In order to raise some money for the St. Francis Home Foundation which is initiated by the OZ’ theater manager Alexander Pereira and other generous people to help the girls with handicap in Northern India, two concerts of Verdi’s Requiem were given at OZ on Sunday and Monday. The great Indian conductor Zubin Mehta generously promised to conduct these two beneficial concerts. And what great concerts they were! Except the indisposed Carlo Colombara was replaced by Laszlo Polgar, the cast was as announced: Fiorenza Cendolins, Luciana d’Intino and Fabio Sartori.
Till now I only have experienced Sartori in belcanto repertoire, but I always thought he would be great in Verdi and Puccini as well. Last night’s concert proved that I was right. How he carried those beautiful Verdian melody lines was mesmerizing. Although the size of his voice is not big, but it cut through the thick orchestration fairly well and without sounding forced.
OZ is sometimes nicknamed as the House of basses by the connoisseurs, because here we have basses for every situation. For Russian opera, Verdi, Rossini, Wagner or Monteverdi, you name it and OZ can provide you a good bass. Even for smaller roles like Nachtwaechter in Meistersinger or Don Fernando in Fidelio OZ has very good basses for them. Laszlo Polgar, of course, is one of OZ’s precious bass resource. His performance last night was fantastic. His phrasing was simply breathtaking. He can bring so much nuances from the lyrics and yet you still have the feeling that the lyrics itself come first and not his personal interpretations. And he has a natural air of masculine grace and elegance which makes him a very irresistible bass. ;-)
For some odd reasons, I find that d’Intino and Cendolins have rather similar timbres, especially in the middle register. Their voice blent into each other so well, that at times I hardly could tell them apart. They both have a warm and velvet-like timbre except Cendolins’ has a bit metallic coloring in her timbre and her low register sounded a bit flat. D’Intino’s voice, OTOH, is more ubiquitous; serene top and solid bottom. It’s always a sheer pleasure to hear her sing.
Well, if I had any complaint about last night’s performance, it would be……. the two middle age women with no manners sitting next to me. Throughout the whole performance, they just kept on chatting. They would not stop when the soloists were singing a capella and when the house was filled with thunderous “Dies irae”, they just increased their volume. I’ve seen six-year-olds who behave in the theater much better than these two who thought they know so much about music and had to comment on everything they saw on the stage. Not even my vicious “would-you-please-be-quiet” glare could stop them. Seriously, if I had a drum baton in my hand, I would not hesitate to wave it in front of their nose to make them quiet.
Moi, aggressive and violent?! Mais, non!! Actually they should be grateful that last night was a Verdi and not a Stravinsky concert, otherwise the headline of today’s newspapers would be:” A mad opera nut performed “Le sacre de l’automne” in the renowned Opera House Zurich last night”. Well, since it’s Verdi Requiem and even though I’m not a Christian, I decided to do as good Christians do and forgave their bad manners and let them get away this time. But may God have mercy upon them that they would not sit next to me when I attend “Le sacre du printemps” in October.
Best regards,
JP, highly dangerous when listening to Stravinsky.
Pic:
http://opera.stanford.edu/Verdi/pix/phot0.jpg
