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 Spain, and wrote it originally in French, to even more carefully camouflage that he was striking

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 Flanders revolt .   Annalisa Raspagliosi plays his lover

 

 

OPERA REVIEW

'Don Carlo' speaks to our time

Verdi's opera features terrorism, an unpopular war and a leader torn between church and state. Sound familiar?

 

Los Angeles times

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 Spain, circa 1560. But the politics meant a lot to Verdi. He 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. "Don Carlo," loosely based upon Schiller's "Don Carlos" and even more loosely on history, occupied Verdi for 17 years.

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 Europe. But he did not back away from the strong political statement, either. He staged the action in a warren of stylized arches, John Gunther's gloomy and claustrophobic set topped by classical paintings of bloody religious subject matter.

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 Elizabeth for political reasons. The French princess was betrothed to the king's son, Don Carlo. Son turns against father and supports the Flemish insurgency, which wants the Spanish out of Flanders. The Grand Inquisitor keeps dissidents in line through torture and the fiery stake.

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 Elizabeth by falsely accusing the queen of infidelity and by seducing Philip herself. The mezzo-soprano was a showstopper....

 

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 Flanders revolt.

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, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A.

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 USA: http://www.ItaliaUSA.com (Formerly Italy at St Louis)

Annotico Email: annotico@earthlink.net