I
sometimes think that so many producers of modern settings
of operas should be quietly taken out and put out of their
- and our - misery. I am thinking, for instance, of this
year’s Met production of Bellini’s
La Sonnambula,
worse the
La
Fenice production of
La Rondine - and worse still
the 2001 production by Opéra National du Rhin, of Korngold’s
Die
tote Stadt. This DVD release of
La Rondine plumbs
new depths.
On
the face of it this should have been quite interesting. Though first
performed in 1917 this is a 2006 edition including some special
orchestrations of the third 1921 version by Lorenzo Ferrero. It
offers a fresh look at Act III in which Ruggero, on learning
of Magda’s seamy earlier life as a courtesan in Paris, drops
her like a brick. Its squalid ‘realism’ might have appealed
to the liberated in the audience. It even goes so far as
to have Lisette pregnant and delivered of her baby (presumably
by Prunier) by Act III. In other words any suggestion of
delicacy and romance has been brutally leached from this
sorry production.
It’s
also visually quite repellent. The costumes are often hideous:
Magda’s three friends seen in Act I look like Cinderella’s
three ugly sisters. The dancers at Bulliers in Act II look
particularly revolting. The lighting is poor and often the
characters are left in gloom. The sets are just short of
minimalistic with back-projection of some very odd images:
a huge Amaryllis Lily-look-alike peers down on the celebrants
at Bulliers. An extraordinary distorted and enigmatic image
presides over the doomed lovers in Act III.
Worse,
my jaw dropped in disbelief when two semi-clothed - and that
is my kindest description of their attire - dancers pranced
gracelessly during the most intimate and beautiful numbers.
They are present, for example, during Magda’s ‘Chi il belo
sogno di Doretta’ and the lovely Act II romantic duets.
Svetla
Vassileva makes a sympathetic Magda. She is a bit unsteady
in her opening aria but her delivery is sweetened and her
high register pianissimos are quite exquisite. Her discomfiture
is understandable considering the buffoonery proceeding behind
her as described in my preceding paragraph. Fabio Sartori
is no Alagna or Villazon in the looks department but he has
a most appealing tenor timbre. Maya Dashuk’s Lisette is nicely
coquettish but vocally unimpressive. Giannino’s Prunier and
Giossi’s Rambaldo contribute gamely. Even so, the luke-warm
applause at the end says it all.
Avoid.
Frankly, if I had been in the audience I would not only have
demanded my money back but wanted to be paid for sitting through
this dim
production. I recommend you wait for the Met’s gorgeous 2009
production of
La Rondine, transmitted live to audiences
around the world. It’s probably going to appear on DVD.
Ian Lace
see also the feature
review of La Rondine (The Swallow)
Magda -
Svetla Vassileva (soprano) 
[110:54] 
