Verdi - I Vespri Siciliani (Riccardo Muti) [2004 / 1989]

This old (1990) and thoroughly old-fashioned production truly is Verdi as Verdi should be done. The orchestra in black, elegant Riccardo Muti in white tie and satin lapels, traditional sets, almost no milling around on stage by the chorus, no hint of nudity, no singers lying on the floor or leaning into the walls for their arias, huge voices and gorgeous costumes … Or perhaps it should be gorgeous voices and huge costumes, to accommodate the lovers Arrigo and Elena … singers standing stage front, feet planted foursquare, arms extended to expand the rib cage, projecting gorgeously even to the cheap seats in 'paradise'!

"Squillo" is a technical opera term for the 'ringing' quality of the trained voice that allow it to project over thick orchestration. You'll hear astounding squillo from all three principal male singers in this production, most thrillingly from tenor Chris Merritt (Arrigo) in the later acts. That clarion quality is less obvious in the voices of baritones and basses, but both Giorgio Zancanaro (the French Governor, Guy de Montfort) and Ferruccio Furlanetto (the rebel leader Giovanni Procida) offer conservatory-perfect demonstrations of how squillo is different from mere volume. Both of them make even their most piano asides pierce through the orchestral textures. Furlanetto is unsurpassable in his dark role as the relentless patriot. Cheryl Struder (the Duchess Elena) sings with consummate taste and lovely timbre, but she's out-matched by the three males at times, and that's the only musical weakness in this resoundingly musical production.

I Vespri Siciliani was composed first with a French libretto and staged in Paris in 1855. When it was 'translated' into Italian for staging in Parma, ironically the setting was also translated, to Portugal, for political reasons. This La Scala production uses elements of both scores, keeping the extended ballet sequences from the French opera but using the Italian libretto. The pair of dancers who enliven the visuals of the third act are Carla Fracci and Wayne Eagling. Canadian-born, California-raised Eagling is 100% Italian 'bella figura', with a kind of grace that's the physical equivalent of a singer's squillo.

To my ears, I Vespri Sicilano is one of Verdi's finest musical achievements, alongside Simon Boccanegra (of 1857) and Ballo in Maschera (of 1859). I can't imagine why it's not produced far more often.

Just a thought about those "traditional' sets and costumes: the historical event known as The Sicilian Vespers occurred in 1282! It was a rebellion against the Angevin French King Charles the First!! But this staging uses uniforms, gowns, and peasant frocks of the 19th C, perhaps of the Napoleonic era. And I'm fairly sure that such costuming would have been what Verdi and his dramaturges expected. So "anachronism" was part of the traditional staging all along? Would it be any more anachronistic to stage a music-drama depicting an uprising in 1282 in the garb of Chechens or Libyans in 2011?
By Giordano Bruno

Performer:
Guido di Monforte – Giorgio Zancanaro
Il sire de Bethne – Enzo Capuano
Arrigo – Chris Merritt
La duchessa Elena – Cheryl Studer
Il conte di Vaudemont – Francesco Musinu
Giovanni da Procida – Ferruccio Furlanetto
Ninetta – Gloria Banditelli
Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro alla Scala
Riccardo Muti – conductor

VIVSRM