Freedon and Passion Music & Vision 2 April

Freedom and Passion
A Ferrero / Dallapiccola double bill in Modena,
reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

Modena is a prosperous medium sized town in Central Italy. Before the Italian unification, it was the capital of a small Duchy. Now it is universally known as the headquarters of Ferrari, the sleek high speed motorcar factory. It has a lovely Municipal Theatre, recently named after its best known child: Luciano Pavarotti. Every year there is a 'season' of between four and six operas, along with ballets by touring companies.

Teatro Communale Luciano Pavarotti, Modena. Click on the image for higher resolution
This year, the 'Luciano Pavarotti Theatre', mostly financed by local authorities and local business, made a major effort to celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth year of Italian unification: it commissioned a brand new one act opera (Lorenzo Ferrero's Risorgimento!) and revived a one act masterpiece (Luigi Dallapiccola's Il Prigioniero) often performed in the United States and in Central Europe but seldom staged in Italy. The production is a joint venture with Bologna's Teatro Comunale where the double bill will be performed until mid-April 2011.

A scene from Ferrero's 'Risorgimento!' in Modena. Photo © 2011 Rolando Paolo Guerzoni. Click on the image for higher resolution
There is a connection between the two one act operas: they both deal with freedom and passion. Nonetheless, they are very different in style and approach. For the musicologist or just the opera-goer at the opening night on 26 March 2011, the double bill gave the impression of a two hour flashback (intermission included): from Ferrero's tonal neo-romantic 2011 style to Dallapiccola's twelve note row system in 1950.

From left to right: Alessandro Spina as The Conductor, Alessandro Luongo as The Impresario, Annunziata Vestri as The Mezzo and Valentina Corradetti as Giuseppina Strepponi in Ferrero's 'Risorgimento!' in Modena. Photo © 2011 Rolando Paolo Guerzoni. Click on the image for higher resolution
Risorgimento! is a little cunning affair. The libretto by Dario Oliviero does not attempt to capture in fifty-seven minutes the national unification movement of Italy in the nineteenth century. Cleverly, the plot is an opera within an opera (like Richard Strauss' Capriccio). The action is in La Scala's rehearsal room when Verdi's Nabucco is being rehearsed while the impresario is still awaiting to know whether the Austrian Board of Censors has given the 'green light' to the performance. A love story -- between the rehearsal's conductor (an atheist republican!) and the mezzo -- is intertwined with Verdi (a spoken role) and Giuseppina Strepponi (a soprano), alleged patriotism as well as the impresario Bartolomeo Morelli's striving for Italian unification.

Valentina Corradetti as Giuseppina Strepponi in Ferrero's 'Risorgimento!' in Modena. Photo © 2011 Rolando Paolo Guerzoni. Click on the image for higher resolution
As we know, the plot has no historical basis; it is founded on a generally accepted legend about the genesis of Nabucco. In interview, Ferrero says that this and other works of his are meant to attract new and younger people to the opera houses. I do not know if Risorgimento! will do the trick, but I have strong doubt. The music is pleasant with quite a few easy tunes and many quotations from Verdi's and even Pacini's operas. The orchestration is quite interesting and the declamation slides into a couple of well-thought out ariosi. However, the libretto seems more suitable to performances for high school students reading about the Italian unification movement than to university students and young adults: it has very little to do with the issues they face and that they are concerned with: job search, partnerships and love in a declining Europe and an even faster declining Italy. Ferrero has more effective operas, such as Salvatore Giuliano, Marylin and The Conquest, in his neo-romantic tonal resumé.

Alessandro Spina as The Conductor and Annunziata Vestri as The Mezzo in Ferrero's 'Risorgimento!' in Modena. Photo © 2011 Rolando Paolo Guerzoni. Click on the image for higher resolution
The stage directors (Giorgio Gallione with Tiziano Santi for the sets, Claudia Pernigotti for the costumes, and Andrea Oliva for the lighting) do all they can to make the libretto interesting, including well-chosen documentary film projections. The singers are quite good: Valentina Corradetti as Giuseppina Strepponi, Annunziata Vestri as the mezzo being prepared as Fenena in Nabucco, Alessandro Spina as the conductor, Alessandro Luongo as the impresario and Leonardo Coltellazzi as a patriotic nobleman. They are all young and also quite good at acting. Michele Mariotti conducted skillfully. However, the plot and the eclectic score are just too clever by half to be convincing. The opening night applause was lukewarm -- just a gesture of courtesy.

Chad Armstrong as The Prisoner in Dallapiccola's 'Il Prigioniero' in Modena. Photo © 2011 Rolando Paolo Guerzoni. Click on the image for higher resolution
Il Prigioniero by Luigi Dallapiccola (1904-1975) is no doubt one of the most important Italian operas of the twentieth century. It was first produced in Florence in 1950. The American musicologist Ethan Mordden calls it 'a landmark entry in the index of modern opera'. The text is drawn from La Torture de l'Esperance by the Comte Villiers de l'Isle Adam and from La Légende d'Eulenspiegel e de Lamme Goedzac by Charles de Coster. The story deals with the seventeenth century rule of the Spanish Inquisition in the Netherlands. Does true freedom exist in a world of tyranny? This is the question posed in a grueling series of scenes. It appears that the protagonist -- the prisoner -- has escaped. He emerges from the dungeons into the open, under a starry sky, but then is finally annihilated.

Chad Armstrong as The Prisoner and Armaz Darashvili as The Gaoler in Dallapiccola's 'Il Prigioniero' in Modena. Photo © 2011 Rolando Paolo Guerzoni. Click on the image for higher resolution
The music is as shattering as the story. The score is a perfect rack of agony and hallucination, even though it tends to serial discipline and does not exude any Italian mellifluousness. In a scene, the orchestra 'improvises' on motives of textual significance. The chorus plays a decisive part. The orchestration is hard, the harmonies and the rhythms are harsh, and the twelve note row system prevails. Three of the twelve-tone rows are particularly important; they may be defined as representing prayer, hope and freedom. They are also thematic nuclei, musical cells that are of fundamental importance throughout the opera. In one of these, the three dissonant chords with which the opera opens (and which are heard repeatedly throughout the work) immediately give an idea of the degree of tragic tension which dominated the whole work. The total chromatic mold is obtained by means of tritones. Another important motif is at the word 'Fratello!' ('Brother') by the devious gaoler. This is a motif which forms the central core of the opera. It is formed by intervals of a second and minor third respectively with a descending chromatic succession of three notes, supported by two minor triads.

Chad Armstrong as The Prisoner in Dallapiccola's 'Il Prigioniero' in Modena. Photo © 2011 Rolando Paolo Guerzoni. Click on the image for higher resolution
In a brilliant essay on the opera, Harald Kaufmann points out how the figurations of the rows and motifs form a chain of significant associations which creates a continual ambivalence; they overlap, combine, correspond to, or contrast with, the text. The prisoner is overcome by the confusion of the hollow concepts of both the text and the score. While the angels of death lead him towards the flames with comforting words of love, he stammers out 'Freedom?'. The end of the opera is, hence, a question mark. Dallapiccola's passionate involvement with humanity takes on the force of an accusation without this ever being directly expressed. As a matter of fact, the answer would be provided several years later (in 1968) when, in Berlin, the last of Dallapiccola's operas (Ulisse) was premièred. In this long re-visitation of Homer's hero, Dallapiccola finds peace in religion.

Chad Armstrong as The Prisoner in Dallapiccola's 'Il Prigioniero' in Modena. Photo © 2011 Rolando Paolo Guerzoni. Click on the image for higher resolution
Il Prigioniero requires a huge orchestra and a large and well-trained chorus as well as singers accustomed to the twelve note row system and declamation. Also, it needs an effective stage set and direction. The team (Gallione-Santi-Pernigotti-Oliva) provided a simple but excellent set: a dungeon became a series of corridors and then a bright open area with a huge tree (which became the stake at which the prisoner was burnt).

Chad Armstrong as The Prisoner in Dallapiccola's 'Il Prigioniero' in Modena. Photo © 2011 Rolando Paolo Guerzoni. Click on the image for higher resolution
The acting and singing were excellent, by Valentina Corradetti as the mother, Chad Armstrong as the prisoner, Armaz Darashvili as the gaoler and Dario Di Vieri and Mattia Olivieri as the Inquisition Priests. Armstrong, a young Canadian baritone, and Darashvili, a young Georgian tenor, have very taxing roles with the center range jumping to acute. The success was essentially in the hands of young and up-and-coming Michele Mariotti, who dealt beautifully with the complex score and deserved the accolades at the end of the performance.
Copyright © 2 April 2011 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy

LUIGI DALLAPICCOLA
ITALY
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