This weekend’s Opera is ON free opera stream provided by the San Francisco Opera returned to the epic scale of Götterdämmerung, the final opera in Richard Wagner’s four-opera cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen (the ring of the Nibelung). This time, however, the composer was Giuseppe Verdi; and the opera was the Italian version of Don Carlo. The original libretto was written in French by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, based on Friedrich Schiller’s dramatic Play Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien (Don Carlos, Infante of Spain). However, most productions these days prefer the Italian translation by Achille de Lauzières and Angelo Zanardini with addition text translated by Piero Faggioni.
The video was directed by Frank Zamacona, captured during the performances given at the War Memorial Opera House in June of 2016. Those performances ran for about four and one half hours, including two intermissions. As usual, the streamed version does not include “intermission breaks;” so the overall duration is about an hour less. Nevertheless, five acts of opera over the course of that period of time makes for a lot of music; and the intricate plot of the libretto makes for a lot of narrative. Both my wife and I agreed that we needed our own “intermission breaks,” rather than trying to watch the video uninterrupted.
Michael Fabiano and Ana María Martínez (photograph by Cory Weaver, courtesy of San Francisco Opera)
That abundance of narrative also makes for a rich and diverse cast of characters; and, from a musical point of view, that entails a broad variety of styles of performance across the full extent of vocal ranges. At the very top we have Élisabeth de Valois, sung by soprano Ana María Martínez. She is a French princess betrothed to Carlos (tenor Michael Fabiano) as part of a peace agreement with Spain. However, the first act, which takes place in Fontainebleau, where the agreement is being finalized, concludes with the news that she will be marrying Carlos’ father, Philip II, the King of Spain (bass René Pape). The opening act thus serves as a prolog to the dramatic turmoil that will ensue over the following acts.
Philip is the son of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V; and the remaining four acts are framed by scenes that text place before the Emperor’s tomb in the monastery of Saint-Just in Spain. In the opening scene we learn of Carlos’ friendship with Rodrigo, the Marquis of Posa (baritone Mariusz Kwiecień), who is a strong defender of the right of the Flemish (under Philip’s rule) to practice their Protestant faith. By the time the narrative has progressed to the final scene, Rodrigo has been murdered for betraying the Catholic faith, Philippe has learned of Élisabeth’s true love, Élisabeth herself has left the royal court for a nunnery. However, she encourages Carlos to continue Rodrigo’s work.
Complex as this may all see, Emilio Sagi created a staging that leads the audience through all of the conflicts in the political domain of authority and the religious domain of faith. Much of this involves an abundance of spectacle, some of which is deliberately disquieting. This includes the mass burning of heretics in an auto-da-fé bonfire in the public square in front of a cathedral in Madrid at the end of the third act. Just as important, however, is how Sagi developed the individual traits of each of the characters, through which the audience was well-equipped to deal with the many twists and turns of both the plot and the personalities of the characters involved in that plot.
Finally, Zamacona again deserves credit for his attention to those personalities. All of the stage sets for this opera were expertly conceived by Production Designer Zack Brown. However, the plot itself is more about the individuals than about the setting in which their actions unfold. Zamacona’s video cues provide just the right interplay between close-ups of the characters and the broader view of the entire stage. In many respects the viewer of this video document is better equipped to negotiate the complexities of the libretto than anyone sitting in the Opera House audience would have been.
No comments:
Post a Comment