The New York Times International - 29.08.2019

14 | T HURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2019 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION

Culture

The collapse of Italy’s governmental
coalition last week made only a gentle
splash in this Adriatic beach town.
Every summer, thousands of Italian
families spend their seaside vacations
here, mingled with opera fans who
come to celebrate the town’s most
famous native son, Gioachino Rossini,
at the Rossini Opera Festival — per-
haps the world’s most seductively
charming annual opera event.
This summer was the 40th iteration
of the festival — which, through the
cultivation of musicological research
and the preparation of new perform-
ance scores, has helped contribute to a
worldwide Rossini renaissance. Today,
he is probably better appreciated as a
composer than at any time since his
prime in the 1820s, when he was the
most popular composer in Europe —
better loved than Beethoven, and
hailed by Stendhal as a musical Napo-
leon who had conquered the continent.
Born in Pesaro in 1792, and already
famous by 20, he composed several
dozen operas and then gave up the
genre forever at the end of the 1820s,
though he lived for another 40 years.
The Rossini Festival presents his stage
works in rotation; this year it featured
his Assyrian-Babylonian epic “Semira-
mide” and two lesser-known works of
his youth, “Demetrio e Polibio” and
“L’Equivoco Stravagante.”
These operas were long dormant.
For much of the 20th century, Rossini

had become known solely for his com-
edy “The Barber of Seville.” The tech-
nically demanding style of Rossinian
ornamentation was unknown to most
singers; even “The Barber of Seville”
had a tenor aria in the last act that was
hardly ever performed, because next
to no one could sing it.

But starting in the 1980s, the Pesaro festival — which ended last Friday — pursued the scholarly rediscovery of even Rossini’s most obscure composi- tions, together with a dedication to teaching the magnificent fireworks of Rossinian style. In the 1990s, the festival created its own international super-

star in the tenor Juan Diego Flórez, who then took some of Pesaro’s un- earthed masterpieces to the world’s great opera houses. At this year’s gala concert, Mr. Flórez performed a series of scenes from “Guillaume Tell,” Rossi- ni’s final opera, complete with brilliant top notes, almost a quarter-century

after his Pesaro debut. The major production this year, presented at the sports arena just outside the city, was Graham Vick’s intensely eclectic conception of “Semi- ramide.” The opera tells the story of the legendary Assyrian queen who poisoned her husband, and in Mr. Vick’s conception the drama unfolds from the perspective of their trauma- tized child, first shown onstage in a

child’s bed with a blue teddy bear, which then becomes a giant teddy bear haunting the later stage action. Dreadlocked, near-naked priests repre- sent an oracular primitive wisdom prophesying the vengeance of angry deities. The cast — including the soprano Salome Jicia as the guilt-racked Semi- ramide; the mezzo-soprano Varduhi Abrahamyan as the queen’s beloved,

Arsace, who turns out to be her long- lost child; and the bass Nahuel di Pierro as the power-seeking Assur — together with the conductor, Michele Mariotti, demonstrated the power of Rossini’s music drama. Ms. Abra- hamyan, a festival favorite, made Rossinian technique appear effortless, and while Arsace is usually a female singer costumed as a man, Mr. Vick’s production let her appear as a woman in high heels, an object of desire at the sexually complex court of Semiramide. (The duets between Arsace and Semi- ramide were mesmerizing.) A more consistent, and certainly more delightful, production of “L’Equivoco Stravagante” (“The Bi- zarre Misunderstanding”) was con- ceived by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier as a piece of commedia dell’ar- te, with all the characters wearing Pulcinella noses. The excellent conductor was Carlo Rizzi. First presented in Bologna in 1811, when Rossini was 19, the “bizarre misunderstanding” concerns a bookish young woman named Ernestina — sung by the brilliant young mezzo- soprano Teresa Iervolino — who would like to marry a philosopher. To ward off an unserious suitor, Buralicchio (sung in glorious voice by the baritone Da- vide Luciano), the story is circulated that Ernestina is actually a man who was castrated to make him an opera singer. Ernestina plays to the misunderstanding, with a splendid final aria in which she joins a chorus of soldiers going off to battle, a reminder that Rossini began to compose in the age of the Napoleonic wars.

One treasured Pesaro tradition is a performance, in the jewel-box Teatro Rossini, by the young vocalists of the Accademia Rossiniana of “Il Viaggio a Reims,” composed in 1825. It’s a cele- bration of different European nations, from Spain to Russia, represented by characters planning to attend the coronation of the French king. The young singers of the academy are likewise international in their origins, and their collaboration was a touching display of international har- mony at a moment when the Italian government — and all of Europe — is in political crisis over issues of migra- tion. This “Viaggio” production played neatly to the seaside atmosphere of Pesaro, with nine shipboard deck chairs lined up onstage and performers in white terry cloth bathrobes. The tenor João Terleira stripped down to a Speedo onstage and sang his love duet while doing push-ups and situps. “I dream of Pesaro as Salzburg,” Ernesto Palacio, the festival’s director and a onetime Rossini tenor, was quoted as saying in the Corriere Adri- atico. Yet Pesaro will probably never be as focused — or as sober-minded — as Salzburg. The irresistible charm of this festival is that the opera devotees mingle with the casual beachgoers in a seaside spirit that works for both constituencies — as well as for Rossi- ni’s ever-expanding creative legacy.

Star of the 1820s rises again

CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK
PESARO, ITALY

BY LARRY WOLFF

A delightful opera festival

in Rossini’s hometown

contributes to his revival

PHOTOGRAPHS BY STUDIO AMATI BACCIARDI

Top, Jessica Pratt, foreground, as Linsinga in “Demetrio e Polibio,” which the Rossini Opera Festival has helped revive. Left, Varduhi Abrahamyan, center, in “Semiramide.” Above, Teresa Iervolino, left, and Pavel Kolgatin in “L’Equivoco Stravagante.”

Rossini wrote dozens of operas and then gave up the genre at the end of the 1820s, though he lived for another 40 years.

The Netflix drama “Mindhunter” is
about an F.B.I. unit that studies serial
killers, but the series is all tell, no show
— most of the violence is described
rather than depicted.
Another sleight-of-hand is that one
of the most compelling characters in
the second season, which dropped on
Aug. 16, is not one of the killers or
agents but the unit’s coolly dispassion-
ate psychologist on loan from acade-
mia, Dr. Wendy Carr, as portrayed by
the Australian actress Anna Torv.
Torv first came to the attention of
American viewers on the Fox series
“Fringe” (2008-13), in which she
played both the F.B.I. agent Olivia
Dunham and her alternate-universe
version, referred to as Fauxlivia. At
one point they even fought each other,
predating Tatiana Maslany’s clone
wars on “Orphan Black” by a few
years.
Wendy’s calm aloofness is most
likely a byproduct of her analytical
mind and of being a closeted lesbian in
law enforcement, and Torv plays it
with a minimalist precision that does
not preclude a certain sneaky warmth.
Watching her performance is like
listening to Dusty Springfield in a
world of Mariah Careys.
“She gives everything ‘depth,’” said
David Fincher (“Seven,” “Zodiac”), an
executive producer and director on the
series, in an email. “Her perceptible

thoughtfulness is always ‘on’ — even when it’s understated.” He added: “She knows that Dorothy has to leave the Yellow Brick Road from time to time and that drama lies in the areas that are often ‘off limits’ or ‘out of bounds’ for what’s been estab- lished for Wendy.” Season 2 includes major develop- ments for Wendy, who conducts her first interviews with killers and devel- ops a romance with a free-spirited bartender, Kay (Lauren Glazier). Yet throughout, Torv maintains a poise that is almost hypnotic. In a recent phone interview, she spoke from Los Angeles about the outsize emotional expectations placed on actresses, and about the extra challenges of playing such a stoic role. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.

True crime has long inspired pop culture. Was it a subject you were ever interested in? It’s not something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about, honestly. I started with John Douglas’s book [“Mind Hunter: Inside the F.B.I.’s Elite Serial Crime Unit,” written with Mark Ol- shaker] and did a bit of research on the serial killers that we were talking to on the show. I don’t find it particularly pleasant to go deep into that. My character has a little bit more of an intellec- tual approach to it — not that it doesn’t seep into her life, which is a lot of what the show is about. Then I started reading about psy- chopathy and sociopathy and all of these different personality biases that exist on a spectrum and don’t always result in someone’s becoming a serial killer. We all know narcissists.

[Laughs.] They operate in the world and don’t all go out and kill people.

It has been said that Wendy is based on a woman named Ann Wolbert Burgess. Did you meet her? No. When I started the book, I realized, “Oh, she is probably Ann Burgess,” but we took it so far away from her that I think it would do Burgess a disservice to say that. It’s just a completely different character.

Wendy shows very little outward emotion. The strong, impassive type is relatively common among male

actors, but we don’t see that so much from actresses. What I find fascinating is that when you’re an actress, you don’t even real- ize that the majority of the time you end up carrying the emotional weight of whatever scene you happen to be in. If someone’s going to cry, it’s going to be the girl. If someone is emotional and having a meltdown, it’s going to be the girl. And so you end up getting really good at it. Not even getting good at it — it’s just the expectation, so that’s what your instincts end up honing. All of a sudden to be in the skin of this woman who is just so dry... Anytime I

showed a flicker of something, espe- cially in the beginning, David would be like, “Please, pull it back.”

How much of it was in the script? The writers do a beautiful job, but there aren’t a lot of physical directions. We do have the luxury of rehearsals. One of my favorite scenes is the first time Kay and Wendy sleep together after they’ve been on a date, and the aftermath of that. I really love that scene, and [the director Andrew Domi- nik] gave a couple of gorgeous, play- able character notes.

Do you feel the emphasis on under- statement when playing Wendy re- flects the series’s general approach? David has set up the show, and even though we have other beautiful direc- tors come in, he was the tastemaker. Building suspense, drama or action in a show about serial killers with no blood, no action and no guns, that’s the choice. Sometimes people think shows or stories should just hit the audience over the head with what they’re want- ing to say, and they don’t give people enough credit. David always says this one thing that I think is so right: “I don’t want to see two people having an argument where one’s right and one’s wrong. I want to see two intelligent people who are both right.” That’s what makes the show smart and not engulfed in melo- drama.

Is that what ultimately happens between Wendy and Kay — they are both sort of right and sort of wrong? The heartbreak is that it was a relationship that could have been some-

thing, that should have worked. Wendy studies patterns of behavior, but she’s totally incapable of holding the mirror up, which I think is true of all the characters.

The show hasn’t been officially re- newed for a third season yet, but Fincher is said to have a five-year plan for it. What would you like to explore with Wendy? With the relationship with Kay, we were able to see a bit more of Wendy outside of the office. You understood her a little more, like you could go, “Oh, there are three dimensions to her — that side is just the way she has to live her life at the office.” I was incredibly grateful to have these opportunities. So I guess more of that. [Laughs.]

Your character in the Australian thriller “Secret City,” whose second season came recently to Netflix, is involved in quite a bit of action. Can you describe what was fun about that project? I thought it was a really smart show and it was executed beautifully — and we shoot so quickly in Australia, it’s incomprehensible the kind of differ- ence in that respect between shooting in the States and shooting in Australia. There, we do one, two takes max, and good luck. I also wanted to work at home. To go back to Australia and sit down to a table read with people you’ve come up with was warming.

And maybe they don’t mistake you for Carrie Coon over there. Poor Carrie Coon! I feel terrible, but I’m also flattered because she’s fantas- tic and beautiful.

Playing it cool, if not straight

Anna Torv of Australia

talks about her character’s

stoicism on ‘Mindhunter’

BY ELISABETH VINCENTELLI

Anna Torv as the psychologist Dr. Wendy Carr, a closeted lesbian, on “Mindhunter.”

PATRICK HARBRON/NETFLIX

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The New York Times International - 29.08.2019

Culture

Star of the 1820s rises again

Playing it cool, if not straight

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