patrikpen: Financial Stringency in Music and Vision 9 Agosto

Financial Stringency

GIUSEPPE PENNISI describes how the
Puccini Opera Festival is at a turning point

The Puccini Festival traditionally held at Torre del Lago in July-August each year is at a turning point. Now at its 58th annual edition, the festival has to face up to a tight financial stringency. Also, in 2011, the 57th edition was in difficulties because the Italian Central Government had drastically curtailed its financial support. The organization resorted to a close collaboration with the Far East where Italian opera is loved and new theatres are being built. [Read Asian Aid, 11 August 2011]. This year, due to recession in Europe, raising money is a much harder task. However, the Festival was able to cope with the situation by using a three pronged strategy: Increased collaboration with Asia through a revival of the Hong Kong Bohème production and a new staging of Tosca especially conceived for the Macao International Opera Festival (the major market for Central and Eastern Asia opera houses); a diversification of the program to include ballet, pop music and also Verdi (in a special production partly financed by the European Structural Funds); and becoming the center of the International Lyric Opera Awards, a new competition, the final event of which is held in the four thousand seat theatre on the shores of Lake Massaciuccoli where Giacomo Puccini lived and worked for most of his life.

In the three days I spent at the Festival, I was at the Ceremony and Concert for the International Lyric Opera Awards and saw the new productions of Tosca and Traviata.

This is the second time that International Lyric Opera prizes have been awarded at the end of a rather complex process: nominations are made by worldwide lyric associations through questionnaires and, among the nominees, an international panel selects who should be awarded the prize (a little statue). For two years the process was experimental and the awards ceremony was at the Verona Arena. Now the International Lyric Opera Awards have been institutionalized. It has been decided that the ceremony will be held each year at the four thousand seat Puccini Grand Theatre: vast, but not as large as the twelve thousand seat Verona Arena.

The ceremony was held on 2 August 2012, and the theater was sold out. The awards were given to the Greek soprano Dimitra Theodossiou, the Italian mezzo Sonia Ganassi, the Spanish tenor Celso Albelo, the Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov, the Italian conductor Michele Mariotti, the French stage designer Richard Peduzzi and the Italian the stage director Daniele Abbado. A special prize was given to the Italian tenor Fabio Armiliato for his acting in Woody Allen's movie To Rome with Love. In the evening there was a concert by the singers with the festival orchestra conducted by Elisabetta Maschio with also some ballet numbers and a well known Italian entertainer, Alfonso Signorini. He was quite funny because most likely he had made little preparation for the event and gave the impression that he had a rather vague idea of classical music in general and of opera in particular. Nonetheless, the singing was great, especially Dimitra Theodossiou and Sonia Ganassi in Bellini's most difficult, and most enthralling, duet Mira, o Norma. The moon was full and reflected in the lake like in a mirror. The sky had plenty of stars. After the ceremony, I was among some 200 guests invited to a dinner party of Tuscan specialties and no shortage of wine. Thus, the International Lyric Opera Awards went on until well after 2am on 3 August.

In the evening on 3 August, a new Tosca production was on stage. It is drastically different from the really minimalist production I saw recently at the Tyrol Festival [Passion and Religion, 28 July 2012]. It should be remembered that this production was designed for Macao International Opera Festival where it will have three performances 1-3 November 2012. The expectation is that from there, it will travel to newly built theatres in Singapore, in Astana, in Hong Kong and many major cities of the Republic of China as well as in Japan. There, normally the audience expects grand operas with a traditional staging. Antonio Mastromattei (stage sets) and Riccardo Canessa (stage direction) fit these objectives perfectly. Most probably, the sets are not expensive but with a few elements they give the impression of being part of a grandiose Franco Zeffirelli production. In the first act, Santa Andrea della Valle is an immense white baroque Church, and in the final Te Deum also the Queen and retinue appear on stage. In the second act, just by moving a few elements, the stage is transformed into a grand hall of the Farnese Palace (now hosting the French Embassy in Rome). In the third act, a huge stairway in Sant'Angelo Castle leads to a Statue of the Angel taller and larger than the original. Also the acting and the movement of the extras reminds us that we are in the wide wild world of opera where everything is larger than life. The audience -- mostly families vacationing in nearby beach resorts -- liked it. In Asia they would love it: this is just what they think that opera ought to be.

Tosca has a difficult score and requires a large orchestra. In the perfect acoustics of the Tyrol Festival in mid-July, the orchestral nuances could be heard better than in a grand open air theatre. Nonetheless, Maestro Alberto Veronesi kept the whole thing under control and never covered the voices. Vocally, the surprise was the comparatively young dramatic soprano Francesca Rinaldi in the title role; she is not yet on the 'primary opera circuit' but she showed a perfect emission, especially in Vissi d'Arte, a strong temperament, particularly in Assassino and no lack of volume in the duets with Mario Cavaradossi, the Korean lyric tenor spinto Rudy Park. I have commented on him previously [see Intense Confrontation, 15 May 2011]. He has quite a strong volume and good acute. Also his diction is perfect; he has been living in Italy for nearly ten years, even though he sings all over the world; he should work on his phrasing because he might become the right Otello of the future. Scarpia was Alberto Mastromarino, a veteran of the role.

Finally, a few comments on the 4 August Traviata which was produced by the innovative group Opera Domani in collaboration with the Florence Maggio Musical training school and financed by the European Commission under a Social Fund project. In the next few months, the production will travel to Livorno, Pisa and Lucca (and maybe other theatres). I imagined very modern clothing, orgies in the first scene of the first act (the party at Violetta's home) and in the second scene of the second act (the party at Flora's home), and half naked young singers pretending to smoke pot in between the arias. Instead, Opera Domani produced a very old fashioned staging.

Basically, one single (and not very attractive) set; the scene could change with a few props. The circa 1850 costumes were very classy: all wore black except for Violetta, who had a grand white costume which appeared patterned on that which Rosa Ponselle wore at the New York Metropolitan House in the nineteen thirties and forties. The second act dances (of course in black) were very effective. The conductor, Fabrizio M Carminati, is very experienced, and knows Traviata's score inside-out. Massimiliano Pisapia and Stefano Antonucci are veterans of their respective roles of Alfredo and Giorgio Germont. Again, the positive surprise was Silvia Della Benetta, a young soprano seldom in major roles in the top tier Italian opera houses. She was a perfect Violetta both as actor and singer. At the end of the first act, her coloratura and superacute in Sempre Libera! were remarkable, and her mezza voce in the final scene was superb. She deserves attention from opera house managers and artistic directors.

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giovedì 4 ottobre 2012

Financial Stringency in Music and Vision 9 Agosto

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