The Quality of Mercy in Music & Vision 14 luglio

The Quality of Mercy
GIUSEPPE PENNISI visits the
2011 Aix-en-Provence Festival and
reports on four of the six operas

'The quality of mercy' can be taken as the common theme of the six operas presented at the 2011 Aix-en-Provence Festival (5-25 July). Mercy mixed with melancholy underlines Thanks to my eyes by the young Italian-Swiss composer Oscar Bianchi, the inaugural opera of the three week run of music (in parallel) in four different theatres. Mercy and forgiveness are the focus of the new production of Verdi's La traviata. Mercy is, of course, the core of Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito. A special kind of sarcastic mercy, against all kinds of stupid bureaucracies, is the essence of Shostakovich's The Nose. Mercy of the Gods provides a happy ending to a tragedy in Handel's Acis and Galatea. Finally, mercy also molds Austerlitz, a children's opera by Jérôme Combier, which is a double voyage over time and space to explain twentieth century sorrow to today's youngsters.
In my week in Aix en Provence, I saw four of the six operas, mostly because scheduling problems prevented me from following the full lyric program (part of a broader scheme including chamber music and symphonies, performed by the orchestra-in-residence, the London Symphony Orchestra, LSO). The operas I did not see were Acis and Galatea (which will be performed in Venice this Autumn), and Austerlitz (scheduled in the very last days of the Festival).
It is always a joy to be under the Provence sun and in the fascinating Aix theatres. More interestingly, for the operagoer, the Festival is an unusual opportunity to see what will be staged in the main European opera houses during the following seasons. Most staging are co-productions with primary theatres and set to enter their regular programs and repertories or to have extensive tours.
As already mentioned, even though the Festival was started, after World War Two, to promote knowledge of Mozart in France (where he and his music were almost unknown) and it is generally inaugurated by a new production of a Mozart opera, this year the management decided to take a daring bet and to start the feast with a contemporary opera by a young (thirty-six-year-old) Italian-Swiss composer, Oscar Bianchi. Thanks to my eyes is based on a successful play by the French theatre writer Joël Pommerat. This review is based on the 8 July 2011 performance. Bianchi studied in Milan, Paris (IRCAM) and New York (Columbia University School of Music); he is well appreciated in the US, France and Germany (where he now lives), but in Italy only the contemporary music brotherhoods are familiar with his name and with his style. The opera (twenty-four scenes in about ninety minutes) is scheduled to travel extensively in Europe over the next twelve months, and to reach Italy sometime in the future.

Hagen Matzeit as Aymar and Fflur Wyn as A Blonde Woman in Oscar Bianchi's 'Thanks to my eyes' at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Photo © 2011 Elizabeth Carecchio. Click on the image for higher resolution
A few comments on the play the opera is based upon. It is a rather longish symbolistic and impressionistic piece of writing, dealing with the coming of age of a young man held for too long under his father's control and wishes. The play smells of Chekhov, Maeterlinck, Ibsen, and Bernhard. Thus, early twentieth century more than early 21st century culture and approach. Bianchi and Pommerat reduced the text from a nearly three hour stage play in French to a concise one act opera in English. The twenty-four scenes have almost a cinematic pace in a single set where lighting shows changes in locations and times of the day. Sets, lighting and costumes are signed by Eric Soyer and Isabelle Deffin. The orchestra has only twelve players (but sounding like thirty) under the baton of Franck Ollu. There is only very limited use of electro-acoustics (mostly to create echoes). The orchestration is rich and eclectic. The vocal score, although modern in texture (often quite high) and on the use of declamation, follows, to a large extent, standard operatic 'conventions' such as arioso, duets and even a 'madness scene'. The protagonist is a countertenor (Hagen Matzeit) able to descend from the highest sphere of the vocal scale almost to baritone tonalities -- a homage to seventeenth century vocal style. He is surrounded by a bass and two lyric sopranos. Altogether, it is a very interesting piece of contemporary music. It is far away from Darmstadt and the twelve note row system. It is light years distant from the American neo-romantic approach to opera. There is, no doubt, some IRCAM influence, but in my view, Bianchi's style is closer to Ligeti, Kurtag, Xenakis, Tutino and Sani. A stimulating path to follow. No doubt the bet was won.

Brian Bannatyne Scott as The Father and Anna Rogter as The Mother in Oscar Bianchi's 'Thanks to my eyes' at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Photo © 2011 Elizabeth Carecchio. Click on the image for higher resolution
Why have a new production of La Traviata in Aix? There are two main reasons: firstly to provide a new staging scheduled (after a tour in France) to enter the repertory of an operatic temple such as Vienna Staatsoper (and to be performed there for several years), and secondly, to provide Natalie Dessay with a new opportunity to prove herself in the role of Violetta, already sung, with mixed reviews, in Santa Fe and Turin.

Charles Castronovo as Alfredo and Natalie Dessay as Violetta in Act II scene 1 of 'La traviata' at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Photo © 2011 Pascal Victor. Click on the image for higher resolution
The production is stunning: on the bare stage set, with the help of only a few props and the drops of elements of painted scenes, we have a 1950s reading of the road to death of a young woman to whom life gave only a short moment of happiness (in Alfredo's arms). Jean-François Sivadier (stage direction), Alexandre de Dardel (sets), Virginie Gervaise (costumes) and Philippe Berthomé (lighting) hint at quotation from French movies of the 1950s (Chabrol, Truffaut) and even at Visconti's La Scala staging for Maria Callas. The LSO is conducted by Louis Langrée who slows the tempos with the view of making Violetta's tragic destiny even more engrossing. At the 9 July performance, Charles Castronovo, her Alfredo, is a top class lyric tenor and a superb actor; his timbre has slightly darkened since the times when he sang mostly light coloratura roles, but it is still a pleasure for the ears. Ludovic Tézier is an effective Germont with a strong rounded voice, although he no longer has the legato he enchanted audiences with as Pelléas. What about Natalie Dessay? She had a ten minute standing ovation; this means that she pleases the public in general, not only her fans. She is, no doubt, a magnificent actress. Now, vocally Violetta suits her more than Cleopatra in the controversial production of Händel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto recently seen and heard in Paris. She is right in not emphasizing 'coloratura' (eg Verdi never wrote the 'sovracuto' traditionally included at the end of Sempre Libera in the first act). Her Violetta is close to a full dramatic 'soprano assoluto' (in the operatic world's idiom), eg like Renata Scotto's Violetta. This is highly acceptable, but as in Renata Scotto's later years, her Violetta is not a 22-23 year-old 'pretty woman' but a mature lady with a long past of disorderly life now introducing the young and inexperienced Alfredo to love and sex. Not everyone, both in the critics' box and in the audience, appreciates this reading of the character.

Charles Castronovo as Alfredo and Natalie Dessay as Violetta in Act II scene 2 of 'La traviata' at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Photo © 2011 Pascal Victor. Click on the image for higher resolution
The much awaited La Clemenza di Tito (back in Aix after six years) was a partial disappointment. The attention was on two aspects: the stage direction of David McVicar, one of the most praised European directors and recently applauded for his Strasbourg Ring, and the eighty-three year old Sir Colin Davis in the pit with the LSO. Most likely, McVicar conceived the production with his arms tied under his shoulders and his eyes shut. There is no innovation either in the staging, the costumes or the acting. The action is moved to Napoleonic times -- a device already used several times. The black and white costumes and sets are spoiled by a grayish concrete moving stairway. The characters act just as old-fashioned opera singers. The staging will require some serious revisions before the production goes to Toulouse and Marseilles (whose opera houses are the co-producers).

Gregory Kunde as Tito in Act II of 'La clemenza di Tito' at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Photo © 2011 Pascal Victor. Click on the image for higher resolution
On the other hand, Sir Colin Davis provides a sumptuous reading of the score with chamber music aspects (the clarinets, the harps) seldom singled out. On the vocal front, the group of women (Sarah Connolly, Carmen Giannattasio and Anna Stephany) clearly outclasses Gregory Kunde. At the 10 July performance he had been called to replace John Mark Ainsley (who called sick for all the Aix performances); this is a mitigating factor in judging the tenor on that very night. Kunde no longer has the agility of fifteen years ago; now, he is better in Verdi's roles than in those of Donizetti, Rossini or Mozart. He was highly uneven, especially in the first act, but he redeemed himself in his final aria, Ma Che Giorno.
In Music & Vision on 26 February 2011, I provided an extensive review of Shostakovich's The Nose as presented in Parma in Pokrovskij's production for the Moscow Chamber Music Opera dated 1974 and still going strong in the Russian Federation and abroad. Our readers may wish to refer to that review for my comments on the opera's background and sarcasm against any kind of stupid bureaucracy. There it was stressed how Boris Pokrovskij employed very limited means for the ten different scenes of three acts, lasting 100 minutes. There is no shortage of resources in William Kentridge's staging, already seen at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York (and extensively reviewed a few months ago in the American and European press). The production had to be refocused to fit the smaller stages of the Gran Théâtre de Provence and the Opéra National de Lyon, where it will be seen after the Aix performances; it may also land at La Scala in Milan sometime in the future. Kentridge is full of ideas and makes very skillful use of all modern technological devices -- computerized projections, quick changes of set, clips of 1930s documentary films and the like. Kazushi Ono gives plenty of rhythmic drive to the orchestra of the Opéra National de Lyon and to the well-assorted mix of some twenty-five Russian singers. Vladimir Samsonov and Alexandre Kravets had the key roles. Standing ovations were a must by the 12 July audience who listened to excellent music and had a lot of fun.

A scene from Shostakovich's 'The Nose' at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Photo © 2011 Pascal Victor. Click on the image for higher resolution
A final word is necessary for the two choirs -- the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir in La Traviata and La Clemenza di Tito, and the Choeur de Opéra National de Lyon for The Nose. They sang and also acted quite well.
Copyright © 14 July 2011 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy

AIX-EN-PROVENCE
GIUSEPPE VERDI
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
COLIN DAVIS
LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
FRANCE
DAVID MCVICAR
NATALIE DESSAY
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