Rossini’s first masterpiece and one of his two best serious operas (the other being Semiramide – both his first and last commission for Venice’s La Fenice) had never been previously heard in the Deutsche Oper before this run of performances conducted by the world’s leading Rossini specialist Alberto Zedda in Pier Luigi Pizzi’s 1999 Pesaro production. It would not be proper to say that the house’s rather Wagnerian orchestra had limited experience with Rossini, since his comic works are regularly performed there – but one couldn’t help noticing a “German” richer and fuller sound coming from the pit. The experienced maestro wisely did not try to Italianize his musicians by force, but rather surrendered to the Beethovenian surroundings: this score sounded at its noble and warmer, with beautifully blending of strings and wind instruments. Comparisons with Zedda’s top-recommendation recording for Naxos (with Collegium Instrumentale Brugense) shows what was missing this evening: buoyancy. While the Deutsche Oper performance operated on dignified, warm sounds and Mozartian poise, the CD recording springs into life in its bright Italian-style orchestral sound, clearly articulated phrasing and energetic rhythms. I praise the conductor for finding some sense in what the circumstances presented him and I, for myself, deemed the experience as interesting as listening to Elisabeth Grümmer sing Verdi – it might not be what it was supposed to be, but it still has something to say. The Deutsche Oper Chorus, though, basically struggled with the Italian language.
Patrizia Ciofi was not an immaculate Amenaide – some top notes flapped, the low register is unsettled and sometimes you could feel that this role is a hard piece of singing – but her performance had such musical intelligence, sense of style, gracious phrasing, dramatic awareness and sensitivity that one would need a heart of stone to resist her. Moreover, she was in very healthy voice – her usually watercoloristic tonal quality had this evening such radiance that it just flowed effortlessly in the auditorium. The conductor helped her in every tricky passage and she found a virtue in the less brisk tempi to sculpt her fioriture with expressive Mozartian quality. When it comes to the role of Tancredi, one really missed the sensational Ewa Podles in Zedda’s CDs. I have never previously heard or seen Haidar Halévy and cannot say if she was in a bad-voice day, but her performance failed to please me except in the passages in which she could sing softly, what she does adeptly (as in the closing scene – here the Ferrara “sad” ending). When she sang above piano, I couldn’t overlook the the backward placement, the lack of focus, the bleached-out sound over the passaggio and the unclear phrasing. To make things more difficult, her figure and her whole attitude do not really work for breeches-roles. When promising contralto Clémentine Margaine sang Isaura’s aria with firm, clearly produced and deliciously dark tonal quality, I really wished she had been invited for the title role. My first impression of Alexey Dolgov’s Argirio was that he was in an off-evening*, but he would eventually settle into a very brave performance of this difficult role. If his tenor fortunately has nothing of the usual nasality and brittleness of tenorini in it, it also lacks true comfort in this repertoire (especially in the higher end of the tessitura). I wonder if he should not sing Mozart more often for a while and develop a little bit more warmth and sense of expressive phrasing instead of opting so soon for a second-choice bel canto tenor career. Orbazzano is not really a big role, but it is an important one – Krysztof Szumanski could not make much of it, the voice does not really bloom and the whole performance turned around a bad-guy impersonation.
Do I need to write something about Pier Luigi Pizzi’s production? Well, if one of my eleven or twelve readers have never seen one of his stagings, I owe him or her a brief description – take one architectural background in a painting by de Chirico, costumes from Xanadu (yes, the movie with Olivia Newton-John) and the Personenregie of a Mexican telenovela and you’ll get the picture.
* Here again Zedda has a brilliant piece of casting in the sadly too-soon-retired Stanford Olsen, one of my favorite examples of Rossinian singing from a tenor.
“Well, if one of my eleven or twelve readers have never seen one of his stagings, I owe him or her a brief description – take one architectural background in a painting by de Chirico, costumes from Xanadu (yes, the movie with Olivia Newton-John) and the Personenregie of a Mexican telenovela and you’ll get the picture.”
Make me lucky 13 then. (I seriously hope you are kidding in terms of readership. My wife and I follow your blog religiously.)
I don’t know this director. And judging by your description, I’m fine with that. :-b
I saw the Bieito Freischütz last night, so I’m on a bit of a director phobia at the moment…will try to write about it.
Cheers.
I attended the performance on Wednesday evening (01.02) and also had a ticket for the performance that you attended, but decided to sell it, since overall the production was not sufficiently engaging to make me want to see it a second time.
I think you captured the production’s strengths and weaknesses very well. I admire Zedda for what he has contributed to the performance of Rossini operas and making the best of the situation at the Deutsche Oper. My reaction to Patrizia Ciofi was a bit more positive than yours, perhaps because I had not heard her previously. Although the role seems to lie at the outer limits of her capabilities, I was completely taken with her impersonation of Ameniade. Clémentine Margaine made a wonderful impression, and she was rewarded with enthusiastic applause. As you described, Alexey Dolgov seemed to improve as the evening progressed. Hadar Halévy was very, very disappointing. Her voice appears to consist only of a very prominent vibrato. Yet, in the final scene she did some lovely singing. Is Tancredi too big a role for her, or was she simply going through a rough patch? There are surely better singers around for this wonderful role.
I did not mind the sets and the costumes as much as you did. At least, they do not work against the opera in a manner that becomes visually fatiguing, as too many productions at the Deutsche Oper do. I would like to see steeply raked sets disappear from opera stages completely. Also, on Wednesday evening the back walls that folded down did not always function smoothly, causing a bit of unforeseen comic relief from the dramatic proceedings.
Thanks for your cogent review.
thank you! i felt almost exactly the same seing the second performace of the series. Halevy was an embarassement and Margaine would have been the better hero by far! ST
Which version of TANCREDI did Zedda do?
I heard Ciofi’s Amenaide in Pesaro, Madrid and Berlin yesterday. In this role, she is not, in my opinion, rivals now. Great playing, great singing, legato master.
The only artist on the scene yesterday.
Andrew: Same here! Your last posts were really generous – yours is a very tough job (I mean – being a singer is tough, but being a tenor is twice tougher…. I say it from personal experience :-)) and you write very sensitively and honestly about it. As for my 12 readers, well, this blog didn’t have as many readers before I moved to Berlin – so I credit Berlin its popularity – and probably will return to obscurity in August when I reach my next destination, but it’s been fun for the moment :-)
Pizzi and Bieito. As I use to say, one is always a bit harder on judging the efforts of stage directors – unlike musicians, they have all the time of the world to create far from the eyes of the audience. While Bieito has the misconception that the audience is unable to have their own thoughts about a play/opera and badly needs him to enlighten them, Pizzi works rather like the director of a bureaucratic “department of stagings” in a take-our-staging-of-Gioconda-and-refurbish-it-for-Tancredi way.
Thanks for the props rml. I might be stepping in hot water but here’s what I wrote of last nights Freischütz. You might want to read it quickly before I get a phone call from my manager pleading with me to take it down.
http://tenorrichards.blogspot.com/2012/02/pov-die-freischutz-komische-oper-berlin.html
Hahaha…. The first Freischütz I’ve ever seen was Achim Freyer’s video from Stuttgart featuring a giant rabbit in a severe fit of autoeroticism – so I guess my love for Weber’s music will make me go through Bieito’s new production. In any case, it cannot be more distracting than the naked Osmin singing tralalera, trala-a-a-a-alera.
Walter: Thank you! Please don’t mistake me – I’ve truly enjoyed Patrizia Ciofi’s performance. When I thought of leaving in the intermission, it was my wish to hear her Giusto Dio, che umile adoro that got me back to my seat for the second act. As for Tancredi, it is a difficult role, a bit high for contraltos, a bit low for mezzos – no wonder you see more or less the same singers taking this role in many stagings (and sometimes recordings). But what we heard in the DOB was certainly below standard. As for the sets, yes, it elicited some laughs last evening too. It was particularly embarrassing to hear everything cracking and thumping in the middle of an aria.
Stefan: Thank you too. I have seen Margaine only take small roles in the DOB and I would be curious to see her in a bigger assignment just to see everything she can do. As it seems, she has true potential.
Ed: If by edition, you mean using the sad or the happy ending (I am no specialist – that is why I am asking you), it was the Ferrara ending, where Ms. Halévy offered her best singing last evening as the dying Tancredi.
Rossini’s Tancredi (and the much admired Patrizia Ciofi) are not favorites of mine so (for once) I’ll gracefully refrain from comment. Only one time I heard Haidar Halévy (as Arsace in Semiramide) and I enjoyed her performance & vocal tone.
– You always seem to come up with at least one trinket nobody else has passed around yet. I got a good laugh out of that “Personenregie of a Mexican telenovela” – an unforgettable style that has survived decades of the onlaught of sophistication,.
Best wishes!
Hi, Jerold! Thanks again! You are invited always to comment – even when it is ungracious :-) I have the impression of having heard something positive about Halévy a couple of years ago. Maybe she is in a bad phase right now. Who knows…
Will be in Berlin for about a week and a half from the 15th and time permitting (it will be very short due to professional obligations but hopefully some operatic opportunities will present themselves) had been hoping to snag a rare opportunity to see Freischutz (only a couple of chances heretofore over the years) but honestly am less than enthused. Andrew’s distaste for the production, especially with him being fan of things Regie and Bieto makes one rather apprehensive.
Don’t know if I can take the Freyer Onegin again. Might take a look at the Figaro at the UDL and perhaps a bit of Ballo and Tristan at the DOB. RML’s relative enthusiasm for PMS’ Isolde make me curios in spite of my doubt on the subject.
Hi, Cavalier!
Long time no see! It seems we’re going to see the same operas while you’re here! I’ve just sent you a message.
PS – “enthusiasm” is too strong a word! :-)