Tag Archives: Giacomo Puccini

Music, Opera & classical

Puccini’s Il Trittico, WNO, a review by Eva Marloes

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out of 5 stars (5 / 5)

The Welsh National Opera delivers an excellent production of Il Trittico by Giacomo Puccini, where singers, chorus, and orchestra perform beautifully with skill and pathos. This is no small feat for a sophisticated and yet underrated work, consisting of three one-act pieces of starkly different registers. One only hopes that management will rethink the misguided cuts to the wonderful chorus and orchestra.

The night begins with Il Tabarro (the cloak), dark and intense, is perhaps the most refined musically of the three pieces. It tells the story of Giorgetta (Alexia Voulgaridou), dissatisfied with her life with Michele (Roland Wood) travelling from place to place on a barge. She falls for kindred spirit Luigi (Leonardo Caimi). Michele realises Luigi is Giorgetta’s lover, kills him, and forces her to look at her dead lover.

Roland Wood as Michele in Il Tabarro (photo credit Craig Fuller )

Contrary to Toscanini’s dismissal of the opera as grand guignol, Il Tabarro never indulges in sensationalism. Puccini’s mature music combines passion and restraint. Voulgaridou, Wood, and Caimi all deliver the haunting drama with great emotional depth.

A splendid Alexia Voulgaridou gives voice to the pain of Suor Angelica, the second piece. The story of a woman forced to become a nun after giving birth to a child. Her Princess aunt visits to tell her that her son is dead. Angelica kills herself in the hope of being reunited with him, then she despairs as she realises that her suicide condemns her to hell. In in her final moments of anguish, she experiences hallucinatory or mystical transcendence, and embraces her child. 

The subdue and soft music lets the tension between Angelica’s suffering and her hope unfold. Voulgaridou delivers Angelica’s irrational demise or transfiguration with striking pathos, doing justice to a much misunderstood Suor Angelica. 

Alexia Voulgaridou as Suor Angelica in Suor Angelica (photo credit Craig Fuller)

The night ends with the unadulterated fun of Gianni Schicchi, where a family is left penniless as the patriarch dies and leaves his fortune to a monastery. They engage the wits of peasant Gianni Schicchi (Roland Wood), who pretends to be the deceased and dictates a new will to the notary. As he does so, he makes sure the largest part of the family fortune goes to him. 

Haegee Lee as Lauretta and Roland Wood as Gianni in Gianni Schicchi (Photo Credit Craig Fuller) 

Roland Wood performs with humour and sagacity, Haegee Lee, as Lauretta, sings Mio Babbino Caro beautifully. The three pieces have an excellent cast all around, including Tichina Vaughn (The Princess in Suor Angelica and Zita in Gianni Schicchi), Wojtek Gierlach (Il Talpa in Il Tabarro and Simone in Gianni Schicchi), and Oleksiv Palchykov (Young lover in Il Tabarro and Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi), who entertain and enchant the audience.

In the expert hands of Carlo Rizzi, the WNO orchestra brings together the three pieces giving them a sense of continuity. They excel at balancing the restrained with the emotional thus delivering the intensity of Puccini’s music and drama. As Puccini would have wanted.

Opera & classical

Madam Butterfly, review by eva marloes

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WNO Madam Butterfly – photo credit Richard Hubert Smith

out of 5 stars (4 / 5)

Under the direction of Lindy Hume, the Welsh National Opera’s Madam Butterfly is set in an imaginary dystopic future to convey the cruelty of imperialism. The opera is no longer set in Japan but in an exotic oasis for the pleasure of wealthy American men. It reminded me of the 1964 Russian propaganda film I Am Cuba by Mikhail Kalatozov. In the film, Cuba is the seductive playground of rich Americans, a country turned prostitute by Batista. Although too propagandistic in narrative, the unorthodox cinematography of I Am Cuba, with its extreme wide-angles and complex tracking-shots, made the film unsettling and powerful. Alas, Lindy Hume’s anti-colonial vision for Madam Butterfly loses force by decontextualising the drama.  

The opera begins with women in white short tulle dresses and tall pink wigs. Among them is Cio-cio-sa/Butterfly, who is to wed American soldier Pinkerton. The action takes place in and around a two-storey rotating white cube. Hume sought to emphasise the exploitation of Butterfly who is sold as trophy bride and quickly discarded. Butterfly is a victim of a misogynistic colonial society. Yet, by erasing Japan from Madam Butterfly, the colonial othering of Cio-cio-sa is lost. Relationships of power are all dependent on context. They cannot be abstracted. Cio-cio-san is the trophy bride because she is a Japanese young girl to be collected like a colourful butterfly. 

WNO Madam Butterfly Alexia Voulgaridou Cio Cio San Peter Auty Pinkerton photo credit Richard Hubert Smith 

In addition, there is a lot more to Cio-cio-san than Hume’s direction implies. She is here painted as a victim, disregarding how 15-year-old Cio-cio-san, notwithstanding being still a child, escapes her family and clan. She goes against her home society to affirm her own will. She stays loyal to her American husband and to his country to the very end. The tragedy lies in the fact that she finds her downfall in her loyalty and shame. Alexia Voulgaridou gives a rounded performance making one forget the awkward futuristic setting designed by Isabella Bywater. 

Voulgaridou gives an impeccable performance as Cio-cio-san. Her voice is powerful and agile; it develops in intensity as the tragedy unfolds. Her interpretation is subtle and convincing. Kezia Bienek, as Suzuki, is also noteworthy. She conveys the melancholy of her role as Cio-cio-san’s sister perfectly. Together, Voulgaridou and Bienek deliver a beautiful duet full of warmth.  

Julian Boyce as Imperial Commissioner and Tom Randle as Goro give solid and sophisticated performances, less impressive is Peter Auty’s Pinkerton. Excellent is the orchestra conducted with fervour and depth by Carlo Rizzi. The impressive performances, the orchestra, and Puccini’s music make one forget the contrived setting. 

Opera & classical

Review Tosca, Welsh National Opera by Roger Barrington

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photo credit Richard Hubert Smith

 

out of 5 stars (4 / 5)

 

An opera in three acts by  Giacomo Puccini

Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa after the play by Victorien Sardou

Cast:

Floria Tosca – Claire Rutter (Soprano)
Mario Cavaradossi – Hector Sandoval (Tenor)
Baron Scarpia – Mark S. Doss (Bass-baritone)
Cesare Angelotti – Daniel Grice
Sacristan – Donald Maxwell
Spoletta – Michael Clifton-Thompson
Sciarrone – George Newton-Fitzgerald
Gaoler – Jack O’Kelly

WNO Orchestra conducted by Carlo Rizzi

Production:

Original director – Michael Blakemore
Revival director – Benjamin Davis
Designer – Ashley Martin-Davis

Michael Blakemore’s 1992 WNO’s Tosca is revived in a scintillating production currently at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff.

Tosca is probably the first example of verismo, the operatic movement that followed literature in its change from romanticism to realism, and in its more extreme form. naturalism.  The tale set in set in Rome in June 1800, with the Kingdom of Naples’s control of Rome threatened by Napoleon’s invasion of Italy. It depicts jealousy, abuse of power, murder and suicide.

The three principal characters are Tosca, a celebrated soprano opera singer, Cavaradossi a painter and her lover, and Scarpia, the chief of police  who lusts after the Diva. The story is fast paced and exciting with its inevitable tragic conclusion.

British soprano Claire Rutter manages to convey the prima donna character of Tosca to excellent effect. Sudden mood swings, demanding and flamboyant behaviour  comically shown when her lover Cavaradossi’s portrait of the Magdalene resembles an imaginated rival. Her rendition of Tosca’s aria “Vissi d’arte”, a lament to God for having repaid her cruelly for her good deeds, demanded your sympathy and compassion.

Mexican Hector Sandaval, (not to be confused with his compatriot, the martial arts exponent), possesses a highly cultivated tenor voice and this was shown to good effect during the climatic final act with Cavardossi’s famous aria, ”  E lucevan le stelle”.

American Mark S Doss amply displayed the sadistic nature of  Scarpia, although at the conclusion of Act 1 with the sublime Te Deum, he lacks the power of Bryn Terfel or the late Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the same role. Having said that, this is the highlight of the production with Doss backed up by the chorus largely made up of local schoolchildren.

The orchestra of the Welsh National Opera under the baton of Carlo Rizzi played beautifully throughout and added to the high quality of the singing significantly.

I would like to see the WNO  the next time they perform Tosca, having a new production as Blakemore’s twenty-six year old production, is getting a little long in the tooth.

Another small blemish was in the final scene where Tosca dramatically jumps to her death from the parapet of the Castel Sant’Angelo, her head momentarily reappears thereby defying the laws of gravity.

Should you be looking for an introduction to Grand Opera, then Tosca with its riveting story-line and fast pace provide the basis of an experience that can open a new world of high art.

Duration: 2 hours 40 minutes with 2 intervals.

It plays at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay until 20 February 2018 and tickets can be purchased here

End

Roger Barrington

Photos

photo credit Richard Hubert Smith

 

photo credit Richard Hubert Smith photo credit Richard Hubert Smith photo credit Richard Hubert Smith photo credit Richard Hubert Smith photo credit Richard Hubert Smith photo credit Richard Hubert Smith

Roger Barrington

Opera & classical

Review Madam Butterfly, WNO, WMC by Barbara Michaels

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You can listen to Barbara reading her review at the Soundfile below just click on the link.
https://soundcloud.com/user-763014624/barbara-michaels-reviews-madame-butterfly-by-the-wno-at-the-wmc
Madam Butterfly Wales Millennium Centre Cardiff
Music: Giacomo Puccini
Libretto: Guiseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica
Director: Joachim Herz
Revival Director: Sarah Crisp
Reviewer: Barbara Michaels
out of 5 stars (4 / 5)
That most heartrending of operas, Puccini’s Madam Butterfly is staged by Welsh National Opera as the second in their Love’s Poisoned Chalice season. Following on after La Boheme, which opened the season, Butterfly is, like the former, one of the most popular operas and as a consequence – in these days of cuts to the arts funding – one of those most often performed.
Once again, it is a case of reach for the tissues as the story of the Japanese fifteen-year-old geisha, Cio-Cio San, who gives her heart to, and marries, a bounder of an American naval lieutenant, one Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton who doesn’t take the marriage seriously, unfolds towards its tragic end. In restaging this opera which they first performed back in 1978, WNO have wisely adhered to the original format directed by Joachim Herz and first performed at La Scala Milan in 1904.
Sepia toned sets emphasise that this is old Japan – and the gulf between the two worlds and their values runs as an undercurrent throughout, at times becoming more prominent. The political undertones are emphasised throughout the libretto, epitomised by recurrent musical themes in the orchestration, as well, as in the repeated playing of the Star Spangled Banner.
This time round WNO has honed and polished their performance of the poignant story set to Puccini’s wonderful score to a state of near-perfection. This is due in no small part to Karah Son’s portrayal of the central role of Butterfly. Not only has the South Korean soprano a voice of the utmost clarity, with a seemingly effortless ability to soar to the high notes which the role demands, but Son excels both in Act I, as the innocent young girl who believes in true love everlasting (only to be thoroughly deceived and let down by that cad and absolute bounder Pinkerton) and in Act II, where she achieves the difficult shift to the more mature Butterfly, bringing depth to the tragic denouement   This requires not only a change in characterisation but in style of singing, and this Son does, notably so in the beautiful aria One fine day..
In the role of the bad guy (and what a cad Pinkerton is to abandon his young wife so callously) Jonathan Burton’s tenor is pleasing, particularly in his duets with Son. His portrayal of the callous and worldly Pinkerton contrasts well with the naivety of the young Japanese girl who has never been further than Nagasaki, but Burton does at times lack facial expression. One could perhaps argue that this is intentional on the part of the director in that Pinkerton is a reflection of the attitudes that existed during that era. Nevertheless I would have liked a tad more expressiveness from Burton, as this can at times make him appear a tad wooden in the role.
Welsh baritone David Kempster brings gravitas to the role of the Consul who does his best to avert the tragedy, while as the bowler-hatted marriage broker Goro, Simon Crosby Buttle skips around the stage in great form. As ever, the WNO chorus is an added bonus, particularly so as the posse of Butterfly’s geisha friends in Act I, and the rendering with the orchestra, under conductor Lawrence Foster, of the humming chorus in Act II.
A production honed to near perfection which should not be missed. Catch it if you can.
Runs at the Wales Millennium Centre 17, 18 February, then touring,