Erratique
Sometimes straight reportage gives such a sense of flavor that one can delay judgment for a time. The overture is pried out of its usual place to become a long entr'acte between Acts I and II. The period is updated, but it is not clear to what. The jacket copy's "1940s world of sudden violence and shadowy double-dealing" cannot be right. The dates of birth provided for the Sicilian revolutionaries are *in* the 1940s (and 1930s), suggesting the action occurs in the 1960s or 1970s, but the costumes and decor don't nail anything down with specificity. It just seems generalized-modern. An exception comes in Act III, when the baritone (while singing) changes from modern formalwear to the outfit of a king from centuries earlier: wig, mantle, breeches. His confrontation with his tenor son, a musical glory of an uneven opera (this rare father/son duet rivals Verdi's great father/daughter ones), is intentionally cosmetically incongruous, as the son is in jeans and an untucked plaid shirt. For...
Click to Editorial Reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment