Sunday,
March 09,
Italian "La Scala"
Suffers From Foreign "Infiltration"
The
ANNOTICO Report
Since
the departure of Riccardo Muti three years ago the
great Milanese theatre, La Scala, has
been run by foreigners: the sovrintendente
is French, his artistic administrator is from the
La Scala still manages to cast Italian repertoire with a
reasonable quotient of Italian singers, in spite of an alarming shrinkage in
the reservoir of voices suited to the Verdi/Puccini repertoire. There has been
a stab at "creativity", but there has been a serious eroding of
quality.
Authentic Italy goes Multinational
Financial Time
By Andrew Clark
March 9 2008
Il Trittico/Wozzeck
La Scala, Milan
For any
non-Italian visiting the home of Italian opera, the expectation is that you
will have the archetypal Italian operatic experience: rousing choruses,
flamboyant singing, ardent expressions of love,
revenge and death. And once you have taken in the aura of La Scala, with its red velvet boxes and magnificent central
chandelier and sense of tradition (all of which, after nearly 30 years of
visits, I still marvel at), you do invariably get a flavour
of how the Italians understand their "lyric theatre" - as an
integral part of national culture that extends beyond narrow interests and
income brackets.
As for what takes
place on stage, anyone expecting the archetypal Italian experience should think
again. This season alone includes Lorin Maazels 1984 (a
derivative musicking of George Orwell), Macbeth
with a Japanese conductor, a Peter Stein staging of Bartsk
and a co-production with
La Scala still manages to cast Italian repertoire with a
reasonable quotient of Italian singers, in spite of an alarming shrinkage in
the reservoir of voices suited to the Verdi/Puccini repertoire - in direct
contrast to those native singers now making international careers in baroque
opera. And it still attracts Italian conductors of the calibre
of Riccardo Chailly and Daniele Gatti,
the two most obvious contenders for the vacant post of music director.
But there was
nothing typically Italian about its latest productions of Puccinis Il Trittico and Bergs Wozzeck. Wozzeck,
not exactly noted for bel canto, was
treated to a seamless, uncluttered production that impressed above all for the
way it profiled the aching lyricism of the music. The
orchestra, responding to Gattis impassioned
command, mastered Bergs complex score as if it was in the blood.
The performance ran without a break " no
opportunity for
All this was
evidence that
J|rgen Flimms
10-year-old staging, lovingly revived in the designs by Erich Wonder and
Florence von Gerkan, is the most visually beautiful I
have seen. A simple centrepiece of curved panelling, with a rear horizontal strip of changing colours, cradles every scene, while paradoxically hardening
the expressionistic punch of Wozzecks
downtrodden fate. The only false note was provided by Flimms
bizarre decision to have the orchestra seated on stage in the inn scene. Georg Nigl was the appealingly young Wozzeck,
Evelyn Herlitzius a heart-wrenching Marie, while the
veteran Heinz Zednik provided a surprise cameo as the
Fool.
The Trittico " a
triptych of one-acters that runs from verismo melodrama (Il tabarro)
through sentimental tragedy (Suor Angelica)
to wicked comedy (Gianni Schicchi) "
was, by contrast, stolidly staged, indifferently cast and tepidly received. At
Thursdays first night one of the singers was booed "
Italian opera has its less attractive traditions " and it was
nearly midnight before the final curtain came down.
Luca Ronconis staging makes no attempt at a radical update
but has none of the charm of tradition. Il tabarro
is tepid and un-atmospheric -Margherita Pallis
realistic Seine barge and Silvia Aymoninos 1920s
costumes dont help - while Gianni Schicchi
unfolds on a sea of crimson brocade, with everyone in mid-20th-century costume
except, bizarrely, the rogue title character, dressed like a medieval Punch. At
least La Scala had invested in three separate sets " it is false economy to dress this triptych in the
same clothes " and Suor Angelica
is easily the most eye-catching. A monumental statue of the Madonna lies
prostrate across the stage, an apt symbol of sacrificial motherhood and the
judgmental power of the Church, the two dominant themes of a work set in a
convent.
Ronconi bathes the opera in
unrelenting light, as if to starve it of sentiment, and the ending, in which
Angelica commits suicide and is symbolically reunited with the deceased child
she had out of wedlock, has more bathos than pathos. Chailly
played a part in this by refusing to indulge the music. He then conducted a
needle-sharp account of Schicchi - though
overall the first night sounded as if the music still needed some bedding in.
Hearing Puccini
at La Scala is always special, but youre best to
go for an opera with rousing choruses and a cast more distinguished than this. Paoletta Marrocus Giorgetta, the adulterous wife in Il
tabarro, had clearly been chosen more for pouty looks than her modest soprano. Barbara Frittolis Angelica suggested that, for all her
eloquent musicianship, hers is not a Puccini voice: "Senza
Mamma" lacked bloom. The Schicchi was Leo Nucci - an unexpected triumph for a veteran baritone
whose voice, always lean of timbre, sounded remarkably robust, an impression
doubtless influenced by the old-school quality of his vocal acting. The Michele
was the Spaniard Juan Pons, whose stage personality is no more imposing than
when I first heard him at La Scala 25 years ago as a
young Falstaff in the Strehler production. The other
non-Italian principals were Mariana Lipovsek, a
suitably chilling Zia Principessa in Angelica,
and Nino Machaidzes pale Lauretta
in Sc hicchi.
It was
fascinating to hear Gatti and Chailly
on consecutive nights. Gatti conducts more from the
heart, Chailly from the head. Both are seasoned
theatre musicians. Gatti will preside over next
seasons opening production of Don Carlo, with Tosca, Lulu and Falstaff to follow. Chailly has plenty of engagements in La Scalas
concert series. I wouldnt bet on either getting
the music directorship soon. The job has been watered down since Stiphane Lissner, La Scalas sovrindendente,
combined artistic and administrative power in his own hands. All this suggests
that, for the foreseeable future, the archetypal Italian opera experience may
exist more in the mind than in reality.
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