patrikpen: Modernizing Monteverdi and Mozart in M&V 16 November 2017

domenica 7 gennaio 2018

Modernizing Monteverdi and Mozart in M&V 16 November 2017

Modernizing Monteverdi and Mozart

GIUSEPPE PENNISI experiences
two very different performances

On 11 and 12 November 2017, I saw and heard two different attempts — with different objectives and different outcomes — to 'modernize' Monteverdi and Mozart. The former was staged in the Teatro Palladio — an elegant structure built in the nineteen thirties in what used to be a low cost residential area of Rome. The latter in the huge Teatro Olimpico on the bank of the Tiber.

Fighting is a one hour opera by three composers: Giorgio Battistelli (born in 1953), Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) and Claudio Ambrosini (born in 1948). The opera was the inaugural event of the fifty fourth Nuova Consonanza Festival. Nuova Consonanza is one of the most active experimental music associations in Rome; this 2017 festival includes twenty one concerts, all with new compositions.

In Fighting, a number for two percussionists by Giorgio Battistelli — Orazi e Curiazi, composed in 1996 — is merged with the well known Monteverdi Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (composed in 1624), which is followed by Ambrosini's Tancredi appresso il combattimento — commissioned by the festival, and thus commissioned in 2017. The merger is perfect: Battistelli's percussion piece creates the atmosphere of the battle, Monteverdi's Combattimento describes the fight. Ambrosini's conclusion is about Tancredi's desperate love for Clorinda, whom he killed in the fight.

Two dancers - Daniele Toti as Tancredi and Silvia Pinna as Clorinda - in 'Combattimenti' (Fighting) at the Teatro Palladium in Rome. The singers are in the pit. Photo © 2017 Marta Cantarelli. Click on the image for higher resolution

The stage direction by Cesare Scarton, the three singers — Sabrina Cortese, Daniele Adriani and Roberto Abbondanza — and the two ensembles — Tetraktis Percussioni and Ensemble in Canto — help to create a very sophisticated short opera. It is not a collage or pastiche, as was used in baroque times, but a fully integrated opera where the listener does not feel the differences in time and culture between the three composers. The sophisticated Nuova Consonanza audience was enthralled. In fact Fighting is a masterpiece which deserves to tour through Italy and abroad as well as to be recorded on CD and DVD.

Don Giovanni secondo l'orchestra di Piazza Vittorio was totally different. Albeit in the center of Rome, Piazza Vittorio is a multi-ethnic area where Italians are in a distinct minority, The multi-ethnic orchestra, founded by Mario Tronco, started in 2002. Since then, it has adapted three operas to its own style: The Magic Flute, Carmen and now Don Giovanni. Produced by the Accademia Filarmomica Romana, Don Giovanni had its debut in Lyon at Festival Les nuits de Fourvière on 13 June 2017, and was an instant success in France.

Omar Lopez Valle as Leporello, Mama Marjas as Zerlina, Simona Boo as Donna Anna, Hersi Matmuja as Donna Elvira and Evandro Dos Reis as Don Ottavio in 'Don Giovanni secondo l'orchestra di Piazza Vittorio' at the Teatro Olimpico in Rome. At the reviewed performance, Omar Lopez Valle was sick, and was replaced by Dario Clotoli. Photo © 2017 Manuela Giusto. Click on the image for higher resolution

This is not a new production of Mozart's masterpiece in the proper sense. While Da Ponte's libretto is broadly followed and some of the major arias or ensemble pieces are sung, Don Giovanni secondo l'orchestra di Piazza Vittorio is an adaptation of the opera to a musical comedy. The orchestra is the jazz band and the musicians also sing and dance. Don Giovanni is not a baritone but a coloratura soprano (Petra Magoni) and behaves like Cab Collaway in a 1920s music club. The singers come from different countries and often sing in their own languages — Italian, French, Portuguese and Arabic; the surtitles are in Italian and follow Da Ponte's text.

Petra Magoni as Don Giovanni with the rest of the principals in 'Don Giovanni secondo l'orchestra di Piazza Vittorio' at the Teatro Olimpico in Rome. Photo © 2017 Manuela Giusto. Click on the image for higher resolution

The performance lasts ninety minutes without intermission. It is not quite a parody of the opera, but there is a lot of irony. The intention is clearly to entertain. Judging by the laughs and the applauses, the audience certainly had a lot of fun. At this round some fifteen performances are scheduled. Most are sold out. A revival is possible later in the year.