UN PATTO PUÒ SERVIRE ALLA CRESCITA SOLO SE È ”AGGRESSIVO”
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Roma - E’ probabile che dopo il discorso di oggi del Presidente del Consiglio si apra un negoziato con le parti sociali in vista di un “patto” per la crescita. Prima di discuterne i contenuti e le specifiche possibili occorre risolvere due nodi: a) quale tipologia di accordo ci si appresta a negoziare; b) come si inserisce nell’”efficienza adattiva” dell’industria italiana (ossia del modo in cui le imprese del nostro Paese ‘si adattano’ all’integrazione economica internazionale e alle trasformazioni che essa comporta).
Il primo nodo è stato chiaramente individuato , circa 25 anni fa, dall’Organizzazione Internazionale del Lavoro, l’unica agenzia internazionale nei cui organi di governo siedono i rappresentanti delle confederazioni sindacali mondiali. Ci sono due vaste categorie di “patti”: quelli “difensivi” – diretti a tutelare l’esistente (a volte con un occhio rivolto al passato) - e quelli “aggressivi” – diretti, invece, a facilitare l’adattamento ad un contesto in rapida evoluzione e, se possibile, a far da guida al cambiamento. In Italia, il ciampiano Patto di San Tommaso del 1993 ed il prodiano Accordo di Natale del 1998 sono esempi della prima categoria, mentre il Patto di San Valentino del 1984 Protocollo sul Welfare del 2007 contengono cenni della seconda.
Del secondo nodo, in Italia co-esistono due modelli, distinti tra loro e per certi aspetti contrapposti. Il primo è quello importato negli Anni Ottanta dalle Isole nipponiche in molti Paesi europei (anche in Francia ed in Germania): in giapponese esiste un termine kaizen, evoluzione graduale e progressiva ma all’insegna della tradizione aziendale e della continuità. Le medie imprese seguono, invece, un altro modello – ben individuato dall’economista inglese D.H. Pyle nei “distretti” dell’Italia centrale e della costiera adriatica e ionica: mutamento tramite discontinuità in stile anglosassone – ossia cambiamenti secchi caratterizzati da segnali forti a tutti gli interessati (dipendenti in primo luogo).
Chiaramente un’intesa su come sciogliere il primo nodo è la premessa per risolvere il secondo e porre le basi per delineare i contenuti di un eventuale “patto” . Il passato non può cambiare, ma non può neanche tornare. Un “patto” difensivo è votato al fallimento, come lo sono stati il Patto di San Tommaso del 1993 e l’Accordo di Natale del 1998. Occorre oggi un “patto” molto più aggressivo di quello, limitato peraltro al welfare, di circa cinque anni fa: un “patto” che promuova meritocrazia, mobilità sociale, disponibilità al mutamento di mansioni e di sede di lavoro, con l’obiettivo di portare l’industria italiana in posizione di leadership non di traino
.
La Fiat, al pari di molte altre grandi imprese italiane, è stata per decenni una delle cariatidi del kaizen. Per questo motivo, Sergio Marchionne ha inteso dare forti segni di discontinuità . Alla discontinuità i fautori delle vecchie prassi potranno irrigidirsi, non solo da parte sindacale, e rendere il nodo ancora più stretto. Abbiamo fiducia nel detto napoleonico: “L’intendenza seguirà”.
(Giuseppe Pennisi) 03 Agosto 2011 19:34
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mercoledì 3 agosto 2011
martedì 2 agosto 2011
E ora Usa e Ue hanno abbandonato la “globalizzazione” in Il Sussidiario del 3 agosto
E ora Usa e Ue hanno abbandonato la “globalizzazione”
Giuseppe Pennisi
mercoledì 3 agosto 2011
Foto Imagoeconomica
Approfondisci
FINANZA/ Pelanda: da Londra e Usa l’attacco all’Italia che spaventa l’euro
FINANZA/ Bertone: Italia in crisi, chi pagherà il conto?
Nel disinteresse della stampa europea (presa dai problemi di finanza internazionale e del debito sovrano dei singoli paesi) è stato presentato il 27 luglio a Bankgok il World Trade Report 2011, un volume compendioso e difficile da digerire, anche in quanto i sunti prodotti dall’Organizzazione mondiale del commercio (Omc/Wto) sono anche essi ampi e di non facile lettura per coloro che, almeno una volta nella vita, non sono stati barracuda-esperti di commercio internazionale.
Dall’analisi del documento si trae un quadro sconfortante: stiamo tornando a una frammentazione del commercio mondiale analoga a quella che ha caratterizzato il periodo tra le due guerre mondiali (quando, tuttavia, il combinato disposto di controlli valutari unilaterali e fluttuazioni tra monete aveva, nel complesso, l’effetto di temperarne gli effetti depressivi sulla crescita mondiale).
All’origine del groviglio non ci sono misure protezionistiche dei singoli paesi o delle singole aree commerciali, ma un reticolo di circa 300 accordi preferenziali “approfonditi” (in quanto spesso riguardano non solo dazi, tariffe e quel po’ che è rimasto di contingenti, ma anche regolazione in materia di scambi di servizi bancari e assicurativi, nonché telecomunicazioni e di altri comparti ad alta tecnologia). In gergo, vengono chiamati “Deep preferential trade agreements” (Dpta).
Mediamente ciascun Stato membro dell’Omc/Wto ha sottoscritto 13 Dpta; l’area dove sono più diffusi è il sud-est asiatico, dove i Pdta vengono visti come parte di un percorso per giungere, nell’arco di un decennio, a una zona di libero scambio nella regione. L’economista giordano Adbul Latif Salleh, non associato all’OmC/Wto, ha pubblicato di recente uno studio in cui dimostra come i Dpta (di cui è un entusiasta proponente) abbiano facilitato l’industria elettronica di numerosi paesi asiatici sotto il profilo sia della produzione, sia dell’innovazione. Uno dei “maestri” della teoria del commercio internazionale, Jagdish Bhagwati (della Columbia University di New York) ha invece pubblicato su un centinaio di testate il 26 luglio (ossia la vigilia della presentazione del documento), un articolo per sostenere che i Dpta sono “il modo sbagliato” per liberalizzare il commercio.
Dato che, come si è visto, tutti gli stati membri dell’Omc/Wto sono coinvolti, in vario modo, in Dpta, il documento prende una posizione pilatesca, ossia tenta di lavarsi le mani spiegando i pregi (i Dpta come risultato dei cambiamenti della struttura mondiale di produzione e come veicolo contro protezionismi ancora peggiori) e i difetti (distorsioni commerciali di vario tipo) degli accordi senza prendere una chiara posizione in materia. Il Direttore generale dell’Omc/Wto, il francese Pascal Lamy (a lungo Capo di Gabinetto di Jacques Delors) scansa il nodo di fondo: la coerenza e la compatibilità dei Dpta con i principi della reciprocità e non discriminazione alla base della liberalizzazione del commercio mondiale.
L’Unione europea e a maggior ragione l’eurozona (con gli addentellati di Stati associati all’Ue o in qualche modo con monete agganciate all’euro) sono precursori dei Dpta sorti negli ultimi tempi. Al momento della creazione di quello che sarebbe stato il mercato comune europeo e della conclusione degli accordi di associazione con le ex-colonie, ci fu un intenso dibattito in seno al Gatt (che precedeva l’Omc/Wto e al pari di quest’ultimo si basava sui principi di reciprocità e non discriminazione).
Il relatore fu Alexandre Lamfalussy, allora giovane economista che sarebbe poi stato la guida dell’Istituto monetario europeo (predecessore della Banca centrale europea). Lamfalussy mise a punto un interessante modello econometrico da cui si giunse alla conclusione che il mercato comune europeo sarebbe stato “trade creating” (avrebbe creato commercio mondiale, al netto delle preferenze nell’area) non “trade diverting” (causa di distorsioni). Non sono state fatte analisi analoghe per i numerosissimi altri Dpta.
Cosa si può fare? Mico Apostolov della Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna di Pisa sostiene che l’Ue deve e può prendere l’iniziativa poiché è il maggior blocco commerciale del mondo. Quindi, ha titolo per farsi ascoltare negli organi di governo dell’Omc/Wto. Forse, però, è adesso in tutt’altre faccende affaccendata. Gli Usa, dal canto loro, non riescono neanche a fare ratificare dal Congresso gli accordi bilaterali con Corea, Colombia e Panama firmati ai tempi dell’Amministrazione Bush. Illusorio, quindi, contare su Washington.
Giuseppe Pennisi
mercoledì 3 agosto 2011
Foto Imagoeconomica
Approfondisci
FINANZA/ Pelanda: da Londra e Usa l’attacco all’Italia che spaventa l’euro
FINANZA/ Bertone: Italia in crisi, chi pagherà il conto?
Nel disinteresse della stampa europea (presa dai problemi di finanza internazionale e del debito sovrano dei singoli paesi) è stato presentato il 27 luglio a Bankgok il World Trade Report 2011, un volume compendioso e difficile da digerire, anche in quanto i sunti prodotti dall’Organizzazione mondiale del commercio (Omc/Wto) sono anche essi ampi e di non facile lettura per coloro che, almeno una volta nella vita, non sono stati barracuda-esperti di commercio internazionale.
Dall’analisi del documento si trae un quadro sconfortante: stiamo tornando a una frammentazione del commercio mondiale analoga a quella che ha caratterizzato il periodo tra le due guerre mondiali (quando, tuttavia, il combinato disposto di controlli valutari unilaterali e fluttuazioni tra monete aveva, nel complesso, l’effetto di temperarne gli effetti depressivi sulla crescita mondiale).
All’origine del groviglio non ci sono misure protezionistiche dei singoli paesi o delle singole aree commerciali, ma un reticolo di circa 300 accordi preferenziali “approfonditi” (in quanto spesso riguardano non solo dazi, tariffe e quel po’ che è rimasto di contingenti, ma anche regolazione in materia di scambi di servizi bancari e assicurativi, nonché telecomunicazioni e di altri comparti ad alta tecnologia). In gergo, vengono chiamati “Deep preferential trade agreements” (Dpta).
Mediamente ciascun Stato membro dell’Omc/Wto ha sottoscritto 13 Dpta; l’area dove sono più diffusi è il sud-est asiatico, dove i Pdta vengono visti come parte di un percorso per giungere, nell’arco di un decennio, a una zona di libero scambio nella regione. L’economista giordano Adbul Latif Salleh, non associato all’OmC/Wto, ha pubblicato di recente uno studio in cui dimostra come i Dpta (di cui è un entusiasta proponente) abbiano facilitato l’industria elettronica di numerosi paesi asiatici sotto il profilo sia della produzione, sia dell’innovazione. Uno dei “maestri” della teoria del commercio internazionale, Jagdish Bhagwati (della Columbia University di New York) ha invece pubblicato su un centinaio di testate il 26 luglio (ossia la vigilia della presentazione del documento), un articolo per sostenere che i Dpta sono “il modo sbagliato” per liberalizzare il commercio.
Dato che, come si è visto, tutti gli stati membri dell’Omc/Wto sono coinvolti, in vario modo, in Dpta, il documento prende una posizione pilatesca, ossia tenta di lavarsi le mani spiegando i pregi (i Dpta come risultato dei cambiamenti della struttura mondiale di produzione e come veicolo contro protezionismi ancora peggiori) e i difetti (distorsioni commerciali di vario tipo) degli accordi senza prendere una chiara posizione in materia. Il Direttore generale dell’Omc/Wto, il francese Pascal Lamy (a lungo Capo di Gabinetto di Jacques Delors) scansa il nodo di fondo: la coerenza e la compatibilità dei Dpta con i principi della reciprocità e non discriminazione alla base della liberalizzazione del commercio mondiale.
L’Unione europea e a maggior ragione l’eurozona (con gli addentellati di Stati associati all’Ue o in qualche modo con monete agganciate all’euro) sono precursori dei Dpta sorti negli ultimi tempi. Al momento della creazione di quello che sarebbe stato il mercato comune europeo e della conclusione degli accordi di associazione con le ex-colonie, ci fu un intenso dibattito in seno al Gatt (che precedeva l’Omc/Wto e al pari di quest’ultimo si basava sui principi di reciprocità e non discriminazione).
Il relatore fu Alexandre Lamfalussy, allora giovane economista che sarebbe poi stato la guida dell’Istituto monetario europeo (predecessore della Banca centrale europea). Lamfalussy mise a punto un interessante modello econometrico da cui si giunse alla conclusione che il mercato comune europeo sarebbe stato “trade creating” (avrebbe creato commercio mondiale, al netto delle preferenze nell’area) non “trade diverting” (causa di distorsioni). Non sono state fatte analisi analoghe per i numerosissimi altri Dpta.
Cosa si può fare? Mico Apostolov della Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna di Pisa sostiene che l’Ue deve e può prendere l’iniziativa poiché è il maggior blocco commerciale del mondo. Quindi, ha titolo per farsi ascoltare negli organi di governo dell’Omc/Wto. Forse, però, è adesso in tutt’altre faccende affaccendata. Gli Usa, dal canto loro, non riescono neanche a fare ratificare dal Congresso gli accordi bilaterali con Corea, Colombia e Panama firmati ai tempi dell’Amministrazione Bush. Illusorio, quindi, contare su Washington.
lunedì 1 agosto 2011
PUCCINI PIANGE NELLA TOMBA : CHE FIGURA PER L’ITALIA in Il Riformista 2 agosto
PUCCINI PIANGE NELLA TOMBA : CHE FIGURA PER L’ITALIA
Beckmesser
Per accertare le voci secondo cui in quella cappella funebre a Torre del Lago, i resti di Giacomo Puccini rumoreggerebbero per dare segno di quanto il compositore è inalberato, un politico di rango con alcuni amici, si è riunito in villino nei pressi di Modena per ascoltare il compianto. La parapsicologia – lo si sa – appassiona il politico in questione (che molti vorrebbero considerare ex-tutto) e pare abbia interessato anche Puccini. In effetti, il compositore (le cui ire da vivo erano ben note) si è inalberato da morto perché all’Arcus, spa controllata dal Ministero dei Beni Culturali, si sarebbero “dimenticati” di mettere il festival annuale (ora alla 57sima edizione) delle sue opere nella programmazione 2010 (creando un orrendo buco di bilancio) e non si sa se ne ricorderanno nella programmazione 2011 (siamo già in agosto!). “Che figuraccia per l’Italia”, avrebbe detto il compositore (noto nazionalista e tessera n.2 della federazione di Viareggio del Partito nazionale fascista). “Vedo arresti”, avrebbe aggiunto la medium, precisando “di carriera”. Lo spirito di un rigoroso Ministro del Tesoro, a lungo professore di economia, sarebbe intervenuto: “è una determinante aggiuntiva dello scoramento dei mercato”, aggiungendo: “ai miei tempi, i Ministeri funzionavano perché gli impiegati che non vincevano concorsi pubblici a dirigente, restavano tali e non arrivavano ai piani alti”. Frasi incomplete che forse solo al Collegio Romano possono essere comprese. Per trarne le lezioni del caso.
La “figuraccia” consiste nel fatto che alla buona notizia che il Festival si tiene (22 luglio- 3 settembre: tre opere, balletti, concerti) fa riscontro quella che sono Cina, Giappone, Francia ed una coalizione di teatri del centro e del nord del Paese a sostenerlo; altro motivo di sconforto nei confronti dell’Italia delle distrazioni.
La vera sorpresa è il nuovo allestimento di “La Bohème”. Viene da Hong-Kong, dove ha trionfato; farà un tour in Cina dove negli ultimi anni sono stati costruiti una trentina di teatri per mettere in scena opere, drammi in musical e commedia musicale “all’europea” (i cinesi ne vanno pazzi). Non si escludono riprese in vari teatri italiano ed europei (la Spagna è molto interessata). Con un colpo di maestria, regista (Maurizio Di Mattia), scenografo (Maurizio Varano) e la costumista (Anna Biagiotti) spostano l’azione dal 1830 all’inizio del Novecento, sotto i piedi di un’immensa Torre Eiffel. Intensa e commovente la recitazione anche a ragione della giovane età e dell’avvenenza dei cantanti – attori. Efficace la concertazione di Alberto Veronesi anche se all’aperto è difficile gustare le raffinata orchestrazione. Ottimo il cast vocale: Donata D’Annunzio Lombardi e Aquiles Machado hanno ricevuto applausi a scena aperta e vere e proprie ovazioni. Dopo diversi anni di servizio a Torre del Lago ed altrove, il precedente allestimento non va in pensione e non viene rottamato. Lo prende Nizza, aiutando così e Puccini e il suo Festival.
La seconda opera in programma è una ripresa colossale edizione di “Turandot” (regia di Maurizio Scaparro, scene di Ezio Frigerio, costumi di Franca Scquarciapino, direzione musicale di Kery Lynn Wilson) approntata per il 150simo anniversario della nascita del compositore.La si vedrà anche a Pisa, Lucca, Mantova, Ferrara ed altri teatri che hanno noleggiato la produzione , risparmiando loro e contribuendo alle finanze del Festival. Si alternano vari cast. La sera in cui la ascoltata il vostro chroniqueur, Kery Lynn Wilson ha concertato ottimamente la difficile partitura ed il coro diretto da Stefano Visconti merita un doveroso omaggio. Di grande livello, la Turandot di Antonia Cifrone , (perché non canta un po’ più nei grandi teatri italiani?) ed il Timur di Carlo Colombara. Ottimi Roberto Accursio, Aldo Orsolini e Nicola Pamio nei ruoli di Ping, Pong e Pang. Perfetta l’emissione della giovanissima Satomi Ogawa ma troppo piccolo il volume per un teatro all’aperto di 3000 posti. Ed il Calaf di Piero Giuliacci? Non era in una delle sue serate migliori ma è cresciuto nel corso dello spettacolo
Terzo titolo in cartellone “Madame Butterfly” in un allestimento che viene da uno dei maggiori teatri d’opera giapponesi. La prima a Torre del Lago è il 6 agosto La regia, le scene ed i costumi sono di tre grandi nomi giapponesi (Takao Okamura, Naoji Kawaguchi, Yashiro Chiji). Giapponesi anche Cio Cio San e Suzuki (Sakiko Ninomiya e Kimiko Suehiro), nonché i numerosi personaggi minori. Un gradito ritorno in Italia di Marcello Bedoni- c’è chi lo ricorda ancora giovanissimo ne “L’Elisir d’Amore” a Spoleto e “La Sonnambula” a Catania prima che finisse in Germania in quanto Sovrintendenti e direttori artistici parevano averlo obliato. Sharpless è il buon Sergio Bologna. Concerta uno dei giovani enfant prodige italiani della bacchetta: Valerio Galli. In breve, appuntamento da non mancare. Puccini ne sarà contento e sarà misericordioso nei confronti di carrieristi dalla memoria debole poiché “in troppe altre faccende, affaccendati”.
Beckmesser
Per accertare le voci secondo cui in quella cappella funebre a Torre del Lago, i resti di Giacomo Puccini rumoreggerebbero per dare segno di quanto il compositore è inalberato, un politico di rango con alcuni amici, si è riunito in villino nei pressi di Modena per ascoltare il compianto. La parapsicologia – lo si sa – appassiona il politico in questione (che molti vorrebbero considerare ex-tutto) e pare abbia interessato anche Puccini. In effetti, il compositore (le cui ire da vivo erano ben note) si è inalberato da morto perché all’Arcus, spa controllata dal Ministero dei Beni Culturali, si sarebbero “dimenticati” di mettere il festival annuale (ora alla 57sima edizione) delle sue opere nella programmazione 2010 (creando un orrendo buco di bilancio) e non si sa se ne ricorderanno nella programmazione 2011 (siamo già in agosto!). “Che figuraccia per l’Italia”, avrebbe detto il compositore (noto nazionalista e tessera n.2 della federazione di Viareggio del Partito nazionale fascista). “Vedo arresti”, avrebbe aggiunto la medium, precisando “di carriera”. Lo spirito di un rigoroso Ministro del Tesoro, a lungo professore di economia, sarebbe intervenuto: “è una determinante aggiuntiva dello scoramento dei mercato”, aggiungendo: “ai miei tempi, i Ministeri funzionavano perché gli impiegati che non vincevano concorsi pubblici a dirigente, restavano tali e non arrivavano ai piani alti”. Frasi incomplete che forse solo al Collegio Romano possono essere comprese. Per trarne le lezioni del caso.
La “figuraccia” consiste nel fatto che alla buona notizia che il Festival si tiene (22 luglio- 3 settembre: tre opere, balletti, concerti) fa riscontro quella che sono Cina, Giappone, Francia ed una coalizione di teatri del centro e del nord del Paese a sostenerlo; altro motivo di sconforto nei confronti dell’Italia delle distrazioni.
La vera sorpresa è il nuovo allestimento di “La Bohème”. Viene da Hong-Kong, dove ha trionfato; farà un tour in Cina dove negli ultimi anni sono stati costruiti una trentina di teatri per mettere in scena opere, drammi in musical e commedia musicale “all’europea” (i cinesi ne vanno pazzi). Non si escludono riprese in vari teatri italiano ed europei (la Spagna è molto interessata). Con un colpo di maestria, regista (Maurizio Di Mattia), scenografo (Maurizio Varano) e la costumista (Anna Biagiotti) spostano l’azione dal 1830 all’inizio del Novecento, sotto i piedi di un’immensa Torre Eiffel. Intensa e commovente la recitazione anche a ragione della giovane età e dell’avvenenza dei cantanti – attori. Efficace la concertazione di Alberto Veronesi anche se all’aperto è difficile gustare le raffinata orchestrazione. Ottimo il cast vocale: Donata D’Annunzio Lombardi e Aquiles Machado hanno ricevuto applausi a scena aperta e vere e proprie ovazioni. Dopo diversi anni di servizio a Torre del Lago ed altrove, il precedente allestimento non va in pensione e non viene rottamato. Lo prende Nizza, aiutando così e Puccini e il suo Festival.
La seconda opera in programma è una ripresa colossale edizione di “Turandot” (regia di Maurizio Scaparro, scene di Ezio Frigerio, costumi di Franca Scquarciapino, direzione musicale di Kery Lynn Wilson) approntata per il 150simo anniversario della nascita del compositore.La si vedrà anche a Pisa, Lucca, Mantova, Ferrara ed altri teatri che hanno noleggiato la produzione , risparmiando loro e contribuendo alle finanze del Festival. Si alternano vari cast. La sera in cui la ascoltata il vostro chroniqueur, Kery Lynn Wilson ha concertato ottimamente la difficile partitura ed il coro diretto da Stefano Visconti merita un doveroso omaggio. Di grande livello, la Turandot di Antonia Cifrone , (perché non canta un po’ più nei grandi teatri italiani?) ed il Timur di Carlo Colombara. Ottimi Roberto Accursio, Aldo Orsolini e Nicola Pamio nei ruoli di Ping, Pong e Pang. Perfetta l’emissione della giovanissima Satomi Ogawa ma troppo piccolo il volume per un teatro all’aperto di 3000 posti. Ed il Calaf di Piero Giuliacci? Non era in una delle sue serate migliori ma è cresciuto nel corso dello spettacolo
Terzo titolo in cartellone “Madame Butterfly” in un allestimento che viene da uno dei maggiori teatri d’opera giapponesi. La prima a Torre del Lago è il 6 agosto La regia, le scene ed i costumi sono di tre grandi nomi giapponesi (Takao Okamura, Naoji Kawaguchi, Yashiro Chiji). Giapponesi anche Cio Cio San e Suzuki (Sakiko Ninomiya e Kimiko Suehiro), nonché i numerosi personaggi minori. Un gradito ritorno in Italia di Marcello Bedoni- c’è chi lo ricorda ancora giovanissimo ne “L’Elisir d’Amore” a Spoleto e “La Sonnambula” a Catania prima che finisse in Germania in quanto Sovrintendenti e direttori artistici parevano averlo obliato. Sharpless è il buon Sergio Bologna. Concerta uno dei giovani enfant prodige italiani della bacchetta: Valerio Galli. In breve, appuntamento da non mancare. Puccini ne sarà contento e sarà misericordioso nei confronti di carrieristi dalla memoria debole poiché “in troppe altre faccende, affaccendati”.
L’allarme lanciato nel 2004 «Così uccidete le tv locali» in Avvenire 2 agosto
Lo studio avvertì il ministero: «Per sopravvivere le reti minori devono diventare anche fornitori di servizi interattivi territoriali»
DI GIUSEPPE PENNISI
L’allarme lanciato nel 2004 «Così uccidete le tv locali»
Gli esperti dissero anche come salvarle ma non li ascoltarono
S in dal 2004 si sapeva che il passaggio dalla televisione analogica a quella digitale terrestre avrebbe accresciuto il benessere nazionale nel suo complesso ma, nella transizione, avrebbe lasciato morti e feriti sul campo. E che sarebbero state le aziende più piccole del settore (non solo le stazioni televisive ma anche i fornitori di contenuti) ad avere i danni maggiori. Lo affermava a tutto tondo uno studio commissionato, per conto dell’allora Ministero delle Comunicazioni, dalla Fondazione Ugo Bordoni (Fub).
Lo studio venne guidato da me e da Pasquale Lucio Scandizzo (Università di Tor Vergata) e condotto da una squadra di economisti ed ingegneri provenienti sia dalla Fub sia dalle Università. La relazione completa è ovviamente di proprietà della Fub e del dicastero ma un’ampia sintesi del lavoro è stata pubblica col titolo La valutazione della transizione da televisione analogica a digitale terrestre (Dvb-T): lezioni dall’esperienza
in un volume a più voci ( Valutazione in Azione :lezioni apprese da casi concreti,
Milano, F. Angeli 2006). I risultati dello studio hanno, quanto meno, indotto le autorità sia italiane sia europee a posporre la data dello switch-off dal 31 dicembre 2006 (come definita da una legge del 2001) al 31 dicembre 2012 al fine di effettuare approfondimenti e di individuare rimedi per rendere il Dvb-T 'sostenibile' per tutti.
Per individuare i rimedi è utile riassumere le conclusioni dello studio, che ha comportato due anni di lavoro e pure la costruzione di una matrice aggiornata delle relazioni tecniche e finanziarie nei comparti dell’editoria e dell’alta tecnologia (i dati Istat sono fermi al 1994). In breve, impiegando la tecnica delle «valutazioni contingenti» per stimare costi e benefici alla collettività di un bene o servizio «intangibile» (quali quelli dell’audiovisivo), per il Dvb-T si è stimato un tasso di rendimento interno ( Tir) elevato (attorno al 25%) e statisticamente robusto. Ad un primo esame sembrava buono anche il rendimento finanziario all’intera filiera industriale (non erano disponibili dati per singoli comparti): un Tir del 12%. Analisi più accurate mostravano, però, che il risultato era destramente fragile: ad una riduzione del numero di contatti a pagamento (per servizi interattivi) oppure ad un leggero aumento dei costi, i guadagni sarebbero diventati perdite nette per l’intera filiera; se ne deduceva che i rischi sarebbero stati specialmente forti per le aziende più piccoli. La raccomandazione di posporre lo switch-off, accettata, su proposta dell’Italia, anche in sede europea, era accompagnata da alcune proposte specifiche in materia di regolazione (politiche di pricing,
nonché altre forme di incentivi e disincentivi), aste delle frequenze seguendo il metodo definito dal Premio Nobel William Vickrey (al fine da massimizzare il gettito per l’erario e minimizzare che venissero implicitamente favoriti i 'big'), un programma aggressivo di digitalizzazione della pubblica amministrazione , soprattutto a livello dei Comuni e del servizio sanitario nazionale (Ssn), al fine di potenziare il digitale terrestre con servizi interattivi alle imprese, alle famiglie ed alle imprese (tutte tipologie di servizi che le televisioni piccole e con un chiaro ambito territoriale sono meglio disposte ed attrezzate rispetto alle grandi emittenti). Di queste raccomandazione unicamente quella relativa al posticipo dello switch-off è stata accettata. La regolamentazione è formalmente ineccepibile poiché approvata da tutte le autorità competenti. Nonostante nel novembre 2004, il Congresso dell’Anci a Genova avesse tra i suoi temi portanti la digitalizzazione dei comuni nelle prospettive del Dvb-T, i risultati effettivi sono ben inferiori alle aspettative (e si è perso un bacino d’utenza privilegiato per i 'piccoli'). Di aste «alla Vickrey» neanche a parlarne; per l’assegnazione di gran parte delle frequenze si è proceduto con il metodo chiamato nella professione del beauty contest (
«concorso di bellezza»), ossia definiti alcuni parametri di qualità del servizio («la bellezza») attribuire le frequenze a chi più ci si avvicinava – una procedura che, in buona o cattiva fede, avrebbe favorito chi è già più grande e più ramificato. Si è lasciato un contentino: per le poche frequenze ancora da attribuire, si preferiscono, entro certo limiti, i «nuovi entranti».
Occorre dire, però, che anche i 'piccoli' non si sono difesi beni: in tutto il mondo il Dvb-T comporta un processo darwiniano se non ci si aggrega perché ad una frequenza corrisponde una pluralità di canali (da qui il termine multiplex digitale) che nessuna piccola televisione o nessun piccolo fornitore di contenuti è in grado di fare funzionare.
Adesso per rimediare occorre rivedere la regolazione e rimettere sulla via giusta la concessione delle licenze (revocandone se del caso a chi ne ha troppe e non sa neanche utilizzarle saggiamente). I 'piccoli' devono creare aggregazioni operative. Perché il progresso tecnologico comporta cambiamenti ma non si può introdurli solo a vantaggio dei più forti e a svantaggio dei più deboli. Soprattutto se questo significa spegnere di fatto delle voci importanti per il Paese.
Ci avevano promesso che col telecomando avremmo avuto i servizi anagrafici comunali in casa e fatto persino la spesa, ma è sparito tutto
________________________________________
DI GIUSEPPE PENNISI
L’allarme lanciato nel 2004 «Così uccidete le tv locali»
Gli esperti dissero anche come salvarle ma non li ascoltarono
S in dal 2004 si sapeva che il passaggio dalla televisione analogica a quella digitale terrestre avrebbe accresciuto il benessere nazionale nel suo complesso ma, nella transizione, avrebbe lasciato morti e feriti sul campo. E che sarebbero state le aziende più piccole del settore (non solo le stazioni televisive ma anche i fornitori di contenuti) ad avere i danni maggiori. Lo affermava a tutto tondo uno studio commissionato, per conto dell’allora Ministero delle Comunicazioni, dalla Fondazione Ugo Bordoni (Fub).
Lo studio venne guidato da me e da Pasquale Lucio Scandizzo (Università di Tor Vergata) e condotto da una squadra di economisti ed ingegneri provenienti sia dalla Fub sia dalle Università. La relazione completa è ovviamente di proprietà della Fub e del dicastero ma un’ampia sintesi del lavoro è stata pubblica col titolo La valutazione della transizione da televisione analogica a digitale terrestre (Dvb-T): lezioni dall’esperienza
in un volume a più voci ( Valutazione in Azione :lezioni apprese da casi concreti,
Milano, F. Angeli 2006). I risultati dello studio hanno, quanto meno, indotto le autorità sia italiane sia europee a posporre la data dello switch-off dal 31 dicembre 2006 (come definita da una legge del 2001) al 31 dicembre 2012 al fine di effettuare approfondimenti e di individuare rimedi per rendere il Dvb-T 'sostenibile' per tutti.
Per individuare i rimedi è utile riassumere le conclusioni dello studio, che ha comportato due anni di lavoro e pure la costruzione di una matrice aggiornata delle relazioni tecniche e finanziarie nei comparti dell’editoria e dell’alta tecnologia (i dati Istat sono fermi al 1994). In breve, impiegando la tecnica delle «valutazioni contingenti» per stimare costi e benefici alla collettività di un bene o servizio «intangibile» (quali quelli dell’audiovisivo), per il Dvb-T si è stimato un tasso di rendimento interno ( Tir) elevato (attorno al 25%) e statisticamente robusto. Ad un primo esame sembrava buono anche il rendimento finanziario all’intera filiera industriale (non erano disponibili dati per singoli comparti): un Tir del 12%. Analisi più accurate mostravano, però, che il risultato era destramente fragile: ad una riduzione del numero di contatti a pagamento (per servizi interattivi) oppure ad un leggero aumento dei costi, i guadagni sarebbero diventati perdite nette per l’intera filiera; se ne deduceva che i rischi sarebbero stati specialmente forti per le aziende più piccoli. La raccomandazione di posporre lo switch-off, accettata, su proposta dell’Italia, anche in sede europea, era accompagnata da alcune proposte specifiche in materia di regolazione (politiche di pricing,
nonché altre forme di incentivi e disincentivi), aste delle frequenze seguendo il metodo definito dal Premio Nobel William Vickrey (al fine da massimizzare il gettito per l’erario e minimizzare che venissero implicitamente favoriti i 'big'), un programma aggressivo di digitalizzazione della pubblica amministrazione , soprattutto a livello dei Comuni e del servizio sanitario nazionale (Ssn), al fine di potenziare il digitale terrestre con servizi interattivi alle imprese, alle famiglie ed alle imprese (tutte tipologie di servizi che le televisioni piccole e con un chiaro ambito territoriale sono meglio disposte ed attrezzate rispetto alle grandi emittenti). Di queste raccomandazione unicamente quella relativa al posticipo dello switch-off è stata accettata. La regolamentazione è formalmente ineccepibile poiché approvata da tutte le autorità competenti. Nonostante nel novembre 2004, il Congresso dell’Anci a Genova avesse tra i suoi temi portanti la digitalizzazione dei comuni nelle prospettive del Dvb-T, i risultati effettivi sono ben inferiori alle aspettative (e si è perso un bacino d’utenza privilegiato per i 'piccoli'). Di aste «alla Vickrey» neanche a parlarne; per l’assegnazione di gran parte delle frequenze si è proceduto con il metodo chiamato nella professione del beauty contest (
«concorso di bellezza»), ossia definiti alcuni parametri di qualità del servizio («la bellezza») attribuire le frequenze a chi più ci si avvicinava – una procedura che, in buona o cattiva fede, avrebbe favorito chi è già più grande e più ramificato. Si è lasciato un contentino: per le poche frequenze ancora da attribuire, si preferiscono, entro certo limiti, i «nuovi entranti».
Occorre dire, però, che anche i 'piccoli' non si sono difesi beni: in tutto il mondo il Dvb-T comporta un processo darwiniano se non ci si aggrega perché ad una frequenza corrisponde una pluralità di canali (da qui il termine multiplex digitale) che nessuna piccola televisione o nessun piccolo fornitore di contenuti è in grado di fare funzionare.
Adesso per rimediare occorre rivedere la regolazione e rimettere sulla via giusta la concessione delle licenze (revocandone se del caso a chi ne ha troppe e non sa neanche utilizzarle saggiamente). I 'piccoli' devono creare aggregazioni operative. Perché il progresso tecnologico comporta cambiamenti ma non si può introdurli solo a vantaggio dei più forti e a svantaggio dei più deboli. Soprattutto se questo significa spegnere di fatto delle voci importanti per il Paese.
Ci avevano promesso che col telecomando avremmo avuto i servizi anagrafici comunali in casa e fatto persino la spesa, ma è sparito tutto
________________________________________
The truth about the crises in the US and Europe in Il Sussidiario primo agosto
Economics & Finance
FINANCE/ The truth about the crises in the US and Europe
Giuseppe Pennisi
lunedì 1 agosto 2011
(photo Fotolia)
Approfondisci
THIRD WAY/ A second financial crisis if we don't learn from the last one
EUROPE/ The Greek Problem and more
CRISIS/ Living Under the Volcano of Debt (1)
vai al dossier Economic & Financial Crisis
If someone were to ask me what the crux of the problem of US sovereign debt was, the response that would come to me spontaneously (having studied and worked in Washington for 18 years) would be: “It’s federalism, my boy!”. If, instead, one were to ask me to explain the problem at the heart of the sovereign debt of Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, I would respond with equal immediacy, given that I was born and live in Rome and have been married to a French woman for 43 years, “It’s the difference in productivity and competitiveness in the Eurozone, my boy!”.
I believe it is essential to grasp these fundamental aspects. Otherwise the “Atlantic” sovereign debt would end up in a cauldron where everything is indistinguishable. The United States has a Constitution that limits the functions of the Federal Government to national defense and foreign policy. The other functions (even in the area of economic policy and public finance) belong to Congress or (especially in the areas of education, health care, and social and industrial strategies) to each of the 50 states of the Union.
The President and Congress are elected in different ways, with different electoral systems and even different electorates. The President is not an expression of the Parliament, but gets his own authority from the electoral college. Likewise, Congress responds to its voters. For this reason, the federal balance sheet is not born with a financial law proposed by the White House, but inside the relevant Committee in the House. The tenant of the house at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave can reject it, but if it is approved by the appropriate majority, either he accepts it or he packs his bags and leaves the Oval Office to his Vice-President for the rest of the term.
Analogously, the level of public debt (now around 100% of US GDP) has to be “authorized” by Congress, on the basis of paragraph 8 of Article 1 of the Constitution. If they do not authorize it, no Secretary of the Treasury can use a decree to begin issuing Treasury bonds.
August 2 is the deadline for bonds totalling several million dollars. To refinance them, they need new emissions and, thus, a new raise of the debt ceiling. The last raise was authorized on February 12, 2010. If there is no authorization, the federal government will be technically “insolvent”. It is clear that underlying the battle over, essentially, accounting, lies a battle of economic policy (principally relating to federal intervention in the matter of health care)
It is also clear that the agreement that could be made would be a turn-around for the Obama Administration since it would be a shift in the plans he announced during his election campaign and inaugural address. If they do not come to an agreement (Congress has the whip in hand), Obama will have to think about an early move-out. After insolvency, there will be ugly surprises in terms of the budget.
The European problem is completely different. We are not caught up in differences in economic philosophies within a single country (even with a federal structure), but in differences in economic strategies between countries that gave life to a monetary union. The main consequence of the irreversibility of the euro was not processed at the time. Those who had grown accustomed to naughty behavior—governments, parliaments, bureaucracies, businesses, families, individuals—should have been more virtuous than others to avoid being crushed by the others’ increased productivity and competitiveness. Those that did not take the path of virtue thought that they could staunch their debt by hoping that the Good Samaritan EU would come sooner or later.
An essay that will appear in the next issue of the magazine “Discussion on Estonian Economic Policy” describes the situation well. Two professors from the University of Greifsweig (one of the oldest in Europe, founded in 1456, located on the Baltic Sea near the border with Estonia) wrote the piece, which is only available in German at the moment. The essay documents that the Eurozone—that Estonia just entered into—is at risk because of the marked differences in economic policies and procedures (notable in the areas of work and business). The agreements reached to staunch the sovereign debt of this or that country are just Band-Aids. Or aspirin in cases that should require a surgeon.
The Estonians are thinking about this. It would be good if we could join them.
________________________________________
FINANCE/ The truth about the crises in the US and Europe
Giuseppe Pennisi
lunedì 1 agosto 2011
(photo Fotolia)
Approfondisci
THIRD WAY/ A second financial crisis if we don't learn from the last one
EUROPE/ The Greek Problem and more
CRISIS/ Living Under the Volcano of Debt (1)
vai al dossier Economic & Financial Crisis
If someone were to ask me what the crux of the problem of US sovereign debt was, the response that would come to me spontaneously (having studied and worked in Washington for 18 years) would be: “It’s federalism, my boy!”. If, instead, one were to ask me to explain the problem at the heart of the sovereign debt of Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, I would respond with equal immediacy, given that I was born and live in Rome and have been married to a French woman for 43 years, “It’s the difference in productivity and competitiveness in the Eurozone, my boy!”.
I believe it is essential to grasp these fundamental aspects. Otherwise the “Atlantic” sovereign debt would end up in a cauldron where everything is indistinguishable. The United States has a Constitution that limits the functions of the Federal Government to national defense and foreign policy. The other functions (even in the area of economic policy and public finance) belong to Congress or (especially in the areas of education, health care, and social and industrial strategies) to each of the 50 states of the Union.
The President and Congress are elected in different ways, with different electoral systems and even different electorates. The President is not an expression of the Parliament, but gets his own authority from the electoral college. Likewise, Congress responds to its voters. For this reason, the federal balance sheet is not born with a financial law proposed by the White House, but inside the relevant Committee in the House. The tenant of the house at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave can reject it, but if it is approved by the appropriate majority, either he accepts it or he packs his bags and leaves the Oval Office to his Vice-President for the rest of the term.
Analogously, the level of public debt (now around 100% of US GDP) has to be “authorized” by Congress, on the basis of paragraph 8 of Article 1 of the Constitution. If they do not authorize it, no Secretary of the Treasury can use a decree to begin issuing Treasury bonds.
August 2 is the deadline for bonds totalling several million dollars. To refinance them, they need new emissions and, thus, a new raise of the debt ceiling. The last raise was authorized on February 12, 2010. If there is no authorization, the federal government will be technically “insolvent”. It is clear that underlying the battle over, essentially, accounting, lies a battle of economic policy (principally relating to federal intervention in the matter of health care)
It is also clear that the agreement that could be made would be a turn-around for the Obama Administration since it would be a shift in the plans he announced during his election campaign and inaugural address. If they do not come to an agreement (Congress has the whip in hand), Obama will have to think about an early move-out. After insolvency, there will be ugly surprises in terms of the budget.
The European problem is completely different. We are not caught up in differences in economic philosophies within a single country (even with a federal structure), but in differences in economic strategies between countries that gave life to a monetary union. The main consequence of the irreversibility of the euro was not processed at the time. Those who had grown accustomed to naughty behavior—governments, parliaments, bureaucracies, businesses, families, individuals—should have been more virtuous than others to avoid being crushed by the others’ increased productivity and competitiveness. Those that did not take the path of virtue thought that they could staunch their debt by hoping that the Good Samaritan EU would come sooner or later.
An essay that will appear in the next issue of the magazine “Discussion on Estonian Economic Policy” describes the situation well. Two professors from the University of Greifsweig (one of the oldest in Europe, founded in 1456, located on the Baltic Sea near the border with Estonia) wrote the piece, which is only available in German at the moment. The essay documents that the Eurozone—that Estonia just entered into—is at risk because of the marked differences in economic policies and procedures (notable in the areas of work and business). The agreements reached to staunch the sovereign debt of this or that country are just Band-Aids. Or aspirin in cases that should require a surgeon.
The Estonians are thinking about this. It would be good if we could join them.
________________________________________
Lasting Magic in Music and Vision 26 June
Lasting Magic
GIUSEPPE PENNISI was at the
Italian premiere in Ravenna of
Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'
With Saverio Mercadante's I Due Figaro, a five year project has been completed. Under Riccardo Muti's guidance and artistic direction, jointly carried out by the Salzburg Whitsun Festival and the Ravenna Festival, the project focused on the revival of operas by the 'Neapolitan School'. The five operas presented -- one each year -- in Salzburg and Ravenna (as well as touring to many other theatres) are, by and large, works that had disappeared from regular programming around the 1840s; their common matrix is that they were composed by Neapolitan-trained musicians or had their most important successes and influence in Naples.
The opera is scheduled for several performances at the Teatro Real of Madrid (which is coproducing it) and may be toured in Italy and Spain. Before reviewing the performance, as seen in Ravenna at the Italian première on 24 June 2011, a few words must be said about the 'Neapolitan School' and Saverio Mercadante.
Even though Riccardo Muti is a strong supporter of the School, of its identity and of its merits, I tend to agree with the late musicologist Francesco Degrada; in a scholarly essay of the late 1970s, he demolished the concept of the very existence of a 'Neapolitan School' by documenting that Naples was indeed a major capital of opera creation and development at least for two centuries but differences of style were such that any 'Neapolitan School' would have been extremely eclectic. The supporters of the existence of the 'school' include, under the same label, composers from Cimarosa to Rossini, from Scarlatti to Pergolesi, from Jommelli to Provenzale, from Vici to Anfossi, from Traetta to Leo, from Durante to Vaccaj. Most of them were not born in Naples or even in the nearby regions but all were raised in Neapolitan conservatories. In short, they are a very mixed bag where it is hard to identify a clear tendency, let alone a style. There are, however, two elements common to several 'Neapolitan' composers (but not all of them): the flair for opera comica, the grandfather of opera buffa and a more sober line than that of flowery baroque, dominating the musical scene in Venice and Rome. Although he was born in Jesi, Pergolesi died near Naples at the age of only twenty-six, and may be seen as the main expression of the 'School', especially because of the querelle des bouffons that exploded in France just before the Revolution when some of his works were staged in Paris. Yet in the five year project, not a single opera by Pergolesi was included (in spite of the celebrations in 2010 for the three hundred years since his birth), but emphasis was placed on Cimarosa, Paisiello, Jommelli and Mercadante.
Alongside Bellini (in my view a 'unique school on his own', ie a giant who did not belong to any specific school), Saverio Mercadante is often seen as the most significant representative of the Neapolitan School in characteristics evolved during the first half of the nineteenth century. He composed I due Figaro in 1826 for his debut in Madrid (not Naples) where he was music director of the royal opera house until 1831. Due to censorship problems, the first performance of the opera took place only in 1835. The score had been lost but was retrieved by mere chance, in the Madrid Teatro Real archives, by a PhD student two years ago. Saverio Mercadante was a prolific composer of operas as well as church music and was influential in his day for his 'reformed' operas of the 1840s. Reacting to excesses in both bel canto style and grand-opera effects, he purposely restrained himself from those tendencies to arrive at a more effective drama on stage. These reforms were critical for the kinds of operas Verdi pursued early in his career. Mercadante studied in Naples with Niccolò Zingarelli between 1816 and 1820. While some of his earliest music was for various instrumental ensembles, he began to compose operas around 1819. With an opera buffa in Rossini's style, Elisa e Claudio (1820), his seventh opera, Mercadante achieved notice in Italy. From 1825 to 1831, Mercadante lived in Spain and Portugal, where he continued to compose. With no long-term contracts emerging at the time, Mercadante returned to Italy. He served as maestro di cappella at the Cathedral in Novara from 1833 to 1840, and it was then that Mercadante reconsidered his approach to opera. His 'reformed' style begins with his most famous opera, Il Giuramento, occasionally revived in Italy. In this work he avoided any effects that did not serve the drama directly, and purposely varied the forms used in set pieces. This prevented his resorting to strings of da capo arias or diva-based scenes. Such self-imposed restrictions were part of Mercadante's style for the rest of his career.
In I due Figaro, the libretto continues the story about Figaro and Count Almaviva: Figaro has risen to become the actual lord of the palace and intends to arrange the marriage of the count's daughter to one of his mates so as to share the rich dowry with him. Yet Figaro has not taken account of Cherubino, who has meanwhile matured into a real hero, and who appears in the palace in disguise under the name of Figaro. The sparkling Barbiere di Siviglia, a comedy of the ancien régime, introduces Figaro as fixer and factotum to the dashing young Count Almaviva in his quest to snatch the orphaned heiress Rosina from the clutches of the guardian who keeps her under lock and key. Anticipating the French Revolution, the incendiary Le Nozze di Figaro depicts Figaro, now Almaviva's valet, dancing as fast as he can to keep his bride Susanna -- Countess Rosina's maid -- from the clutches of their master. All the while, the pageboy Cherubino keeps the household in a fever state, fluttering around every woman in sight. I Due Figaro picks up the Almaviva family saga a generation later. The Count is arranging a marriage for his daughter Inez who, unbeknown to him, has fallen in love with Cherubino, now a colonel in the Spanish military. In a brazen ploy to win her, Cherubino presents himself to the Count under the name Figaro, in a costume copied from Figaro's, supplanting Figaro in the Count's favor. In short, the bourgeoisie is taking over from the Ancien Régime.
The plot derives from Les Deux Figaro (1790), an unauthorized sequel to Le Nozze di Figaro by the actor-playwright Honoré-Antoine Richaud-Martelly, who had played Almaviva on stage, though not to Beaumarchais' satisfaction. The libretto, in elegant Italian, is by Felice Romani, Bellini's partner in La Sonnambula and Norma. A previous version had been composed by Michele Carafa and is available on a DVD edited by the small but important Bongiovanni music editions.
Beaumarchais is a clear heir of Molière, but he was also a clockmaker and inventor of genius -- his plots make the head spin -- also a feisty litigant, an arms trader, a music teacher to French princesses and a devoted ladies' man. His eventful personal life even inspired a play by Goethe (Clavigo), in which he appears under his own name. In the first two Figaro plays, Beaumarchais painted no fewer than three self-portraits. The nimble-witted Figaro and the adolescent skirt-chaser Cherubino bear nicknames from Beaumarchais' own boyhood: Figaro, his patronymic ('fils Caron', after his father André-Charles Caron), Chérubin, an allusion to his legendary erotic precocity. The increasingly willful and isolated Almaviva ('lively spirit') reflects the social aspirations of a commoner who, in his late 1820s (more than a decade before he wrote the plays), bought his way into the ruling class. As post-revolutionary France lurched from disaster to disaster, his outlook darkened. It was in this mood that Beaumarchais cranked out his third Figaro play, La Mère Coupable ('The Guilty Mother'), which opened in 1792, two years after Les Deux Figaro, on the eve of the Terror. From a single night's liaison with Cherubino twenty years before the curtain rises, the Countess -- the culpable mother of the title -- has borne a son. Now the Count is seeking proof for his long-festering suspicions. A mirror of bone-deep disillusionment, the play moves from dyspeptic cynicism to desperate, born-again euphoria that rings sentimental but totally false.
Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna. Click on the image for higher resolution
In Mercadante's opera, like in Rossini's (but unlike Mozart's), Almaviva is a coloratura tenor whose fancywork presupposes the high-wire artistry of a Juan Diego Flórez. Lacy embellishments on the long-spun soprano lines for the Countess recall the Bellini phrases Maria Callas exulted in at the peak of her powers. Cherubino's mezzo-soprano/alto pyrotechnics might have been made to order for Cecilia Bartoli.
As well as for the other 'Neapolitan School' operas, for this modern-day premiere, Muti is working with youngsters: the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini in the pit and handpicked newcomers (from a variety of schools of music) in the leading roles. In addition, the Spanish director Emilio Sagi gives the show an authentically Spanish flavor. 'The characters are very Spanish, as I can say, knowing very well the character of the people of my country. They have so much life. There are so many imbroglios. But what surprises me most of all is the real Spanish air and the Spanish perfume Mercadante brought into the score with the boleros and fandangos and tiranas and cachuchas he knew from living in Spain'.
Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna. Click on the image for higher resolution
Dramatically Sagi is intrigued by the supporting character of a playwright, Plagio -- as in plagiarism? -- who hangs around Figaro in hopes of pointers for a comedy he is writing. (The opera's subtitle is Il Soggetto d'una Commedia, or 'The Subject for a Comedy'.) 'He's like someone in Pirandello', Sagi says. 'Figaro is trying to invent a plot for him, but Figaro has no real imagination. It's real life that has the poetry and the creativity to make a comedy. It's life that is the real poet.'
I Due Figaro ends in the spirit of the world Beaumarchais has long known and loved, on a note of all-around forgiveness -- however temporary -- for one mad day's follies and betrayals, whether real or imaginary. From such a premise, a composer of genius ought to be able to spin lasting magic.
Rosa Feola as Inez and Annalisa Stroppa as Cherubino in Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
The visual part of the production is a joy for the eyes: a single set by Daniel Bianco is used for the various rooms and gardens of Almaviva Castle. The flashy costumes are designed by Jesus Ruiz. It reminds older audience members of the beautiful set for the third act of Luchino Visconti's Le Nozze di Figaro as produced in the 1970s, and revived in the 1990s, in Rome. Within this elegant neo-classical structure, the eight characters, the chorus and the extras move the action swiftly, in spite of the opera's length (three and a half hours with an intermission). The singers are all young and well-trained in acting.
From left to right: Mario Cassi as Figaro, Omar Montanari as Plagio and Ancio Zorzi Giustiniani as Torribio in Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
The orchestra is young too: the Muti-created Orchestra Giovanile Cherubini. The chorus is the well-seasoned Philarmonia Chorus Vienna. From the overture, where Spanish elements (bolero, fandango) are intertwined with the main theme of the opera, we sense Mercadante's care for harmonic elegance and precision. Muti conducts the orchestra with a delicate baton; we feel how this work of Mercadante has metabolized Mozart's lessons and has many points in common with Donizetti 'opera semi-serie'. In short, the score is sparkling but also full of melancholy.
A scene from Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
Among the singers, the group of women (Rosa Feola, Asude Karayavuz, Eleonora Buratto and, especially, Annalisa Stroppa) is an inch above that of the men (Antonio Poli, Mario Cassi, Anicio Giorgio Giustiniani, Omar Montanari). On average they are young and hand-picked by Muti for this production. As an old TV series says: they will be famous. In particular, Annalisa Stroppa, an impressive coloratura alto, and Antonio Poli, a highly articulate lyric tenor. The Teatro Alighieri is comparatively small (nine hundred seats) and has a very good acoustic. Thus, nobody had to force his or her voice.
Mario Cassi as Figaro and Eleonora Buratto as Susanna in Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
There were accolades and standing ovations at the curtains calls.
Copyright © 26 June 2011 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy
RAVENNA
ITALY
RICCARDO MUTI
<< M&V home Concert reviews Stephen Hough >>
Lasting Magic
GIUSEPPE PENNISI was at the
Italian premiere in Ravenna of
Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'
With Saverio Mercadante's I Due Figaro, a five year project has been completed. Under Riccardo Muti's guidance and artistic direction, jointly carried out by the Salzburg Whitsun Festival and the Ravenna Festival, the project focused on the revival of operas by the 'Neapolitan School'. The five operas presented -- one each year -- in Salzburg and Ravenna (as well as touring to many other theatres) are, by and large, works that had disappeared from regular programming around the 1840s; their common matrix is that they were composed by Neapolitan-trained musicians or had their most important successes and influence in Naples.
The opera is scheduled for several performances at the Teatro Real of Madrid (which is coproducing it) and may be toured in Italy and Spain. Before reviewing the performance, as seen in Ravenna at the Italian première on 24 June 2011, a few words must be said about the 'Neapolitan School' and Saverio Mercadante.
Even though Riccardo Muti is a strong supporter of the School, of its identity and of its merits, I tend to agree with the late musicologist Francesco Degrada; in a scholarly essay of the late 1970s, he demolished the concept of the very existence of a 'Neapolitan School' by documenting that Naples was indeed a major capital of opera creation and development at least for two centuries but differences of style were such that any 'Neapolitan School' would have been extremely eclectic. The supporters of the existence of the 'school' include, under the same label, composers from Cimarosa to Rossini, from Scarlatti to Pergolesi, from Jommelli to Provenzale, from Vici to Anfossi, from Traetta to Leo, from Durante to Vaccaj. Most of them were not born in Naples or even in the nearby regions but all were raised in Neapolitan conservatories. In short, they are a very mixed bag where it is hard to identify a clear tendency, let alone a style. There are, however, two elements common to several 'Neapolitan' composers (but not all of them): the flair for opera comica, the grandfather of opera buffa and a more sober line than that of flowery baroque, dominating the musical scene in Venice and Rome. Although he was born in Jesi, Pergolesi died near Naples at the age of only twenty-six, and may be seen as the main expression of the 'School', especially because of the querelle des bouffons that exploded in France just before the Revolution when some of his works were staged in Paris. Yet in the five year project, not a single opera by Pergolesi was included (in spite of the celebrations in 2010 for the three hundred years since his birth), but emphasis was placed on Cimarosa, Paisiello, Jommelli and Mercadante.
Alongside Bellini (in my view a 'unique school on his own', ie a giant who did not belong to any specific school), Saverio Mercadante is often seen as the most significant representative of the Neapolitan School in characteristics evolved during the first half of the nineteenth century. He composed I due Figaro in 1826 for his debut in Madrid (not Naples) where he was music director of the royal opera house until 1831. Due to censorship problems, the first performance of the opera took place only in 1835. The score had been lost but was retrieved by mere chance, in the Madrid Teatro Real archives, by a PhD student two years ago. Saverio Mercadante was a prolific composer of operas as well as church music and was influential in his day for his 'reformed' operas of the 1840s. Reacting to excesses in both bel canto style and grand-opera effects, he purposely restrained himself from those tendencies to arrive at a more effective drama on stage. These reforms were critical for the kinds of operas Verdi pursued early in his career. Mercadante studied in Naples with Niccolò Zingarelli between 1816 and 1820. While some of his earliest music was for various instrumental ensembles, he began to compose operas around 1819. With an opera buffa in Rossini's style, Elisa e Claudio (1820), his seventh opera, Mercadante achieved notice in Italy. From 1825 to 1831, Mercadante lived in Spain and Portugal, where he continued to compose. With no long-term contracts emerging at the time, Mercadante returned to Italy. He served as maestro di cappella at the Cathedral in Novara from 1833 to 1840, and it was then that Mercadante reconsidered his approach to opera. His 'reformed' style begins with his most famous opera, Il Giuramento, occasionally revived in Italy. In this work he avoided any effects that did not serve the drama directly, and purposely varied the forms used in set pieces. This prevented his resorting to strings of da capo arias or diva-based scenes. Such self-imposed restrictions were part of Mercadante's style for the rest of his career.
In I due Figaro, the libretto continues the story about Figaro and Count Almaviva: Figaro has risen to become the actual lord of the palace and intends to arrange the marriage of the count's daughter to one of his mates so as to share the rich dowry with him. Yet Figaro has not taken account of Cherubino, who has meanwhile matured into a real hero, and who appears in the palace in disguise under the name of Figaro. The sparkling Barbiere di Siviglia, a comedy of the ancien régime, introduces Figaro as fixer and factotum to the dashing young Count Almaviva in his quest to snatch the orphaned heiress Rosina from the clutches of the guardian who keeps her under lock and key. Anticipating the French Revolution, the incendiary Le Nozze di Figaro depicts Figaro, now Almaviva's valet, dancing as fast as he can to keep his bride Susanna -- Countess Rosina's maid -- from the clutches of their master. All the while, the pageboy Cherubino keeps the household in a fever state, fluttering around every woman in sight. I Due Figaro picks up the Almaviva family saga a generation later. The Count is arranging a marriage for his daughter Inez who, unbeknown to him, has fallen in love with Cherubino, now a colonel in the Spanish military. In a brazen ploy to win her, Cherubino presents himself to the Count under the name Figaro, in a costume copied from Figaro's, supplanting Figaro in the Count's favor. In short, the bourgeoisie is taking over from the Ancien Régime.
The plot derives from Les Deux Figaro (1790), an unauthorized sequel to Le Nozze di Figaro by the actor-playwright Honoré-Antoine Richaud-Martelly, who had played Almaviva on stage, though not to Beaumarchais' satisfaction. The libretto, in elegant Italian, is by Felice Romani, Bellini's partner in La Sonnambula and Norma. A previous version had been composed by Michele Carafa and is available on a DVD edited by the small but important Bongiovanni music editions.
Beaumarchais is a clear heir of Molière, but he was also a clockmaker and inventor of genius -- his plots make the head spin -- also a feisty litigant, an arms trader, a music teacher to French princesses and a devoted ladies' man. His eventful personal life even inspired a play by Goethe (Clavigo), in which he appears under his own name. In the first two Figaro plays, Beaumarchais painted no fewer than three self-portraits. The nimble-witted Figaro and the adolescent skirt-chaser Cherubino bear nicknames from Beaumarchais' own boyhood: Figaro, his patronymic ('fils Caron', after his father André-Charles Caron), Chérubin, an allusion to his legendary erotic precocity. The increasingly willful and isolated Almaviva ('lively spirit') reflects the social aspirations of a commoner who, in his late 1820s (more than a decade before he wrote the plays), bought his way into the ruling class. As post-revolutionary France lurched from disaster to disaster, his outlook darkened. It was in this mood that Beaumarchais cranked out his third Figaro play, La Mère Coupable ('The Guilty Mother'), which opened in 1792, two years after Les Deux Figaro, on the eve of the Terror. From a single night's liaison with Cherubino twenty years before the curtain rises, the Countess -- the culpable mother of the title -- has borne a son. Now the Count is seeking proof for his long-festering suspicions. A mirror of bone-deep disillusionment, the play moves from dyspeptic cynicism to desperate, born-again euphoria that rings sentimental but totally false.
Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna. Click on the image for higher resolution
In Mercadante's opera, like in Rossini's (but unlike Mozart's), Almaviva is a coloratura tenor whose fancywork presupposes the high-wire artistry of a Juan Diego Flórez. Lacy embellishments on the long-spun soprano lines for the Countess recall the Bellini phrases Maria Callas exulted in at the peak of her powers. Cherubino's mezzo-soprano/alto pyrotechnics might have been made to order for Cecilia Bartoli.
As well as for the other 'Neapolitan School' operas, for this modern-day premiere, Muti is working with youngsters: the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini in the pit and handpicked newcomers (from a variety of schools of music) in the leading roles. In addition, the Spanish director Emilio Sagi gives the show an authentically Spanish flavor. 'The characters are very Spanish, as I can say, knowing very well the character of the people of my country. They have so much life. There are so many imbroglios. But what surprises me most of all is the real Spanish air and the Spanish perfume Mercadante brought into the score with the boleros and fandangos and tiranas and cachuchas he knew from living in Spain'.
Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna. Click on the image for higher resolution
Dramatically Sagi is intrigued by the supporting character of a playwright, Plagio -- as in plagiarism? -- who hangs around Figaro in hopes of pointers for a comedy he is writing. (The opera's subtitle is Il Soggetto d'una Commedia, or 'The Subject for a Comedy'.) 'He's like someone in Pirandello', Sagi says. 'Figaro is trying to invent a plot for him, but Figaro has no real imagination. It's real life that has the poetry and the creativity to make a comedy. It's life that is the real poet.'
I Due Figaro ends in the spirit of the world Beaumarchais has long known and loved, on a note of all-around forgiveness -- however temporary -- for one mad day's follies and betrayals, whether real or imaginary. From such a premise, a composer of genius ought to be able to spin lasting magic.
Rosa Feola as Inez and Annalisa Stroppa as Cherubino in Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
The visual part of the production is a joy for the eyes: a single set by Daniel Bianco is used for the various rooms and gardens of Almaviva Castle. The flashy costumes are designed by Jesus Ruiz. It reminds older audience members of the beautiful set for the third act of Luchino Visconti's Le Nozze di Figaro as produced in the 1970s, and revived in the 1990s, in Rome. Within this elegant neo-classical structure, the eight characters, the chorus and the extras move the action swiftly, in spite of the opera's length (three and a half hours with an intermission). The singers are all young and well-trained in acting.
From left to right: Mario Cassi as Figaro, Omar Montanari as Plagio and Ancio Zorzi Giustiniani as Torribio in Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
The orchestra is young too: the Muti-created Orchestra Giovanile Cherubini. The chorus is the well-seasoned Philarmonia Chorus Vienna. From the overture, where Spanish elements (bolero, fandango) are intertwined with the main theme of the opera, we sense Mercadante's care for harmonic elegance and precision. Muti conducts the orchestra with a delicate baton; we feel how this work of Mercadante has metabolized Mozart's lessons and has many points in common with Donizetti 'opera semi-serie'. In short, the score is sparkling but also full of melancholy.
A scene from Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
Among the singers, the group of women (Rosa Feola, Asude Karayavuz, Eleonora Buratto and, especially, Annalisa Stroppa) is an inch above that of the men (Antonio Poli, Mario Cassi, Anicio Giorgio Giustiniani, Omar Montanari). On average they are young and hand-picked by Muti for this production. As an old TV series says: they will be famous. In particular, Annalisa Stroppa, an impressive coloratura alto, and Antonio Poli, a highly articulate lyric tenor. The Teatro Alighieri is comparatively small (nine hundred seats) and has a very good acoustic. Thus, nobody had to force his or her voice.
Mario Cassi as Figaro and Eleonora Buratto as Susanna in Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
There were accolades and standing ovations at the curtains calls.
Copyright © 26 June 2011 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy
RAVENNA
ITALY
RICCARDO MUTI
<< M&V home Concert reviews Stephen Hough >>
GIUSEPPE PENNISI was at the
Italian premiere in Ravenna of
Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'
With Saverio Mercadante's I Due Figaro, a five year project has been completed. Under Riccardo Muti's guidance and artistic direction, jointly carried out by the Salzburg Whitsun Festival and the Ravenna Festival, the project focused on the revival of operas by the 'Neapolitan School'. The five operas presented -- one each year -- in Salzburg and Ravenna (as well as touring to many other theatres) are, by and large, works that had disappeared from regular programming around the 1840s; their common matrix is that they were composed by Neapolitan-trained musicians or had their most important successes and influence in Naples.
The opera is scheduled for several performances at the Teatro Real of Madrid (which is coproducing it) and may be toured in Italy and Spain. Before reviewing the performance, as seen in Ravenna at the Italian première on 24 June 2011, a few words must be said about the 'Neapolitan School' and Saverio Mercadante.
Even though Riccardo Muti is a strong supporter of the School, of its identity and of its merits, I tend to agree with the late musicologist Francesco Degrada; in a scholarly essay of the late 1970s, he demolished the concept of the very existence of a 'Neapolitan School' by documenting that Naples was indeed a major capital of opera creation and development at least for two centuries but differences of style were such that any 'Neapolitan School' would have been extremely eclectic. The supporters of the existence of the 'school' include, under the same label, composers from Cimarosa to Rossini, from Scarlatti to Pergolesi, from Jommelli to Provenzale, from Vici to Anfossi, from Traetta to Leo, from Durante to Vaccaj. Most of them were not born in Naples or even in the nearby regions but all were raised in Neapolitan conservatories. In short, they are a very mixed bag where it is hard to identify a clear tendency, let alone a style. There are, however, two elements common to several 'Neapolitan' composers (but not all of them): the flair for opera comica, the grandfather of opera buffa and a more sober line than that of flowery baroque, dominating the musical scene in Venice and Rome. Although he was born in Jesi, Pergolesi died near Naples at the age of only twenty-six, and may be seen as the main expression of the 'School', especially because of the querelle des bouffons that exploded in France just before the Revolution when some of his works were staged in Paris. Yet in the five year project, not a single opera by Pergolesi was included (in spite of the celebrations in 2010 for the three hundred years since his birth), but emphasis was placed on Cimarosa, Paisiello, Jommelli and Mercadante.
Alongside Bellini (in my view a 'unique school on his own', ie a giant who did not belong to any specific school), Saverio Mercadante is often seen as the most significant representative of the Neapolitan School in characteristics evolved during the first half of the nineteenth century. He composed I due Figaro in 1826 for his debut in Madrid (not Naples) where he was music director of the royal opera house until 1831. Due to censorship problems, the first performance of the opera took place only in 1835. The score had been lost but was retrieved by mere chance, in the Madrid Teatro Real archives, by a PhD student two years ago. Saverio Mercadante was a prolific composer of operas as well as church music and was influential in his day for his 'reformed' operas of the 1840s. Reacting to excesses in both bel canto style and grand-opera effects, he purposely restrained himself from those tendencies to arrive at a more effective drama on stage. These reforms were critical for the kinds of operas Verdi pursued early in his career. Mercadante studied in Naples with Niccolò Zingarelli between 1816 and 1820. While some of his earliest music was for various instrumental ensembles, he began to compose operas around 1819. With an opera buffa in Rossini's style, Elisa e Claudio (1820), his seventh opera, Mercadante achieved notice in Italy. From 1825 to 1831, Mercadante lived in Spain and Portugal, where he continued to compose. With no long-term contracts emerging at the time, Mercadante returned to Italy. He served as maestro di cappella at the Cathedral in Novara from 1833 to 1840, and it was then that Mercadante reconsidered his approach to opera. His 'reformed' style begins with his most famous opera, Il Giuramento, occasionally revived in Italy. In this work he avoided any effects that did not serve the drama directly, and purposely varied the forms used in set pieces. This prevented his resorting to strings of da capo arias or diva-based scenes. Such self-imposed restrictions were part of Mercadante's style for the rest of his career.
In I due Figaro, the libretto continues the story about Figaro and Count Almaviva: Figaro has risen to become the actual lord of the palace and intends to arrange the marriage of the count's daughter to one of his mates so as to share the rich dowry with him. Yet Figaro has not taken account of Cherubino, who has meanwhile matured into a real hero, and who appears in the palace in disguise under the name of Figaro. The sparkling Barbiere di Siviglia, a comedy of the ancien régime, introduces Figaro as fixer and factotum to the dashing young Count Almaviva in his quest to snatch the orphaned heiress Rosina from the clutches of the guardian who keeps her under lock and key. Anticipating the French Revolution, the incendiary Le Nozze di Figaro depicts Figaro, now Almaviva's valet, dancing as fast as he can to keep his bride Susanna -- Countess Rosina's maid -- from the clutches of their master. All the while, the pageboy Cherubino keeps the household in a fever state, fluttering around every woman in sight. I Due Figaro picks up the Almaviva family saga a generation later. The Count is arranging a marriage for his daughter Inez who, unbeknown to him, has fallen in love with Cherubino, now a colonel in the Spanish military. In a brazen ploy to win her, Cherubino presents himself to the Count under the name Figaro, in a costume copied from Figaro's, supplanting Figaro in the Count's favor. In short, the bourgeoisie is taking over from the Ancien Régime.
The plot derives from Les Deux Figaro (1790), an unauthorized sequel to Le Nozze di Figaro by the actor-playwright Honoré-Antoine Richaud-Martelly, who had played Almaviva on stage, though not to Beaumarchais' satisfaction. The libretto, in elegant Italian, is by Felice Romani, Bellini's partner in La Sonnambula and Norma. A previous version had been composed by Michele Carafa and is available on a DVD edited by the small but important Bongiovanni music editions.
Beaumarchais is a clear heir of Molière, but he was also a clockmaker and inventor of genius -- his plots make the head spin -- also a feisty litigant, an arms trader, a music teacher to French princesses and a devoted ladies' man. His eventful personal life even inspired a play by Goethe (Clavigo), in which he appears under his own name. In the first two Figaro plays, Beaumarchais painted no fewer than three self-portraits. The nimble-witted Figaro and the adolescent skirt-chaser Cherubino bear nicknames from Beaumarchais' own boyhood: Figaro, his patronymic ('fils Caron', after his father André-Charles Caron), Chérubin, an allusion to his legendary erotic precocity. The increasingly willful and isolated Almaviva ('lively spirit') reflects the social aspirations of a commoner who, in his late 1820s (more than a decade before he wrote the plays), bought his way into the ruling class. As post-revolutionary France lurched from disaster to disaster, his outlook darkened. It was in this mood that Beaumarchais cranked out his third Figaro play, La Mère Coupable ('The Guilty Mother'), which opened in 1792, two years after Les Deux Figaro, on the eve of the Terror. From a single night's liaison with Cherubino twenty years before the curtain rises, the Countess -- the culpable mother of the title -- has borne a son. Now the Count is seeking proof for his long-festering suspicions. A mirror of bone-deep disillusionment, the play moves from dyspeptic cynicism to desperate, born-again euphoria that rings sentimental but totally false.
Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna. Click on the image for higher resolution
In Mercadante's opera, like in Rossini's (but unlike Mozart's), Almaviva is a coloratura tenor whose fancywork presupposes the high-wire artistry of a Juan Diego Flórez. Lacy embellishments on the long-spun soprano lines for the Countess recall the Bellini phrases Maria Callas exulted in at the peak of her powers. Cherubino's mezzo-soprano/alto pyrotechnics might have been made to order for Cecilia Bartoli.
As well as for the other 'Neapolitan School' operas, for this modern-day premiere, Muti is working with youngsters: the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini in the pit and handpicked newcomers (from a variety of schools of music) in the leading roles. In addition, the Spanish director Emilio Sagi gives the show an authentically Spanish flavor. 'The characters are very Spanish, as I can say, knowing very well the character of the people of my country. They have so much life. There are so many imbroglios. But what surprises me most of all is the real Spanish air and the Spanish perfume Mercadante brought into the score with the boleros and fandangos and tiranas and cachuchas he knew from living in Spain'.
Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna. Click on the image for higher resolution
Dramatically Sagi is intrigued by the supporting character of a playwright, Plagio -- as in plagiarism? -- who hangs around Figaro in hopes of pointers for a comedy he is writing. (The opera's subtitle is Il Soggetto d'una Commedia, or 'The Subject for a Comedy'.) 'He's like someone in Pirandello', Sagi says. 'Figaro is trying to invent a plot for him, but Figaro has no real imagination. It's real life that has the poetry and the creativity to make a comedy. It's life that is the real poet.'
I Due Figaro ends in the spirit of the world Beaumarchais has long known and loved, on a note of all-around forgiveness -- however temporary -- for one mad day's follies and betrayals, whether real or imaginary. From such a premise, a composer of genius ought to be able to spin lasting magic.
Rosa Feola as Inez and Annalisa Stroppa as Cherubino in Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
The visual part of the production is a joy for the eyes: a single set by Daniel Bianco is used for the various rooms and gardens of Almaviva Castle. The flashy costumes are designed by Jesus Ruiz. It reminds older audience members of the beautiful set for the third act of Luchino Visconti's Le Nozze di Figaro as produced in the 1970s, and revived in the 1990s, in Rome. Within this elegant neo-classical structure, the eight characters, the chorus and the extras move the action swiftly, in spite of the opera's length (three and a half hours with an intermission). The singers are all young and well-trained in acting.
From left to right: Mario Cassi as Figaro, Omar Montanari as Plagio and Ancio Zorzi Giustiniani as Torribio in Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
The orchestra is young too: the Muti-created Orchestra Giovanile Cherubini. The chorus is the well-seasoned Philarmonia Chorus Vienna. From the overture, where Spanish elements (bolero, fandango) are intertwined with the main theme of the opera, we sense Mercadante's care for harmonic elegance and precision. Muti conducts the orchestra with a delicate baton; we feel how this work of Mercadante has metabolized Mozart's lessons and has many points in common with Donizetti 'opera semi-serie'. In short, the score is sparkling but also full of melancholy.
A scene from Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
Among the singers, the group of women (Rosa Feola, Asude Karayavuz, Eleonora Buratto and, especially, Annalisa Stroppa) is an inch above that of the men (Antonio Poli, Mario Cassi, Anicio Giorgio Giustiniani, Omar Montanari). On average they are young and hand-picked by Muti for this production. As an old TV series says: they will be famous. In particular, Annalisa Stroppa, an impressive coloratura alto, and Antonio Poli, a highly articulate lyric tenor. The Teatro Alighieri is comparatively small (nine hundred seats) and has a very good acoustic. Thus, nobody had to force his or her voice.
Mario Cassi as Figaro and Eleonora Buratto as Susanna in Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
There were accolades and standing ovations at the curtains calls.
Copyright © 26 June 2011 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy
RAVENNA
ITALY
RICCARDO MUTI
<< M&V home Concert reviews Stephen Hough >>
Lasting Magic
GIUSEPPE PENNISI was at the
Italian premiere in Ravenna of
Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'
With Saverio Mercadante's I Due Figaro, a five year project has been completed. Under Riccardo Muti's guidance and artistic direction, jointly carried out by the Salzburg Whitsun Festival and the Ravenna Festival, the project focused on the revival of operas by the 'Neapolitan School'. The five operas presented -- one each year -- in Salzburg and Ravenna (as well as touring to many other theatres) are, by and large, works that had disappeared from regular programming around the 1840s; their common matrix is that they were composed by Neapolitan-trained musicians or had their most important successes and influence in Naples.
The opera is scheduled for several performances at the Teatro Real of Madrid (which is coproducing it) and may be toured in Italy and Spain. Before reviewing the performance, as seen in Ravenna at the Italian première on 24 June 2011, a few words must be said about the 'Neapolitan School' and Saverio Mercadante.
Even though Riccardo Muti is a strong supporter of the School, of its identity and of its merits, I tend to agree with the late musicologist Francesco Degrada; in a scholarly essay of the late 1970s, he demolished the concept of the very existence of a 'Neapolitan School' by documenting that Naples was indeed a major capital of opera creation and development at least for two centuries but differences of style were such that any 'Neapolitan School' would have been extremely eclectic. The supporters of the existence of the 'school' include, under the same label, composers from Cimarosa to Rossini, from Scarlatti to Pergolesi, from Jommelli to Provenzale, from Vici to Anfossi, from Traetta to Leo, from Durante to Vaccaj. Most of them were not born in Naples or even in the nearby regions but all were raised in Neapolitan conservatories. In short, they are a very mixed bag where it is hard to identify a clear tendency, let alone a style. There are, however, two elements common to several 'Neapolitan' composers (but not all of them): the flair for opera comica, the grandfather of opera buffa and a more sober line than that of flowery baroque, dominating the musical scene in Venice and Rome. Although he was born in Jesi, Pergolesi died near Naples at the age of only twenty-six, and may be seen as the main expression of the 'School', especially because of the querelle des bouffons that exploded in France just before the Revolution when some of his works were staged in Paris. Yet in the five year project, not a single opera by Pergolesi was included (in spite of the celebrations in 2010 for the three hundred years since his birth), but emphasis was placed on Cimarosa, Paisiello, Jommelli and Mercadante.
Alongside Bellini (in my view a 'unique school on his own', ie a giant who did not belong to any specific school), Saverio Mercadante is often seen as the most significant representative of the Neapolitan School in characteristics evolved during the first half of the nineteenth century. He composed I due Figaro in 1826 for his debut in Madrid (not Naples) where he was music director of the royal opera house until 1831. Due to censorship problems, the first performance of the opera took place only in 1835. The score had been lost but was retrieved by mere chance, in the Madrid Teatro Real archives, by a PhD student two years ago. Saverio Mercadante was a prolific composer of operas as well as church music and was influential in his day for his 'reformed' operas of the 1840s. Reacting to excesses in both bel canto style and grand-opera effects, he purposely restrained himself from those tendencies to arrive at a more effective drama on stage. These reforms were critical for the kinds of operas Verdi pursued early in his career. Mercadante studied in Naples with Niccolò Zingarelli between 1816 and 1820. While some of his earliest music was for various instrumental ensembles, he began to compose operas around 1819. With an opera buffa in Rossini's style, Elisa e Claudio (1820), his seventh opera, Mercadante achieved notice in Italy. From 1825 to 1831, Mercadante lived in Spain and Portugal, where he continued to compose. With no long-term contracts emerging at the time, Mercadante returned to Italy. He served as maestro di cappella at the Cathedral in Novara from 1833 to 1840, and it was then that Mercadante reconsidered his approach to opera. His 'reformed' style begins with his most famous opera, Il Giuramento, occasionally revived in Italy. In this work he avoided any effects that did not serve the drama directly, and purposely varied the forms used in set pieces. This prevented his resorting to strings of da capo arias or diva-based scenes. Such self-imposed restrictions were part of Mercadante's style for the rest of his career.
In I due Figaro, the libretto continues the story about Figaro and Count Almaviva: Figaro has risen to become the actual lord of the palace and intends to arrange the marriage of the count's daughter to one of his mates so as to share the rich dowry with him. Yet Figaro has not taken account of Cherubino, who has meanwhile matured into a real hero, and who appears in the palace in disguise under the name of Figaro. The sparkling Barbiere di Siviglia, a comedy of the ancien régime, introduces Figaro as fixer and factotum to the dashing young Count Almaviva in his quest to snatch the orphaned heiress Rosina from the clutches of the guardian who keeps her under lock and key. Anticipating the French Revolution, the incendiary Le Nozze di Figaro depicts Figaro, now Almaviva's valet, dancing as fast as he can to keep his bride Susanna -- Countess Rosina's maid -- from the clutches of their master. All the while, the pageboy Cherubino keeps the household in a fever state, fluttering around every woman in sight. I Due Figaro picks up the Almaviva family saga a generation later. The Count is arranging a marriage for his daughter Inez who, unbeknown to him, has fallen in love with Cherubino, now a colonel in the Spanish military. In a brazen ploy to win her, Cherubino presents himself to the Count under the name Figaro, in a costume copied from Figaro's, supplanting Figaro in the Count's favor. In short, the bourgeoisie is taking over from the Ancien Régime.
The plot derives from Les Deux Figaro (1790), an unauthorized sequel to Le Nozze di Figaro by the actor-playwright Honoré-Antoine Richaud-Martelly, who had played Almaviva on stage, though not to Beaumarchais' satisfaction. The libretto, in elegant Italian, is by Felice Romani, Bellini's partner in La Sonnambula and Norma. A previous version had been composed by Michele Carafa and is available on a DVD edited by the small but important Bongiovanni music editions.
Beaumarchais is a clear heir of Molière, but he was also a clockmaker and inventor of genius -- his plots make the head spin -- also a feisty litigant, an arms trader, a music teacher to French princesses and a devoted ladies' man. His eventful personal life even inspired a play by Goethe (Clavigo), in which he appears under his own name. In the first two Figaro plays, Beaumarchais painted no fewer than three self-portraits. The nimble-witted Figaro and the adolescent skirt-chaser Cherubino bear nicknames from Beaumarchais' own boyhood: Figaro, his patronymic ('fils Caron', after his father André-Charles Caron), Chérubin, an allusion to his legendary erotic precocity. The increasingly willful and isolated Almaviva ('lively spirit') reflects the social aspirations of a commoner who, in his late 1820s (more than a decade before he wrote the plays), bought his way into the ruling class. As post-revolutionary France lurched from disaster to disaster, his outlook darkened. It was in this mood that Beaumarchais cranked out his third Figaro play, La Mère Coupable ('The Guilty Mother'), which opened in 1792, two years after Les Deux Figaro, on the eve of the Terror. From a single night's liaison with Cherubino twenty years before the curtain rises, the Countess -- the culpable mother of the title -- has borne a son. Now the Count is seeking proof for his long-festering suspicions. A mirror of bone-deep disillusionment, the play moves from dyspeptic cynicism to desperate, born-again euphoria that rings sentimental but totally false.
Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna. Click on the image for higher resolution
In Mercadante's opera, like in Rossini's (but unlike Mozart's), Almaviva is a coloratura tenor whose fancywork presupposes the high-wire artistry of a Juan Diego Flórez. Lacy embellishments on the long-spun soprano lines for the Countess recall the Bellini phrases Maria Callas exulted in at the peak of her powers. Cherubino's mezzo-soprano/alto pyrotechnics might have been made to order for Cecilia Bartoli.
As well as for the other 'Neapolitan School' operas, for this modern-day premiere, Muti is working with youngsters: the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini in the pit and handpicked newcomers (from a variety of schools of music) in the leading roles. In addition, the Spanish director Emilio Sagi gives the show an authentically Spanish flavor. 'The characters are very Spanish, as I can say, knowing very well the character of the people of my country. They have so much life. There are so many imbroglios. But what surprises me most of all is the real Spanish air and the Spanish perfume Mercadante brought into the score with the boleros and fandangos and tiranas and cachuchas he knew from living in Spain'.
Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna. Click on the image for higher resolution
Dramatically Sagi is intrigued by the supporting character of a playwright, Plagio -- as in plagiarism? -- who hangs around Figaro in hopes of pointers for a comedy he is writing. (The opera's subtitle is Il Soggetto d'una Commedia, or 'The Subject for a Comedy'.) 'He's like someone in Pirandello', Sagi says. 'Figaro is trying to invent a plot for him, but Figaro has no real imagination. It's real life that has the poetry and the creativity to make a comedy. It's life that is the real poet.'
I Due Figaro ends in the spirit of the world Beaumarchais has long known and loved, on a note of all-around forgiveness -- however temporary -- for one mad day's follies and betrayals, whether real or imaginary. From such a premise, a composer of genius ought to be able to spin lasting magic.
Rosa Feola as Inez and Annalisa Stroppa as Cherubino in Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
The visual part of the production is a joy for the eyes: a single set by Daniel Bianco is used for the various rooms and gardens of Almaviva Castle. The flashy costumes are designed by Jesus Ruiz. It reminds older audience members of the beautiful set for the third act of Luchino Visconti's Le Nozze di Figaro as produced in the 1970s, and revived in the 1990s, in Rome. Within this elegant neo-classical structure, the eight characters, the chorus and the extras move the action swiftly, in spite of the opera's length (three and a half hours with an intermission). The singers are all young and well-trained in acting.
From left to right: Mario Cassi as Figaro, Omar Montanari as Plagio and Ancio Zorzi Giustiniani as Torribio in Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
The orchestra is young too: the Muti-created Orchestra Giovanile Cherubini. The chorus is the well-seasoned Philarmonia Chorus Vienna. From the overture, where Spanish elements (bolero, fandango) are intertwined with the main theme of the opera, we sense Mercadante's care for harmonic elegance and precision. Muti conducts the orchestra with a delicate baton; we feel how this work of Mercadante has metabolized Mozart's lessons and has many points in common with Donizetti 'opera semi-serie'. In short, the score is sparkling but also full of melancholy.
A scene from Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
Among the singers, the group of women (Rosa Feola, Asude Karayavuz, Eleonora Buratto and, especially, Annalisa Stroppa) is an inch above that of the men (Antonio Poli, Mario Cassi, Anicio Giorgio Giustiniani, Omar Montanari). On average they are young and hand-picked by Muti for this production. As an old TV series says: they will be famous. In particular, Annalisa Stroppa, an impressive coloratura alto, and Antonio Poli, a highly articulate lyric tenor. The Teatro Alighieri is comparatively small (nine hundred seats) and has a very good acoustic. Thus, nobody had to force his or her voice.
Mario Cassi as Figaro and Eleonora Buratto as Susanna in Mercadante's 'I Due Figaro'. Photo © 2011 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution
There were accolades and standing ovations at the curtains calls.
Copyright © 26 June 2011 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy
RAVENNA
ITALY
RICCARDO MUTI
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A Conductor's Opera Music and Vision 20 giugno
A Conductor's Opera
A new production of Puccini's 'La bohème'
at Rome's Teatro dell'Opera,
reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI
La bohème is one of Giacomo Puccini's favorite operas. The audience normally appreciates its delicate melodies and tunes, its sweet arias and its passionate duets as well as its lively ensembles, especially the rhythmic concertato at the end of the second act. Generally, they are thought to be easy to memorize and hum. As such, La bohème is considered as a singers' opera. Recently, at a party with other opera goers in Washington DC, when I stated that I would soon see a new production in Rome, the question most often asked was: 'who will sing it?'
Is this the right question? Often we forget that in Turin in 1893, the opera's première was conducted by Arturo Toscanini and that Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein considered La bohème one of the most demanding, challenging and rewarding operas to conduct. The orchestral score is not principally a support to the singers as in many other operas that followed Verdi's melodrama (such as Ponchielli's La Gioconda and Rossi's Cleopatra), but it is a complex system involving at least fifteen main themes often intertwined in a variety of manners, following the Wagnerian 'revolution'. They are generally designed to create a situation, a mood and a milieu only with a few strokes. On 16 June 2011, the opening night of a series of ten performances, this was clear from the opera's start. The conductor of the series of performances was the American James Conlon, especially expert in twentieth century music; his baton was felt from the initial spirited, powerfully rhythmic theme which plunges the audience headlong into the middle of the action. This review is, of course, based on the 16 June performance.
A scene from Act II of Puccini's 'La bohème' at Teatro dell'Opera in Rome. Photo © 2011 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
In Conlon's hands, the initial theme is clearly the most important of the many others. Especially, of those characterizing the light-hearted bohemian atmosphere, which with their frequent recurrence establish one of the basic aspects of the work. This light-heartedness is then confronted by Rodolfo's dreamy tune and Mimi's response, later expressing their tender love for each other, particularly in their love song Che Gelida Manina. In the second act, the orchestral score is principally concerned with the activities of the crowd; it has been described as a rainbow of shimmering musical colors in a completely naturalistic musical idiom with short lyrical interludes and Musetta's waltz-song. Whilst other conductors rush through the act, Conlon emphasizes the shrill consecutive fifths through the orchestra; the harmonic idiom becomes bolder, yet subtler, than in Puccini's previous operas (eg the triads of the Café Momus theme that Stravinsky so much appreciated fifteen years later).
A scene from Act III of Puccini's 'La bohème' at Teatro dell'Opera in Rome. Photo © 2011 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
In Conlon's hands, Puccini's ability to conjure up atmosphere is nowhere shown to better advantage than in the third act. In sharp contrast to the colorful second act, the orchestra takes on the paleness of every-day life, from the hollow fifths at the beginning of the act to the inconsolable monotony of Rodolfo's description of Mimi's illness, to the soaring melody of the ecstasy of love which is tainted by sorrow from the pit while the suggestion of falling snowflakes conveyed by a succession of open fifths on flutes and harp over a cello line anticipates Debussy. In the final act, the theme of the previous three acts returns to accompany Mimi's reflection on her short life filled with great love, but also with poverty and illness. Conlon gives relevance to the somber theme to announce the opera's implacable end.
Hibla Gerzmava as Mimi in Puccini's 'La bohème' at Teatro dell'Opera in Rome. Photo © 2011 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
I may overstress the importance of La bohème's orchestral score because the opera is often entrusted to second rate conductors, not up to the required standards. But La bohème is also vocalism: it requires at least four main singers and a large array of good singers in short but no less difficult secondary roles.
Patrizia Ciofi as Musetta in Puccini's 'La bohème' at Teatro dell'Opera in Rome. Photo © 2011 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
The Teatro dell'Opera production has two casts. I listened to that of the opening night. Mimi was a comparatively unknown singer, the Georgian Hibla Gerzmava; she has a clear round voice and does not lack volume. She is a bit plump which does not help to interpret a poor young florist about to die of tuberculosis. However, her sweet face made up for this point. She has good phrasing and acute. In the duets (in particular in the first act), she overpowered her Rodolfo, Ramón Vargas. He is still one of the best lyric tenors around on the international scene, but after thirty years of career, age is catching up with his acute. He is skillful and was able to avoid the most difficult of them. Then, his timbre is still translucent and his phrasing, his legato and especially his 'mezza voce' are up to the highest levels. Both Gerzmava and Vargas had open stage applause; at the curtain calls Gerzmava had real accolades interrupted by a few 'boos' from the upper rows of the balcony, but it was not clear if the boos were addressed to her or to other aspects of the performance. Franco Vassallo was a vigorous, very manly, Marcello; Patricia Ciofi a spirited sexy Musetta. Vito Priante and Marco Spotti complete the foursome of the bohémiens. All the others were effective. In some of the other performances, the key four protagonists are scheduled to be Stefano Secco, Carmela Remigio, Luca Salsi and Ellie Dehn.
Ramón Vargas as Rodolfo and Hibla Gerzmava as Mimi in Puccini's 'La bohème' at Teatro dell'Opera in Rome. Photo © 2011 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
The staging needs a few comments. Originally, the Teatro dell'Opera had planned to propose Zeffirelli's fifty-two-year-old production, initially conceived for La Scala with Bernstein in the pit and then also sold to the Paris Opéra, Vienna State Opera and New York Metropolitan Opera, as well as rented to many other theatres and often shown in TV. The Zeffirelli production proved too costly at this time of financial stringency. Thus, the management and the artistic direction of the Teatro dell'Opera had a brilliant idea: to bring back a thirtyish-year-old production by Pier Luigi Samaritani, originally conceived for the Teatro Massimo Bellini of Catania but toured extensively in Italy and abroad and likely to have a new national and international run after this Rome revival.
A scene from Act IV of Puccini's 'La bohème' at Teatro dell'Opera in Rome. Photo © 2011 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
Of course, since Samaritani died in 1994, a young stage director Marco Gandini was called to work on the acting. New costumes were provided by Anna Biagiotti and the laboratory of the Teatro dell'Opera. In extreme synthesis, the Samaratini production is less spectacular but more moving than Zeffirelli's. Most likely the boos were organized by Zeffirelli's fans.
Copyright © 20 June 2011 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy
GIACOMO PUCCINI
LA BOHEME
TEATRO DELL'OPERA
ROME
ITALY
JAMES CONLON
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A new production of Puccini's 'La bohème'
at Rome's Teatro dell'Opera,
reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI
La bohème is one of Giacomo Puccini's favorite operas. The audience normally appreciates its delicate melodies and tunes, its sweet arias and its passionate duets as well as its lively ensembles, especially the rhythmic concertato at the end of the second act. Generally, they are thought to be easy to memorize and hum. As such, La bohème is considered as a singers' opera. Recently, at a party with other opera goers in Washington DC, when I stated that I would soon see a new production in Rome, the question most often asked was: 'who will sing it?'
Is this the right question? Often we forget that in Turin in 1893, the opera's première was conducted by Arturo Toscanini and that Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein considered La bohème one of the most demanding, challenging and rewarding operas to conduct. The orchestral score is not principally a support to the singers as in many other operas that followed Verdi's melodrama (such as Ponchielli's La Gioconda and Rossi's Cleopatra), but it is a complex system involving at least fifteen main themes often intertwined in a variety of manners, following the Wagnerian 'revolution'. They are generally designed to create a situation, a mood and a milieu only with a few strokes. On 16 June 2011, the opening night of a series of ten performances, this was clear from the opera's start. The conductor of the series of performances was the American James Conlon, especially expert in twentieth century music; his baton was felt from the initial spirited, powerfully rhythmic theme which plunges the audience headlong into the middle of the action. This review is, of course, based on the 16 June performance.
A scene from Act II of Puccini's 'La bohème' at Teatro dell'Opera in Rome. Photo © 2011 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
In Conlon's hands, the initial theme is clearly the most important of the many others. Especially, of those characterizing the light-hearted bohemian atmosphere, which with their frequent recurrence establish one of the basic aspects of the work. This light-heartedness is then confronted by Rodolfo's dreamy tune and Mimi's response, later expressing their tender love for each other, particularly in their love song Che Gelida Manina. In the second act, the orchestral score is principally concerned with the activities of the crowd; it has been described as a rainbow of shimmering musical colors in a completely naturalistic musical idiom with short lyrical interludes and Musetta's waltz-song. Whilst other conductors rush through the act, Conlon emphasizes the shrill consecutive fifths through the orchestra; the harmonic idiom becomes bolder, yet subtler, than in Puccini's previous operas (eg the triads of the Café Momus theme that Stravinsky so much appreciated fifteen years later).
A scene from Act III of Puccini's 'La bohème' at Teatro dell'Opera in Rome. Photo © 2011 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
In Conlon's hands, Puccini's ability to conjure up atmosphere is nowhere shown to better advantage than in the third act. In sharp contrast to the colorful second act, the orchestra takes on the paleness of every-day life, from the hollow fifths at the beginning of the act to the inconsolable monotony of Rodolfo's description of Mimi's illness, to the soaring melody of the ecstasy of love which is tainted by sorrow from the pit while the suggestion of falling snowflakes conveyed by a succession of open fifths on flutes and harp over a cello line anticipates Debussy. In the final act, the theme of the previous three acts returns to accompany Mimi's reflection on her short life filled with great love, but also with poverty and illness. Conlon gives relevance to the somber theme to announce the opera's implacable end.
Hibla Gerzmava as Mimi in Puccini's 'La bohème' at Teatro dell'Opera in Rome. Photo © 2011 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
I may overstress the importance of La bohème's orchestral score because the opera is often entrusted to second rate conductors, not up to the required standards. But La bohème is also vocalism: it requires at least four main singers and a large array of good singers in short but no less difficult secondary roles.
Patrizia Ciofi as Musetta in Puccini's 'La bohème' at Teatro dell'Opera in Rome. Photo © 2011 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
The Teatro dell'Opera production has two casts. I listened to that of the opening night. Mimi was a comparatively unknown singer, the Georgian Hibla Gerzmava; she has a clear round voice and does not lack volume. She is a bit plump which does not help to interpret a poor young florist about to die of tuberculosis. However, her sweet face made up for this point. She has good phrasing and acute. In the duets (in particular in the first act), she overpowered her Rodolfo, Ramón Vargas. He is still one of the best lyric tenors around on the international scene, but after thirty years of career, age is catching up with his acute. He is skillful and was able to avoid the most difficult of them. Then, his timbre is still translucent and his phrasing, his legato and especially his 'mezza voce' are up to the highest levels. Both Gerzmava and Vargas had open stage applause; at the curtain calls Gerzmava had real accolades interrupted by a few 'boos' from the upper rows of the balcony, but it was not clear if the boos were addressed to her or to other aspects of the performance. Franco Vassallo was a vigorous, very manly, Marcello; Patricia Ciofi a spirited sexy Musetta. Vito Priante and Marco Spotti complete the foursome of the bohémiens. All the others were effective. In some of the other performances, the key four protagonists are scheduled to be Stefano Secco, Carmela Remigio, Luca Salsi and Ellie Dehn.
Ramón Vargas as Rodolfo and Hibla Gerzmava as Mimi in Puccini's 'La bohème' at Teatro dell'Opera in Rome. Photo © 2011 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
The staging needs a few comments. Originally, the Teatro dell'Opera had planned to propose Zeffirelli's fifty-two-year-old production, initially conceived for La Scala with Bernstein in the pit and then also sold to the Paris Opéra, Vienna State Opera and New York Metropolitan Opera, as well as rented to many other theatres and often shown in TV. The Zeffirelli production proved too costly at this time of financial stringency. Thus, the management and the artistic direction of the Teatro dell'Opera had a brilliant idea: to bring back a thirtyish-year-old production by Pier Luigi Samaritani, originally conceived for the Teatro Massimo Bellini of Catania but toured extensively in Italy and abroad and likely to have a new national and international run after this Rome revival.
A scene from Act IV of Puccini's 'La bohème' at Teatro dell'Opera in Rome. Photo © 2011 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
Of course, since Samaritani died in 1994, a young stage director Marco Gandini was called to work on the acting. New costumes were provided by Anna Biagiotti and the laboratory of the Teatro dell'Opera. In extreme synthesis, the Samaratini production is less spectacular but more moving than Zeffirelli's. Most likely the boos were organized by Zeffirelli's fans.
Copyright © 20 June 2011 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy
GIACOMO PUCCINI
LA BOHEME
TEATRO DELL'OPERA
ROME
ITALY
JAMES CONLON
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