Verdi - Alzira (Buxton, 2018)

Giuseppe Verdi - Alzira

Buxton Festival, 2018

Stephen Barlow, Elijah Moshinsky, Kate Ladner, James Cleverton, Jung Soo Yun, Graeme Danby, Phil Wilcox, Luke Sinclair, Brian McNamee, Helen Bailey

Buxton Opera House - 20th July 2018

If there's a lesson to be learned from the fate of Verdi's Alzira, it's never offer a negative assessment of your own work. Whether Alzira is a noble failure or potentially redeemable is never really going to be considered when the composer is on record describing it as "proprio brutta" (downright ugly). If you want to consign one of your operas to obscurity that's the way to do it. Even when all of Verdi's early operas have been revived in recent years - successfully or otherwise - most companies still give Alzira a wide berth. Even when compiling a complete Tutto Verdi collection of the composer's work on DVD, the producers could only manage to include a concert version of this opera rather than a fully staged performance.

It's a very pleasant surprise then to discover that Alzira's poor reputation really isn't merited. Far from it, in fact. The only proper way to judge that however is by seeing it in a fully staged performance and thankfully, Buxton Festival were brave enough to take on the challenge (and curse) of Alzira as the third of Stephen Barlow and Elijah Moshinsky's early Verdi revivals (following Giovanna d'Arco in 2016 and Macbeth in 2017) in preference to a more predictable Attila or Il Giorno di Regno, both of which have a lot less to recommend. Moshinsky's production really does pull the work together and proves that, as is often the case, a good production can mitigate against any perceived weaknesses and highlight the strengths of an opera like this.

The weakness of Alzira is that it's an early Verdi opera, which means that it's a bit crash-and-bang and not terrible subtle or original in its plot or characterisation. Based on a play by Voltaire about the assassination of a Spanish governor of Peru by an Inca uprising, Verdi chooses his sources material from a solid literary source but, as is often the case in the earlier works, jettisons any real political questions about the work's attack on colonialism and religion and instead gives the opera audience a romantic drama. The strengths of Alzira lie in the fact that it's still Verdi and he can bang out a great tune, has a strong sense of drama (particularly high drama) and dramatic pacing, and the work never outstays its welcome by trying to make anything more of the plot than is there on the surface.

It's a basic plot to say the least. Gusmano, the son of the Spanish governor Alvaro, wants to marry Alzira, the daughter of one of the Peruvian tribes trying to establish peace with the Spanish authorities. Alzira however is in love with Zamoro, the leader of the Inca tribe in rebellion against the colonial powers. Zamoro has been captured, tortured and has escaped, returning to plead clemency for the governor Alvaro, who has been kidnapped in retaliation by the Incas. He then returns apparently from the dead to the anxious Alzira. When Alvaro steps down and leaves his son to take his place as governor, Gusmano forges ahead with the wedding plans, leading to a further attack by Zamoro and his tribe, where Gusmano is killed.

Setting a complicated impossible romantic love story against the background of political turmoil and revolution is a fairly standard Verdi opera plot that he would carry on with as far as Un ballo in maschera and to some extent, albeit in much more sophisticated compositions, in Don Carlos and Aida. Here, long before Aida, there's an exotic setting - 16th century Peru - but at this stage you wouldn't really know it from the music or characterisation; there's little to distinguish it from Oberto, Ernani, Attila or any one of many early to middle period Verdi works. Verdi nonetheless turns the standard plotting of Alzira into a rousing drama with plenty of action and stirring grand choruses. Like many of the Verdi operas of this period it might seem a little rudimentary, there's a lack of memorable arias and there's no 'Va pensiero' or 'Patria oppressa', but it uses the political charge of the plot to hit all the necessary dramatic points exceptionally well, and even quite thrillingly.

A lot of the credit for it coming across that way has to be down to the spirited musical and singing performances. It would be a mistake to look for any real sophistication in the plot or music, but that doesn't mean Alzira shouldn't be taken completely seriously. Trying to play it ironically or with distancing effects doesn't do such Verdi works any favours. It demands to be played and performed with passion and sincerity, and Stephen Barlow conducts a spirited account of the work that feels fully committed and believing in the drama. The same approach works for the singers as well, with Kate Ladner as Alzira doing well to navigate the considerable challenges that Verdi provides to the soprano in these works, working alongside an impressive Jung Soo Yun as Zamoro, who also shone in last year's Macbeth as Macduff.

That goes some way to making the plot a little easier to swallow, but what brings it all together is Elijah Moshinsky's direction and the excellent production design of Russell Craig. The costumes and set colouration looks more Cuban than Peruvian, or closer to a Central American revolution, but for the purposes of the work - which never really explores the colonial issues - it works even better. TV breaking news reports put the drama into this context and the real-life revolution footage and abuse of the oppressive authorities does contribute to making the drama feel real and present. Projections are also used in a more abstract way also to suggest deeper sentiments than the plot or music really contain, but more than that they ensure that there is plenty of visual interest to engage the audience. Quite simply though, the real strengths are all in just good direction of the performances.

Quite why Verdi didn't believe in the work the same way that the Buxton team do is a mystery, although his reported comments are thought to be disparaging of the libretto more than his own solid musical contribution. I suspect part of the dislike of the work might also have been dissatisfaction with the ending. It's quite unusual for the 'villain' of the piece to be given an almost heroic role at the conclusion that puts the leading romance into the shade. It might not be the most convincing turnaround certainly and there's no Macbeth-like 'Mal per me' to seek or gain audience sympathy. As good as James Cleverton is, even he can't quite carry off this turnaround, but it certainly provides a shock, sudden resolution to the opera that is hammered home with relish by Barlow and a superb Northern Chamber Orchestra. What a delight to see Alzira being rehabilitated in this hugely enjoyable production. Not a lost masterpiece maybe, but a modest gem.

Links: Buxton Festival

Verdi - Macbeth (Buxton, 2017)

Giuseppe Verdi - Macbeth (Buxton, 2017)

Buxton International Festival, 2017

Stephen Barlow, Elijah Moshinsky, Stephen Gadd, Kate Ladner, Oleg Tsibulko, Jung Soo Yun, Luke Sinclair, Ben Thapa, Helen Bailey, Charlie Lambert, Richard Moore, Molly O’Neill, Stuart Orme, Phil Wilcox

Buxton Opera House - 18th July 2017

There have been some fine productions in recent years that have raised Macbeth out of the obscurity of early Verdi operas up to a new level of appreciation. If the composer's early Shakespeare adaptation is still flawed in some respects and certainly not an opera that can ever be considered to be up there with his best work, Macbeth now at least has a deserved place in the Verdi popular repertoire.

Much of course depends on which version of the work is used and how it is presented, but with their latest Verdi venture for the Buxton Festival, Elijah Moshinsky and conductor Stephen Barlow believe that there is a case for viewing the earliest 1847 version without any of the composer's later revisions a little more sympathetically for its own operatic qualities, if not for its adherence to the Shakespearean drama. The Buxton production doesn't set out to make the case for the 1847 version being the definitive Macbeth, but rather just that it works on its own terms. They do that successfully but it seems to me to be a rather minor point to make when the work has the potential to offer so much more.

Other productions, perhaps identifying the weaknesses in the work as it stands in its various versions, can seek to reintroduce more Shakespeare into the opera or play with a hybrid that draws on the best of all versions to try to compensate for what is lacking in the dramatic development of the original opera version. Elijah Moshinsky's production for Buxton however plays it more or less straight. It's an abstraction really of Macbeth with no interpretation applied. There's no Scottish context or imagery, there are no elaborations of character or personality and no attempt to apply a dramatic through-line; one scene follows the next, condensing Shakespeare's play down to its essence.

That is more or less what Verdi and Piave do with Shakespeare in Macbeth anyway, so Moshinsky is really just removing anything that might be considered an interpretation or interpolation and just putting the focus back on Verdi's score and its ability to tell the story musically in its own way. Certainly Stephen Barlow's conducting of the NCO Festival Orchestra carried all the dynamism of the dramatic power and the melody of Verdi's arrangements, which are wonderfully effective no matter that they may not be as accomplished or as sophisticated in their characterisation as later Verdi. On its own terms the music delivers. Point proved.

Other than that however the Buxton Macbeth had little to offer in terms of interpretation to highlight themes or expand on aspects of characterisation. On a minimally dressed set that made use of a few benches against a background of castle walls, it was left mostly to the lighting, colour and shadow to actually visualise the colour of the effects of Verdi's score, principally in red and black. Some projections were also sparingly used to add emphasis to the punchier scenes of witchcraft, magic and murder most foul.

The use of projections in the scene of the visitation of the three apparitions conjured by the witches is the one place where the otherwise literal production goes a little off-script. Rather than a long line of kings descended from Banquo crossing the stage, the projections show a more interiorised whirl of horrors, snakes, skulls and demons within Macbeth's mind. Another slight revision is he timing of the death of the Queen, the production giving Macbeth's aria 'Pietà, rispetto, amore' as a lament to the corpse of Lady Macbeth rather than the customary distracted indifference, with the women rushing on scene to announce her death as if just discovering it.

This kind of emotional investment, sung well in this instance by Stephen Gadd, showed how well the work responds to the application of some tweaks of interpretation. Elsewhere such moments were uneven, the 1847 version of 'Patria opressa' lacks the stirring impact of its revised arrangement, but it wasn't helped with a straight line-up of the chorus across the stage with no dramatic direction. By way of contrast, Macduff's lament 'Ah, la paterna mano' that follows it carries the nature of the personal cost to the people of the land under Macbeth's reign of terror much more effectively, particularly as it was sung with great feeling by Jung Soo Yun.

Indeed The production might not have made the case for the 1847 original so well were it not for the singing. Proving again that the real key to the success of any early Verdi opera is often in how well the principal roles are able to meet its singing challenges, Stephen Gadd and Kate Ladner both gave convincing performances as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, although inevitably they were pushed a little uncomfortably to their limits in places. Stephen Gadd's softer intoning carried the gravitas of the role well, fitting with the more sombre tone of the production. Having a strong Banquo in Oleg Tsibulko also helped maintain a good balance in the overall tone. All of which contributed to an authentic early Verdi experience, but really not much more than that. I can't say I'm optimistic that such an approach will do much to improve the reputation of Alzira planned for next year's Festival either.

Links: Buxton International Festival

Verdi - La Forza del Destino

Giuseppe Verdi - La Forza del Destino

Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg 1998

Valery Gergiev, Elijah Moshinsky, Grigory Kaasev, Galina Gorchakova, Nikolai Putilin, Gegam Grigorian, Marianna Tarasova, Sergei Alexashkin, Georgy Zashavny, Lia Shevtsova, Yevegeny Nikitin, Nikolai Gassiev, Yun Laptev

Arthaus Musik

The principal attraction of this recording of Verdi’s La Forza del Destino is that it’s a performance of the rarely heard original St Petersburg version, written by the composer for the Imperial Opera in 1862. It was subsequently revised in 1867 for Milan and it’s the later version that has become the more commonly performed or at least better known principally for the famous extended overture that Verdi added. In reality, although there is clearly an attempt by the composer to bring a better musical and dramatic integrity to the piece, the differences between the two versions aren’t all that significant, but in addition to having a rare opportunity to compare them, there is the pleasure alone of seeing a fine performance of the earlier version actually being performed in St Petersburg in 1998 at the Mariinsky Theatre under Valery Gergiev.

If there’s still a lack of coherence to the drama in both versions, and a failure to conform to the expected romantic models (up until the tragic denouement of the opera Don Alvaro and Leonora only meet briefly in the short Act 1 and not in circumstances best suited to a romantic duet) - which may be considered a point in its favour - Verdi’s musical motifs bring a sense of that force of destiny that directs the course of three lives and draws them together. After Alvaro’s accidental killing of her father, the Marchese di Calatrava, as they prepare to go against his wishes and elope, Leonora (like many of Verdi’s opera heroines by no means a straightforward virtuous character) casts herself into the hands of fate and becomes a hermit. Alvaro, fleeing from the disaster, bemoans his fate not to be a noble of ancient Inca blood, but a man forced to run from the horror of the death he has unwittingly caused, and the love of Leonora that he has lost. Leonora’s brother Don Carlo di Vargas meanwhile is forced to strive to find his father’s killer and restore the honour of the Calatrava name.

Although it remains imperfect in both versions, Verdi’s later attempts to add characterisation and musical refinement still not being enough to compensate for a dramatic structure that remains disjointed with some implausible twists of fate, there’s some interest certainly in seeing the original version played out with a little more of that punchy earlier Verdi style. Not being quite so concerned with a dramatic flow, but being made up more evidently of a variety of little scenes and choral set-pieces, the St Petersburg version of La Forza del Destino follows the Italian aria-cabaletta opera model a little more closely. These are reduced in the later version, with some arias cut through the restructuring of the drama - notably Don Alvaro’s ‘Quel sangue sparsi’, delivered at the end of Act III when Carlo is believed dead in a duel that is not interrupted by troops as in the later version - and through attempts by Verdi to bring a sense of reconciliation, or perhaps accommodation with one’s fate in a manner that is slightly less harsh than the original, Alvaro throwing himself from a cliff at the conclusion here.

Despite the revisions made to the Italian version, the essential dramatic arc and the fate of the characters however remain largely unchanged. The coincidences that tie these figures are still not entirely convincing, but they are made compelling - in both versions - by the strength in Verdi’s musical writing that aligns character so beautifully not just to Wagnerian leitmotifs, but to melodies that are expressive of their condition. It might have a mid-eighteenth century setting, but it’s clear that Verdi doesn’t have to look too far beyond his own time to relate in some meaningful way with these figures who in better times might have been friends and lovers, but whose lives have been torn apart by greater forces beyond their control - the tides of war, fate and the demands of honour.

Directed for the stage by Elijah Moshinsky, this 1998 recording at the Mariinsky Theatre is a very traditional period staging, but the theatricality of the painted backdrops that set the scene for the Seville locations, army camps and monasteries suits the punchier, melodramatic style of the earlier version of the work, the dark lighting of the stage working also with the dark tones in Verdi’s score. That’s brought out wonderfully by Valery Gergiev in this production, finding nonetheless a romantic sweep and sensitivity within the score that works hand-in-hand with the heavier dramatic colouring. I’m not familiar with any of the Russian singers here but they are well cast and handle the Italian phrasing well. Galina Gorchakova is a fine Leonora, carrying the nature and interior conflict of her character well, her singing strong and consistent. Gegam Grigorian is a lovely lyrical Don Alvaro, but doesn’t always seem to be dramatically involved. His ‘Della natal sua terra’ aria at the start of Act III is beautifully sung, but he’s not as strong in ‘Quel sangue sparsi’ by the end of the act. Nikolai Putilin is a solid, earnest Don Carlo, but I didn’t find Marianna Tarasova made such a strong impact as Preziosilla.

Directed for the screen by Brian Large, the production comes across well giving a good impression of the whole stage while capturing all the little details in the drama without any excessive editing trickery or close-ups, although there is one awkward edit at the end of Act III. A 1998 recording, it is not filmed in High Definition, so there’s no Blu-ray release, but the quality of the 16:9 widescreen image for DVD is excellent nonetheless, as is the quality of the PCM 2.0 stereo audio track. Other than notes on the opera and the production in the enclosed booklet, there are no extra features on the disc itself, the 2 hours 45 minutes of the opera on a dual-layer disc in NTSC format. The disc is compatible for all regions. Subtitles are in English, German, French, Dutch and Spanish only - there is no Italian for anyone wanting to read the original libretto.