An Unusual Reading
GIUSEPPE PENNISI experiences
an icy Paris/Milan production
of Monteverdi's 'L'incoronazione di Poppea'
One of Stéphane Lissner's
main projects is now completed: a joint philological production of Claudio Monteverdi's operas (L'Orfeo, Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria
and L'incoronazione di Poppea) undertaken by Paris Opéra and La Scala. Lissner has been the superintendent of La
Scala for nearly ten years and is now the director general of Paris Opéra. The three Monteverdi titles were entrusted to two well
known hands: stage director, choreographer, set and costume designer Robert Wilson, and a specialist of the Italian Baroque, Rinaldo Alessandrini. The project started in 2009 and is completed with a series of performances of L'incoronazione di Poppea
in Milan from 1 to 27 February 2015. I attended
the 1 February opening
night.
Andrea Concetti as Senca and Luca Dordolo as Lucano in Part I of the Paris
Opera/Teatro alla Scala production of Monteverdi's 'L'incoronazione di
Poppea' at the Palais Garnier, Paris. Photo © 2014 Andrea Messana. Click on the image for higher resolution
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I have seen L'incoronazione
di Poppea several times since the early seventies when I caught, at the Washington Opera, a production originally conceived for the Long Beach Opera in California. All those stagings placed emphasis on the rise to power through erotic attraction in a merciless way.
Poppea's path to the imperial throne entails betraying her own husband Ottone, and having Nero's legitimate wife Ottavia sent into exile, causing Nero's
in-house-philosopher Seneca to commit suicide. There are also a few other misdeeds in the
short time from dawn until noon. Monteverdi was about seventy five when he composed the opera; the libretto, attributed to the lawyer and intellectual
Giovanni Battista Busenello, was intended to represent the initial downward
steps of decadence in the Republic of Venice. At that time, Venice was under the
Inquisition and Monteverdi was the Chapel Master of Saint Mark's Basilica. Sex
(often based on Greek mythological tales) and power could only be
seen in theatre. L'incoronazione di Poppea is
reported to be the first opera to be staged in a commercial theatre, normally a
make-shift building for an audience of some three- to four-hundred.
Monica Bacelli as Ottavia and Adriana di Paolo as Arnalta in Part II of the
Paris Opera/Teatro alla Scala production of Monteverdi's 'L'incoronazione di
Poppea' at the Palais Garnier, Paris. Photo © 2014 Andrea Messana. Click on the image for higher resolution
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The plot is complex and involves some twenty-five singing roles (normally a singer interprets more than one character). In short, all the productions I have seen are dense in erotic
content and treachery. The recent Oslo Opera House staging is also awash in blood.
Leonardo Cortellazzi as Nero, Miah Persson as Poppea and Silvia Frigato as
Amore in Part II of the Paris Opera/Teatro alla Scala production of
Monteverdi's 'L'incoronazione di Poppea' at the Palais Garnier, Paris. Photo
© 2014 Andrea Messana. Click on the image for higher resolution
|
The Paris Opéra/La Scala
production stands alone as an unusual reading of the text and of the score. In Robert Wilson's view, L'incoronazione
di Poppea is a sweet love story — like Mozart's Il Re Pastore. The plot evolves in
lovely tableaux vivants based, by and large, on Italian Renaissance paintings. Nero and Poppea never touch each
other. Their opponents appear as mere capricious obstacles to the passionate love of two youngsters. The scenes are extremely elegant and the action is quite well presented in a mix of acting and pantomime. However, there is no lust —
neither for sex, nor for power. The whole thing is as icy as one of the parlors
of the Howard Johnson's '28 flavors' network.
Miah Persson as Poppea, Leonardo Cortellazzi as Nero and Adriana di Paolo as
Arnalta in Part II of the Paris Opera/Teatro alla Scala production of
Monteverdi's 'L'incoronazione di Poppea' at the Palais Garnier, Paris. Photo
© 2014 Andrea Messana. Click on the image for higher resolution
|
As there are two
seventeenth
century manuscripts of
L'incoronazione di Poppea, quite
different
from one another and with only limited
orchestration,
Rinaldo Alessandrini makes his own critical edition, which is quite reasonable
because Monteverdi was heading a team of
musicians
and composed some sixty percent of the score. His right arm was
Francesco
Cavalli,
organist
of the Basilica; Cavalli (an
important
operatic
composer
on his own account) is reputed to be the
author of
the final rapturous
duet Pur
ti miro, pur ti godo. Alessandrini works with a group of
singers
specialized in
Baroque
music (Leonardo Cortellazzi, Miah Persson, Monica Bacelli and Sara Mingardo
in the
principal
roles). They do quite well but are accustomed to smaller
theatres;
in Paris the performances were held in the Opéra Garnier, smaller than La
Scala. Thus, their volumes sounded tiny.
Nonetheless, the opening night was a
success
and the audience appeared
enthusiastic.
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