Past Production Reviews
6You sometimes hear people describe Don Pasquale as a ‘cruel’ comedy – though they’re often a bit vague as to what they mean. Pin them down and the complaint seems to be that the 70-year-old gentleman who belatedly gets married in the plot is treated cruelly. But Don Pasquale begins the opera by attempting to impose his will upon his nephew’s choice of wife, and disinheriting him when he refuses to comply; any cruelty in the opera starts there. There are undoubtedly tricky moments for director, cast and even the audience to negotiate collectively, most notoriously when during their battle of marital wills in Act III, Norina – Pasquale’s fake bride, whom he has willingly married as part of his scheme to disinherit nephew Ernesto – slaps her elderly husband’s face.
If you want escapist bliss — and who doesn’t right now? — the Royal Opera’s new staging of Donizetti’s comic opera is almost perfect. Almost, because it slightly runs out of steam just before the end. By then, however, I had been richly entertained by Damiano Michieletto’s clever modern-day staging, dazzled by mostly brilliant singing and the scintillating playing of the orchestra under Evelino Pido’s seasoned direction and touched by the acting of a top-notch cast. The latter is most surprising because I thought myself impervious to the “fun” of an opera in which an old man who craves a pretty wife is tricked, bullied and humiliated. Yet his treatment doesn’t feel cruel here. In part that’s because Olga Peretyatko, as the marriage-brokered bride
If it's not broke, don't fix it!" Most clichés gain their status through being true, but that one is honoured in the breach as often as in its application, the desire to sell something new (even if it isn't really) as addictive to the vendor as it is to the buyer. Not always though. "25 years of Richard Eyre's La Traviata" is emblazoned (in gold, no less) on the cast list and the programme compiles a Who's Who of opera stars who have sung the roles in that quarter century - it was staged here as recently as January after all! So you've every right to expect something good, something slick, something that can fill hundreds of seats on wet Tuesday night a week before Christmas. And that's what you get.
Apart from Oropesa’s Violetta, the superb tenor Liparit Avetisyan gives a convincing performance as the passionate Alfredo, a role that is rarely achieved in operatic productions. The German baritone Christian Gerhaher in the role of Giorgio Germont, the man responsible for the break-up, also offers an impressive performance. The entire leading cast as well as the rest of the cast secured the narrative’s realism that is so brilliantly embedded in its musical fabric, which translates on stage in a manner that even those not musically trained, gain a satisfying musical and dramatic experience. The stamp of the director of this revival, Pedro Ruibeiro, is much in evidence. The dramatic performance, highlighting the conflict between father-son, the shift in Germont’s attitude towards Violetta, the ‘saintly courtesan’, is made clear in their first encounter in Act II. His hard tone and demeanour towards this fallen reveal early signs of softening and gestures of respect. The social norms layered with hypocrisy are superbly probed musically and dramatically in that first encounter between the two. The dramatic tension is given momentary relief by the colourful and beautifully performed gypsy’s singing dancing and the matadors. They lighten up the atmosphere before the mood darkens.The evening, in its entirety, can be summed up as memorable
Laurent Pelly’s glorious take on Donizetti’s masterpiece is now back in its fourth revival, and it remains a winning formula, with Pelly’s transposition of the plot – an ingenious send-up of the love-potion idea in Tristan and Iseult – to the Fifties Italy of Fellini’s Amarcord. The joy is in the detail, with the chorus turned into a believably real community, and little dashes of colour – for example, a real dog suddenly belting across the stage – to enliven the rustic charm of the village perspective. There are moments when the revival direction gets a shade clunky, but the differing levels of the giant haystack dominating the set are still very cleverly exploited, and the Dad’s Army duo taking the place of Belcore’s usual platoon remain a sight gag one doesn’t tire of.This time we have new principals, and if Paolo Bordogna fails to find the appropriate swagger for Belcore, Alex Esposito’s Dulcamara is hugely commanding. And in Armenian Liparit Avetisyan and South African Pretty Yende we get a pair of lovers whose rocky path to felicity is portrayed with wonderful freshness. Yende’s singing has a silvery brightness and purity, while Avetisyan’s sweet bel canto remains flawless no matter how much he hurls his india-rubber limbs about: I’ve never seen a funnier Nemorino.Later in the run Roberto Alagna and Aleksandra Kurzak – also married in real life – will take over these roles. That should be a knockout too.
This was meant to be Pretty Yende's night. The South African soprano, praised for her bel canto feats at houses like The Met and Paris, was making her much-anticipated Royal Opera debut as Adina, the beautiful landowner playing hard-to-get in Donizetti's joyous comedy, L'elisir d'amore. In the end, it was the Armenian tenor singing country bumpkin Nemorino who stole hearts. Liparit Avetisyan wasn't quite making his Royal Opera debut, having performed in a single La traviata earlier this season. His appearance here saw Avetisyan replace the originally scheduled Rolando Villazón. Avetisyan could well have studied Villazón's Nemorino, one of his better roles, right down to his expressive eyebrows. He played the lovesick puppy to perfection, doting hopelessly around Adina, clambering the giant haystacks of Laurent Pelly's production with the eagerness of a mountain goat. His sense of bravado, inspired by Dulcamara's “love potion”, was very funny and his little jump when Adina finally admits she loves him was completely endearing. Avetisyan's tenor is a good fit for the role – large enough for bel canto and with a sweet, easy top which made “Una furtiva lagrima” the highlight of the show that it deserves to be.Pelly's at his best in comedy, even if he refers to the Ministry of Silly Walks too often. Revived by Daniel Dooner, this infectious show bursts with sunshine, reflected in the pit, where Bertrand de Billy conducts with a sense of beaming joy. Just the thing to raise the spirits.
