A Precursor to Decadentism
Tchaikovsky's 'Iolanta' in Florence,
reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI
reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI
Once more, in dealing with the May Music Festival in Florence, we have to recall that the event is in very severe financial stringency and has piled up a
major debt. (See Troubles in Florence, 2
May 2015 and 6 May 2013.) This year
the festival lasts two months but features only two fully staged operas (Tchaikovsky's Iolanta
and Britten's Albert Herring) and
the world premiere of an opera in a concert version (Vacchi's Lo Specchio
Magico) for only one evening, as well as a large number of
symphonic and chamber concerts. Albert Herring is the
only new opera production; Iolanta
is imported from the New York Metropolitan Opera House and Warsaw Weilki Opera House. Both Iolanta
and Albert Herring are seldom performed in Italy, however Iolanta has
been produced by several major theatres. Albert Herring
travelled to a few opera houses in the South
as recently as ten years ago. Neither of them, however, seems to fit the
festival's mission of rediscovering past forgotten masterpieces.
 Vsevolod Grivnov as Robert and Victoria Yastrebova in the title role of Tchaikovsky's 'Iolanta' at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Photo © 2016 Simone Donati. Click on the image for higher resolution |
I was in Florence on 30 April 2016 for the matinée performance of Iolanta.
Tchaikovsky's last opera is in a one act, and was planned as a double bill to be
staged together with the ballet The
Nutcracker. Both the opera and the ballet belong to
the realm of fairy tales. They were composed while Tchaikovsky was also
working at the Sixth Symphony and was having the worst period in his life; he lost his main source of financial
support, and he was under accusation for his sexual affairs with boys of the aristocracy. After a father filed a complaint with the
Czar because the composer had seduced his
fourteen-year-old son, Tchaikovsky's friends were pressing him to commit suicide. And he did.
 Alexei Tanovitski as Re René in Tchaikovsky's 'Iolanta' at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Photo © 2016 Simone Donati. Click on the image for higher resolution |
These very serious emotional aspects are quite evident in
the Sixth Symphony but hardly transpire in the plot of the blind princess of
Provence, who in fourteenth century Southern France, is convinced that all human beings cannot see. She
travels from darkness to light, thanks to the love of a knight. It is a journey with a happy ending, an
anthem to the Glory of God Almighty.
 Mzia Nioradze as Marta, Victoria Yastrebova as Iolanta, Maria Stasiak as Brigitta and Irina Zhytynska as Laura in Tchaikovsky's 'Iolanta' at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Photo © 2016 Simone Donati. Click on the image for higher resolution |
Iolanta does not
please all musicologists. For example, Richard Taruskin states that the 'magic in this opera is to be found
in its decorative colors' and that the rest is 'quite routine'. Nonetheless,
the dramatic confrontations and the arias achieved an independent recital stage popularity. In my view,
with its chromatic orchestral score, mixed with Italianate vocal
numbers, Iolanta is to be seen and heard as a precursor to decadentism,
ie which would have led to Claude Debussy's Pelléas
et Mélisande. Tchaikovsky is the Russian musician who most looks westward, even
though most of his operas have a national subject and are based on national
literature.
 Victoria Yastrebova in the title role of Tchaikovsky's 'Iolanta' at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Photo © 2016 Simone Donati. Click on the image for higher resolution |
The production by Marius Trelińsli and his associates (Boris Kudlićka for
stage sets, Marek Adamski for costumes and Marc Heinz for lighting) updates the setting to a central European forest in the nineteen
forties and makes it a 'dark comedy'. The choice had a logic at the Met and in Warsaw when Iolanta
was in a double bill with Béla Bartók's Bluebeard's
Castle but is less meaningful when the opera is performed as a stand-alone
piece. Nonetheless, the stage sets, projections and costumes are quite well
conceived and provide a good atmosphere for the
Princess' loneliness. However, they miss the point in the final scene which remains dark (with the
exception of the center stage) while the libretto and music are an anthem to
the Light.
 Elchin Azizov as Ibn Hakia and Victoria Yastrebova in the title role of Tchaikovsky's 'Iolanta' at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Photo © 2016 Simone Donati. Click on the image for higher resolution |
Young Russian conductor Stanislav Kochanovsky was a
real surprise for the skills he
demonstrated in dealing with the complex score and in providing the
atmosphere, colors and tints it requires. The singers were generally good but not
exceptional. The title role was sung by Victoria Yastrebova, a rather accurate
soprano but without the vocal and acting personalities of Anna Netrebko or of
Svetla Vassilleva, who I had heard in Rome in the same part. The men's
group, especially Ilya Bannik, Vsevolod Grivnov and Elchin Azizov were of very
high standard, whilst the girls in Iolanta's court and her
nurse were at the professional level of a central or eastern
European opera house.
 Mateusz Zajdel as Almerique in Tchaikovsky's 'Iolanta' at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Photo © 2016 Simone Donati. Click on the image for higher resolution |
The brand new large theatre seats 1,800. It was half
full. There was some open stage applause. Also, at the end, there was
applause but not excitement.
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