Verdi’s Falstaff, Opernhaus Zürich, 08.07.2022

The original four or five readers of this blog may remember that Verdi’s Falstaff was an opera I took a while to appreciate. I have been lucky to have seen exceptional performances that taught me that, in optimal conditions, this is a unique operatic experience, both in terms of theatre and music – the emphasis on “optimal”. This evening I was reminded of why it wasn’t love at first sight – and this doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good performance. It was above the standards of Italian opera these days, but optimal it wasn’t. Relieved from the pressure of proving he belongs to the repertoire – as in his recent Wagner performances – Gianandrea Noseda is here in his element. And I write this not as an entirely positive thing. I mean, I wished we had 75% of the clarity and precision he bothered to extract from his musicians in, say, Das Rheingold. Here the orchestra was alright big and rich – singers had to work really hard this evening – but it seems that the conductor’s view of this work is that it is something robust and brash. The sound was full, the accents were bold, phrasing was a bit driven, it felt almost tense. Is that a problem per se? Not at all, it’s a Falstaff-ian view of the score at any rate. That said, if the approach tampers with what Verdi is telling – and what he is telling is in the orchestra filigree – than it’s just the stained xerox copy of the score. With a dense contribution from the pit, all the burden of story telling was carried by the cast. And for this kind of performance, we needed a different cast.

The first time I’ve seen Irina Lungu, she was singing Nanetta in the La Scala tour to Japan under Daniel Harding. I wrote back then that the voice was smoky but the mezza voce was apt. Now Ms. Lungu appears rather in prima donna roles, such as Alice. The voice is even grainier now, but it is firm and flexible. Nobody can says she is not a competent singer in the sense that everything she sings sounds like music. The problem is that one cannot understand a word. I cannot really see the point of having someone sing a text adapted from a comedy by William Shakespeare if the text is not really there. I mean, I saw Anna Caterina Antonacci sing it – and I swear it was something of an entirely different level. Sandra Hamaoui is far better cast as Nanetta than as Gilda earlier in the season. It is the right voice for the part, floating and velvety, and she finds no problem with high pianissimo. The middle register lacks focus and she still tends to place full stops in the end of each phrase rather than keeping the ball in the air until the end of the page. But that’s just a small “but” – her singing here was charming enough and she acts well and has the physique du rôle. The single Italian person in the cast, Marianna Pizzolato, a singer whose performance as Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri at the Met I really enjoyed, could have added some authenticity to the proceedings, but the truth is that her voice is a bit light and high for the part – and she ended up eclipsed by the orchestra too often. At any rate, she did sing well and has a congenial personality and acted with naturalness too. This evening’s Meg was Niamh O’Sullivan – and I want to hear more from her. The part is not rather on the ingrate sound, but what I could hear was fruity, warm and appealing.

The first Sir John Falstaff I have ever seen live was Bryn Terfel at the Met back in 2005. I can’t say I have a good memory of that – he was in extremely rough voice and went completely hoarse in the last act. Moreover, his whole performance was mannered. Seventeen years later, one cannot say that he is still in his prime. The voice still retains the characteristic tone and is big enough and sometimes even impressively so. Now he cheats a lot – and yet he still had a voice in the end of the opera. In terms of interpretation, what he offers now is more convincing and more coherent. In terms of acting, it was even subtle. He could make the audience laugh by the way he moved a finger. His whole stage attitude is now almost ideal to the part. We almost feel that this Falstaff knows from the start that he just wants someone to tell him to retire. If Mr. Terfel could deliver the text in spontaneous Italian, it would have been really commendable. As it is, there is the hint of an accent and the lack of flow of Italian language as produced by a native speaker. Mr and Mrs Ford here have a lot in common – Konstantin Shushakov’s baritone is basically grainy too and he too sang “well”. The voice is consistent in color, even under pressure. It sounds a bit darkened, what makes it limited in projection. Although his Italian is correctly pronounced, it is not truly crispy, and he makes nothing of the text. This may sounds grumpy – but this is Italian comedy and it is vital, it is compulsory to handle the text expertly. This is what Italian theatre is about. When I think of, say, the last production of Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri here in Zurich, I remember Cecilia Bartoli and Nicola Alaimo making the whole house laugh with the way they held one syllable or rolled an “r” or stressed a double t. And that is what we REALLY need here too. Last but not least, Cyrille Dubois was a very light-toned Fenton, and one you gladly leaned forward to hear His voice is dulcet, and he sings with refinement and absolute love for the music.

I notice now I have written nothing about the production. So here we go: Premièred in 2011, Sven-Eric Bechtoff’s production (in his usual collaboration with Rolf and Marianne Glittenberg) is purely decorative. The action is updated to some point between the 50’s and the 60’s, and yet it is intentionally anachronistic (Falstaff wears period costumes, for instance), everything is blueish and there are little choreographies in ensembles. The sets are vacuously elegant in a way that has “limited budget” written all over it (I mean, that has to be the reason). As far as I understand, Mr. Bechtoff was not here to direct the revival; so kudos to the Spielleiter: the cast acted and interacted well and everybody looked to be having fun.

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