Verve and vivacity in a stellar Verdi
La Forza Del Destino (Royal Opera House) Verdict: A great soprano in her prime
THIS, the hottest opera ticket of the year, mostly lived up to the hype — mainly because the Russian soprano Anna Netrebko turned out to be a tremendous interpreter of Verdi’s most troubled heroine, Leonora.
The singer, who once thrilled us in La Traviata, has developed into a convincing dramatic soprano: she takes more breaths than ideal, but uses the extra air supply suppl to pump out the most gorgeous Verdian Ver sonority, with just a hint of Slavic edge.
The rest of the cast is fine. Jonas Kaufmann, never entirely entire convincing as an ‘Italian’ tenor, begins with hard, ill-tuned tone as Don D Alvaro, but becomes freer as the evening e wears on; his intelligence a and dramatic instinct are always welcome. As Verdi’s nastiest villain, Ludovic Tézier sings and acts with intensity, and nails all his high notes right in the centre. If his legato is sometimes a little bumpy, his vicious pursuit of Alvaro and Leonora never lets up.
Verdi supplies plenty of distractions, especially the gipsy Preziosilla, well impersonated by Veronica Simeoni, and the comic monk Melitone, very funny, when you have the great buffo baritone Alessandro Corbelli at his best.
As Padre Guardiano, who gives Leonora sanctuary in a hermit’s cave near his monastery, Ferruccio Furlanetto is sometimes too severe, but his noble, Italianate voice is just what is needed in crucial scenes. How luxurious to have another veteran bass, Robert Lloyd, as Leonora’s father.
Christof Loy’s production is irritating, boringly updated, full of inappropriate touches and further damned by Christian Schmidt’s dull designs: the basic set is all wrong for several scenes, and as a friend pointed out, you can see better costumes in the bar.
I advise ignoring most of these tedious trappings and concentrating on the music. This is a great ‘chorus opera’, and Antonio Pappano conducts superbly, drawing terrific sounds from his choristers and orchestral players (a special nod to the solo clarinettist).