La Forza di Mehta

La Forza Del Destino
Giuseppe Verdi
Synopsis here, libretto there.

Current repertoire of the Vienna State Opera.
Next performances here.
Review of the premiere (March 1, 2008) broadcast on 3 sat.

Leonora - Nina Stemme
Don Carlo - Carlos Alvarez
Alvaro - Salvatore Licitra
Preziosilla - Nadia Krasteva
Marchese di Calatrava / Padre Guardiano - Alastair Miles

Conductor - Zubin Mehta
Director - David Poutney

Axel Zeininger / Wiener Staatsoper GmbH

I. The staging

This part I didn't like for sure (but I liked the production of Il Tabarro by Poutney seen here in Lyon last Spring), and especially his choice to portray the Bohemians as a Cowboy-style Crazy Horse show. I get he tried to update the story, but the main reason for his failure is his ostentatious disrespect for the religious matters that are so intrinsic to this opera.
It's hard not to be upset, even for deeply atheist people like myself, by the antinomy between those Cowboy-evangelical freaks acting out while Carlo is singing "In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti." (Act II) for instance, especially when the costume design is so provocative and vain.
[Someone from the audience shouted "Assassino di Verdi" and others booed at the end of the most absurd scene - Act 3 -, when Melitone lectures the people on their decadent and ungodly manners while being strapped in duct tape and bullied.]

Realistically, the only way to succeed would have been to step the ideas down, be less incendiary of the Catholic Church and stage the religious parts in a TV evangelical context.

The set design in that militant production managed to create some beautiful images though, such as the cross at the end of Act 2 or the industrial framework at the beginning of Act 3 (before the political madness of Poutney overwhelms it).



II. The cast

Surely the team assembled for the premiere was very decent and talented, yet I can't feel passionate about either of the singers.
Nadia Krasteva was average, Stemme was not at ease, Alvarez was good but his acting is just not right, and Alaistar Miles had a great evening, even if I strongly disagree with the choice (probably Poutney's) to cast him in both Il Marchese (Leonora's father) and Padre Guardiano (head of the monastery she enters i.e. her religious father, a idea that is just too simple for me).

Salvatore Licitra

If tenors were judged upon their middle and low registers, Licitra would be in line at the gates of their pantheon. Unfortunately for him, opera standards haven't changed on that matter in over 400 years, and high notes are still what tenors are remembered for.
Since what he lacks in singing is not counterbalanced at all by his acting, he will remain, by my personal standards, an average tenor who incomprehensibly is casted by all the major Opera Houses around the world.



III. The music

This is the real catch of this production, at least conducted by Zubin Mehta.
I'll admit it is very difficult for me to be open to hearing Verdi's music conducted by someone else than Riccardo Muti because obviously he had a tremendous influence on the way I perceive music (especially Verdi's).
That explains why for instance, I am very reluctant to attend performances (unless JDF sings in it, that goes without saying) of the operas I love most (in Verdi's case, Rigoletto, Don Carlos, Il Trovatore, Attila and La Forza, in that order).

The conduction of Mehta was under scrutiny from the very first seconds of the overture, let me tell you.
Well, I was blown away, simply put.

On a scale from 0 to 10 (10 being Muti), I would give Mehta a 9.5.
His reading of the piece is exquisite, really.
All in finesse and style, always spot on, served by a brilliant execution of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and Chorus, full of live and light. A magnificent piece of jewelry.



Further readings:

- A review from someone who actually attended the piece (not the premiere though)
- The Associated Press review from March 2

Mascarade

This production of Piero Foggioni (also responsible for the set, costumes and lightning) premiered at the Met some twenty years ago, in 1990 with Luciano Pavarotti and Aprile Millo.
The shortest way to describe it would be to simply state that it looks like Zeffirelli, fells like Zeffirelli and probably even smells like Zeffirelli, yet is not from Zeffirelli. Or maybe he used an alias and nobody ever noticed.

This XIXth century opera is staged like in the XIXth century, with the ostensible glittering elements and the usual fireworks on stage (scene 2 of Act I), the primitive lightning (spotlights on the guy singing) and a predictable lack of acting directions of any kind (the storyboard probably looks like : "when singing, do not move at all cost and open your arms wide so that the audience can see how much effort you put into it - after all, this is about the music, not the theater").

Stephanie Blythe
Sara Krulwich for the New York Times

So let's focus on the music.
Gianandrea Noseda's conduction was not very impressive, mostly in the lineage of Carlo Maria Giulini (whose approach of Verdi I've never liked): lacking fluidity and lightness. Angela M.Brown did not shine either as Amelia, and Salvatore Licitra has never been spectacular anyway (although he sounded way better than in last's year broadcast of Cav/Pag), especially because his high notes are always somehow on the brink of failure - but his low and middle registers were quite good indeed.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky had breathing issues in the first act, ending every replica with a very unelegant and guttural growl. All was forgotten by act II though, and his true vocal abilities were unleashed. And what a joy it is to hear Hvoro at his best.

Stephanie Blythe was the real star of the evening, as her performance as fortune-teller Ulrica was well-worth the evening.

Manhattan Opera House, 1900s

The old atmosphere at the Met:

• gold curtain
• curtain call at the end of every act
  

The dangers of a tenor's life

The 38-year-old italian tenor Salvatore Licitra, currently singing at the MET Cavalleria Rusticana (Mascagni) and I Pagliacci (Leoncavallo) has a very dangerous life... Last Tuesday night, the 38-year-old Italian tenor ended up in an hospital emergency room, instead of a Manhattan party thrown by Sony Classical in celebration of his latest recording, "Forbidden Love" (extracts can be heard on his website). Stepping up of a taxi, the space between parked cars seemed to be too narrow for him, so instead, he went flying to the ground, left shoulder first. Because tenors are real men, not pussies, he went to the hospital to get his bleeding leg bandaged but didn't complain about the pain in his shoulder... until the next morning, when the pain became unbearable. MRI and X-rays showed torn tendons in his rotator cuff (maybe he just pitched some baseballs during the night and came up with the excuse of the fall).

But nothing could stop him from singing at the MET (let alone the ton of money probably involved). Well done M.Licitra.

I soo would love to find a picture of you falling out of a cab. Has nobody told you to start drinking at the party thrown for you and not before?

Infos Associated Press, Oct.26, 2006