This fine collection of DVDs shows the opera at Verona at its
big, brash best, though you have to be prepared to take the whole
Arena experience, both rough and smooth.
Filming any opera poses its problems, but
these problems are magnified (literally) when a director has
to compress the vast space of the Arena into a TV screen. On
the one hand, each of these productions offers the awesome spectacle
of the arena being used to its full potential, and on the other
they show the intimate, though not always subtle, emotions of
the main characters in close-up. Watching these productions
in person means one would lose the intimate emotion of the screen
at such a distance, while the confinements of the screen necessarily
mean that we often lose the sheer scale of the action. At the
end of the first Act of Tosca we zoom out from a transfixed
Scarpia to the full congregation who look like ants against
the vast scene! So each of these DVDs poses something of a contradiction.
Appropriately, each has a lot to enjoy, while also having various
irritations.
Tosca has the most puzzling staging. The church interior of the
first act has a collection of vast stone horses which look as
though they have escaped from the Trevi Fountain. They serve
no purpose other than to fill a gap and give the singers something
to move around. Things improve scenically for the cavernous
interior of Scarpia’s chamber and the final act atop the Castel
Sant’Angelo is dominated by a vast and intimidating angel bearing
a sword. Against these backdrops the camera has little choice
but to focus in on the more intimate emotions of the characters;
thankfully this is where the production succeeds most. The singing
is excellent from all the principals. Eva Marton, who has never
been caught well on CD, suits live DVDs much better - witness
her live Gioconda from Vienna. Her large voice suits
the spaces of the Arena perfectly and she whittles down her
often unwieldy timbre to match the more intimate moments of
the piece beautifully, such as in the hushed love episodes of
Acts 1 and 3. Vissi d’arte is genuinely moving, helped
by the camera direction which, rightly, focuses on her face
throughout. Giacomo Aragall is a marvellously ardent Cavardossi,
a true Italian tenor in the old style! Recondita armonia
draws warm applause, as do, more annoyingly, his cries of La
vita mi costasse in Act 1 and Vittoria! in Act 2.
His acting is totally wooden, but you can forgive this for the
sound that he makes. The best singing actor of the piece is
Ingvar Wixell’s Scarpia, dressed in opulent purples with and
flowing robes. His arrival in Act 1 is a genuine climax as he
sweeps onto the stage, and his chesty voice suits this villain
perfectly.
Verona’s badly behaved audiences often cause
one to suspend disbelief and interrupt the dramatic flow, however.
Vissi d’arte is greeted with a storm of applause. Marton
then pauses and, rather than taking a fully fledged bow, she
merely bends subtly to the left and right, while retaining Tosca’s
pained expression on her face. Absurd! Tosca’s death-leap at
the end also seems more than usually daft because she is a mere
speck on the huge scene which the camera is zooming out against.
Turandot is perhaps the most successful of these
three films, mainly because of the thrilling singing. Ghena
Dimitrova’s voice is like a laser-beam of silver cutting through
the air. There is not a single forced or inaccurate note in
her whole interpretation and she brings the character alive
in an enthralling way. For her performance alone this disc is
worth having. Opposite her is an equally thrilling Martinucci
who hams up the big moments - drawing rather unnecessary applause
after his, admittedly exhilarating, cries of Turandot!
in Act 1 - yet modifying his character for the more intimate
moments of the final duet in Act 3. In fact the scene after
Liu’s death is strangely erotic as these two titans lose their
marble exteriors and slowly yield themselves to one another.
Cecilia Gasdia’s Liu make an excellent foil. She is fresh, innocent
and human compared to the severity of the lead parts, and her
voice is not only sweet but suggestive of Liu’s essential vulnerability.
Ping, Pang and Pong bring well-judged light relief, the close-ups
of their face bringing out their comic acting talent. The main
visual disappointment, however, is the production’s rather drab
appearance. Almost everything on stage, save Calaf’s red jacket,
is black, white or grey, and the whole production seems suffused
in a bluish twilight. The scenery for this opera is quite staid
in comparison with Tosca: the vast arena stage seems
mostly empty except for some majestic flights of stairs and,
of course, the vast chorus. The climactic moments of the Emperor’s
entries work well enough, though here more than anywhere the
dilemma of the wide angle versus the close-up is most obvious.
I wasn’t hoping for much from Madama
Butterfly, because this opera is the most intimate and least
reliant on spectacle. True, the scene consists merely of the
paper house in the garden, plonked amid the flights of arena
steps, but this film uses close-up techniques almost throughout
and so we lose nothing but gain a great deal of insight. Kabaivanska
is too old to be a convincing child and her singing is notably
mature, however her acting saves her performance, and is most
moving, especially at the start of Act 2 when she steadfastly
refuses to consider that Pinkerton has abandoned her. Un
bel di here sits naturally in the context of the action
and makes perfect dramatic sense: here the storm of applause
is deserved. The climax is most moving, as is her reaction when
she discovers the truth at the end of Act 3. As Pinkerton Antinori’s
acting is as hammy as they come and even his singing is pretty
wobbly at the start of Act 1. He rises to a strong Addio,
fiorito asil in Act 3, however. We feel no sympathy whatever
for his Pinkerton, but that, perhaps, is the point. Saccomani
shows authority and vulnerability as Sharpless, while Goro and
Suzuki support well. It is a testament to the success of this
DVD that, despite my low expectations, I found myself very moved
at the end of this most emotional of operas. This is thanks,
in no small part, to the admirable direction of Brian Large,
who supervises all three of these films and who always places
the eye where the ear tells it that it wants to be. He also
begins each film with footage of the afternoon crowds queuing
to get into the Arena, and the candles being lit as the lights
go down.
So while none of these operas would be a
first choice on their own, each is a good representation of
the classic Stand-and-Sing style of Verona. Each works well
on its own terms, and if you like your opera big, bold and traditional,
then you’ll probably like this.
Simon Thompson
Eva Marton
(soprano) – Tosca 
[3
DVDs: 382:00] 
