patrikpen: Pity for the Misbegotten in M&V 8 November 2017

domenica 7 gennaio 2018

Pity for the Misbegotten in M&V 8 November 2017

Pity for the Misbegotten

Salvatore Sciarrino's opera 'Superflumina',
reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

Palermo's Teatro Massimo should be given a special award for having brought Salvatore Sciarrino's Superflumina to Italy, as part of a festival to celebrate the Italian composer's seventieth birthday. The festival included all Sciarrino's compositions for flute and other concertos, including one for one hundred saxophones in motion. I saw and heard Superflumina on 4 November 2017.

Sciarrino is one of the most important contemporary composers and I have previously reviewed some of his works here — 'A Modern Tragedy', 20 June 2016, 'Old and New', 28 July 2016, 'Dramatic Temperament', 9 April 2015, and 'Chamber Opera', 22 October 2012. Superflumina was commissioned by Mannheim's National Theater and had its debut there in 2011. It has been seen in other European opera houses. This one act opera of about an hour and forty five minutes requires a huge orchestra with electronics for stereophonic effect, a dramatic soprano, a countertenor, a baritone and a few other singers in minor parts. It is inspired by Elizabeth Smart's By Grand Central Station I sat down and wept, a novel based on Psalms 136/137 of the Bible — Super Flumina Babylonis, about the loneliness of the misfits. It is almost a religious opera which Pope Francis may appreciate.

The train station at twilight in Salvatore Sciarrino's 'Superflumina' at Teatro Massimo di Palermo. Photo © 2017 Rosellina Garbo

The plot is very simple and does not really have a dramatic development. At twilight, a woman wanders in a big train station. People pass by in a hurry (to catch trains), push her and even insult her, whilst the loudspeakers announce delays and technical problems. Night falls and the station empties. Just a few people, mostly misbegotten like the woman, remain there. Among these, the woman finds a young man, but she is awaiting someone else (a former husband or lover); she and the young man do not get close — they separate, each going their own way. Lonely in the night, the woman sings three songs which describe the search for food in the trash cans, sleep amongst cardboard and bottles that roll around, parasites in the filthy station and the disdain the outcasts face on a daily basis. One night a policeman arrives, but shows no compassion for her suffering. One hears distant voices telling about hidden nocturnal encounters, and the loudspeakers continue to make announcements. As the day breaks, the station gets busy, but the woman is still alone and continues to call the man she has been waiting for in vain.

The train station, bystanders and Valentina Coladonato as the woman, when night is falling, in Salvatore Sciarrino's 'Superflumina' at Teatro Massimo di Palermo. Photo © 2017 Rosellina Garbo. Click on the image for higher resolution

This short story provides Sciarrino with an orchestral, vocal and choral score full of pity. The orchestral score is atonal but eclectic with a strong role for the woodwind, especially flutes, and the percussion. Electroacoustics is used for the announcements that counterpoint both the voices and orchestra. Tito Ceccherini, a young conductor who was leading the orchestra in Mannheim in 2011, is very attentive to emphasize the richness of timbres and colors of the score. Like in a Greek tragedy, the choral part, led by Piero Monti and Salvatore Punturo, comments on the action more than participating in it.

Along this orchestral and choral platform, the vocal writing goes from simple dialogue to melologue, from sprechgesang to arioso — the first song — and the ballad — the second and the third songs. It is a real tour de force for the protagonist, Valentina Coladonato, always on stage, singing and acting. All the others were quite good.

The train station at night, in Salvatore Sciarrino's 'Superflumina' at Teatro Massimo di Palermo. Photo © 2017 Rosellina Garbo

The real coup de théâtre was the staging by Rafael R Villalobos. The orchestra seats had been taken away. In half of the vast space was the orchestra with its electroacoustic tools, and in the other half, the train station. On the proscenium, the chorus and the protagonist when singing the three songs. The audience was in the boxes and in the upper tier.

Valentina Coladonato as the woman in the train station at dawn, in Salvatore Sciarrino's 'Superflumina' at Teatro Massimo di Palermo. Photo © 2017 Rosellina Garbo. Click on the image for higher resolution

There is renewed interest for contemporary music in Palermo, with the ambition of getting back to the level of the Settimane Internazionali Nuova Musica, which placed this city at the avant-garde in Italy in the 1960s.

Whilst Superflumina was warmly applauded by the young audience and in general by those in the boxes, there were some boos from the upper tiers by spectators with a great affection for Rigoletto and Bohème.