On 3 August 1829 Gioachino Rossini, widely recognised as the greatest
composer of opera at that date, presented his
Guillaume Tell in
Paris. It was his thirty-ninth opera. At age thirty-seven he decided that he
had had enough. What with all the stresses associated with singers'
temperaments, librettists' foibles and incessant travel now was the
time to retire from writing for the stage. He was to live to the age of
seventy-six and although he composed a couple of religious pieces and some
songs that he titled "Sins of my old age", he did just that.
Rossini’s retirement left an opportunity for rivals of whom two, Gaetano
Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini, were pre-eminent. Donizetti, the elder by
four years, was much more prolific than his younger rival who was constantly
plagued by ill health. As I explain in the appendix to this review, the two
were to provide an opera for a rather special season in Milan in the
1830-31. The competition drew masterpieces from both, that by Bellini being
La Sonnambula, the composer’s seventh in the genre, whilst that by
Donizetti,
Anna Bolena, was his thirty first. The opportunity
provided by Litta, along with the librettist and singers available, enabled
both composers to hit the big time at home and also become established in
countries outside Italy.
Bellini’s original choice of subject, an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s
sensational "Hernani", produced in Paris the previous February,
was scuppered by the censors with five scenes already set to music. This
lead to a total change to the politically innocuous subject of
La
Sonnambula based on Scribe’s ballet-pantomime. The plot concerns the
young and innocent Amina who is about to be married to Elvino. Amina
sleepwalks and ends up in the room of the local Count, recently returned to
the village incognito. Tipped off by Teresa, who also loves Elvino, Amina is
found in this compromised location and is denounced. Eventually Elvino is
convinced of her innocence and of the Count’s explanation of somnambulism,
when he sees Amina sleepwalking along a very narrow plank over a dangerous
mill-wheel.
In the recent video of a 2008 performance from Cagliari (
review), I admired the naturalistic set and the
singing of Eglise Gutiérrez as Amina and Simone Alaimo as the Count. I was
significantly less enamoured of the tenor singing Elvino. This Stuttgart
production was widely acclaimed at its premiere in 2012 and was voted
Opera of the Year by the magazine 'Opernwelt' whilst
Ana Durlovski won the German
Theater Prize. The outcome was this
reprise with only Germany, home of Regietheater and concept production,
giving the clue as to the nature of what is on offer in respect of
production. The producer writes an essay in the booklet, but I find it does
little to clarify what is on stage or what is happening. The problems lie
not merely in the updating of costume to the near present day. The setting
is what I take to be a beer cellar with trestle tables and the stage becomes
foreshortened when it becomes the inn’s bedroom that Teresa offers the Count
before propositioning him. There is no horror of seeing Amina in danger as
she crosses the river over the mill-wheel. She has merely entered the
bedroom, via the window to become the object of the Count's desires.
Perhaps with carnal purpose in mind there's a bottle of red wine in
the room as a handy grooming tool. The contents turn out to facilitate the
production of red stained bedding and the inference of Amina’s defloration.
This is certainly not in the original. Incidentally, has nobody ever told
producers that blood and wine are distinctly different in colour and stain?
Then there is the female spectre that walks around from time to time,
looking pale and haunted. Is this supposed to be Amina’s dead mother, she
having been brought up by Teresa as a child? Then the way Ana Durlovski is
required to play Amina as a psychotic served to confuse rather than
enlighten. The final insult to my credibility was the costume Amina wears in
act two: the skirt, two inches above the knee, cheap and tacky (CH.28). It
made her look like a tart more likely to stand soliciting on a corner and
getting little business than a confused young woman, psychiatric case or
not.
As to the singing, well the acting is better. In these stakes Catriona
Smith and Helene Schneiderman as Lisa and Teresa are outstanding albeit only
a little above average as singers, both creating wonderful cameos. Smith
plays Lisa as a real bitch who treats her would-be suitor, Alessio, quite
callously. Luciano Botelho sings Elvino, the suitor of the orphaned Amina,
who he is scheduled to marry before Lisa, fancying him herself, casts doubts
in his mind as to Amina’s virtue. He sings out too strongly in act one with
an edge to his flexible tenor but doesn’t have the voice to last him through
the drama of act two where he becomes vocally strained and husky (CH.29). He
could gainfully listen to Ferruccio Tagliavini in the 1952 Cetra issue
(Warner Fonit 8573 87475-2) as to how to use the head voice in
Predi:
lanel ti dono (CH. 10 here) and to caress Bellini’s elegiac lines and
word phrasing. As Count Rodolfo, Enzo Capuano looks a particularly
distinguished old gentleman; he could be the Count rather than the absent
son. Is there, in the entire goings-on, an imputation that he is Amina
father? There are so many concepts around as to confuse Romani’s libretto
altogether. However, Capuano’s
Vi ravisso (CH.13) is well sung. As
to Ana Durlovski’s Amina, it's very well acted and sung. An
international star of the future in this repertoire? I have my doubts, but,
aided by her acting she certainly shines here,. Musically
Gabriele Ferro
has the music in his bones and this is evident in his pacing and tempi. He
brings cohesion to the ensembles and I at least could relate to his
interpretation if not to that on stage.
Robert J Farr
Appendix - Background to La Sonnambula
In May 1830 the Duke of Litta and two rich associates formed a Society to
sponsor opera at La Scala. They were concerned to raise the musical
standards that had seen Rossini, Meyerbeer and others decamp to Paris. They
engaged most of the famous singers of the time including Giuditta Pasta and
the tenor Rubini. Donizetti and Bellini, whom they considered to be the two
best active Italian composers, were each contracted to write an opera for
the season to a libretto set by the renowned Romani. The latter was widely
recognised as the best in the business. Litta and his associates failed to
secure La Scala for their plans, which were realised at the Teatro Carcano.
Litta bought Bellini’s release from his existing contract for 1500 francs.
Aware of this the composer pushed up his own fee to twice that which La
Scala would have paid him as well as having half the property in the new
score. The details, as well as insights into the hectic life of composers at
that time, and whose works were not protected by copyright, are graphically
described by Stelios Galatopoulos in his "Bellini, Life, Times,
Music" (Sanctuary 2002, p.187 et seq).
The rapid composition of
I Capuletti e i Montecchi, his sixth
opera, completed in only 26 days, had left the often-ailing Bellini in poor
health. It was only later in 1830, after he had completed the libretto for
Donizetti’s great success
Anna Bolena in the Carcano season that
Romani commenced work on a subject for Bellini. That chosen was an
adaptation of Victor Hugo’s sensational "Hernani" produced in
Paris the previous February. Bellini set music for at least five scenes
before it became apparent that with political unrest in France, Belgium and
Poland the Milan police censors would not allow it. The outcome was a total
change to the politically innocuous subject of
La Sonnambula based
on Scribe’s ballet-pantomime. The change of subject meant that Bellini did
not start to compose
La Sonnambula until January 1831 and the
scheduled premiere was put back to 6 March. The opera was a resounding
success with the composer’s evolving musical style being much admired. The
work established Bellini firmly on the international stage much as
Anna
Bolena had done for Donizetti; two outstanding victories for the Duke
of Litta and his associates.
Both owed much to the presence of Giuditta Pasta and Rubini who had
created the main roles in the two operas. Pasta had a most unusual voice.
Stendhal in his
Vie de Rossini (1824) described it as extending
from as low as bottom A and rising as high as C sharp or a slightly
sharpened D. It was her dramatic interpretations as much as her range from
contralto to high soprano that appealed to audiences. In our own time,
perhaps only Callas has shown anything near the variety of vocal colour and
dramatic gifts that were Pasta’s stock-in-trade. Bellini demanded a high F
from Rubini in the aria
Credeasi, misera in his final opera
I
Puritani, premiered in Paris shortly before the composer’s premature
death at age 34 in 1835. Juan Diego Florez perhaps matches his amazing range
and ability to ping out high Cs and Ds in our day. Pavarotti on the Decca
recording with Joan Sutherland tried a falsetto for that F. Enough said.
Robert J Farr
Previous review (DVD):
John Sheppard (Recording of the Month)
