I approached Tuesday night's performance at Covent Garden with mixed expectations. I do not know the opera as well as I ought to, although what I know I love. The cast had no 'pull' factor for me, but I also knew that a cast of singers of international renown should be sufficient to make a Verdi opera an enjoyable experience.
And I did enjoy, despite rather than because of the cast, and certainly despite the production, which was superficially pretty to look at but really quite amateur in its Met Trash ineptitude. Moments of great emotion, such as when Simon and Amelia realise they are long-lost father-daughter, were destroyed by the casual lack of interaction - her reaction was to walk to the edge of the set and sit down with her back to him, while he did a good statue impression. There was far too much concentration on park-and-bark, with far too many arias and phrases delivered from the front of stage, as if in concert. Most of the time the chorus stood around in a semi-circle, except at one point when they injected excitement by lining up along the front of the stage like an Infant School Assembly. And, bizarrely, in the Council Chamber scene, they rushed in and set the carefully arranged stools tumbling down the stairs.
The set was pretty much the same in all acts, regardless of whether it was outside Fiesco's house in Act I, in the garden, or in the Council chamber. Changes were signified by adding a branch of a tree or a 2-D cardboard cut-out of a ship.
Simon was sung by Lucio Gallo. At first I thought he sounded dreadful, then I began to realise that he was in distress. He hung on until the final act, when Marco Vratogna, who had already impressed as Paolo, took over with music stand from where the front of stage meets the wings - a bizarre plot twist where Paolo not only administers slow poison to Simon but also usurps his role!
Nina Stemme had originally been scheduled to sing Maria/Amelia but decided not to take on the role, so Anja Harteros was brought in late. She couldn't make a couple of performances, so we had Natalia Ushakova instead, the third choice. She wasn't up to scratch, very squawky. One woman commented that we don't pay Covent Garden prices to hear students. There were departures at half time.
Marcus Haddock was acceptable as Gabriel Adorno, but only in the sense that he was a third-rate tenor outclassing the fourth rate around him. The star of the evening was Ferruccio Furlanetto. He was originally called in to replace Orlin Anastassov on the first night, because he was already in town for Don Carlo, and he remains for most of the run. I enjoyed him in Forza a couple of years back and am definitely looking forward to him as Philip II in Don Carlo. Hon mensh in the singing also to Jette-Parker Young Artist Krzysztof Szumanski.
I enjoyed the music, although subsequently I overheard someone commenting that she never really heard the sea come through; I concur. It does seem a bit strange to have John Eliot Gardiner conduct Verdi, and I suppose it was how you would expect JEG to conduct Verdi.
Quite separately, two different people remarked to me that they assumed I was looking forward to the 2010 revival; indeed I am, and I especially noted that in the final scene Simon Boccanegra does a lot of baritonal rolling around on the floor. However, one of those people, and a third, have remarked 'supposing we can get tickets...' which means two years of TASS (Ticket Acquisition Stress Syndrome). Sigh
