Giuseppe Verdi: I Vespri siciliani
(23. 05. 2004)
Conductor: Carlo Rizzi
Director: Cesare Lievi
Scenery: Maurizio Balo
Choreography: Daniela Schiavone
Lights: Jürgen Hoffmann
Choir: Ernst Raffelsberger
*
La duchesse Elena: Paoletta Marrocu
Ninetta: Katja Starke
Guido di Monforte: Leo Nucci
Giovanni da Procida: Ruggero Raimondi
Arrigo: Marcello Giordani
Il sire di Bethune: Reinhard Mayr
Il conte Vaudemont: Gunther Groissbock
Danieli: Andreas Winkler
Tebaldo: Miroslav Christoff
Roberto: Valeriy Murga
Manfredo: Mauricio O'Reilly
Last night’s premiere of OZ’s “I vespri siciliani” went rather smoothly. The staging was done more or less by the book, except Lievi shifted the time period to 17th century (I think). The scenery was set in the Sicilian rocky shore, predominantly dark gray. Except the baby blue uniforms of the French occupation army, the costumes of the oppressed Sicilian were also mostly black and gray. Most of the audience found the staging rather dull and booed the direction team at the curtain call. Although I did not join the booing, but frankly, I did not feel sorry for the direction team either. ;-) Besides, I’d seen far worse productions.
Once again, the great musical performance saved the evening. Carlo Rizzi was good. He created this beautiful warm and smooth sound and kept the music interesting and exciting throughout the evening. Only at some quick passages, I had the feeling that the choir and the singers had a little difficulty to keep up Rizzi’s fast tempo. In the first half, I also had the feeling that he’s saving energy for the big moments (and what great moments they were!!). The second half was great.
It’s amazing that not only Nucci and Raimondi can sing these difficult roles at their age, but they sing them very well. All I can say that their performance was masterly exemplary. It was sheer pleasure to see their performance. Btw, it was a great sight to see Raimondi stab Nucci to death. ;-) Marcello Giordani delivered a very convincing portrait of a man caught in between his tyrannical father and his dear friends, even though his vocal performance was a bit inconsistent. Most of his performance was great, but singing those monstrous high notes revealed the limit of his voice. The high fortes were impressive and beautiful, but pianos sounded masked and small. Nevertheless he nailed those insane high notes, not in the most elegant way though. Then again, it’s an extremely difficult role. Overall his performance was great.
I read in some post elsewhere stating that Marrocu lacks of decibels (based on the Macbeth DVD). Well, he or she should come to OZ and hear the real thing. Her voice is huge (at least in OZ). It can cut through not only the thick orchestra but also the huge choir easily. IMHO, Marrocu’s true strength lies in her expressive middle register with dark and warm timbre. She can be as fierce as a tigress (“coraggio” aria in Act 1) or as tender as a lamb (“Arrigo” aria in Act 4). Although not the best, but her “Merce, delitte amiche” was nonetheless impressive. The highlight of the evening (for me) was her performance in Act 5 where Elena had to choose between her country and her love and tried to stop a bloody massacre. That was heartbreaking and mesmerizing.
Last but not least, I like to mention OZ’s new bass, Günter Groissböck, a 28-years-old Austrian. He sang a little role in this production (Vaudemont), but he surely captured my attention by his gorgeous voice and skillful singing. Actually I’ve noticed him in other productions before and I’ve been following what he’s singing next at OZ ever since. I’m certain and looking forward that I’ll hear more of him at OZ. If not, the theater manager would receive more than a lot angry emails from me. ;-P
JP of OZ
More about
:
http://www.giuseppeverdi.it/Inglese/page.asp?IDCategoria=162&IDSezione=580&ID=19758
more about Paoletta Marrocu (with MP3 files):
http://www.marrocu.com/
more about Marcello Giordani:
http://www.marcellogiordani.com/
More about OZ and Guenther Goissboeck
http://www.opernhaus.ch/ENGLISH/indexenglish.html
