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Seen and Heard Opera
Review
Pietro MASCAGNI, Cavalleria rusticana,
Santuzza, Dolora Zajick (mezzo-soprano); Turiddu, Ian Storey (tenor);
Mamma Lucia, Frances McCafferty (mezzo-soprano); Alfio, Peter Sidhom
(baritone); Lola, Leah-Marian Jones (mezzo-soprano), Hallé
Choir and Hallé Youth Choir, Hallé Orchestra, Mark Elder,
The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 14 April 2005 (RJF)
Gioachino ROSSINI
Overture: William Tell
Giacomo PUCCINI
Capriccio sinfonico (Hallé premiere)
Pietro MASCAGNI
Cavalleria rusticana, Operatic melodrama in one act. Concert
performance, sung in Italian with English surtitles
It scarcely seems credible that a mere seven years ago the Hallé
Orchestra stood on the verge of financial calamity and disbandment.
The Chairman went to Whitehall to plead for help for an orchestra
famed for Hamilton Harty and John Barbirolli. It had come to that
sorry state as a consequence of poor financial decisions and mediocre
artistic guidance and performance. Fortunately for the orchestra,
and the City’s artistic life, Mark Elder didn’t go to
Covent Garden but came to Manchester. His commitment to the Hallé,
together with his high musical standards and artistic vision, has
helped to put the orchestra back on its feet and make possible nights
of musical splendour that was enjoyed by a full Bridgewater Hall last
night. It is no accident that the Hallé’s own record
label, featuring new recordings of Elgar under Mark Elder, and older
performances under the redoubtable Hamilton Harty, Albert Sammons
and Malcolm Sargent, are selling well. During the rehearsal period
for this concert the orchestra and choir were recording Elgar’s
The Music Makers for future release. They are scheduled to
take Gerontius to the London Proms in August, although I
believe a projected recording is on hold.
At last night’s concert the high standard of the individual
and general playing of the Hallé orchestra was immediately
obvious in Rossini’s William Tell Overture. The solo
cello launching of the overture was strong, sonorous and expressive
with the other four cellos showing equal intensity and musicality
as they joined the introductory slow section to the work. The winds
and horns were not outdone in quality later on whilst the full orchestra
showed its paces as Elder whipped up a ferocious storm, one of Rossini’s
specialities and never bettered in any of his earlier works, and a
frenetic gallop to the conclusion. This was orchestral playing of
the highest standard and indicative of the giant strides the orchestra
has made under Elder’s stewardship as Music Director since taking
up the post in September 2000. For the second piece before the interval,
Elder had chosen Puccini’s student Capriccio sinfonico
of 1883. Its title might have helped Puccini earn his diploma, and
the kudos of a public performance under the baton of Franco Faccio
who Verdi chose to premiere his Otello four years later.
Its content is mainly interesting for the re-use Puccini made of its
middle section in the opening music of Act I of La Boheme.
Whatever its musical limitations, Elder and the Hallé made
it an easy fifteen minutes listening before the excitement to come.
Whist the hors d’oeuvres comprised works of two of Italy’s
giants of operatic composition, each with many hits to their credit
in their own lifetimes and since, the main course of the evening was
a concert performance of Mascagni’s only real success, Cavalleria
rusticana. A true verismo, real life, tale of bad blood and revenge
it needs a formidable singer to portray the lead mezzo role of Santuzza,
the wronged woman betrayed by her philandering man. The role calls
for a dramatic mezzo, the type of voice that can sing the great Verdi
mezzo roles such as Amneris (Aida), Azucena (Trovatore)
and Eboli (Don Carlos). In the post Second World War years
a series of great Italians mezzos, together with the Americans Grace
Bumbry and Shirley Verrett, serviced the world’s great opera
houses in these roles. However, since the movement of the latter two
singers into the soprano fach, and the retirement of Fiorenza Cossotto,
Dolora Zajick the Santuzza of this performance has carried the burden
at the Met, La Scala and elsewhere. And what a performance we were
privileged to see and hear. Although billed as a concert performance
all the singers, with one notable exception, sang from memory as they
would in a staged performance. There was movement on and off the platform
as there would be on an opera stage and which helped comprehension
of the emotions of the action. I have been privileged to see and hear
some of the greatest singers of the last forty years on the opera
stage and concert platform. However, I have rarely witnessed a performance
of such dramatic intensity as I heard from Dolora Zajick last night.
Dressed simply in black she gave a total dramatic portrayal via her
body language and formidable and expressive vocal strengths across
her wide tonal range. Even with costumes, stage props and scenery,
Santuzza’s various emotions could not have been put before us
in a more vivid and total histrionic manner. This was the most consummate
performance of a number of quality singers that Mark Elder has brought
before Hallé audiences since his arrival at the helm.
With Dolora Zajick’s fine example in front of them, nearly all
the rest of the principal singers performed and acted their parts
well. Frances McCafferty’s low mezzo, still stance and even
vocal range conveyed an appropriately austere Mamma Lucia. Leah-Marian
Jones as Lola made her entrance through the stalls in a vivid red
dress as befitted the scarlet woman of the tale. Her lyric mezzo was
clear and well defined. Peter Sidhom’s lean but well tuned baritone
could have done with a touch more colour and heft. He reacted well
to his colleagues and his diction was exemplary. As the two timing
Turiddu, the philandering man in Santuzza’s life, Ian Storey
was the major disappointment of the evening. His introductory off-stage
serenade was a bit throaty but when he appeared on the platform tied
to a score it was a major let down. Yes, it was a concert performance
and singers in these situations often stand motionless behind the
music stands holding their scores. Well, he walked on and off the
platform as per stage directions but, except for his singing in the
last part when he asks his mother to bless him before his duel with
Alfio, he was completely lacking in vocal expression or involvement;
he may as well have been singing the local telephone directory. Given
his c.v. of performances all over the Italian provinces, even if he
was sight reading I would have expected far greater vocal expression
and involvement.
Mark Elder’s reading was vivid and dramatic leaving the impression
of plenty of blood on the floor and walls as well as Alfio’s
knife at the conclusion. Once or twice he let the orchestra drown
the singers, even the formidably strong tones of Dolora Zajick who
is used to dominating the four thousand seat Met in New York. The
Hallé strings shimmered as Elder and the orchestra luxuriated
in the intermezzo. The choral contributions of the Hallé choir,
and its junior section, were up to their usual high standard although
the deficient numbers among the basses was notable on occasion.
Manchester has become something of an operatic backwater. The Palace
Theatre, which was refurbished back stage to take The Royal Opera
on tour, now only hosts the odd weeks visit by an East European Company.
‘Glyndebourne On Tour’ has deserted in favour of Stoke
and Opera North to the more comfortable Lowry at Salford Quays. Seasons
from the resurgent Welsh National Opera are of distant memory. If
it were not for Mark Elder and these concert performances, played
to full houses let the politicians note, and student performances
at The Royal Northern College of Music, opera lovers around Manchester
would be among the worst served in the U.K. The City Fathers boast
about the resurgence of Manchester and there is certainly plenty of
structural building going on, but buildings alone do not make a great
city. It is cultural occasions of the quality of this evening at the
Bridgewater Hall that define the soul of a great city. We had all
better hope that the recent goings on at La Scala doesn’t have
repercussions in Manchester with Pappano leaving Covent Garden and
Elder replacing him.
The next time Mark Elder and the Hallé are scheduled to venture
into the operatic domain will be on July 9th with a mixed programme
of items involving the choir and soloists. Book it in your diary now.
Robert J Farr
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