Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, Orchestra (Seat
T104, $72).
Program
Concerto No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra in D major, Op.
19 (1917) by Prokofiev (1891-1953).
Il prigioniero (1944-48) by Dallapiccola (1904-75).
Cast in Order of Appearance in Il prigioniero: The mother
– Patricia Racette, the prisoner – Gerald Finley, the jailer/grand inquisitor –
Peter Hoare, first priest – William Ferguson, second priest – Sidney Outlaw,
The Collegiate Chorale (Dan Saunders, music preparation.)
This is the New York Philharmonic premiere of this opera
by Luigi Dallapiccola. It is about the
experience of a single prisoner during the Spanish Inquisition, but was meant
to reflect the tumultuous times experienced by the composer during the second
world war, during which he had to live in concealment in and around Florence
because he was part Jewish. There is no
synopsis provided in the Playbill, and the story about the jailer giving the
prisoner false hope is simple enough that I am not bothering with searching for
one on the web.
A rather full orchestra was used for this performance,
and the Instrumentation in the Program Notes contains a long list of different
instruments. It is too bad that our
seats, while acoustically great, did not provide for a bird’s eye view of the
stage; we were thus unable to find out what a “suspended cymbal” or a “cymbal
attached to bass drum” looks like.
I always wonder if having the singers on the same stage
as the orchestra would work without any amplification for the voices. In this case we could hear the singing
because everyone was shouting at the top of their lungs. It must have been quite a strain for Finley
singing the role of the prisoner, and he did a great job.
As vocal music the composition worked quite well. Even though Dallapiccola composed on a
12-tone scale ala Schoenberg, I found the music quite easy to “understand” and
liked its structure and texture. As an
opera it didn’t evoke the emotion that I expected. While I could follow along since English
subtitles were provided, I didn’t get the anguish that should be easily
conveyed by the story. The Collegiate
Chorale must have about 100 people in it (roster actually has 120 names,) and
it sounded great for the few moments it was called on to sing. A small ensemble (20 according to Playbill)
was also used. From what I could tell,
they were members of this larger chorale.
The individual artists sang in Italian, and the Chorale and Ensemble
sang in Latin. Question: what was there
no translation from the Latin?
The best way to describe this experience: interesting.
Prokofiev’s first violin concerto is not as familiar to
me as the second. Given our seats, I
expected a great experience. And
Batisshvili put in a good performance.
She met the technical challenges – and there were many – head on, with ease. On the other hand, I found the sound a bit on
the weak side, which is unexpected for a late-Stradivarius, and the whole
performance emotionally flat. I heard
her performing the second concerto a few years back and really enjoyed it. According to my notes, she is using a
different violin (now the 1715 “ex-Joachim”, then a 1709 “Engleman”); perhaps
that partially explains the difference?
Turns out later this week I will be hearing Prokofiev’s
second violin concerto, to be performed by Leonidas Kavakos. I wonder how it will compare.
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