It is time to devote writing to recent cultural experiences of considerable merit and first a great discovery in Grand Opera, Les Vepres Sicilliennes by Verdi from the Royal Opera House London broadcast live at 17,45 on Monday November 4th at the Cineworld Bolden at a cost of £10,89, In addition to the petrol travel cost, a coffee at McDonalds beforehand £1.19 and a cherry ice cream during one of the intervals £2.20, the overall expenditure if one includes meals cooked at home would at no more come to £25 whereas to have travelled to London with overnight accommodation and cost of a best seat in the house ticket, assuming gaining all the best deals by booking in advance the cost would have been no less than £250 and likely to have been significantly more. So while it would be great to hear my favourite works in all the great Opera Houses of the World once. This is the life as it is claimed.
The opera is rarely performed which I do not understand why given it overwhelming beauty and intensity written for the Paris Opera House with its first performance in 1855. Whereas I have always been disappointed that Carmen is sung in French and not Spanish the land where it is set. This opera is best sung in French instead of the Italian, or Sicilian which is the basis for the story based on a situation in the that country as it was then in 1282 and its capital Palermo.
What the Director of the Royal Opera House performances has done is to set the Opera not in 1285 Palermo but 1855 Paris which makes more poignant the struggle of the Sicillennes against the brutal occupiers of their country who regarded any local woman, whether she was married or not as a prize to be used as they wanted, ironically in this instance the occupying power was France with the opera created within the Age of Revolutions.
The first two and final two acts are of 70 minutes with the third performed by a corps des ballet in Paris but in this production there are important ballet sequences throughout the five acts, notable with the overture and introduction in which the ruthless French commander of the Island rapes a young woman, in this instance a member of the ballet and where the ballet master feels driven from his homeland by his experience.
Jean Procida was a young doctor in the original performance and he is played by an outstanding young baritone Erwin Schrott from Uruguay who looks younger than his 41 years and is the life partner of the great Russian soprano Anna Netrebeko with whom they have a son. Procida was already a Patriot and it his leadership return which is eagerly awaited by those who still nurture their home of a Sicily freed from French rule.
One of these is Helene played by a the French Soprano Lianna Haroutoinian, a mature woman of ample size playing a young girl who is devastated by the death of her brother, another patriot at the hands of the Island ruler Guy de Montfort, and intent on revenge with her suitor the young Henry played the similarly mature and amble American tenor Bryn Hymel so this couple is well suited in terms of age and physique which is always desirable these days when portraying an attraction both loving and or sexual.
Unaware that Henry is his son or Monfont his father, the ruler is interested in Henry who is imprisoned for his anti French interests and ruler offers him a role in the country if eh keeps away from Helene In the second Act which follows on quickly from the first Procida return home determined to lea a revolution but finds he majority of people either too frightened or too complacent to support and he relies on a few patriots, including Henry and Helene who he meets upon landing.
The way the story is told is to combine aspect of the original location of Sicily with the Paris Opera House with the tiered side of the Opera house an integral part of the set and used for the chorus of occupying soldiers with the Siciliennes, peasants attired form the chorus on stage there are also reflecting mirrors when the dancers appear.
The trio plan to launch an uprising during a festival celebrating the marriage of young Siciliennes and Henry swears to kill Monfort to avenge the brother of Helene whose skull she holds and in return she gives the love from he seeks.
Just before the festivities and uprising the ruler‘s men arrive bringing an invitation for Henry to attend a ball and after he refuses he arrested and dragged off. Procida arrives too late to intervene and too late to stop some of the soldiers carrying of the Sicilliennes would be brides and some of the wives and mothers for their own pleasure. Procida and Helene determine to gate crash the ball in an effort to save Henry more than the Sicilian women and they berate the menfolk for allowing this to happen without resistance.
It was at this point that the first long interval occurred for 35 mins with after around 20 an interview with the Musical director from the bar restaurant where staff are clearing the tables from those who had booked to take one of their courses at this point.
It is in the act that the rule receives a letter written by the woman he abducted and raped when he first arrived on the island to say that her son Henry was his child. She had now died. Monfort is overjoyed at the news although sad that he had remained unaware of the existence of his son. During the ballet which takes place at the ball, Procida and Helene are horrified when they and their friends are exposed by Henry who is unwilling to be responsible for the death of his father however much he hates the man. His friends are horrified by this betrayal and scene wends in dramatic fashion as it appears the revels are all shot with the exception of Henry. Helene and Procida are in fact imprisoned before execution which is the scene at the commencement of fourth act after a further local interval, During the first I had enjoyed a scoop of cherry ice cream but stayed in place for the second apart from a comfort break. I think it was in the second break that a short film was shown on the creation of the ballet sequences.
Henry obtains a pass to try and explain to Helene the reason for his betrayal and to regain her love and to die with her. He is able to save her and Procida by accepting Monfort as his father who arranges their marriage which will mark a new relationship between the French and the Sicilliennes. Helene is then advised by Procida that he has arranged for an uprising and massacre of the French one she marries Henry and the bells ring out their joy. She rejects Henry at the last moment to avoid the bloodshed but Monfont seeing the unhappiness of the son and sensing that Helene also loves the young man orders the marriage to take place and for the bells to commence to ring. The Opera ends suddenly rather than dramatically without the massacre being shown.
The Sicilian Vespers (Italian: Vespri siciliani Sicilian: Vespiri siciliani) is the name given to the successful rebellion on the island of Sicily that broke out on the Easter of 1282 against the rule of the French/Capetian king Charles I, who had ruled the Kingdom of Sicily since 1266. Within six weeks, three thousand French men and women were slain by the rebels and the government of King Charles lost control of the island. It was the beginning of the War of the Sicilian Vespers. The rebellion commenced with the bells sounding for the vespers as the crown turned on the French after a man had been murdered for attempting to protect his wife from sexual advances.
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