Teatro alla Scala – Palco I ord. Des. (Palchi Zona 2,
Palco 10, Posto 3, 240 euros.)
Story. See
previous post.
Conductor – Daniel Oren.
Aida – Krassimira Stoyanova, Radames – Fabio Sartori, Amneris – Violeta
Urmana.
Let’s again start with the bottom line: With tonight’s
performance, La Scala by-an-large redeemed itself. Perhaps it was the familiarity of an opera
staple, or better singers, or better seats, or more understandable staging, …
or a combination of these factors. All
four of us came away thinking this was a well-performed opera.
Outside the Teatro all Scala opera house.
First about the seats.
This was one of the first events we got tickets for this trip. La Scala puts tickets on sale two months
ahead of time – those that have not been claimed by subscribers, or via other
means. By the time this concert became
available, only selected seats were left, all (or most) in the expensive 240
euro category. And they were not
contiguous seats. We ended up with posti
3’s in different boxes on different levels.
They have a good view of the stage, but there are no screens for the subtitles,
which make following the story difficult.
The two French folks in front put the screens in English and Italian for
our benefit, but they were difficult to read.
The singing was generally superb. It was remarked (forget by whom) that
Amneris’s voice was weak, I don’t agree, and I thought it would be wrong to
overshadow the protagonist anyway.
Stoyanova has one of the sweetest voices I have encountered, and she
simply sang beautifully. While Sartori
may be too heavy to act like a dashing captain, he was steady and sounded
substantive. The two kings – especially
the Nubian, performed by George Gagnidze– did well, the Nubian king was
convincing when he tried to get Aida to get Radames to give up military
secrets.
We saw this at the Met last year (April 2017). When I looked at my blog entry I discovered
to my amusement and chagrin that both the leading ladies were in the cast, and
I found out just now that Gagnidze sang the role of Amonasro. If my words are consistent, then today’s
singing was better than what happened at the Met. I certainly don’t recall enjoying Stoyanova’s
singing to this extent. With the 2017 Met performance I complained about the singers having only a "high" volume setting; they certainly could put out captivating soft passages.
The orchestra again put in an excellent performance.
The staging is billed as done by Franco Zeffirelli but “revived
by” Marco Candini. All I can say is the
props looked like a subset of what we saw at the Met. The Met stage seems to be considerably wider and
deeper than La Scala’s, so things are consequently less “grand.” Still elaborate, and for certain scenes too
busy. Generally it worked. The only real objection I have is the
unceremonious way Radames entered the tomb.
This is curtain call at conclusion of Opera. However, the set was also used for the famous triumphal march.
Curtain Call for the main cast and Maestro Oren.
The dancers put on dark brown/black (couldn’t quite tell)
for some of the scenes. Both Anne and I
wondered if that would fly in the US.
CS and I agreed that the Met is every bit as good as what
we have seen in Zurich and Milan, even though the two opera houses were built
over 100 and 200 years ago, respectively. Over the last 40 years the Met had a music
director whose name it not longer mentions, but Levine has to be given much
credit to bring the Met to a standard that matches or even exceeds any other
opera house in the world we have seen. That
our seats at the Met are usually not nearly as good further accentuates the
point. I have read many singers are
reluctant to sing at the Met, simply because the audiences are more demanding,
and the size of the auditorium must also be hard on their voices.
To paraphrase Frank Sinatra, if you can make it at the
Met, you can make it anywhere.
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