A Better Fit
Wagner and Britten in the Umbrian Hills,
reported by GIUSEPPE PENNISI
As indicated in previous reports, the Sagra Musicale Umbra has had a
'spiritual' emphasis
since its very beginning
nearly seventy years ago. As this year theme is 'The Transfiguration' (see Joy for the
Soul, 29 September 2013), the Sagra gave special attention to
Wagner
and Britten.
On the one hand, both composers
dealt with religious
subjects, and with various forms of 'transfigurations'. On the other, 2013
marks the bicentenary of Wagner's birth
and the centenary of Britten's.
Perugia, the capital of
the Umbria Region, does not have an Opera
House. Also, the Sagra is a concert
not an opera festival.
However, the management and the artistic direction
were able to use scarce resources most effectively: two concerts
were dedicated to Wagner and a fully staged Britten 'parable' (written for church performance)
was produced in a very old Templar Church.
For scheduling reasons, I missed the initial concert in the attractive
Morlacchi Theatre
where the festival was inaugurated on 15 September 2013 by the Prague Philharmonia conducted by
Jiří Bělohlávek with a Wagnerian
concert featuring excerpts from Die
Walküre and Götterdämmerung
(as well as Beethoven's Symphony No
7).
I attended the second Wagnerian concert on 21 September: a piano recital
with transcriptions
from Parsifal
and Die Walküre,
plus an encore
devoted to the final scene of
Tristan
und Isolde. At the pianos
(two are required for Die
Walküre) were a young
and successful Italian conservatory professor,
Alessandra Gentile, and a well-experienced German pianist,
Cord Garben (with a long
Deutsche Grammophon discography).
 Alessandra Gentile and Cord Garben playing Wagner at Sagra Musicale Umbra. Photo © 2013 Adriano Scognamillo. Click on the image for higher resolution |
There were two interesting
features: firstly the place: a lovely modern
theatre built by a textile entrepreneur (and philanthropist) in an old medieval village
with a stunning view of the countryside.
Secondly, the Parsifal
piano transcription
was nothing less than a gift
from Engelbert
Humperdinck to the Wagner family
after the composer's death.
The transcription of Die
Walküre is the work of Hermann Behn, a successful Hamburg
lawyer and a good pianist. During the concert, projections cast paintings by
Arthur
Rackham and Willy Pogany. Thus visual art was married
with music.
The Sagra's most awaited performance, however, was a new production of
Britten's Curlew
River in the Templar Church of San Bevignate, at the bottom of
the hill where Perugia stands. Just a few months ago, the Teatro
dell'Opera di Roma performed Curlew
River in
the Ara Coeli church near the Capitol; I suggest that readers refer to the
review written at the time
for general information on the opera (Deeply Moving,
1 July 2013). Here, I focus on
differences between the productions.
Firstly, the atmosphere
was quite different. Rome's
Ara Coeli church had a highly decorated rich baroque interior.
The Spartan San Bevignate church has only a few recovered pieces of frescos on
millenarian stones. It seems a better fit for a story of
poor
pilgrims crossing a river in the Middle Ages.
 A scene from Britten's 'Curlew River' at Sagra Musicale Umbra. Photo © 2013 Adriano Scognamillo. Click on the image for higher resolution |
Secondly, in Rome the audience
was set in the traditional
theatre manner
and, as a result, after row five it was not easy to follow the action.
Thirdly, in Rome the conductor James
Conlon placed the small ensemble
(seven players)
on the right side of the end of Ara Coeli nave, while in Perugia, Jonathan Webb
had the percussion on
the right side just under the apse and the other six on the left: due also to
the smaller size of the church, this provided a stereophonic sound.
 A scene from Britten's 'Curlew River' at Sagra Musicale Umbra. Photo © 2013 Adriano Scognamillo. Click on the image for higher resolution |
Fourthly, in Rome, the stage
director (Mario Martone) opted for a highly stylized approach,
whilst in Perugia Andrea De Rosa provided a very dramatic
action: the audience could almost see the river (a sand platform), the ferry
boat, the tempest (a
sudden opening of
the main door on a windy night).
The main difference was the 'Madwoman' (the main protagonist of
the drama);
in Rome she was cast as a poor beggar, in Perugia as an aristocratic looking lady
dressed in a flashy red kimono wearing white make-up and a band covering her
eyes that made her completely blind -- a very dramatic effect.
Vocally,
in Rome the four main characters
were all native English
speakers, in Perugia only Mark Milhofer was British
but the others (Raffaele Del Savio, Mauro Borgioni, Roberto Abbondanza) also
had good diction.
It was a very moving performance. Britten's tonal music merges with Japanese
themes, achieving many different musical tints -- from Gregorian
chant in the initial chorus to
the celestial peace of the final bars.
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento