San francisco opera lucrezia borgia reviews

  • “Lucrezia's” prelude itself, with the

    • A musical treasure chest

    Renée Fleming's cadenza are so gorgeously crafted that the true aficionado may forget there's some kind of opera going on. She manages to deliver these small treasures without sounding the least bit canary-like, and sings so effortlessly that they seem more like conversations that have taken flight.

    This was especially evident in the first-act "Com' è bello!" an aria sung to her sleeping son Gennaro (who does not know that he is her son). But the artfulness went on all night - for instance, an incredibly gradual crescendo that rises into a riotous chorus later in the act. Twenty years after her SFO debut, Fleming is at the top of her game, and it is an utter joy to watch her cast her spells.

    Not that she's alone. SFO has assembled a cast of one divine bel canto voice after another, beginning with tenor Michael Fabiano as Gennaro. Elizabeth DeShong brings a forceful, vibrant mezzo to the pants role of Gennaro's warrior-lover Orsini; their third-act duet, with its extended passages of unaccompanied harmonizing, are breathtaking. Another treat is bass Vitalij Kowaljow, a powerful, sinister Duke Alfonso who cuts through the orchestra with his assertive, forward-placed tone.

    Musically, this less-performed opera provides some fascinating moments, including a trio for Gennaro, Alfonso and Lucrezia that prefigures devices used by Verdi. Torn between her son and her husband (who assumes Gennaro to be his wife's lover), Lucrezia's vocal line flies back and forth between the two like a tennis ball. It's also a great pleasure to hear the composer's use of Gennaro's warriors, akin to having a small men's chorus.

    Dramatically, the opera provides a challenge similar to another recent SFO opera, Puccini's Turandot: a heroine who also happens to be a mass murderer. The trick is to understand the mythologizing process of the era, which often fell prey to misogyny: in this case, in blaming Lucrezia for the sins of her family. Donizetti clearly

    Last Fall, EuroArts issued the first in a series of six scheduled DVDs of performances by the San Francisco Opera at its home, the War Memorial Opera House. The performance is of Donizetti’s “Lucrezia Borgia”, starring Renée Fleming as Lucrezia, the Duchess of Ferrara.

    [Below: the cover of the brochure accompanying the “Lucrezia Borgia” DVDs.]

    What San Francisco Opera has presented is a dramatically plausible and vocally secure performance by Fleming, whose reputation as one of the most important operatic sopranos of the past 25 years is wholly deserved.

    Returning to the San Francisco Opera after an absence of ten seasons from performing opera at the War Memorial Opera House, the company honored her wishes that an opera and production she championed be mounted for her.

    Supporting Ms Fleming’s vocal performance in the sonic splendor of the War Memorial Opera House was a brilliant young cast that included lyric tenor Michael Fabiano as Gennaro, her illegitimate son who is unaware that Borgia blood flows in his veins; mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong as the scrappy Venetian soldier, Maffio Orsini; and Ukrainian basso cantante Vitalij Kowaljow as Lucrezia’s sinister husband, the Duke of Ferrara.

    Demonstrating the depth of casting that the San Francisco Opera can devote to a high profile project, major voices, several already singing principal roles in internationally ranked opera houses, were assigned to Gennaro’s and Orsini’s companions, and to the spy/operatives that served either Ferrara’s Duke or Duchess. These supporting roles were taken by Christopher Jackson, Brian Jagde, Austin Kness, Ao Li, Daniel Montenegro and Igor Viera.

    The San Francisco Opera Orchestra, conducted by Donizetti specialist Riccardo Frizza, gave the spirited performance one expects of this orchestral ensemble so expert at opera performance.

    [Below: a party scene in Ferrara; edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photogra

  • Instead of any romantic theme, the

    • This is my third review of a performance of the John Pascoe production of Donizetti’s “Lucrezia Borgia” (see The Donizetti Revival, Second Stage: Radvanovsky, Grigolo in Pascoe’s WNO “Lucrezia Borgia” – November 17, 2008and Fleming, Fabiano, Frizza Fuel San Francisco Opera’s Flaming, Fulfilling First “Lucrezia Borgia” – September 23, 2011) and the second one  during the San Francisco Opera’s Fall 2011 season, both of the San Francisco performances starring Renee Fleming.

    In addition, I posted a commentary (see “Lucrezia Borgia” – The Dramatic Foundations of Donizetti’s Opera) on whether Donizetti’s operatic treatment of the famous duchessa held together dramatically. During that commentary, I mentioned that, although my own previous reviews of the production had been positive, I had received e-mails from my readers expressing concern about negative remarks that some other reviewers made about the opera, its principal singer, its production, and/or its staging.

    Since I was reviewing yet another performance of the opera, I thought it would be interesting to keep in mind the concerns that others had expressed, and, where necessary, to alter my remarks if my opinions change, or illuminate those opinions which have not changed, but which, possibly, have been inadequately expressed.

    [Below: Lucrezia Borgia (Renee Fleming) from a distance admires the handsomeness of a son who does not know of her; edited image, based on a Cory Weaver photograph, courtesy of the San Francisco Opera.]

    From Whence is a Reviewer Coming?

    Back in the days of vinyl recordings, the magazine High Fidelity had a policy of which I very much approved. For its reviews of classical recordings, the reviewers that the publication invited to comment on a recording, were those known to have appreciation for and expertise in writing about the musical composition being performed, or at least the genre which they were reviewing.

    San Francisco Opera’s “Lucrezia Borgia” is a handsome production about a psychotic mom with a heart. Given its juicy and even kinky subject matter — power politics, poisonings and intimations of incest in Renaissance Italy — one would expect a sustained dramatic jolt. But this “Lucrezia” doesn’t entirely deliver; in the end, it’s a B-level opera by a great composer, Gaetano Donizetti.

    But fear not: The production, which opened Friday at War Memorial Opera House, features marvelous singing, first and foremost from soprano Renee Fleming as Lucrezia. In her first main-stage role with the company in more than a decade, Fleming uncorks the secret inner torments of history’s most notorious poisoner. Her best singing was sumptuous and long-lined, airy and ravishingly rich; the bel canto equivalent of Sarah Vaughan.

    We first see Lucrezia during the overture, standing in a golden spotlight, amid black night as smoke rises from a dungeon. The smoke envelops her: She cannot escape the world of cruel power and casual violence perpetrated by her infamous family, the Borgias. Check your encyclopedia: The real Lucrezia’s father was gangster-ish Rodrigo Borgia (who became pope), while her brother Cesare Borgia’s exploits were prime source material for Machiavelli’s “The Prince.”

    This is the same family mythologized in HBO’s “The Borgias;” Donizetti and librettist Felice Romani just got to the subject nearly 180 years earlier, inspired by a Victor Hugo play. The current production was originally created for Fleming by Washington National Opera in 2008.

    Seizing on Lucrezia’s contradictions — She kills! She loves! — the opera quickly arrives at a tender moment: “Com e bello” (“How beautiful he is”) is Lucrezia’s first aria. She has recognized a handsome young soldier snoozing in a corner of a Venetian square. His name is Ge