Puccini's Neglected Masterpiece

Lacking the verismo melodrama of his better-known works and featuring not a single fatality, never mind death from consumption, murder or suicide, Puccini’s “La Rondine” was sidelined for many years as a ‘slight’ work.

The restoration of this charming opera’s reputation internationally owes a lot to the award-winning 1997 recording conducted by Antonio Pappano and with Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu in the principal roles.

But three years before that recording, Opera North had returned the opera to the British stage in a production by Francesca Zambello, which production has recently been revived and I saw it on 20 May.

The elegance and bitter sweet charm of the work is captivating, and there are many clever and witty moments in the orchestration (including a quote from Strauss’s “Salome”). All right, there is a lot of music in waltz time, which some find a problem, but I just find that adds to this opera’s rather individual voice.

The opera centres around Magda, a Parisian kept woman. Into her life comes the handsome and charming Ruggero and, she concealing her past life, they fall in love and leave Paris together. He secretly contacts his family and obtains his mother’s blessing for them to be married. In the original version Magda knows that her past makes this impossible and realises that they must part. Opera North chose to present an alternative and later ending in which Ruggero discovers Magda’s past and he rejects her. This choice of ending is a mistake as it robs the central character of a lot of her nobility, turns Ruggero into a cad and also injects elements of anger and brutality into what is otherwise a very delicate and sensitive piece.

Janis Kelly was a touching Magda and Rafael Rojas presented a well-sung if rather oafish Ruggero. The Zambello production still works very well, moving from the claustrophobic dark interior of Act I to the bright gaiety of Act II and ending with the brilliant ‘no hiding place’ sunshine of the Riviera in Act III.

The main problem with the performance was the insensitive conducting of Richard Farnes. His speeds were consistently fast (the singers often struggling to keep up) and the orchestra was far too loud. I do not think it asking too much of a professional opera orchestra to produce something less than a mezzo-forte at some point in the evening. The result of this was that what should be delicate and flowing was brash and rushed and the opera was drained of a lot of its considerable charm.

Shostakovich at The Sage

The Sage has marked the Shostakovich centenary with a short but intense series of concerts (4 in 6 days) by the Kirov Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev.

Each concert consisted of a first half of music by Prokofiev and a second half given over to one of Shostakovich’s symphonies.

The Prokofiev pieces consisted of the suite of music from Romeo and Juliet; the first symphony and the first and second violin concertos, with Vadim Repin as the excellent soloist.

The four Shostakovich symphonies featured were the fifth, his best-known and most accessible, the eighth, the tenth and the fifteenth (his last).

The eighth I think I enjoyed the most with the dark intensity of its inner movements. The tenth was the one I knew the best but the orchestra were not on their best form for this (they had just had a weekend on Tyneside) and there were a distracting number of mistakes and cracked notes. The fifth is a glorious and thrilling piece.

The fifteenth is strange: the first movement is very light and jolly, with its repeated excursions into the William Tell overture. The last movement is much more serious and rather weird. Repeated quotes from Wagner (some music from the Ring and a bit of Tristan) seemed to be a mistake: to quote both a greater composer and greater works runs the real danger of making the composer’s own work seem rather inconsequential. The ending of the symphony is wonderful however, strange exotic percussion figures over long quiet sustained notes for the strings.

With the one exception I have noted, the orchestral playing was outstanding: a big sound and with a slightly raw quality to it which was ideal for this music. I have had my doubts about Gergiev’s conducting in the past (particularly in Verdi and Wagner) but this was music that suited him perfectly.

Each concert was received with great enthusiasm by an almost capacity audience. This series was quite a coup for the Sage and something of a tour de force for both orchestra and conductor.

Goetterdaemmerung at the ROH

This completed the new Covent Garden Ring cycle, with full cycles promised for the autumn of 2007.

At the centre of this performance lay the magnificent playing of the orchestra: some of the most complete Wagner playing I have heard. From the warmth and depth of tone in the lower strings to the brilliance of the brass, every facet of this amazing score was revealed.

Antonio Pappano has a very clear grasp of what I regard as the essentials of great Wagner conducting: control of tempo and control of dynamics. At times he was as slow as Goodall; at others faster than Boehm - but every speed that is chosen fits the music - so the slow music neverdrags ('ohne zu schleppen' as Wagner wrote in the score) and the faster passages never seem rushed ('ziemlich rasch'). His control of dynamics means that the singers are always clearly audible and also that the quiet passages draw the audience in, almost holding our breath; and the loud passages (and surely this opera should produce some of the loudest music ever heard) just about blow you out of your seat.

With one exception, this was a first class cast. Lisa Gasteen(Bruennhilde) started a little tentatively and the top of the voice is not the most glorious. But this is a proper Bruennhilde voice and by the immolation scene it was really flying into the house. She also acts well - literally throwing herself about the stage in the second act.

John Tomlinson gave another outstanding performance as Hagen. Vocally secure and dramatically spot-on, this was vintage Wagner performing.

All the other parts were very well played, with particular mentions of Mihoko Fujimara as Waltraute and of the male chorus in Act II.

The exception, sadly, was John Treleaven's Siegfried. I say sadly because I so much wanted to like and admire his performance but the bestI can give him, honestly, is 'tries hard'. And he does try hard: he has all the notes, he does everything required of him and he looks and sounds as if he is doing his very best. For that reason I thought those who booed him at the end were unkind. But the voice is unattractive, his acting is of school play standard and he looks ungainly and awkward.

What of the production?

Well, this was not nearly as bad as I had been led to expect and a lot of it I liked. People have criticized Keith Warner for lack of a 'grand vision' of the Ring. But is that such a bad thing? What we had instead was mainly straight-forward story-telling, albeit in a modern setting. He tries to find answers to some of the difficulties that Wagner throws up (what do you do about Grane? How do you deal with the scene of Siegfried's return to the Valkyrie Rock disguised as Gunther?). The one idea that jarred heavily with me was that that that scene (and theWaltraute Scene) seemed to be taking place in a corner of the GibichungHall. That looked just like a bit of sloppiness.

Otherwise everything required was there: huge pyrotechnics at the end,with a spectacular fall from Gasteen (Tosca eat your heart out) and even a burning Valhalla and a dying Loge - as the fires also died and theRhine-maidens resumed their inheritance.

Finally, I greatly enjoyed this criticism of a production of Goetterdaemmerung, quoted in the programme (I have paraphrased it slightly):-
'The Director has no regard for Wagner's stage directions. He might have given the poor Norns a thread to wind and no boat could ever have arrived where Siegfried's did. The collapse of the Gibichung hall was unnecessary and unconvincing and considerable dramatic effect is lost if we do not see Siegfried's funeral pyre blazing and Bruennhilde throwing herself into it on her horse.'

Criticism of a piece of 'Euro-trash' or some way-out modern production? No. A review of the Covent Garden production from 1924!