<Translated from Italian automatically>
CAGLIARI. A traditional title was at the Comunale yesterday, on the bill of the Lirico, as is the very traditional direction of Mario Pontiggia who restages "Tosca" in a 2008 production by the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Large and sumptuous architectural spaces faithfully replicate the Roman setting, with sets and costumes by Francesco Zito, lighting by Alfonso Malanda Rodriguez. In the first act, for example, the interior of the dome of Sant'Andrea della Valle is visible in all its profundity thanks to a prospective artifice: almost a symbol of the "tunnel of events" from which, shortly thereafter, the various characters will be engulfed over the course of a single day. From that same scene, however, a wooden structure is derived, which Floria Tosca will climb to throw herself from Castel Sant'Angelo, a structure that "prophetically" had previously appeared as a working scaffold for the painter Mario Cavaradossi: thus, the place of amorous effusion between the two lovers also becomes the scenic element in front of and through which they both lose their lives (Mario shot in front of it, Tosca climbs it to commit suicide). In short, nothing could be more classic than the binomial of love and death, the stainless archetype of eros-thanatos. But it is precisely this thematic essentiality that allows Puccini to create a melodrama with a fast pace, almost cinematographic, to resort with highly original flair to the Wagnerian technique of the Leitmotiv, transforming the work of Vincent Sardou, reduced in the libretto by Illica and Giacosa, into a lyrical gem.
With reruns until July 12, Tosca debuted utilizing a baton now known to the Cagliari public: Alexander Vedernikov, musical director of the Bolshoi in Moscow from 2001 to 2009, was yesterday at the helm of the orchestra, chorus (prepared by Fulvio Fogliazza) and white voices (instructed by Enrico Di Maira) of the Lirico.
It is a broad-brush reading that the Russian maestro proposes, though not without nuances, but mostly focused on a turgid and full sound, a vigorous sonority to which the protagonists also seem to adapt, with discontinuous results. The Tosca of Anda-Louise Bogza, for example, is not without some limitations: theatrically enjoyable in the first scenes of jealousy, so genuinely whimsical and flirtatious, she appears however a little less convincing precisely in the dramatic moments, where the mannered theatrical movements detract from the naturalness and spontaneity of the character's pathos (perhaps this is also a limit of Pontiggia's direction); and if the voice, with a burnished timbre, is junonic and intense in the middle or medium/high register, it sometimes loses a bit of volume and temper in the more acute zone. Also the Mario of Roberto Aronica, although often thundering and impetuous, risks at times a monochromatic interpretation, he is a Cavaradossi who exults mockingly for Napoleon's victory at Marengo, but doesn't light up as much upon discovering the hypothetical possibility of escape with his beloved: yet, this student of Bergoni is not devoid of a beautiful timbre, which is indeed clear and bright, nor of some beautiful phrasing intuitions. Giorgio Surian has more verve, perhaps vocally less ringing and.
The staging, which debuted yesterday with the direction of Mario Pontiggia and the vigorous baton of Vedernikov, shows interesting scenographic ideas but also a cast with some limitations.
Source.
CAGLIARI. A traditional title was at the Comunale yesterday, on the bill of the Lirico, as is the very traditional direction of Mario Pontiggia who restages "Tosca" in a 2008 production by the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Large and sumptuous architectural spaces faithfully replicate the Roman setting, with sets and costumes by Francesco Zito, lighting by Alfonso Malanda Rodriguez. In the first act, for example, the interior of the dome of Sant'Andrea della Valle is visible in all its profundity thanks to a prospective artifice: almost a symbol of the "tunnel of events" from which, shortly thereafter, the various characters will be engulfed over the course of a single day. From that same scene, however, a wooden structure is derived, which Floria Tosca will climb to throw herself from Castel Sant'Angelo, a structure that "prophetically" had previously appeared as a working scaffold for the painter Mario Cavaradossi: thus, the place of amorous effusion between the two lovers also becomes the scenic element in front of and through which they both lose their lives (Mario shot in front of it, Tosca climbs it to commit suicide). In short, nothing could be more classic than the binomial of love and death, the stainless archetype of eros-thanatos. But it is precisely this thematic essentiality that allows Puccini to create a melodrama with a fast pace, almost cinematographic, to resort with highly original flair to the Wagnerian technique of the Leitmotiv, transforming the work of Vincent Sardou, reduced in the libretto by Illica and Giacosa, into a lyrical gem.
With reruns until July 12, Tosca debuted utilizing a baton now known to the Cagliari public: Alexander Vedernikov, musical director of the Bolshoi in Moscow from 2001 to 2009, was yesterday at the helm of the orchestra, chorus (prepared by Fulvio Fogliazza) and white voices (instructed by Enrico Di Maira) of the Lirico.
It is a broad-brush reading that the Russian maestro proposes, though not without nuances, but mostly focused on a turgid and full sound, a vigorous sonority to which the protagonists also seem to adapt, with discontinuous results. The Tosca of Anda-Louise Bogza, for example, is not without some limitations: theatrically enjoyable in the first scenes of jealousy, so genuinely whimsical and flirtatious, she appears however a little less convincing precisely in the dramatic moments, where the mannered theatrical movements detract from the naturalness and spontaneity of the character's pathos (perhaps this is also a limit of Pontiggia's direction); and if the voice, with a burnished timbre, is junonic and intense in the middle or medium/high register, it sometimes loses a bit of volume and temper in the more acute zone. Also the Mario of Roberto Aronica, although often thundering and impetuous, risks at times a monochromatic interpretation, he is a Cavaradossi who exults mockingly for Napoleon's victory at Marengo, but doesn't light up as much upon discovering the hypothetical possibility of escape with his beloved: yet, this student of Bergoni is not devoid of a beautiful timbre, which is indeed clear and bright, nor of some beautiful phrasing intuitions. Giorgio Surian has more verve, perhaps vocally less ringing and.
The staging, which debuted yesterday with the direction of Mario Pontiggia and the vigorous baton of Vedernikov, shows interesting scenographic ideas but also a cast with some limitations.
Source.
"Tosca" at the Comunale, melodrama of love in a traditional sauce
Gabriele BALLOI, La Nuova Sardegna, July 3, 2010
