110 GRAMOPHONE SEPTEMBER 2019 gramophone.co.uk
OPERA REVIEWSboys act and sing wonderfully well. When
Papageno discovers Pamina he is clutching
what looks like an enormous turkey: an all
too apt symbol, unfortunately, of this
misconceived farrago. Richard Lawrence
Rossini ◊ Y
Il barbiere di Siviglia
Leo Nucci bar ...................................................................Figaro
Nino Machaidze sop ...................................................Rosina
Dmitry Korchak ten ................................................Almaviva
Carlo Lepore bass ........................................Doctor Bartolo
Ferruccio Furlanetto bass ...............................Don Basilio
Manuela Custer mez ......................................................Berta
Nicolò Ceriani bar ........................................................Fiorello
Gocha Abuladze bar.................................................... O icer
Chorus and Orchestra of the Arena di Verona /
Daniel Oren
Stage director Hugo de Ana
Video director Myriam Hoyer
Bel Air Classiques F ◊ BAC169; F Y BAC469
(137’ • NTSC • 16:9 • 1080i • DTS HD MA5.1, DD5.1 &
PCM stereo • 0 • s)
Recorded live, August 2018
Includes synopsis
The great Italian baritone
Leo Nucci is one of
music’s indestructibles.
How else can one explain
a 76-year-old holding
spellbound the vast audience in the Verona
Arena with a rendering of Figaro’s entrance
aria of rare skill and vocal relish? Nor does
it end there. With cries of ‘Bis!’ ringing
round the arena, Nucci repeats the cavatina
with, if anything, even more relish and élan.
Musical pantomime? Possibly. But
there’s a sense in which Il barbiere is
pantomime, or a commedia dell’arte version
of it. It is this tradition from which director
Hugo de Ana takes his cue. Naysayers will
find his production ‘traditional’ to the point
of being museum-ready. Others will value
its uncomplicated honesty and good
humour. It’s certainly far closer to Rossini
than the kind of witless reinvention we’re
obliged to suffer in, say, Annabel Arden’s
recent Glyndebourne production (Opus
Arte, 8/17).
The Verona Arena might seem an odd
place to stage Il barbiere. It would certainly
have surprised Rossini, who conducted
there, at Metternich’s invitation, during the
1822 Congress of Verona. But that was
before the age of television. I imagine the
2018 Verona audience enjoyed its evening
under the Italian night sky, even though
de Ana’s staging, superbly directed for the
cameras by Myriam Hoyer, was primarily
designed for home viewing by the larger
audience beyond.
In case you are wondering,thereisnohint
of Nucci runningoutofsteamastheevening
unfolds. He playstheentirerolewithnice
timing, along withaveteran’ssenseofthose
notes you need tosingandthoseyoucan
finesse yet still giveacharacterfulimpression
of the role. The factthathemovesmore
like the elderly DrBartolothanRossini’s
restlessly peripateticbarberisneitherhere
nor there, particularlywhentheactual
Dr Bartolo, the predictablyexcellentCarlo
Lepore, is playinghand-in-glovewithNucci.
The other veteranperformeristhe
70-year-old FerruccioFurlanetto.He
delivers the goodsasasplendidlysaturnine
Don Basilio: the Calumnyariafirmlydown
in C, as was commonpracticeinthe
Chaliapin era andafter.
Away from thisvocalgerontocracy,
Dmitry Korchak confirmshispositionas
one the best of today’sAlmavivas,while
Nino Machaidzeisapleasinglyagreeable
(and, where necessary,pleasingly
disagreeable) Rosina.Indeed,it’sluxury
casting throughout:witnessthecastingof
Manuela Custer asDrBartolo’shousekeeper
Berta. It’s not oftenthatherAct 2 ariadi
sorbetto proves to beashowstopper.
Conductor DanielOren,anoldVerona
hand, directs withpaceandpurpose,while
allowing the scoretodanceandsingina
way that’s rarely heardnowadays.
As a one-off liveevent,thisisnotgoing
to dethrone Jean-PierrePonnelle’ssuperb
1971-72 studio-madefilmofhisown
celebrated Milanstaging(DG,3/02,8/05).
That is hors concours,andpromisesto
remain so. But Nucci’sFigaroissomething
for the archives, too.RichardOsborneVerdi
I due Foscari
Leo Nucci bar ..........................................FrancescoFoscari
Ivan Magrì ten ...............................................JacopoFoscari
Guanqun Yu sop ...................................LucreziaContarini
Miklós Sebestyén bass-bar...............JacopoLoredano
István Horváth ten ................................................Barbarigo
Bernadett Fodor mez..................................................Pisana
Moon Yung Oh ten .......................................................O icer
Matthias Ettmayr bass.............................................Servant
Bavarian Radio Chorus;MunichRadioOrchestra/
Ivan Repušić
BR Klassik F b 900328 (102’• DDD)
Recorded live at thePrinzregententheater,
Munich, November 23&25,andMüpa,
Budapest, November27, 2018
Includes synopsisWhen Achille De
Bassini created the
role of Francesco
Foscari in Verdi’sI due Foscari in 1844, he was in his mid-
twenties. But Verdi’s work, a follow-up to
Ernani that’s distantly based on Byron, has
recently found special favour as a vehicle
for singers closer in age to the historical
ottuagenario Doge than to De Bassini.
There have been two filmed
performances from Plácido Domingo
in baritone mode reviewed in these pages
in just the last couple of years (9/16 and
12/17), and here Leo Nucci adds a new
recording to a couple of his own filmed
versions. The appeal of the work as a
vehicle for these singers is understandable,
but the composer himself had doubts about
his subject – originally slated for Venice
itself but finally premiered in Rome – and
Francesco Maria Piave was ultimately
unsuccessful in turning it into compelling
drama: it’s a work that can feel more like
a loose assemblage of standard scenes,
an early study for a later masterpiece,
Simon Boccanegra.
But I due Foscari bursts with all the
energy and invention characteristic of early
Verdi, and Ivan Repu≈ic ́’s conducting on
this live recording made in Munich last
autumn (following up on the same team’s
recordings of Luisa Miller and La rondine)
is full of vim and vitality. There’s excellent
playing from his rich, refined-sounding
orchestra (especially good in the various
soulful motifs that weave their way through
the score) and superb contributions from
the Munich Radio Choir.
And Nucci can still deliver in the title-
role. He brings real dramatic authority and
displays impressive residual heft in his
baritone. There’s no hiding the signs of
age, though: the voice often sounds nasal
and dry, and he has to resort to hectoring
in the final act. Listen to Piero Cappuccilli
in his prime on the classic Lamberto
Gardelli set to hear what this music can
sound like.
Nor can Ivan Magrì quite match
Gardelli’s young Carreras for thrills as
Jacopo Foscari; but the young Italian is an
appealing singer with a bright tone and
plenty of style. Guanqun Yu also makes a
strong impression as Lucrezia, her soprano
powerful and focused, with a nice Italianate
colour to it. But I miss a bit of fire in the
characterisation, and she tires during her
longer scenes.
No one with the Gardelli recording
should feel the need to rush out and replace
it, and BR-Klassik’s measly documentation
counts against the new release. Despite the
caveats, though, this is a modern set that is
both dramatically engaging and enjoyable –
and very well recorded too. Hugo Shirley
Selected comparison:
Gardelli (4/78R) (PHIL/DECC) 475 8697DM2