The Ultimate Verismo Opera...?

[Alan Howe]

...is, following my visit to Opera Holland Park, London last night, Wolf-Ferrari's I Gioielli della Madonna - an absolute blockbuster of a score. Further comments to come...

[ewk]

I'd nominate Riccardo Zandonai's »Francesca da Rimini« which was performed in Freiburg in Germany two weeks ago as a concertante performance and it's absolutely amazing! Never heard such a richness of melodies and bombastic sound. Maybe exept for Korngold's »die tote Stadt« but it absolutely amazed me.

there are by the way several complete performances on youtube to listen to.

Sebastian

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Very glad that you enjoyed Wolf-Ferrari last night, Alan.

I recall the good old days when the BBC regularly broadcast a specially prepared performance of often unsung operas. You could even send a SAE to the BBC a few days before the performance and for the cost of a stamp would then receive a libretto, usually with an English translation, and notes on the opera. I think this was all the brainchild of Elaine Padmore? Compare that with the quality and usefulness of the contemporary BBC.

Anyhow there was a pretty stunning broadcast of I Gioielli della Madonna in the late 1970s / early 1980s, and among the cast were BBC stalwarts such as Pauline Tinsley, Andre Turp, Peter Glossop, Henry Howell, John Winfield and Ann Pashley / BBCSO / Alberto Erde.

That performance was subsequently released on Bella Voce BLV107.242. Think I'll drag it off the shelves and remind myself of it tonight.

I'm not aware of any specific reason for it, but Wolf-Ferrari has pretty consistently been elbowed to one side...and quite unfairly.

And alas, Sebastian, I think you give the game away with your "bombastic sound" of Francesca da Rimini. I might possibly be persuaded by performances other than the two I have on CD, but I'm afraid I've always found the opera a right old raucous racket with not much of musical interest in it. It is generally acknowledged as his most successful opera - which judging by the others I've heard seems spot on right. But I'm 'open ears', and a production in Freiberg suggests that just possibly there may be a CPO recording in due course (5-6 years with my knowledge of CPO).

[Alan Howe]

My other two candidates would have been Francesca da Rimini (which I saw at OHP) and L'Amore dei tre re, but neither has quite the sheer veristic brutality and orchestral heft of Gioielli - nor, frankly, do they have music that is as melodically memorable. The Introduction to Act 2, for example, is quite breathtaking in its melodic originality while being at the same time utterly 'in the tradition'.
OHP London are to be congratulated on such a risky undertaking in today's economic climate. They had extended their pit to encompass an orchestra of 70 - and the chorus filled half the stage! The decibel count at climaxes must have been huge. The three lead-roles, Maliella (sung by young Welsh soprano Natalya Romaniw), Gennaro (tenor Joel Montero, from Mexico) and Rafaele (baritone Olafur Sigurdarson, from Iceland) were thrillingly sung - this was truly casting on a world-class level (Covent Garden couldn't have done better).
All in all, I was blown away. Why there isn't a commercial recording of this masterpiece I have no idea.

[edurban]

I'm a big fan of Massenet's 'verismo' operas, Therese and La Navarraise.  Short, loud and delightfully overwrought, they pack a lot of memorable melody (and non-musical sound effects: gunshots, insane laughing, churchbells, etc.) into a compressed time frame that intensifies action and passion.  Navarraise is really the more out-and-out verismo of the two, managing to squash betrayal, war, Spain, murder-for-a-dowery and madness into its short running time, but compression is not an unalloyed joy... the characters are pretty sketchy and the swift accumulation of disaster verges on parody.  Still, it's lots of fun, and it won't do to think too deeply about such things.

Therese is more successful, I think: an aristo love triangle set during the Terror, wonderful love music, very loud, violent orchestral stuff (also a delicate, rather ghostly minuet in the composer's Manon mode,) and, naturally, a screaming mob.  The old Bonynge recording with Tourangeau is excellent (well, forget Madame T's diction) with a hair-raising finale.  The heroine, standing at her window, sees her noble (all senses of the word) husband being dragged to the guillotine,  forgets all about fleeing to safety with her louche tenor lover, and calls out "Vive le roi!" so that she can die with him.   The mob rushes in to seize her and the final thunderous hammer-blows of the orchestra leave no doubt about her fate.  Her last word,  "Marchons!" (directed by Massenet to be sung 'fierement, heroiquement') never fails to move me.  Great stuff. (There's a new recording, btw, but I haven't heard it...)

David

[Alan Howe]

They are indeed great stuff. But Gioielli is an absolute blockbuster by comparison, and considerably more advanced harmonically as befits a work by a composer born over thirty years later than Massenet.

[scarpia]

The only Wolf-Ferrari opera I have heard is Sly. I really like that one. Giordono's Siberia and Madame Sans-Gêne are really good. Mascagni could be my favorite verismo opera composer though - Amica, Isabeau, Parisina, Iris, Le Maschere, Silvano, and Guglielmo Ratcliff in addition to Cav. I'm going to have to check out I Gioielli della Madonna now.

[eschiss1]

I find myself wanting to hear (though this is probably off-topic and not verismo, just Wolf-Ferrari) The Secret of Susannah...

[Revilod]

I'd agree with edurban on "Therese"'s quality...one of Massenet's best and, perhaps, the ultimate verismo opera. It always amuses me how Massenet, who was so commercially aware, shamelessly imitated other composers' successes. "Therese" is obviously a rip-off of "Andrea Chenier" and there are many other examples. I've done a couple of reviews of recordings of "Therese" for Amazon.co.uk

[Alan Howe]

Thérèse may be Massenet's answer to the Italian veristi, but it doesn't approach the brutal power and wild eroticism of Wolf-Ferrari's masterpiece. Do get hold of the only recording available if you don't know it...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gioielli-della-Madonna-E-Wolf-Ferrari/dp/B00005A9T8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376238629&sr=8-1&keywords=jewels+of+the+madonna

[Alan Howe]

BTW, for once Massenet just doesn't have the tunes that Wolf-Ferrari has...

[Revilod]

O.K., Alan. I don't know the Wolf-Ferrari so I'll try it. I will certainly be impressed if it's stronger than "Therese" melodically.

[Alan Howe]

There's no comparison. Massenet was far stronger melodically in works like Werther, Manon, or even Esclarmonde.

[Revilod]

Well...yes...it's not in the same league as "Manon" or "Werther" but, of Massenet's later operas, I would rank it near the top...higher than "Don Quixote" though below the wonderful "Jongleur de Notre Dame". I certainly have no difficulty remembering "Therese"'s melodies. It's through composed as a real music drama, of course, so the melodies are not highlighted as they are in "Manon" for example.

[Alan Howe]

It's still very pale stuff indeed in comparison with the red meat of W-F's masterpiece - which is what one would expect really given that W-F was born 34 years later than Massenet.