Wednesday,
September 13, 2006
Verdi's "Don Carlo" A Not so
Subtle "Poke in the Eye" to Political Powers
The ANNOTICO Report
Verdi was a commanding voice for Italian independence in the 19th century. He served in the senate,
and he proved quite clever at infusing his operas with political symbolism that the censors couldn't catch.
He sets the plot in
severely at, and unveiling the Italian Secular and Religious abuses of Power.
Ferruccio Furlanetto's "Philip" make this production a must-see and must-hear.
Salvatore Licitra sung the tenor, and once was hailed as the next Pavarotti. Licitra sounded most impressive when he could
get into a testosterone match with Rodrigo, Carlo's
friend and leader of the
OPERA
REVIEW
Verdi's
opera features terrorism, an unpopular war and a leader torn between church and
state. Sound familiar?
By
Mark Swed,
Times
Staff Writer
September 12, 2006
The
subject of Verdi's "Don Carlo," which received a gripping new
production by Los Angeles Opera on Sunday afternoon in the Dorothy Chandler
Pavilion, is the abuse of power. Terrorism is enforced by religious extremists
controlling government. A popular uprising is the result of an unpopular war in
which a superpower is ensconced in a distant land where it isn't wanted.
These are not our times, nor the composer's. The setting is Philip II's
Originally written in French and in five lavish acts, the opera was intended
for Paris in 1867, and th! e political message had to be massaged by extraneous
loveliness of garden scenes and ballet. The final version, a tighter though
still expansive four-acter translated into Italian
for La Scala, removed the French froufrou, brutally
concentrating on difficult issues and flawed leaders. There exists a complex
tangle of intermediate solutions. L.A. Opera ignored them and went for stark
brutality.
Ian Judge did not update, an irresistible temptation
to most directors of this opera in
The arches, moved in various jigsaw configurations, represented a Spanish court
obsessed with itself. Oblivious to the wider world,
Philip II and the Grand Inquisitor, the leader of the Catholic Church and the
power behind the power, make one wrong, ! self-serving
and oppressive move after another.
The opera begins with Philip's decision to marry
The arches kept the attention focused on the characters, and Tim Goodchild's beautifully styled costumes made a striking
effect.
Five convincing singers are essential to "Don Carlo," and so is a
conductor who can keep up the intensity. Even in the four-act version, it is a
long opera... James Conlon, the company's new music director, made the
score feel impressively unrelenting....
For
"Don Carlo," Conlon built the foundation of orchestral sound from the
bottom up.,,, and he grounds the orchestra
magnificently. The lower strings revealed such power that the singers must have
at times felt the earth shake on stage.
The greatest power on stage was also in the lower ranges. Opera lovers
shouldn't need much more than Ferruccio Furlanetto's Philip to make this production a must-see and
must-hear. Furlanetto is a ruler torn between his
lust and responsibility, between the church and state. He is magisterial and
imperfect. But it takes a great deep voice, the kind that gets under a
listener's skin, to generate sympathy and horror simultaneously.
The other conspicuous low voice was that of Dolora Zajick. As a ferocious Princess Eboli,
who loves but is spurned by Carlo and takes her revenge on
Salvatore
Licitra sung the
tenor, and circled his lover like a shark assessing its prey, played by Annalisa
Raspagliosi.Once hailed as the next Pavarotti, Licitra sounded most impressive when he could get into a
testosterone match with Rodrigo, Carlo's friend and leader of the
Lado Ataneli's Rodrigo was
no more lyrical than Licitra's Carlo, but the two
made an effective duo when their attentions turned to politics. Eric Halfvarson proved an appropriately creepy Grand Inquisitor,
black of tone....
...The new Don Carlo" proves that L.A. Opera is ever a company full of
surprises and that it has a capable new music director.
'Don Carlo'
Where:
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion,
When: 7 p.m.
Wednesday and Sept. 20, 2 p.m. Saturday, 7 p.m. Sept. 24, 7 p.m. Sept. 28,
12:30 p.m. Oct. 1
Ends: Oct. 1
Price: $30 to
$220
Contact:
(213) 972-8001
The
ANNOTICO Reports
Can
be Viewed, and are Archived at:
Italia
Italia Mia: http://www.ItaliaMia.com
Annotico
Email: annotico@earthlink.net