March 10, 2007: Cavalleria Rusticana in Genova

2007-03-10 Cavalleria Rusticana (Mascagni), Teatro Carlo Felice, Genova

Santuzza = Susan Neves
Lola = Paola Gardina
Turiddu = Salvatore Licitra
Alfio = Vitaliy Bilyy
Mamma Lucia = Ambra Vespasiani

Bruno Bartoletti, conductor

THIS TIME Pagliacci was first, CavRust last.

Cavalleria rusticana
Melodramma in un atto di Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti e Guido Menasci, musica di Pietro Mascagni

Teatro Carlo Felice

Spettacoli correlati: Pagliacci



Orchestra director Bruno Bartoletti

Direction Sebastiano Lo Monaco

Settings Gianfranco Padovani

Costumes Avallone Giuseppe


Date
Opening night: friday 23 february, 20.30 (A)
Performances: sunday 25 february, 15.30 (C)
tuesday 27 february, 20.30 (B)
thursday 1 march, 20.30 (L)
sunday 4 march, 15.30 (R)
tuesday 6 march, 20.30 (FA)
thursday 8 march, 15.30 (GI)
saturday 10 march, 15.30 (F)

Why was Cavalleria Rusticana after Pagliacci, maybe because... No, impossible to guess. The only thing that is important is that it worked very well.

This production, unlike the Pagliacci production was not right a way just right for me. Both ideas was all action in the same place. Which naturally meant that the Siciliana was sung backstage when the curtain was down. Then when the opera started all we saw was a desert, and that was Cavalleria Rusticana. Sometimes it was a desert with Jesus on the cross etc, so that was I guess "the Church" and Easter celebration. And a desert with some chairs was Mamma Lucia's tavern. But this desert made it very real when the people came from work with oranges, except, for oranges to grow is not a desert a very natural thing, no. So it sort of worked, but just when you are not thinking :-).

So that was the production ideas. But what really made it work was the film in the back ground. Showing the sky and sea. Dark sky when it was almost night still etc. And of course the thunder that made the whole chorus disappear when it started to rain, and made it possible for Santuzza to have a private dialogue with Mamma Lucia (Voi lo sapete, o mamma). And during the duet Santuzza/Turriddu the Jesus-statures was being carried away.

But all this would not have worked if the singers had just stood there. It worked because of the great acting and singing, so the director had really done his bit. Salvatore Licitra was a wonderful Turriddu and Susan Neves was a wonderful Santuzza.

For me the only thing is that Susan Neves, she is a wonderful soprano with great vocal range, but she is NOT a MEZZO. And for me Santuzza is a mezzo voice like Agnes Baltsa.

And after the opera, we met the singers from Cavalleria Rusticana: Salvatore Licitra was dressed like a racer driver and Susan Neves looked liked she was just any normal woman, instead of the reality, a FANTASTIC soprano (wow, I wish I had managed to take a splashing good photo of her, but my camera did not take my photos when I pressed the button, but waited some seconds too many).

Well, I guess, singers sometimes long for normality after work.

March 2007: Cavalleria Rusticana in Genova (2007-0...

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February 6, 2005: Il Corsaro in Barcelona

2005-02-06 Il Corsaro (Verdi), Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona

Corrado = José Cura
Medora = Marina Mescheryakova
Gulnara = Susan Neves
Seid = Carlo Guelfi
Giovanni = Josep Ribot
Selimo / Un Eunuco Negro / Schiavo
= José Manuel Zapata

Marco Guidarini, conductor



Il corsaro (versión concierto)

Musical Director
Marco Guidarini

Orquestra Simfònica
del Gran Teatre del Liceu

Cor del Gran Teatre del Liceu

06/02-2005

2005-02-06 Il Corsaro (Verdi), Barcelona

another wonderful concert performance with Jose Cura as Corrado,
Susan Neves as Gulnara, Marina Mescheryakova as Medora, & Carlo
Guelfi as Seid.

Some madrileño had come to Barcelona just to disrupt this
performance. But the Catalan audience hushed him.

OD Travel + Photos

February 3, 2005: Il Corsaro in Barcelona

2005-02-03 Il Corsaro (Verdi), Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona

Corrado = José Cura
Medora = Marina Mescheryakova
Gulnara = Susan Neves
Seid = Carlo Guelfi
Giovanni = Josep Ribot
Selimo / Un Eunuco Negro / Schiavo
= José Manuel Zapata

Marco Guidarini, conductor






First I took the night bus to Oslo as usual. Luckily my bus was not affected by the bad weather, real snowy conditions that had closed som montain roads. So I came in Oslo in good time for my flight. And then I was in Barcelona after almost 3 hours on the plane. All one had to look forward to was untasty plane food. So bad
that only the cola light and Pringles tasted good. At last, Barcelona airport and my first encounter with the Catalan way of queuing. Very polite and nice queu for taxi. And there were many taxis and many people, and it was quick and polite. So then I was at my hotel. Nice hotel but my room was very cold. Then I went to Placa
Catalunya to get used to going to the centre and to have some nice food (and get my tickets). Then soon it was time to get to the Liceu for a concert version of Verdi´s Corsaro.

The orchestra was onstage. It was chairs and note-stative for the singers. I was on front row. It was a wonderful sung and "acted" Corsaro, Medora was wonderful, Gulnara even more wonderful, & Corrado, the Corsair, Jose Cura was splendid. After a long wait Jose Cura came out at the stage door. He was photographed, and after signing and talking to his fans, at proximo midnight it was truely
over.

Today, Friday 4th, I have been suffering headaches, after my first try out, I had to stop before I came to Placa Catalunya, I stopped at Provinca and sat down at a small cafe, unfortunately It was heavily music'ed. So I had to get to Muntaner and my hotel. After more tablets and eating, and laying in my bed. I was ready to go out again. Placa Catalunya and down la Ramblas to Liceu and down to the harbour (almost) and the up again. At Placa Catalunya I visited Fnac, at Liceu I visited the Shop and then Placido Domingo came, he is singing Parsifal day, and I got one good photo of him, when I came up from the harbour, I was hijacked into a restaurant, ate great ensalada and had a bite of pollo, then back to Muntaner, and
my hotel.

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July 1, 2005: Nabucco in Verona

2005-07-01 Nabucco (Verdi), Arena di Verona

Nabucco = Leo Nucci
Ismaele = Nazzareno Antinori
Zaccaria = Giacomo Prestia
Abigaille = Susan Neves
Fenena = Tiziana Carraro
High Priest of Belo =
Francesco Palmieri
Abdallo = Luca Casalin
Anna = Cristina Pastorello

Vjekoslav Sutej, conductor




Arena
1 July 2005 - 21.15



Nabucco


Dramma lirico in 4 acts by Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto by Temistocle Solera


PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR Vjekoslav Sutej


DIRECTOR Graziano Gregori
SCENOGRAPHER Graziano Gregori
COSTUME DESIGNER Carla Teti





Lucky for me it did not rain in the evening of Nabucco. It had been raining on June 29 and even thunders and lightning, the next day not so much. on July 1rst it was raining from the morning and then stopped. But in the evening the clouds again looked heavy, and when I came to Verona with the Opera Bus the clouds were hanging heavily and dark over the Arena. Then the time neared for Nabucco to start, suddenly the sky was clear.

The conductor Sutej was a wonderful opera conductor but although the overture was wonderful I remembered Jose Cura and his conducting of this overture as superior. This was a wonderful production but still even with Leo Nucci being a fantastic Nabucco an everything being quite OK I found the Nabucco in the Arena was no match to the Nabucco I have seen in Vienna State Opera. Susan Neves was an energic Abigaille who acted and sung with aplomb. Fenena and Ismaele was good enough, a true mezzo as Fenena was usual (I found) but wonderful. Giacomo Prestia was a good Zaccaria. But I missed the Vienna production that brought me to the heart of the matter in this opera, here I was on the outside looking in. The Va pensiero chorus was dacapo'ed. The audience loved it, and was especially fond of Leo Nucci, Giacomo Prestia and Susan Neves.

But whereas Miroslaw Dvorsky as Ismaele and Eliane Coelho as Abigaille in Vienna 2002 was something to remember, they were great, Nabucco in the Arena was more a big fuss than an opera.

Nabucco might seem perfect for an arena with its big chorus's but that makes the drama harder to unfold where as the intimacy of an opera house makes it more an emotional tour.

OD Travel + Photos