Troubles in Florence in Music and Vision 2 maggio

Troubles in Florence

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino's 'Fidelio'
is performed under difficult conditions,
described by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

At its seventy-eighth edition, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (MMF) is one of the oldest and most respected Italian music festivals. This year, it lasts from 27 April to 28 June and features four operas, several symphony and chamber music concerts, as well as a section on cinema and lyric art. Nonetheless, the MMF has been having two major problems for the last several years: its original mission ('to rediscover forgotten masterpieces and present them along with new works') appears lost (as well as that of inviting visual artists for the sets) and huge financial deficits have required several direct Government interventions. Meanwhile, a new technologically advanced thirty million euro theatre has been built whilst the audience seems to be declining steadily, also because other theatres in Tuscany are gaining ground. Florence too has at least three other theatres where operas and concerts can be performed, and a dwindling population of now less than four-hundred-thousand residents. No major efforts have been made to attract groups of tourists to the operas and concerts being performed.

The Foyer of Opera di Firenze / Maggio Musicale Fiorentino on 27 April 2015. Photo © 2015 Simone Donati. Click on the image for higher resolution

This seventy-eighth MMF offers three frequently staged operas (Fidelio, Candide and The Turn of the Screw), and an opera seldom performed in Italy — Pelléas et Mélisande) as well as a rich series of concerts with important conductors but a rather conservative repertory. The MMF is run by a well-known and well-respected chartered accountant and banker, but it does not have an artistic director (even though Zubin Mehta carries the high flying tile of 'honorary music director for life').

Zubin Mehta conducts Beethoven's 'Fidelio' in Florence. Photo © 2015 Simone Donati. Click on the image for higher resolution

To make things worse, the MMF has a tradition of very fragmented but very combative unions. In order not to have to declare bankruptcy, the MMF had to ask special government support once more last year; such assistance is linked to a reorganization plan which involves transferring fifty-two administrative and technical staff to a government cultural agency — no-one will be dismissed. They went on strike during the MMF opening week.

The prisoners' chorus and scene in Act I of Beethoven's 'Fidelio' in Florence. Photo © 2015 Simone Donati. Click on the image for higher resolution

Thus, Fidelio was performed with the sets of the prison scene on stage — this was on when the strike started, without lighting and without supertitles. No wonder that at nearly two hundred euros a seat, quite a few rows were empty. Furthermore, this is neither a new production nor a recent staging. This Fidelio was premiered in 2006 in Valencia where it was performed again in 2014; a DVD is available and has been shown several times on Italian and foreign TV stations. It is a rather old production by Pier'Allì based on huge sets and quite melodramatic acting. The MMF has a newer production by Robert Carsen, commissioned and staged in 2003.

Stephen Milling as Rocco, Ann Virovlansky as Marzelline and Ausrine Stundyte as Fidelio/Leonora in the Act I trio of Beethoven's 'Fidelio' in Florence. Photo © 2015 Simone Donati. Click on the image for higher resolution

It must be said that Mehta, the singers, the chorus and the orchestra did their best on 27 April 2015 to save an evening that appeared disastrous from the word 'go': the Head of State, the Premier and many foreign dignitaries had cancelled their attendance.

Eike Wilm Schulte as Don Fernando and chorus in the Act II finale of Beethoven's 'Fidelio' in Florence. Photo © 2015 Simone Donati. Click on the image for higher resolution

Mehta's baton was very different from Daniel Barenboim's solemn and slow conducting at the La Scala 2014-15 opening evening a few months ago (The Ambiguity of Fidelio, 13 December 2014). The Singspiel appears divided into three sections: a quasi-Mozartian comedy from the short introduction up to Leonore Abscheulicher's recitative and aria; a highly dramatic and tense drama until the conclusion of the prison scene; and, after the Leonore No 3 overture during the changing of the sets, a heroic anthem, almost recalling Spontini's imperial operas. In the cast, Ausrine Stundyte excels as Leonore whilst I would have preferred Florestan, sung by Burkhard Fritz, with a darker timbre and a stronger high range. All the other principals — Eike Wilm Schulte, Evgeny Nikitin, Stephen Milling, Ann Virovlansky and Karl Michael Ebner — were good. Mehta, the chorus and the orchestra deserved the ovations at the curtain calls for the difficult conditions in which they had to perform.

Copyright © 2 May 2015 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy