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By ANDREW POWELL MUNICH \u2014 Martin Ku\u0161ej<\/a>\u2019s new staging of La forza del destino<\/i> for Bavarian State Opera<\/a> opened Dec. 22 and is due for streaming tomorrow<\/a>. Well cast, it alas trivializes the feud and the questions of honor and destiny that excited Verdi and his librettist Piave, despite being the busy company\u2019s second try<\/a> in eight years at this jumpy work.<\/p>\n At the second performance (Dec. 25), Anja Harteros<\/a> soared as Leonora, her voice radiant and expressive. Nadia Krasteva<\/a>\u2019s Preziosilla sounded firmer than four years ago in Vienna, where she operated as a cowgirl. Jonas Kaufmann<\/a> simulated tenorial heroics as Alvaro, but leaden tempos in Act III audibly strained him. Ludovic T\u00e9zier<\/a> introduced a solid, resonant Carlo, Vitalij Kowaljow<\/a> a menacing Guardiano (and Calatrava). Renato Girolami<\/a> savored brief humor as a foam-container-meal-doling Melitone.<\/p>\n Though reportedly booed on opening night, conductor Asher Fisch<\/a> ably commanded the structure and balances (as he had done for Don Carlo<\/i> here in January 2012). His clinical discipline recalls the Verdi of Karajan without the orchestral megalomania, but also without Karajan\u2019s flair in cantabile<\/em> lines. Chorus and orchestra sounded splendid.<\/p>\n Ku\u0161ej does not sustain the pace of Piave<\/a>\u2019s conception or inform its twists of fate. Instead he weakens the opera with banal settings and a political agenda all his own. Much of the time, we are on the premises of what appears to be a poor (American) evangelical church; Leonora gets a head-to-toe dunking in baptismal water. Visual references to Guant\u00e1namo<\/a> and an Act III detour to Abu Ghraib<\/a>, rather than propelling a feud, suggest anti-Americanism<\/a>.<\/p>\n The production follows Verdi\u2019s 1869 Milan score, modified in Act III according to a Franz Werfel<\/a> scheme used for the 1926 Munich premiere of La forza del destino<\/em> (under a 31-year-old Karl B\u00f6hm<\/a>).<\/p>\n Photo \u00a9 Wilfried H\u00f6sl<\/p>\n Related posts:
Published: December 27, 2013<\/span><\/p>\n
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