Keeping up with Opera as Opera news: I’m happy to report that the video of my appearance of last Sept. 28 at Opera America here in NYC (my talk about the book; my conversation with Marc Scorca, President of Opera America; and Q & A session with audience members) is at last up and running. Click on the Media page above. It’s on YouTube, too. We’ve received another lovely review from Dr. Geerd Heinsen at operalounge.de (Vienna), and several more are imminent—details next time.
We have three items to add to the ever-breaking onslaught of Operaworld news. One: the Met has a new investiture of Francesco Cilèa’s Adriana Lecouvreur that is on the whole supportive in terms of production and that, on this occasion at least, proved enjoyable, if not transcendent, in performance. Two: the occasion found its leading lady, Anna Netrebko, to be in both better voice and a more congenial role than was the case in last season’s scary Tosca (see the post of May 25, 2018, Two Voices, Two Journeys). And three: Anita Rachelishvili continues to cement her position as an authentic grand-opera singer. Perhaps because of the appetite-dulling aftertaste left by the company’s other recent excursions into verismo-era operas (Puccini’s Fanciulla del West and, especially, Il Trittico, q.v.), this often-disrespected score also seems to have climbed a notch or two in the general estimation. This may mean nothing more than a flood of gratitude for an evening of nice melodies nicely sung, but let’s not undervalue that.
Adriana is apparently slated for a fresh Met production every 56 years. That was the span from the first (1907—it totaled two performances) to the second (1963—with well-spaced revivals, it chalked up some seventy more), and now from the second to the third. Devotees with any historical interest will know of Edward Johnson’s refusal to mount the piece for Rosa Ponselle in the late ’30s(I), and those of my age or not too much younger will recall the sinking-heart sensation of the 1963 performances, which coincided with Renata Tebaldi’s career-threatening vocal and personal crisis. I’m afraid I did not keep up with Adriana after its 1968 return (again with Tebaldi, partially restored but still struggling at some important moments), save for the revival of 1994, with Mirella Freni and Luis Lima in the leads, which did not make a strong case for the opera.
Footnotes
| ↑I | It was that contretemps, following the mixed reception of Ponselle’s Carmen, that led to her departure from the company. Vocally and stylistically, the role of Adriana would surely have fit the Ponselle of that time perfectly. The company had a wonderful Princess de Bouillon available in Bruna Castagna. Giuseppe de Luca might have been induced to take up his creator’s role of Michonnet after a thirty-five year hiatus; if not, Richard Bonelli or Carlo Morelli could have sung it well. Maurizio, however, presented a real problem. With Lauri-Volpi and Gigli gone and the battle-worn Martinelli valiantly contending with the heaviest roles, the part probably would have devolved on Frederick Jagel, a singer of high competence but minimal glamor. I don’t think we can judge Johnson too harshly for shying at the prospect of an expensive new production (in the midst of the Great Depression) of an opera that had flopped at the Met with Lina Cavalieri, Caruso, and Scotti in the main roles. In his valuable The Autumn of Italian Opera, Alan Mallach records the nearly complete disappearance of Adriana from the international repertory for some two decades after its initial success (Giulio Ricordi, in his determination to ruin Cilèa’s publisher, Sonzogno, seems to have played a role), and with Cilèa himself having withdrawn L’Arlesiana for a similar period in anger over cuts, he was virtually one of the disappeared among opera composers. |
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