Royal Opera House
21 May 2013
Ferruccio Furlanetto (Philip II), eloquent at the opening of Act III. From here.
A good, but not great, production of an overwhelming masterpiece.
Verdi’s
operas typically explore the standard, almost ubiquitous, suffering woman theme
of serious Italian music drama. They also explore family relationships, like
much of the non-musical theatre of the period. Only this work seriously examines existential concerns of our relationship with power and with faith.
Which
is not to say Verdi didn’t employ his usual themes as a way to address these
others. Elisabetta suffers, and Carlo has a murderous relationship with his
father Filippo, but the overriding impression is rather the painful
way in which power and faith, while bolstering each other, do so only to make
our lives worse.
Although
the private scenes between Rodrigo and Filippo, then Filippo and the Grand
Inquisitor, carry the weight of the work, that weight is created in the central
public scene of the auto-da-fe, in which somehow Verdi succeeds in
transfiguring the horrific. It is one of the most distressing scenes in all of
art, yet oddly uplifting, as if the artist insisted that there must be a good
outcome in the afterlife, contrary to all appearances.
Great
voices are needed, but also good acting, and the production is critical. I’m
not quite sure why Nicolas Hytner’s production doesn’t work for me, given its
clear theatrical strengths.
For
example, I hadn’t quite appreciated how indebted this work is to Scribe’s
notions of a well-made play, in which every aspect contributes to the plot.
Eboli’s song of the veil foreshadows her pretence in the garden, and so on. Hyntner
is very good at this, but elsewhere presenting the opera as a grand old
historical drama is detrimental, the costumes and pageantry a distraction.
Antonio
Pappano has made this work something of a speciality, performing several
different versions, and he and his orchestra endow the piece with beautiful,
resonant tone. So I’m also not sure why I felt that both the
conclusion of the auto-da-fe scene and the ending of the whole opera didn’t
catch fire as in previous performances (pardon the pun).
The
production also exaggerates Carlo’s role, with many scenes ending with him
alone facing the grim façade of Filippo’s Escorial palace.
The
voices were wonderful, being generally capable of both beauty and thrills.
Unfortunately the acting was broad and conventional, a flaw also of the
production.
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