La Gioconda review — Netrebko and Pappano pack a punch at Salzburg
Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg
La Gioconda review — Netrebko and Pappano pack a punch at Salzburg
Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg
"Fear not, it’s a Royal Opera co-production " says Mark Pullinger in his 4star review below. While I am glad that the ROH will be staging this opera for the first time the fact that it will be a production coming from Salzburg strikes fear into my heart, given that some of the most dreadful opera productions I have ever seen have been ones that I saw there or that originated there:
There’s more to La Gioconda than Dance of the Hours, although Disney’s animated classic Fantasia boosted the ballet music’s fame. The Royal Opera House has never staged Amilcare Ponchielli’s opera before (there were two concert performances in 2004) but Covent Garden’s top brass — Oliver Mears and Antonio Pappano — were at the helm for this new production at Salzburg’s Easter Festival.
Fear not, it’s a Royal Opera co-production and will eventually come to London (2025-26 is my hunch). Whether it comes with the star diva Anna Netrebko in the title role is a moot point. She’s been persona non grata at the ROH since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, despite making a clear statement condemning the war. On Saturday night there were fewer than a dozen protesters outside the Grosses Festspielhaus. In October Mears told this paper: “Tony and I feel we’re at a stage where we’re comfortable working with her.” Let’s hope this extends to working with her in Bow Street, because it would be a crying shame to deny British audiences the opportunity to experience Netrebko in this latest role. Her chest register is now darkly imperious, particularly in her Act IV aria where her character contemplates suicide.
Gioconda is a melodrama set in Venice where unlikely coincidences and duplicitous dealings jostle like gondolas along the Grand Canal. Verismo this is not. The opera can look a bit daft on stage, but Mears takes it ultra-seriously in his production. He uses the prelude and ballet to flesh out a backstory of abuse that Gioconda (a ballad singer) has suffered at the hands of Barnaba (an Inquisition spy) since childhood, her mother, La Cieca (the Blind Woman), turning a metaphorical blind eye. One scene — Gioconda undergoing electric shock therapy — misfires but, otherwise, Mears delivers compelling modern-dress drama, ending in a plot twist of the knife that sees Barnaba, rather than Gioconda, dead at the final curtain.
The tenor Jonas Kaufmann sang Enzo, Gioconda’s love interest, who swiftly abandons her when he is reunited with an old flame, Laura. Slightly tentative to begin with, Kaufmann blossomed in Cielo e mar, one of the loveliest tenor arias in the Italian repertoire. The baritone Luca Salsi was in terrific voice as Barnaba — imagine Scarpia and Iago rolled into one — his O monumento a chilling Iago-like credo. The mezzo Eve-Maud Hubeaux impressed as Laura, with the soft-grained bass Tareq Nazmi occasionally pushed as her husband, Alvise.
The Santa Cecilia, this year’s resident festival orchestra, delivered the goods in the pit. Pappano’s conducting urged them on, driving home the drama but also letting the music dance, while the Santa Cecilia Chorus threw themselves into the action lustily.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/la-g ... -7ql0cpp0l
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"Fear not, it’s a Royal Opera co-production " says Mark Pullinger in his 4star review below. While I am glad that the ROH will be staging this opera for the first time the fact that it will be a production coming from Salzburg strikes fear into my heart, given that some of the most dreadful opera productions I have ever seen have been ones that I saw there or that originated there:
There’s more to La Gioconda than Dance of the Hours, although Disney’s animated classic Fantasia boosted the ballet music’s fame. The Royal Opera House has never staged Amilcare Ponchielli’s opera before (there were two concert performances in 2004) but Covent Garden’s top brass — Oliver Mears and Antonio Pappano — were at the helm for this new production at Salzburg’s Easter Festival.
Fear not, it’s a Royal Opera co-production and will eventually come to London (2025-26 is my hunch). Whether it comes with the star diva Anna Netrebko in the title role is a moot point. She’s been persona non grata at the ROH since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, despite making a clear statement condemning the war. On Saturday night there were fewer than a dozen protesters outside the Grosses Festspielhaus. In October Mears told this paper: “Tony and I feel we’re at a stage where we’re comfortable working with her.” Let’s hope this extends to working with her in Bow Street, because it would be a crying shame to deny British audiences the opportunity to experience Netrebko in this latest role. Her chest register is now darkly imperious, particularly in her Act IV aria where her character contemplates suicide.
Gioconda is a melodrama set in Venice where unlikely coincidences and duplicitous dealings jostle like gondolas along the Grand Canal. Verismo this is not. The opera can look a bit daft on stage, but Mears takes it ultra-seriously in his production. He uses the prelude and ballet to flesh out a backstory of abuse that Gioconda (a ballad singer) has suffered at the hands of Barnaba (an Inquisition spy) since childhood, her mother, La Cieca (the Blind Woman), turning a metaphorical blind eye. One scene — Gioconda undergoing electric shock therapy — misfires but, otherwise, Mears delivers compelling modern-dress drama, ending in a plot twist of the knife that sees Barnaba, rather than Gioconda, dead at the final curtain.
The tenor Jonas Kaufmann sang Enzo, Gioconda’s love interest, who swiftly abandons her when he is reunited with an old flame, Laura. Slightly tentative to begin with, Kaufmann blossomed in Cielo e mar, one of the loveliest tenor arias in the Italian repertoire. The baritone Luca Salsi was in terrific voice as Barnaba — imagine Scarpia and Iago rolled into one — his O monumento a chilling Iago-like credo. The mezzo Eve-Maud Hubeaux impressed as Laura, with the soft-grained bass Tareq Nazmi occasionally pushed as her husband, Alvise.
The Santa Cecilia, this year’s resident festival orchestra, delivered the goods in the pit. Pappano’s conducting urged them on, driving home the drama but also letting the music dance, while the Santa Cecilia Chorus threw themselves into the action lustily.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/la-g ... -7ql0cpp0l