centre, an architectural rarity even in Italy where conservation has a long tradition.
Within Macerata there are several places just perfect for musical theatre or for musical performances in general. Firstly, the Teatro Lauro Rossi, a four hundred seat elegant theatre with three tiers of boxes and a family circle within the City Hall Palace; it was designed in the late eighteenth century by the Bibiena family of architects -- authors also of the Bologna and Mantua city theatres -- and until well into the second half of the twentieth century, it was reserved for the aristocracy. Secondly, the Sferisterio Arena, a rather peculiar open air building with a huge wall and two tiers of large boxes, originally conceived for a unique sport, 'Pallone al Bracciale' (where the players would ride horses and throw large armbands at the wall, following a set of rather complex rules), but since early in the twentieth century utilized mostly for music performances. It can accommodate an audience of three thousand and has an acoustic similar to that of the Oranges open air theatre. Thirdly, the Teatro Italia, built in the 1940s for both cinemas and plays. Fourthly, the San Paolo Auditorium, a former church now being used as main hall of the University and as a performing area. Finally, a nineteenth century chamber music hall. In short, there are plenty to choose from; nearby, in rural Urbisaglia, the ruins of a Roman theatre are sometimes used for performances of Norma or Aida.
In Summer, there has been a Festival for the last sixty years. This is the 46th Festival if account is taken of the years when, during the war or for other reasons, the Festival hasn't been held. For a few decades, the Summer Festival was mainly aimed at attracting holidaymakers from the Adriatic Coast beach resorts to the Sferisterio. Thus, the program included solely very popular operas and neither staging nor musical direction were necessarily innovative or of high quality. In the last few years, the summer event has become an important 'theme festival' of interest also to foreigners and with important international partnerships. In the opening week of the current Festival (which runs from 29 July to 10 August), reporters and opera reviewers from ten countries were present. During the last four years, the themes have been: initiation, seduction, power games and deception. This year the theme is 'The Great Glory of God', also because 2010 is the four hundredth anniversary of the death of the Macerata-born Jesuit Matteo Ricci, one of the first Europeans to explore China and to become an important dignitary at the Emperor's Court.
The 'Great Glory of God' is presented through three Verdi operas (I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata, Attila and La Forza del Destino), Gounod's Faust, a staged Vivaldi oratorio (Judita Triumpans), a staging of Monteverdi's Vespri della Beata Vergine, a series of lectures and a play. Thus, a very wide menu. I will deal only with the musical aspects of the Festival -- not with the lectures and the play. In this report, I focus on the three Verdi's operas -- a festival within the Festival. I hope to return to Macerata and to review the rest of the Festival.
From the outset, however, it is useful to point out that, for reasons of both economy and stylistic unity, the Festival has been entrusted to only two stage directors: Pier Luigi Pizzi and Massimo Gasparon. The former has developed a single basic stage set for the Sferisterio Arena. The latter has applied the same method to the operas to be performed at the Teatro Lauri Rossi. Likewise, similar sets of costumes have been used and a well-integrated group of singers has been employed in all the operas. The approach has been successful: it is likely that some of the productions will travel as far as Hong Kong and Macao.
The three Verdi operas are a good sample of his musical and philosophical development. Verdi had lost his faith in his late twenties, and his second wife, Giuseppina Strepponi, was a well-known atheist. In Verdi's operas, religion is generally shown as oppressive. Nonetheless, he had always had doubts about the existence and the manifestation of His Almighty. Thus, he was what we can call a 'doubtful atheist' or an atheist full of doubts.
I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata (1843) and Attila (1846) belong to his first period or style of composing; the benchmark is normally assumed to be Macbeth (1847). Basically, the two operas reflect Donizetti's vision of melodrama: a set of cavatinas, arias, cabalettas, duets, quartets and concertatos.

A scene from Verdi's 'I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata' at the Sferisterio Festival. Photo © 2010 Foto Tabocchini
On 1 August 2010, in the Sferisterio Arena, I attended the first performance of I Lombardi at the Festival. In I Lombardi there are also powerful unison choruses to political words that aroused intense enthusiasm. Their libretto mirrored the intellectual movement towards the unification of Italy (even though such an issue left Verdi quite lukewarm) as it is based on a poem in verse which was well read among the anti-Austrian intellectuals of Milan.

Dimtra Theodossiou as Giselda in 'I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata' at the Sferisterio Festival. Photo © 2010 Foto Tabocchini
The plot may seem rather confused because family feuds and a complex series of conversions (viz Christians becoming Muslims and vice versa) are quite entangled with a dramatization of the history of the Crusaders' war to free Jerusalem. These days, it has a bit of spicy actuality because in its forefront there is a love story between a Christian and a Muslim. Musically, it has many innovative aspects: the opera starts with a concertato, the real protagonist is the chorus, among the main characters, the villain must sing with a baritone voice in the first Act and with a bass voice in the others. Also there are a few 'solo' chamber music moments, including a violin intermezzo with a dancer.

Dimtra Theodossiou as Giselda, Francesco Meli as Oronte and Michele Pertusi as Pagano in 'I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata' at the Sferisterio Festival. Photo © 2010 Foto Tabocchini
The stage direction was impressive, especially in scenes with plenty of mass movements. Daniele Gallegari's conducting was very perceptive in giving a good balance to orchestra, voices, chorus and 'a solo' chamber movements. David Crescenzi, the chorus master, deserves a praise for the way he conducted the 'real protagonist' of the three operas. Three good interpreters had the task of acting and singing the main roles: Dimtra Theodossiou (Giselda), a veteran of the role (but now slightly close to her limits, especially in an open space performamce), the young Francesco Meli (Oronte) in full bloom, and Michele Pertusi (Pagano) effective both as baritone in the first Act and as a bass in the rest of the opera.
On 30 July, I was admitted to a dress rehearsal of Attila in the Teatro Lauro Rossi. Thus, my review is based on a work still in progress. Briefly, the stage sets and direction by Massimo Gasparon proved excellent and give wholeness and sense to a very complex libretto where the Glory of God stopping the Huns getting to Rome is mixed with a plot of love, betrayal, deception and what-have-you. Riccardo Frizza did not seem to seize the opportunity to conduct in a small theatre and to give the orchestra a chamber music slant; rather, he had a baton as swift and as tough as that of a military band.

Maria Agresta as Odabella and Nmon Ford in the title role of Verdi's 'Atilla' at the Sferisterio Festival. Photo © 2010 Foto Tabocchini
A stunning surprise was the young Maria Agresta (Odabella) who has just completed her transition from a mezzo to a full dramatic soprano with superb acute. The protagonist was the American Nmon Ford, a bass-baritone whilst the role is for a bass tout court; he did not reach very grave tonality (as requited by the score) but supplemented this limit with excellent acting. Claudio Sugra (Ezio) had an open stage applause after his second Act aria. Giuseppe Gipali (Foresto) improved gradually during the dress rehearsal.
The grand opening of La Forza del Destino, one of the most difficult of Verdi's opera to stage and to sing, took place on 31 July 2010. There are two versions of the opera: the St Petersburg 1862 version -- with a Byron-like desperate ending -- and the (normally performed) 1869 La Scala version -- very much revised in the third Act and, more significantly, with a Christian ending based on the virtue of pardon. A clear indication of the road taken by Verdi as an atheist yet full of doubts. The plot runs over several years, two countries and many different places. The stage direction read the story as a drama of three youngsters (Leonora, Alvaro and Carlo) fighting with destiny as well as with a world of adults unable and unwilling to understand them. Also the time of the action is changed: from the mid-eighteenth-century to the Spanish war in the mid-1930s.

A scene from Verdi's 'La Forza del Destino' at the Sferisterio Festival. Photo © 2010 Foto Tabocchini
From the outset, Daniele Callegari stressed the theme of destiny in the grandly designed overture but also gave room to the clarinet and organ solos in various parts of the opera. The opera was presented in two parts with only one intermission. As a result, the first Act sounded even more concise and lofty than it is: a misty ballad story with a love scene as its nucleus. In that scene, the twenty-five year old Teresa Romano showed how her voice could fill the large open air auditorium with a clear timbre and only some very slight difficulties in the acute. Nonetheless, with Zoran Todorovich (another young rising star of the operatic firmament) as her partner, she built up the magnificent climax, from the doom-laden moderato in the first scene, and the melancholy andante of her farewell aria to the passionate brio of the love duet and the agitated presto of the final scene. The second Act is built on a sharp contrast between the colorful movements of the crowd scene and the religious atmosphere of the monastery. Unfortunately, the baritone contracted to sing Carlo (Marco de Felice) was ill; he was replaced by Elian Fabian in the pit and a mime on stage; thus the crowd scenes (and other parts of the opera) lost their pathos. In the monastery scene, however, Teresa Romano and Roberto Scandiuzzi (Padre Guardiano), with the chorus and the organ, brought the work back to a dramatic and musical climax when the first rosy glow of dawn appears and Leonora's noble melody rises again in the orchestra.

Teresa Romano as Leonora and Roberto Scandiuzzi as Padre Guardiano in Verdi's 'La Forza del Destino' at the Sferisterio Festival. Photo © 2010 Foto Tabocchini
The beginning of the second part -- the third Act in the traditional staging -- has Alvaro's main aria (O tu che in seno agli Angeli) handled very well by Todorovich (who received an open stage applause). In the duet, Alvaro's wonderful rhythmic cantilena was joined by Carlo's somber and more restrained melody -- a dark foreboding -- was partly impaired by the arrangement that had to be made to replace de Felice. The final Act, which overflows with musical wonders, was at a high level, in the introduction, the agitated theme of destiny, Leonora's aria imploring the Almighty (Pace, Pace, mio Dio) and the final trio with each voice distinguished by his characteristic music with its dramatic strength and exquisite melodies. Romano, Todorovich and Scandiuzzi made marvels and deserved accolades for their art, and 'in the Great Glory of God'.
Copyright © 4 August 2010 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy

GIUSEPPE VERDI
LAURO ROSSI
ITALY
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