Puccini’s first two operas Le villi (1884) and Edgar,
premiered at La Scala on 21 April 1889, were only modestly
received. However, his publisher, Ricordi, stuck by him and
commissioned a further work, Manon Lescaut. Puccini couldn’t
settle with the chosen librettists. They were changed to the
extent that none put his name to the programme at the premiere
in 1893, but two of those involved by Ricordi, Giuseppe Giacosa
and the poet Luigi Illica played an important part. These two
were destined to be the librettists for the three operas included
in this bargain collection. They are his most renowned and are
the staple of every opera house in the world. Manon Lescaut’s
resounding success set Puccini on a secure financial and artistic
future. With the money he earned he set up home in Torre
del Lago, a mere 15 or so miles from his birthplace at Lucca.
It is now the home of the Puccini Opera Festival where
these three recordings were made. The reeds of its lake, Massaciuccoli,
provided the location for Puccini’s beloved wild-fowl shooting
trips and also, perhaps, peace from the wife he stole from another
man and who did not take kindly to his womanising. His former
home is now a Puccini museum.
In 1930 a provisional theatre was built with the stage built
on piles stuck in the lake. The following year Gigli sang in
La Boheme with Madama Butterfly also performed.
(Opera Magazine. Festivals Edition 2004 p.51 et seq).
That was it until a visit from the Rome Opera in 1949 after
which the first Puccini Festival took place in 1952.
All was not simple; some years there were no performances whilst
notable singers appeared in those few that did happen. In 1966
the Festival moved to reclaimed land and a theatre, seating
around three thousand was built. It was not ideal with a campsite
adjacent, but matters have improved significantly. Economic
limitations have constrained the international nature of the
participants, many now being more provincial. However, in 2004
a special effort was made to celebrate what was described as
“fifty years of performances on the edge of the lake that Puccini
loved”. It was also the centenary of the premiere of Madama
Butterfly and that opera was chosen in celebration with
special efforts made as to the casting and conductor.
Views
of the open-air theatre can be seen, as can those of the replacement
built for 2008 and seating three thousand two hundred spectators.
It is set in a park with sculptures and works of art. In the
present three operas the sound of the singers is clear but lacking
in presence and ambience. The audience applause sounds distant
and flat.
The slipcase cover of this three-for-the-price-of-one issue
shows the three women of the three operas concerned, the centrepiece
being Madama Butterfly. Each opera is contained in its
own box, complete with an informed essay and synopsis along
with chapter/track listings; no timings. Rather idiosyncratically,
the listings for Boheme and Tosca are numbered
from 1 for each act, making re-starting, checking or whatever
more difficult than necessary. The listings for Butterfly
follow the more traditional sequence from CH.1 through to
the end without starting again for each act, albeit the numbering
goes awry. In two instances CH.1 shows views of lake Massaciuccoli
and the arrival of the audience as the light fades.
I have reviewed each of these recordings in the sequence of
the operas’ composition rather than recording. All were recorded
in the same theatre prior to the new theatre opening.
La Boheme - opera in four acts (1896)
Rodolfo - Massimiliano Pisapia (tenor); Mimi - Norma Fantini
(soprano); Marcello - Gabriele Viviana (baritone); Musetta -
Donata d’Annunzio Lombardi (soprano); Schaunard - Massimiliano
Valleggi (baritone); Colline - Andrea Patucelli (bass); Alcindoro
and Benoit - Franco Boscoli (tenor); Parpignol - Riccardo Del
Picchia (tenor)
Chorus and Orchestra of the Festival Puccini/Stewart Robinson
rec. live, Festival Puccini, Torre del Lago, July 2007
Stage director: Maurizio Scaparro. Set and Costume Designer:
Jean Michael Folon
Television Director: Mateo Ricchetti
Sung in Italian with subtitles in English, German, French, Italian,
Spanish
DYNAMIC DVD VIDEO 33564 [118:00]
This in-period production, on a curved, slightly raised platform,
multi-coloured from Marcello’s paints, uses the most simplistic
of sets and props. Realism is assisted by changing images on
the rear cyclorama including that of a painting of a comely
nude, the rooftops of Paris and snow falling. The main action
is played out on a raised platform that represents Marcello’s
paint palette. The only idiosyncrasy is the stove into which
Rodolfo consigns his scripts in an effort to heat the lodgings;
it is a round red floor area that glows appropriately as he
feeds his scripts, much as one would post a letter. I merely
wondered about the ash and the residents below!
The singing is good provincial Italian standard. Major drawbacks
are Pisapia hardly having the figure du part for the
ardent poet lover of Mimi and being smaller than her. His unbecoming
appearance, rather stiff acting, lack of freedom at the top
of his lyric-toned voice when added to his being smaller than
Mimi militates against dramatic reality. Norma Fantini’s Mimi
is strongly and warmly sung although her legato is not a strong
point. The crossed lovers, Marcello and Musetta, sung by Gabriele
Viviana and Donata d’Annunzio Lombardi, are better cast vocally
and as actors. She plays the coquette to perfection and sings
a good waltz song while throwing flowers onto Marcello’s lap
at the adjoining table, to the evident chagrin of her latest
lover who also is left with the bill.
Act 3, is a visual and vocal highlight. The scene outside the
gate is very well presented with the help of the images on the
cyclorama. The subsequent convincing singing and acting from
the main quartet is at its best here and in final scene of the
opera. With act 4 reverting to the garret quarters of the students,
all depends on the emotions stirred by one of the most heart-rending
scenes in opera. Here, the conducting of the Scottish Stewart
Robinson ably assists the singers in their dramatic realisation.
He allows them to phrase with elegance whilst drawing the powerful
emotions in Puccini’s music fully into the open. I have not
heard a performance under his direction before, but I would
be very happy to hear him live; his is by far the best conducting
in this collection. In this last act the tears are made to flow
with Andrea Patucelli as Colline making his parting from his
coat, Musetta’s giving up her jewels and Pisipia making a tender
farewell to Mimi as they reprise the melodies of act 1.
Tosca - Opera in three acts (1900)
Tosca - Antonia Cifrone (soprano); Cavaradossi - Stefano Secco
(tenor); Scarpia - Giorgio Surian (baritone); Angelotti - Riccardo
Ferri (bass); Spoletta - Massimo La Guardia (baritone); Sacristan
- Franco Boscolo (baritone)
Chorus and Orchestra of the Festival Puccini/Valerio Galli
rec. live, Festival Puccini, Torre del Lago, August 2007
Stage director: Mario Corradi. Set and Costume Designer: Igor
Motoraj
Television Director: Mateo Ricchetti
Sung in Italian with subtitles in English, German, French, Italian,
Spanish
DYNAMIC DVD VIDEO 33569 [124:00]
If the sets of La Boheme were of the simplest, then the
money saved must have been spent on this production. The gradual
lighting of the Saint Andrea della Valle church is magical.
So too is the evolution of the set into the mighty Te deum
as Scarpia plots his evil deeds and sends his secret police
in search of Angelotti and to follow Tosca. His hooded henchmen
appear in unlikely places and if Cavaradossi’s painting of the
Attavanti shows naked breasts, no wonder that Tosca has doubts
about his fidelity. I thought that the only such sights in churches
were of the Madonna suckling her infant!
Scarpia’s apartment in act 2 is superbly portrayed; his room
comes with appropriate table, wine and knife and not far from
a four-poster bed on which he throws Tosca before his intended
rape. Not often have I been struck by the inappropriateness
of the intrusion of Tosca’s prayer, Vissi d’arte, into
the dramatic coherence of the opera as I was in this performance.
Scarpia stroking her hand during the aria is hardly what he
intended. It does give Tosca time to plan her actions after
retrieving the secreted knife from under the pillow as Scarpia
goes to write her a note to facilitate her escape from Rome,
with, she hopes, Cavaradossi. Scarpia returns to finish his
carnal intentions and gets something he did not expect. There
is no placing of candles as he lies supine and dying on the
bed as Tosca looks around, collects her cloak and departs.
I wondered how act 3 would be portrayed. Well, the dawn over
Rome went missing, but that was all. There seemed to be a lack
of battlement crenellations but there were substitutes and an
adequate platform for Tosca to jump from with reasonable reality.
Antonia Cifrone sings a vibrant Tosca with acting in the Callas
class and the odd sour note to go along with it. Stefano Secco’s
Cavaradossi is lyric and ardent, a little strained in Recondita
armonia, more plangent and lyrical in E lucevan le stelle.
Giorgio Surian’s acted portrayal of Scarpia is appropriately
haughty, scheming and brutal. Regrettably his tonal steadiness
does not match those qualities. Among the minor parts Franco
Boscolo as the put-upon Sacristan, who is mercilessly bullied
by Scarpia, is superbly acted. The very young looking Valerio
Galli on the rostrum gives a lyrical rather than a more appropriate
dramatic reading.
Despite the various vocal limitations of the soloists, this
traditionally staged performance gets to the core of one of
Puccini’s most dramatic operatic compositions. The staging is
as good and realistic as one is likely to see in these days
of producer concepts and regietheater. As such it is
to be commended and can be enjoyed.
Madama Butterfly - Opera in two acts (1904)
Madama Butterfly - Daniela Dessi (soprano). Pinkerton - Fabio
Armiliato (tenor). Suzuki - Rossana Rinaldi (mezzo). Sharpless
- Juan Pons (baritone). Goro - Luca Casalin (tenor). Il Bonze
- Riccardo Zanellato (bass) Kate Pinkerton - Maria Cioppi (soprano)
Chorus and Orchestra of the Festival Puccini/Placido Domingo
rec. live, Festival Puccini, Torre del Lago, May 2004
Stage Director: Stefano Monti. Set Designer: Arnaldo Pomodoro.
Costume Designer: Guillermo Mariotto
Television Director: Mateo Ricchetti
Sung in Italian with subtitles in English, German, French, Italian,
Spanish, Japanese, Chinese
DYNAMIC DVD VIDEO 33457 [130:00]
Premiered at La Scala, Milan in February 1904, Madama Butterfly
was at first a failure and quickly withdrawn whilst the revision
at Breschia on 28 May that same year was a great success, as
has been the work ever since. For this special occasion a starrier
cast than usual was assembled with Placido Domingo, a renowned
interpreter of the anti-hero Pinkerton, on the rostrum. There
the good news ends.
As a reviewer of live and recorded opera I have, over the last
twenty years or so, got used to interpreting the production
quirks of directors and set designers. However, never before
I have I so utterly failed to comprehend either the setting
or the relationship of the costumes, as in this production.
The basic set could be on another planet, it entails Sharples
and others in the cast wearing headgear with what look like
protruding antennae. Or is the rock-strewn ground supposed to
represent Hiroshima or Nagasaki after the A-Bomb strike in 1945
and the weird costumes the mutant humans after a dose of radiation?
Butterfly looks magnificent as she arrives for her wedding to
Pinkerton. But could a lowly geisha have afforded such a resplendent
dress? In act two, living out in the open, she and Suzuki, and
her rather mature child, are dressed for living out in the winter
weather, despite the instructions to open the non-existent window.
As to flowers in the famous duet, no sign of petals or anything.
Goro, the marriage broker, is costumed as some kind of jungle
animal whilst the wedding guests arrive seemingly dressed in
duvets which they wind around themselves as they form into a
closed circle and end up looking like a giant caterpillar! All
the Americans are costumed in black. Not orthodox clothes, but
off-beat concoctions - even Kate Pinkerton in the last scene.
I hope I have made the point even if I am unable to offer an
explanation.
The foregoing detracts from the one great virtue of this Butterfly,
the singing of the eponymous role by Daniela Dessi. Hers is,
without doubt, the class vocal act of this trilogy. Her tone
is steady, pure and expressive. Her lover Lieutenant Pinkerton,
the cynical user of people and Butterfly in particular, is sung
by Fabio Armiliato who lacks the weight of tone required for
the part and at times looks uninterested in the whole proceedings.
Maybe, like me, he does not know what is going on. His costume,
looking more like a Nazi henchman, is more hindrance and his
failure as an actor simply adds insult. He stands aloof from
his Butterfly in the lovely duet that concludes act 1, the intimacy
of the scene lacking any magic with Domingo’s puerile efforts
on the rostrum not helping. Juan Pons as Sharpless, an old associate
of the conductor, has strength of tone, good expression but
not much steadiness. The Suzuki of Rossana Rinaldi looks rather
young and adds little to the drama as she prays to her Gods
on Butterfly’s behalf.
I have already noted that the chapter/track listing numbers
are wrong from the opening to the conclusion of this performance.
A pity the Torre del Lago Festival, having cast one of
the best interpreters of Butterfly to grace this special anniversary
production, did not frame her performance more suitably.
Robert J Farr
rec. Puccini Opera Festival, Torre del Lago, May 2004, July-August
2007 
[3 DVDs: 130:00 + 118:00 + 124:00] 
