Gaetano DONIZETTI (1797-1848)
Linda di Chamounix - Melodramma semi-seria in three acts (1842)
Linda – Jessica Pratt (soprano); Carlo, Visconte di Sirval – Francesco Demuro (tenor); Marchese di Boisfleury – Fabio Capitanucci (baritone); Antonio – Vittorio Prato (bass-baritone); Pierotto – Teresa Iervolino (mezzo); Il Prefetto – Michele Pertusi (bass); Maddalena – Marina De Liso (mezzo)
Orchestra and Chorus of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino/Michele Gamba
Stage Director: Cesare Lievi.
Set and Costume Designer: Luigi Perego.
rec. 15 January, 2021 Teatro del Maggio Musicale, Florence, Italy
Sound Format: PCM Stereo 2.0,DTS H 5.1.
Picture Format: 16:9 1080i60 BD50
Region Code: All Regions
Subtitle Languages: Italian (original language), English, German, French, Korean, Japanese
DYNAMIC Blu-ray 57911 [171 mins]
Linda di Chamounix is Donizetti’s 61st opera, which he composed for Vienna in 1842. It falls into that sub category of bel canto operas which could be labelled as rustic or pastoral. Sister works include Bellini’s La Sonnambula and Meyerbeer’s Dinorah. The difficulty in reviving these works today lies in the overly simplified characters that live out their troubles in idyllic, often alpine settings. Cesare Lievi, the director of this production discusses this point in an interesting interview that has been included as an extra on this Blu-ray. Among the three operas I have mentioned thus far, Linda di Chamounix has some claim to being the most potentially believable of the bunch - which is not saying much.
The opera is set in the mountain regions of Savoy and points to the struggles for survival among the poor villagers. Against this is set the main drama of Linda who is sent off to the lion’s den of Paris in a misguided attempt to protect her virtue. The debacle ends up with chaos and regret for most of the male characters and madness for poor naive Linda. Despite this there is a happy end to the story, but it seems to me that none of the creators realized that Linda would have made a much better opera if it had concluded tragically, rather than the tacked on display of happy peasant life that it ended up with.
This performance is another among the current crop of performances that were filmed over the last two years in an empty auditorium. I do think that it would have been wise to leave out the sad display of curtain calls with no applause to react to. It is rather like watching a silent movie without any musical accompaniment. A simpler credit roll would have been a better choice. The pandemic precautions that were required also caused some problems for the director, particularly in regards to the chorus; another fact that Livei discusses in his interview. His solution of having extras to interact with the principals works relatively, well while the chorus, in costume, remains motionless and masked at the rear of the stage. Livei’s direction does the opera the credit of respecting it at face value rather than trying to foist a modern social commentary on a work which can’t sustain it. Linda is treated sympathetically while the various men in her life are shown with their failings in full view. Only the trouser role of Pierotto retains his quaint aspect.
Florence went all out in pulling together an impressive cast for this rarely performed work. Jessica Pratt is diva assoluta in her assumption of Linda. Her voice retains a formidable flexibility in “O Luce di Quest ‘Anima” and the Mad Scene. There is a bit of a worrying spread in her tone in the upper mid region but that disappears completely as she ascends into the stratosphere. Teresa Iervolino is totally compelling in the trouser role of her friend Pierotto. Her smoothly disciplined tone makes her one of the finest Italian mezzos on the current world stage. Her sad little aria of Act One is both beautifully sung and movingly sincere. Marina De Liso makes a warm-hearted, appealing mother.
Among the male members of the cast Vittorio Prato wins the vocal honours for his firm bass sound and his sympathetic portrayal of Linda’s father. Livei’s direction ensures that Antonio’s failings are also in view. Prato gives a comparatively nuanced performance. Michele Pertusi shows that his voice is still in very fine shape. His authority and experience bring the character of the local Prefect to life, which is a good thing considering the director has him onstage supervising his villagers throughout much of the opera. His duet with Antonio in Act One is to my ears the emotional and dramatic zenith of the music of this opera, and the two gentlemen give a superb, high-octane account of it. As Linda’s conflicted lover Carlo, Francesco Demuro shows that he could be today’s prominent tenore di grazia as long as he can bring some sporadic moments of raw tone under control.
Michele Gamba conducts the Florence forces with lightness of touch and sure-footed pacing. It is rather a pity then that the decision was made to cut the Overture to the opera, as it is one of the finest that Donizetti wrote. The picture qualityof the Blu-ray is exemplary, doing full justice to the excellent, mostly autumnal colours of the sets and costumes. The sound quality and engineering of the two-channel audio track is similarly distinguished. I was not able to assess the multichannel track.
Mike Parr
