Cavalleria / Pagliacci - OA - Jan 22, 2009

Opera Australia's Cav & Pag fails to catch fire by Sarah Noble

Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana Leoncavallo: Pagliacci Opera Australia Sydney Opera House January 2009

The double bill of Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci is frequently touted as an ideal beginner's night at the opera, and in many ways it is: two tightly woven, musically rewarding pieces, stuffed with all the Mediterranean melodrama a novice could want from a first opera. But that thrilling potential requires a thrilling creative team to realise it. The forces assembled for Opera Australia's current revival are certainly none too shabby, and the resulting production has a good deal to offer: but it doesn't exactly blaze with Road to Damascus brilliance. Operatic evangelists looking for converts during this summer season would do better to direct their novitiates to the company's revival of Madama Butterfly: this Cav/Pag is not guaranteed to do the trick. Director Andrew Sinclair has opted for a traditional approach. In some ways, this simplicity is admirable but ultimately it's far too static for the grand passions depicted. In both operas, there is a frustrating imbalance between background and foreground: the operas' respective sets of villagers abound with individual stage business while their leads seem to wander aimlessly among them, characterization dependent more on each artist's own personal magnetism than a considered directorial conception. Welsh tenor Dennis O'Neill, a frequent guest here, appears as both Turiddu (Cavalleria rusticana) and Canio (Pagliacci). His ringing, Italian tenor is in excellent form from the first notes of Turiddu's offstage serenade to the tragic conclusion of Pagliacci - his phrasing is fluid, his timbre distinctive and his voice secure from top to bottom. It's a shame he hasn't a comparable gift for stagecraft. There's very little sense of character development in his Turiddu, despite the huge emotional upheaval the character experiences, and there's insufficient distinction made between that characterisation and his Canio. His characters' fraught encounters with the women in their lives fall disappointingly flat, his unresponsiveness proving difficult to overcome, despite admirable efforts from the women in the cast. Also appearing in both operas is Australian baritone Jonathan Summers, who quickly emerges as the backbone the evening. Alfio receives relatively little stage time in Cavalleria rusticana, but Summers' riveting presence, subtle characterisation and dark, purring baritone transform him into the opera's central figure, or close to it. Better still is his unsettling turn as Pagliacci's disfigured and ultimately vengeful Tonio. Summers' vehement delivery of the opera's famous prologue ("Si puo?") is positively Shakespearean: even O'Neill's stellar rendition of "Vesti la giubba" doesn't quite outshine it.

Nicole Youl sings with restrained purity as Cavalleria's Santuzza. She's touching in the character's early scenes as the downtrodden social outcast, and her soft, silvery tone soars in her prayer. Her rather placid portrayal is at odds with Santuzza's more vicious outbursts, however, and her encounters with both Turiddu and Alfio suffer as a result. Jacqueline Dark is persuasive as the hunched, greying Mamma Lucia. But it is Dominica Matthews' sultry Lola who takes first honours among the women of Cavalleria, her flaming red hair and smoky contralto radiating seductive danger. Amelia Farrugia slinks and struts through Nedda's amorous entanglements with impish glee. It's an enjoyable but basically shallow characterisation: her Nedda is too superficial to be sympathetic, even when her flightiness gives way to real emotions. The role obliges Farrugia to make a rare and welcome excursion into the middle of her voice: happily, she finds more colour there than she has previously displayed, although the upper register remains by far the stronger and more interesting part of her voice. José Carbo sings with sincerity and suave, secure tone as her lover, Silvio, his powerful and mellifluous baritone making the role's comparative brevity all the more lamentable. Tenor Stephen Smith puts in an impressive star turn as Beppe, his light, graceful tenor complemented by smart, perceptive acting. Maestro Andrea Licata's reading of the two scores sweeps broad strokes of colour, opting for a dense sound, soaked in Mediterranean sun, over multifaceted transparency. The approach works well in parts but occasionally goes too far: slower passages grow soporific, while the tension in some moments of high drama is dulled. Thankfully, Licata's innate understanding of the style and the undeniably evocative scores of both operas - along with a healthy dash of muscular orchestral playing - prevent it falling into total torpor. There's a strong contribution from the chorus in both operas: they're especially effective in Cavalleria's moving prayer, operatic voices scaled back sufficiently to truly evoke a church service. Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci are two of the most flamboyantly Italian works in the repertoire. It's a pairing full of melodramatic potential, capable, in the right hands, of setting an opera house alight. Opera Australia's revival has flashes of inspiration, a few of them very bright indeed - but it's definitely no fire hazard.

Text © Sarah Noble Photos © Branco Gaica