Sex and Bigotry

GIUSEPPE PENNISI reports on
his week at the Rossini Opera Festival

The Rossini Opera Festival, ROF, is the only musical manifestation in Italy equivalent to Bayreuth, the Wagnerian Sanctuary in Germany. Devoted solely to one composer (Gioacchino Rossini), it intends to discover new aspects of his work every year, it has a worldwide audience (nearly half are non Italians and only less than twenty per cent come from Central Italy) and it does not seem to be affected by any financial or economic crisis. I summarized its general features last year [see Patriot and Terrorist, 14 August 2011] in an article where pictures of the main theatres were also shown.

This year, the festival (10-23 August 2012) presents the first stage presentation in modern times of Ciro in Babilonia, a revival of a successful production of Matilde di Shabran, a new production of Il Signor Bruschino (each of these three operas has four or five performances), a concert performance of Tancredi, two performances of Il Viaggio a Reims entrusted to the young singers of the Rossini Academy, two bel canto concerts and the full series of the Péchés de vieillesse ('old age sins'), the piano works composed by Rossini in the last few years of his life. Even more attractive is next year's program: the three main operas will be new productions of Guillaume Tell, L'Italiana in Algeri and La Donna del Lago. Tickets can be purchased from January 2013.

An indication of the Festival's good health is its accounts. These are well balanced, and every year the organization publishes a social budget to quantify its contribution to the community. In July 2012, Urbino University's School of Economics released an empirical study, showing that in 2011, sales in the area increased on average by twenty-one percent during the festival period. Also, Parliament is about to approve legislation whereby the ROF, the Puccini Festival, the Ravenna Festival and the Spoleto Festival are declared 'of significant value to Italy's international image' and, thus, granted further subsidies. I spent a week at the ROF but am reporting only on the salient events which may be of interest to an international readership.

The inauguration took place on 10 August 2012 with the staging of Ciro in Babilonia, a joint production with the Caramoor International Music Festival (New York). It is difficult to say whether, after this double transatlantic festival blessing, Ciro in Babilonia will start sailing on its own to regular opera houses. It was initially conceived as a Lent oratorio. Rossini had to compose the score in a very few weeks when he was twenty years old, had his mind focused on the one act farces (like Il Signor Bruschino) and, although considered a reactionary bigot as well as being a very good churchgoer, he was having a very complicated sentimental and erotic life. His attention and his heart were not on a complicated Bible plot on the fall of Babylon because of the many sins and the horrendous plans of King Balthazar, who has as his hostages Cyrus' honest wife and tender child, and intends to rape the former and kill the latter. It was staged in Italy and abroad until around 1830 -- often in modified forms. Revivals in the late nineteen eighties in Novara and in 2004 at a small German festival did not do the trick to bring it back to the main road. It has some excellent moments: the key arias of the three main characters, the quartet at the end of the first act and the long scene of Balthazar's blasphemous party and of the anathema by prophet Daniel on him. But it is lengthy and uneven.

The production, however, has some important points both dramaturgically and musically. The stage director (Davide Livermore), the set and costume designers (Nicolas Bovey and Gianluca Falaschi) and the video designers (the D-Wok team) do not take the plot very seriously. Instead, the facts are presented like in a black-and-white Hollywood movie being shot at the beginning of the twentieth century. There are video excerpts from Griffith's Intolerence and Pastrone's Cabiria. Like in the movies of that period, there are captions to explain the locations and the development of the action. There is no acting, only overacting. Thus, Cyrus is more ironical than dramatic, more sensual than religious. On 10 August 2012, the audience appeared to enjoy the game. It is a clear festival item; it remains to be seen if it would work with regular opera house audiences during a normal season or in repertory.

The orchestra and chorus of the Bologna Teatro Comunale found the right colors and tints especially in the moments when solo instrumentalists are called for. Will Crutchfield is a cembalist and a Caramoor old hand; thus, he dealt with the score quite well, even though a faster pace would have been desirable.

At the age of sixty, Ewa Podles (Cyrus) is a very powerful alto with a very wide vocal range (from a low A2 up to soprano high D) and great vocal agility. She gave good evidence of her abilities. It is quite surprising that until now, over thirty-three years, the ROF has signed her up only for a small part in a 'cantata' (Le Nozze di Teti e Peleo) and a concert. She would have been a marvelous Rosina in her younger years and excellent in many trouser roles in quite a few opera seria. Michael Spyres (Balthazar) is a high texture lyric tenor quite apt for the agile vocalizing required for the role. Jessica Pratt (Amira, Cyrus' wife) is one of the best and most attractive coloratura sopranos on the market. Carmen Romeu, Mirco Palazzi, Robert McPherson and Raffaele Costantini were all pretty good.

The second major offering was the revival of a successful 2004 production of Matilde di Shabran, the last semi-seria opera (a genre mixing dramatic and comic elements) composed by Rossini on contract to the major Roman theater of the time, Teatro Apollo. From its premiere in 1821 to the latter decades of the nineteenth century, it was often performed in Italy and abroad. It was revived in Genoa in 1974 without much success (it requires top-notch Rossinian voices) and then in Paris in 1980. But it became a hit in Pesaro in 1998 when the then very young Juan Diego Flórez had to step in for a colleague and immediately became a star in the lyric opera firmament, even though the staging was not high standard. Nonetheless, in 1999 the opera was produced in Germany and in 2004 the ROF unveiled a new production entrusted to a well known team (Mario Martone, stage director; Sergio Tramonti, stage sets; Ursula Patzak, costumes). The production travelled to London's Royal Opera House in 2008 and is now back in Pesaro. Each time, it is modified and improved both dramaturgically and musically. Of course, Juan Diego Flórez is always there as the opera seems to be cut out for his vocal qualities of lyric tenor spinto with a very high texture; a very taxing role because he is almost always on stage in very complex spirited ensembles and duets. Now his partner is the very attractive coloratura soprano Olga Peretyatko, just married to the thirty-three year old conductor, Michele Mariotti, who, from the pit, gave the performance a fast and brilliant pace. (The first act lasts almost two hours, the second, one hour and a half.)

Matilde di Shabran is something in between Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew in reverse and Shaw's Man and Superman. In an old Spanish castle, Corradino does not want to be trapped into marriage by any woman; thus he avoids them all. Two of them -- a countess and the attractive daughter of a former friend-in-arms -- want to take him to their respective beds and to a priest. There are, of course, quite a few sub-plots as used to be the practice in 'semi-seria' operas. From the moment Corradino set his eyes on the sexy Matilde, he understands that he is likely to be conquered. This happens after nearly three and half hours of music, almost entirely in major keys and with the solo arias confined to the secondary characters. Also, the fight between Corradino and Matilde is not expressed in a couple of duets but in quartets, quintets, sextets and of course concertato.

The single set is a double spiral staircase. The action is fluid and fast with quite a few jokes and excellent acting. As compared to the previous editions of this production (ie in 2004 and 2008), the conductor, Michele Mariotti, made a major difference in always keeping the right tempo and a good balance between stage and pit. For Flórez, Matilde di Shabran is a winning horse, also because very few tenors have the texture, the volume and the stamina to equal him in the role. Peretyatko was superb in her debut in the role. The rest of the company (Nicola Alaimo, Paolo Bordogna, Anna Goryachova, Simon Orfila, Marco Filippo Romano, Chiara Chialli, Giorgio Misseri and Ugo Rosati) were quite good. The production was interrupted by open stage ovations and accolades at the curtain calls. I can foresee that it will travel to La Scala and other theatres.

The third main item was the one act ninety minute farce Il Signor Bruschino, composed for a commercial Venetian theatre in 1813 when Rossini was twenty-one. It is the third time that the ROF presents a new staging of Il Signor Bruschino; they normally go quite well in many theatres. The basic plot is quite familiar: two youngsters are in love, their elders have a different idea, but with a few funny tricks on the way to the wedding, the young couple wins. There are interesting musical moments (the 'pizzicato' of the strings in the overture, the entrance aria of the bass, the duets). The key element of the production was that the stage direction was entrusted to a team of avant-garde youngsters (Il Teatro Sottorraneo) and the stage sets and costumes to the Arts Department of the local university. Also, twenty-nine year-old Daniele Rustioni was conducting a young orchestra. In short, the action was set in a 'Rossini Theme Park' where the farce is being played (or rehearsed?). It's pleasant, and funny at moments.

The best singers were two old hands (Carlo Lepore and Roberto De Candia) in the roles of the seniors being fooled. The young group -- Maria Aleida, Francisco Brito, David Alegret, Andrea Vincenzo Bonsignore and Chiara Amarù -- were also quite promising.

From left to right: Roberto De Candia as Bruschino senior, David Alegret as Florville and Claudio Lepore as Guadenzio in 'Signor Bruschino' at the Rossini Opera Festival. Photo © 2012 Amati Bacciardi. Click on the image for higher resolution

A final comment: on 13 August I was at one of the 'bel canto concerts'. The alto Sonia Prina delivered Vivaldi arias with a small ancient music ensemble working on period instruments, and this was a pure delight. ROF should make better use of her: next year she would be a marvelous Isabella in L'Italiana in Algeri or a perfect Malcolm in La Donna del Lago.

In summary, the 2012 Rossini Opera Festival was a major improvement when compared with 2010 and 2011. This augurs well for the future.

GIOACCHINO ROSSINI

ITALY

ANTONIO VIVALDI

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