Uneven but Gorgeous in Music and Vision 23 marzo

Uneven but Gorgeous GIUSEPPE PENNISI reports from Naples on 'I Masnadieri' and 'Die Räuber' I Masnadieri (literal translation: 'The Bandits') are on the road three times this season in Italy: a) they run Europe from Saxony to Bohemia where they rob, rape and set to fire homes and villages (even Prague). b) Verdi's opera on their adventures (rarely performed in Italy, even though it is part of standard repertory in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the USA) is presented in a new production that after a series of performances in Naples (until 31 March), will go to Venice, Trieste and Parma. c) Nearly in parallel, a staging of Schiller's tragedy (Die Räuber) from which the opera is drawn, is in one of the major theatres in Rome and will go on a tour to several locations in central Italy. I was in Naples at the Teatro San Carlo preview on 18 March 2012. The stage director, Gabriele Lavia, and the set designer (Alessandro Camera) and costume designer (Andrea Viotti) are the same. Gabriele Lavia. Click on the image for higher resolution Lavia is a well-known Italian director of high repute, as well as being an actor. He has a special flair for this early tragedy by Friedrich Schiller, staged for the first time in 1782 in Mannhein and generally considered one of the first examples of Sturm und Drang, the German movement that preceded and opened the way to Romanticism. He had already staged Schiller's full text in 1982 in a successful production (in which he also interpreted the role of Carlo) that toured several Italian towns, and now he is directing a group of young actors in another staging which will be seen in several Italian theatres. In 1986, he dared to produce the then nearly forgotten Verdi opera in Pisa, Lucca and Livorno. Now, as mentioned, a brand new and much grander production is touring major Italian opera houses. The basic plot of both I Masnadieri and Die Räuber is a gruesome and complicated family feud where the young son (Francesco) wants the power and the belongings of the father (Massimiliano), thereby pushing the legitimate heir (Carlo) to join a gang of street and forest bandits. Francesco also wants Carlo's woman (Amalia). After a series of complicated developments (which are intertwined with several sub-plots in the full text of Schiller's tragedy), all the protagonists kill one another in the final scene. Aquiles Machado as Carlo in 'I Masnadieri'. Photo © 2012 Francesco Squeglia. Click on the image for higher resolution A few words on the opera before examining Lavia's concept for the production and the musical aspects. British musicologist Roger Parker is very right in considering I Masnadieri as 'one of the most intriguing of Verdi's early works'. Verdi was thirty-three years old when the opera was commissioned by Her Majesty's Theatre in London. Queen Victoria and her retinue were in the theatre on 22 July 1847, the opening night. The opera had all the ingredients of a great and lasting success: a high romantic basis in Schiller's tragedy, a distinguished man of letters (Andrea Maffei) as librettist (he had just written the libretto for Macbeth), a cast of international standing, featuring Jenny Lind, the Swedish dramatic coloratura soprano most appreciated at the time. Also Verdi and Maffei tried to break from many of the standard operatic conventions (such as the opening chorus and the concertato finale). For instance, the prelude is a lachrymose cello solo written expressly for the best cellist available in London, and quite special music was composed for Jenny Lind. The London performances were successful, indeed the newspapers of the time called it 'a triumph'. Giacomo Prestia (left) as Massimiliano and Aquiles Machado as Carlo in 'I Masnadieri'. Photo © 2012 Francesco Squeglia. Click on the image for higher resolution The following year I Masnadieri had its Italian premiere at the Teatro Apollo in Rome (where Verdi later christened Il Trovatore and Un Ballo in Maschera) but was considered somewhat unwieldy; it lacked scenes of character confrontation and, no doubt, there were problems finding a prima donna of sufficient standard for the female protagonist role, hand tailored for Jenny Lind. The opera was staged in a number of Italian theatres between 1848 and 1860, but then faded away. Verdi never came back to refresh or to update this early child of his (as he did for instance for Macbeth, Stiffelio and Simon Boccanegra). Lucrecia Gracia as Amalia in 'I Masnadieri'. Photo © 2012 Francesco Squeglia. Click on the image for higher resolution The opera was nearly forgotten until 1975 when a concert performance by the Opera Orchestra of New York was a major hit. The rediscovery was followed with performances in San Diego, and then at several US opera houses. It also made it to the Royal Opera House in London. Now it is part of the standard repertory in Zurich, in Frankfurt and at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. But its Italian performances are rare and far between. I agree with Italian musicologist Giovanni Carli Ballola that although the libretto has several weaknesses and as many as nine different changes of sets in the four acts (some one-hundred-and-thirty minutes of music), overall I Masnadieri is far superior to several more widely performed Verdi operas from the same period, such as Luisa Miller. In terms of musical innovation, I Masnadieri is even stronger than Macbeth. Lucrecia Gracia as Amalia and Artur Rucinski as Francesco in 'I Masnadieri'. Photo © 2012 Francesco Squeglia. Click on the image for higher resolution However, Schiller and Verdi had different concepts of the meaning of the complex plot, and Gabriele Lavia added his own special interpretation of both Schiller and Verdi. For Schiller, I Masnadieri is a moral play: rebellion destroys all institutions, including the family, the primordial and the sacred. In Schiller, God is present: Francesco, aware of his sins, seeks confession and forgiveness but the pastor refuses. For Verdi, the plot is just a grueling family drama. But, and this is quite strange for a non believer, the confession scene is maintained in the opera (while many other elements of the tragedy are cut out). For Lavia, the essence of the plot is the rebellion of the youngsters against an oppressive power. In 1982, I Masnadieri seemed like revolutionary young rebels, but in the current production, they advance like a New York gang. They do all kinds of horrible things on a single set looking like a poverty stricken urban ghetto. The wealthy Francesco is even worse: a would-be parricide and fratricide, in his manor the parties become orgies with transsexuals and all. In a playhouse, this may be an interesting reading of Schiller's tragedy, but in an opera house this is in conflict with Verdi's uneven but gorgeous orchestral and vocal score. Nicola Luisotti. Photo © 2012 Luciano Romano. Click on the image for higher resolution The musical direction was entrusted to Nicola Luisotti, a well-known conductor and recently appointed musical director of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. He kept the balance between the pit and the stage very well, and gave a tense atmosphere to the score (as required by the plot). Also, he rightly stressed each act's prelude -- excellent introductions to a melodrama made up of musical numbers intertwined by recitative. Obviously, Lucrecia Garcia, in the role especially composed for Jenny Lind, was much awaited. She did well in the cavatina with cabaletta 'Lo sguardo avea degli angeli' in Act I Scene II, a very ornamental piece accommodating freely flowing decorations. In Act II she handled the adagio with cabaletta 'Tu del mio Carlo al seno' beautifully. In her Act III duet with Carlo (Aquiles Machado), Qual mare qual terra, she almost overpowered the tenor, not because Machado lacked volume, but because his texture is more lyrical than dramatic. Artur Rucinski (centre) as Francesco in 'I Masnadieri'. Photo © 2012 Francesco Squeglia. Click on the image for higher resolution The bad guy Francesco was the Polish baritone Artur Rucinski. Lavia also makes him ugly and crippled. In fact, Verdi gives him only one important scene: the duet with the pastor in Act IV Scene I, an effective baritone-tenor duet, a forerunner of those in Un ballo in maschera and especially La forza del destino. Both Rucinski and Walter Omaggio deserved an open stage applause. On the other hand, the Act II duet of Rucinski with Garcia Io t'amo Amalia was quite disappointing because it dissolves too quickly into a cabaletta by the soprano: most likely a price Verdi had to pay to Jenny Lind. Giacomo Prestia, an experienced Verdi bass, was Massimiliano, who excelled in the trio at the end of Act III. Aquiles Machado (centre) as Carlo with members of the Coro del San Carlo in 'I Masnadieri'. Photo © 2012 Francesco Squeglia. Click on the image for higher resolution As in many early Verdi operas, the chorus is as important as the protagonists, and here they did quite well under the direction of Salvatore Caputo. Copyright © 26 March 2012 Giuseppe Pennisi, Rome, Italy GIUSEPPE VERDI FRIEDRICH SCHILLER NAPLES ITALY << M&V home Concert reviews Derby Concert Orchestra >>