By Imogen
Available until: 9 October 2020
Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci are short
operas of about 70 and 75 minutes long and they’re famous for being performed
together. Pagliacci was written when the composer Ruggiero Leoncavallo
saw Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and thought he could do that
too. And he did. Better than Mascagni. But Cav & Pag (as some lazy
people call them even though there’s no G sound in Pagliacci if you say
it right, it’s Pal-yee-AR-chi) were linked from that moment and they go
together like me and Jordan Henderson. Or me and Shawn Mendes. Or me and Giovanni
Pernice.
One thing the ROH did which I haven’t seen before is they tried to make both operas connected. They did this by having a Pagliacci poster which was up through both operas and leaflets were handed out in Cavalleria rusticana. Nedda and Silvio meet in the Cavalleria rusticana intermezzo and Santuzza and Mamma Lucia appear during the Pagliacci intermezzo. I’m afraid this did not work for me at all. In my opinion (and I do know about opera, I’ve been singing it since I was six and I’m nearly fourteen now so I’m a very experienced professional and practically grown-up) the operas are two separate stories and that’s how they should be treated. It’s not even like Santuzza and Mamma Lucia did anything interesting, it was just more weeping and wailing over some twit who isn’t worth it. And you wouldn’t know the couple in the Cavalleria rusticana intermezzo is Nedda and Silvio and they’re onstage for such a short time most people wouldn’t remember them. I only know because I went back and watched the intermezzo to see if I recognised anyone. It’s especially ridiculous when some of the roles are doubled. They’re basically expecting us to believe that Turiddu and Alfio from Cavalleria rusticana both have long-lost twins (Canio and Tonio in Pagliacci). That’s just so unrealistic.
Cavalleria rusticana annoys me a bit because none of
the characters are really glamorous to be worth the trouble apart from Lola. Verismo
is supposed to be about ordinary people but no one goes to the opera to see to
see ordinary people, I get enough of that at home. This is a really good opera
for the chorus and orchestra and Antonio Pappano knows exactly how to draw out
every drop of drama and tragedy but I think if the orchestra and chorus get all
the good bits there’s something wrong with the opera.
Eva-Maria Westbroek puts lots of emotion into Santuzza’s
music so I kept forgetting how silly Santuzza is. But seriously, don’t be
anyone’s rebound unless you really are happy for it to be a one-off. Aleksandrs
Antanenko is a bit of a rat as Turiddu. I wouldn’t touch a man like him with a
bargepole unless he was really hot. Martina Belli knows how to pose and pout as
Lola so I found her easiest to relate to. She definitely has the best costume. Dmitri
Platanias is a really dangerous Alfio. Not in a hot way but I do approve of the
way he gives out free handbags. But he ought to have bought a nicer car than
that, it’s brown!
I think Pagliacci develops the characters a lot more
and everything’s more dramatic because all the characters have to work together
and they’re all in a really worthy career too (except Silvio) so the result is
a much better opera. Pagliacci actually has a few good arias like Nedda
daydreaming and Tonio introducing the whole thing but Canio’s aria about
putting on make-up is so epic I would actually consider playing Cania in a gender-swap
version just so I can sing that aria but I think I’m too beautiful really so
I’m better off playing Nedda.
One issue with Pagliacci is staging the play within a
play. It’s often stuck over in one corner so you can hardly it. This time it
actually didn’t matter as the camera was able to zoom in but my dad says the
Raymobd Gubbay production at the Albert Hall was in the round and that sounds
like a really good way of staging it but you can’t really do that at the Royal
Opera. Obviously the stage has to stay where it is because there are a few
operas and ballets going on at the same time and you can’t go moving the stage
about every night.
Canio is played by Aleksandrs Antanenko who also played
Turiddu. I think Canio is a total idiot but at least he loves Nedda even if she
is much too beautiful for him. I thought his make-up aria was on point and he
made the ending sad.
Carmen Giannattasio plays Nedda and she has a really
beautiful voice. The wig she wore when Nedda was playing Columbine really
suited her and I liked the difference between Carmen’s acting when she was
playing Nedda and when she was playing Nedda playing Columbine.
Dionysios Sourbis plays Silvio and he is really lot and I
love the way he jumped onstage and tried to save Nedda at the end. I guess it
is a bit pathetic that he was taken out by an older man but I think anger can
make you stronger sometimes and maybe Silvio is a kind guy who wants to protect
Nedda but doesn’t want to hurt Canio. You know - apart from stealing his wife.
Beppe is a small role and he could easily not make an
impression but opera companies often seem to cast someone really good in the
role, they don’t just give it to some random chorus member. Benjamin Hulett has
a really mellifluous voice and he doesn’t look too bad either.
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