‘Cavalleria Rusticana’ and ‘Pagliacci’

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden - 05/07/22

In the Prologue to ‘Pagliacci’ – which, along with its conjoined twin ‘Cavalleria Rusticana’, stormed back into the Royal Opera House schedule last night – the clown-seducer Tonio sums up the essence of ‘verismo’, the 19th century musical style of which both operas are classic examples.  He speaks of ‘a slice of real life’ which is ‘inspired by the truth’ – and my goodness, the run-up to yesterday’s opening night featured ‘slices of life’ aplenty!  First, Covid and other ailments were picking off the leading singers one by one – and then, with an hour to go before the curtain opened and as the news broke of the Chancellor’s and Health Secretary’s shock resignations, Theresa May and her husband were spotted in the Floral Hall apparently in close discussion with Michael Gove over their pre-performance suppers.  Clearly there was no need to wait for curtain-up to get a taste of intrigue, betrayal and vengeance.  I would have given anything to be at the adjoining table… 

But back to Cav and Pag.  Last night saw the start of a third run for Damiano Michieletto’s contemporary production, first seen in 2015.  There is much to admire in this gutsy but at times pleasingly subtle take on the two operas, which intriguingly weaves the two dramas together in a southern Italian village whose crime rate would appear to be right up there with those deceptively sleepy backwaters in Midsomer Murders.  Key to the production is a clever revolve-stage, which works admirably in ‘Pagliacci’ to highlight the agonising contrast between the on-stage frolics of the travelling theatre company and their off-stage emotional torments.  In ‘Cavalleria Rusticana’, however, I confess to having found the constant revolving a tad irritating. 

And what of the singers?  For me the unquestioned star of the evening was Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak, who had always been booked to sing Santuzza in ‘Cavalleria’ but had also stepped in at short notice to replace an indisposed Ermonela Jaho as Pagliacci’s Nedda.  From a dramatic point of view she nailed every twist and turn of her two characters’ emotions – from Santuzza’s aching misery and unrequited love to Nedda’s coquettish stage antics and her longing to break free from a stifling marriage and find passion.  Vocally, she has added an impressive middle and lower register to her lyric-coloratura soprano – which she deployed to devastating effect in Cav in particular.  In short, she was utterly believable throughout.   

Topping the bill as Canio to her Santuzza was young South Korean tenor SeokJong Baek, whose House debut as Samson in May had critics reaching for their superlatives.  I’d not heard him before and can report with excitement that he does indeed possess a gorgeous, effortless and arresting voice and that his future looks assured.  A minor quibble last night was that his acting was just a bit overblown, but I’m sure that that will settle down with experience.  There’s absolutely no questioning his emotional commitment and musicality – as exemplified in his final aria when, with truly touching remorse, he asks his mother to look after Santuzza if he dies. 

And so from new star tenor to decades-long star tenor!  Roberto Alagna (Ms Kurzak’s real-life husband) had ridden to the rescue of the first few ‘Pagliacci’ performances when Covid forced Fabio Sartori to pull out.  What can I say?  At the age of 59, Alagna still confounds his critics by pulling all the stops out vocally and dramatically.  If the sound is now sometimes rather coarse-grained and, er, a bit on the loud side, I for one frankly don’t care. 

In other roles, Italian baritone Mattia Olivieri makes a compelling House debut as Nedda’s youthful and coltish lover Silvio.  At La Scala he’s been a regular in leading roles for some time – and I hope that we’ll now see him more often in London.  Greek baritone Dimitri Platanias reprises his roles as Alfio and Tonio – I found both his singing and acting rather dry and unvarying, but he’s certainly serviceable enough.  And it would be churlish not to mention veteran Italian mezzo Elena Zilio, who squeezes every ounce of emotion from her finely tuned performance as Canio’s long-suffering mother. 

In the pit, Antonio Pappano wrung some gorgeous playing from his orchestra – with many moments of spine-tingling tenderness to match the more predictable block-buster numbers.  The regular chorus were on good form – and the children’s chorus were clearly having the time of their lives! 

Meanwhile, as I write this the following morning it would seem that, unlike in Cav and Pag, at Number 10 there will be no clean cut to the throat or well-aimed pistol shot – and that political death, if it comes, will be by a thousand cuts… 

Cav and Pag (with various predicted cast changes – and possibly some unpredicted ones) are at the Opera House until 20 July.  Do go if you can.