Tormented Souls in Music and Vision 23 Novembre

Tormented Souls
Sex and power in the aftermath of a Middle Eastern war,
when 'Semiramide' opens the opera season in Naples,
reported by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

Naples enjoyed weather feeling more like Spring than late Fall on 18 November 2011; sunny, warm with a few daring swimmers at lunch time in the bay. The right weather for the inauguration, at 7pm, of the 2011-2012 opera season, consisiting of ten operas: seven in the grand Teatro San Carlo and three in the small Teatro di Corte (both theatres are housed within the Royal Palace), along with symphonic and chamber music seasons, as well as a few ballets. This is a turning point season because the Teatro San Carlo has had severe financial difficulties and had a major refurbishing (yet it maintains its ancient splendor because each element of the theatre is under the strict control of the Ministry of Culture and Antiquity). The season features only a few traditional repertory titles (such as Puccini's La bohème) and proposes mostly rarely heard operas. The inaugural title is Gioacchino Rossini's Semiramide, the last opera the composer wrote for an Italian theatre before moving permanently to Paris. It is a special opera for a variety of reasons.
Firstly, contrary to the customs of the time, the work is based on a very close collaboration between the librettist, Gaetano Rossi, and the composer. Secondly, Semiramide, like Tancredi ten years earlier, was drawn from a five-act tragedy by Voltaire with a rather complex plot. In Babylon, Queen Semiramide and her lover (Assur) killed the King and tried to have the Crown Prince Ninia (still a baby) slaughtered; some fifteen years later, Semiramide has to select a new husband and King; Assur and the Indian Prince Idreno are competing for the wedding and the Crown, but Semiramide is physically attracted by the young general Arsace (who is to be married to the Princess Azema); a sexual affair follows between Semiramide and the youngster; when the marriage is in sight, the High Priest Oroe reveals that Arsace is Ninia. The incestuous relationship ends and tragedy follows, with the young general killing his own mother -- in the darkness he mistakes her for Assur, who is done away with by the priests and the army -- before peace returns to Babylon and the young man marries Azema. Whilst for the French enlightenment philosopher the plot was an apologue on absolute corruption and total perversion as a corollary to unchecked total power, Rossini reversed into the plot his own complicated affair with Isabella Colbran -- seven years older than the composer and, at that time, also a lover of their impresario Domenico Barbaja (a ménage à trois already depicted in La Donna del Lago reviewed in M&V on 3 November 2011 [see The Lady without the Lake).
Secondly, the opera has a rather unusual performance history: it was very popular (often in abridged versions) all over Europe since its 1823 premiere in Venice until around 1890 (when almost all Rossini's opera seria except Guillaume Tell had disappeared from theatre offerings), but then a long period of silence followed until a 1940 revival of a rather spurious version at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Musicologist Phillip Gosset counts nearly seventy theatres which have performed the opera since 1940. However, even though an original Rossini manuscript was found in the archives at La Fenice, only as late as 2003 was a critical edition unveiled at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro.
Before reviewing the Naples production, it is essential to focus on a few critical issues about Semiramide. To begin with, musicologists do not agree with one another as to whether this is Rossini's last song and testament about Italian opera, before embarking on the adaptation (of previous operas) for the French stage and to the absolute novelty of Guillaume Tell. According to Gossett and Zedda, Semiramide is a 'conservative opera'. No doubt, there is less innovation than in Maometto Secondo which had failed miserably in Naples in 1820 because of its revolutionary musical content. Semiramide is a 'classical' opera which, according to Bruno Cagli, nearly negates Rossini's Neapolitan experience; there are clear-cut musical numbers and one of the protagonists is an alto en travesty. On the other hand, Semiramide seals the fate of 'secco recitative' because all recitatives are accompanied by the orchestra. Also, the next generation of Italian opera composers (even Verdi) returned to Semiramide almost compulsorily because its forms provided the model for their arts and its sound resonated in their hearts -- this is the reason why it had been performed for so many decades before the long 1890-1940 silence.
There is no anticipation of Romanticism, as in La Donna del Lago, but it opens the way to 'bel canto': the duets for Semiramide and Asarce, for example, are the direct antecedents of those between Norma and Adalgisa as unabashed glorification of the power of music. Semiramide is a milestone on the way to 'bel canto' as a specific and autonomous musical discipline governed by rules affecting the composer as well as the performers and which foster a radical process of idealization of feelings and actions. Composer and performer create a singing line based on technical skills capable of arousing emotions even without illustrating the dramatic development of the story but illuminating vocal formulas and involving the audience's emotions. However, Semiramide is more than 'bel canto': Rossini draws vocal, dramatic, and orchestral elements into harmony with one another. As Richard Osborne wrote, 'the strategic planning is formidable': an opening movement of seven hundred bars and an Act I finale of over nine hundred bars, pointing to the huge structural spans of Guillaume Tell, as well as the use of the chorus not as a protagonist but as a commentator (like in Greek tragedies).
A final point: the voice of the protagonist Queen Semiramide was especially composed for Isabella Colbran, then forty years old and approaching the sunset of her career. Thus, like La Donna del Lago, it requires an amphibious soprano or a 'falcon' soprano able to descend to very grave tonalities. In the nineteenth century, it was a favorite role for Maria Malibran, Gulia Grisi, Giuditta Pasta and Adelina Patti. But this poses a clear problem. In modern revival often the part has been adapted to bel canto sopranos such as Dame Joan Sutherland and Montserrat Caballé (with Marilyn Horne as their co-protagonist). On stage, I personally recall only Anna Caterina Antonacci, June Anderson and Lella Cuberli able to cope with all the vocal difficulties without altering the score. Darina Takova, in Pesaro, Paris, Madrid and Rome in different productions during the years 2003-2005, was not bad.

Simone Alberghini as Assur and Laura Aikin in the title role of Rossini's 'Semiramide' at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. Click on the image for higher resolution
The new Naples production was entrusted to a very well-known Italian stage director, Luca Ronconi, nearly eighty years old. It was a much awaited staging because it could be one of his latest efforts. The two acts have a single stage set (by Tiziano Santi); the ruins of a timeless Middle Eastern capital (it could be Baghdad) where the characters are half naked -- the women topless and the men in boxer shorts (with the exception of the protagonists). The costumes are signed by the French stylist Emanuel Ungaro and the lighting (critical to the production) by A J Weissbard. The chorus (directed by Salvatore Caputo) is in the orchestra pit but on stage there are several mimes. Thus the drama is in a context of destruction; following Voltaire, absolute power does not only corrupt but it destroys. There is a lot of sex going on in this desolate Babylon; of course, with the limitation of opera conventions and with the main sexual duet being sung by a soprano and an alto.

Simone Alberghini (left) as Assur with Laura Aikin in the title role of Rossini's 'Semiramide' at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. Click on the image for higher resolution
In agreement with Gabriele Ferro (conductor and musical director), the 2003 critical edition is somewhat cut; Azema's aria and a few recitatives are eliminated, with the total performance lasting around four hours (intermission included), in lieu of the five hours of the 1823 Venice premiere where spoken parts were added to complement the numerous changes of scenes (eight). I listened to Semiramide conducted by Ferro in 1983 in Rome (with June Anderson and the late Lucia Valentini Terrani in the main roles). Now his baton is lighter than then; he supports the singers beautifully; emphasis is on the overall results. Ferro also leaves room for the soloists -- the oboe was excellent -- in certain parts where Rossini echoes chamber music. The overall result is effective: the tragic plot evolves in what seems the aftermath of a major war both in the ruined city and within the tormented souls of the protagonists (mainly Semiramide and Arsace, but also Assur, who goes crazy when his crimes are discovered).

Laura Aikin in the title role of Rossini's 'Semiramide' at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. Click on the image for higher resolution
In any production of Semiramide, it is a very hard task is to find the protagonist with the appropriate singing qualities. The Teatro San Carlo had originally thought of entrusting the role to the mezzo Sonia Ganassi but after a few rehearsal sessions she called it quits. Thus, the American soprano Laura Aikin was called in; to the best of my knowledge, she had sung the opera only in concert performances in the 2010 Radio France Montpellier Festival. Thus, 18 November was almost a debut. Laura Aikin is certainly mastering the vocal changes during the process of her career quite well. In the second half of the nineties, she made an international name for herself for her brilliant sparkly coloratura; she was one of the few singers who could handle Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos and the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte. As the years go by, she is taking darker and thicker roles such as Lulu in Lyon, La Scala and Vienna (M&V 11 April 2010 [see Seldom Performed -- Lulu lands at La Scala]); she is much awaited as Marie in Zimmerman's Die Soldaten in Salzburg next August. Since her cavatina Bel Raggio Lusinghier, Aikin's dramatic, passionate and sexy bel canto is miles away from, eg, that of Sutherland. Bel Raggio Lusinghier becomes a dazzling but sensual number irradiating the Queen's complex personality. Similarly, her Quel Mesto Gemito in E flat minor in the final section of Act I is a somber 'ostinato' nearly anticipating Verdi's Il Trovatore. A stronger anticipation is the duet with Assur (Simone Alberghini) in the first scene of Act II -- a number that Verdi, no doubt, was familiar with when he composed Macbeth.

A scene from Rossini's 'Semiramide' at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. Click on the image for higher resolution
Arsace is Silvia Tro Santafé, a good Spanish alto with considerable experience in 'trouser roles'. She knows the part very well and her singing is unexceptionable, but she somewhat lacks the personality to pair with Laura Aikin in their two major duets, the ambiguous Serbami Ognor Sì Fido in Act I and the highly dramatic Ebben ... a te ferisci? in Act II.

Silvia Tro Santafé (right) as Arsace and Laura Aikin in the title role of Rossini's 'Semiramide' at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. Click on the image for higher resolution
The villain, Arsur, is an effective Simone Alberghini, especially in the madness scene (most probably well-known to Verdi when composing Macbeth). A real surprise for the Italian audience is the English lyric tenor Barry Banks; on 18 November he substituted beautifully for Gregory Kunde (who was ill) and deserved an enthusiastic open stage applause after Idreno's aria Ah Dov'E' il Cimento?

Simone Alberghini (left) as Assur with Laura Aikin as Semiramide and (behind), Federico Sacchi as Oroe, in Rossini's 'Semiramide' at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. Click on the image for higher resolution
Annika Kaschenz was a good Azema, and Federico Sacchi was impressive as Oroe.

Silvia Tro Santafé (right) as Arsace and Laura Aikin in the title role of Rossini's 'Semiramide' at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. Click on the image for higher resolution
The dressed up opening night audience applauded but, after less than ten minutes, ran to their dinner parties in nearby restaurants. After four and a half hours in the theatre, they could be sympathized with.
Copyright © 23 November 2011 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy

GIOACCHINO ROSSINI
NAPLES
ITALY
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