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Last night I watched the live transmission of the opening opera of the La Scala, Milan, season, attended by the President. It happened to be Carmen this year. The lead role was taken by a 25 year-old Georgian girl, Anita Rachvelishvili. As a mezzo-soprano, she has a fantastic voice, although she didn't have the looks of a real Carmen. I was slightly disappointed by Escamillo, a Uraguayan, Erwin Schrott. He sang very well but he lacked the swagger and arrogance of a true Escamillo. Don José (German, Jonas Kaufmann) was superb, especially in the very difficult Flower Song, a challenge for any tenor: this earned him a very unusual spontaneous applause. The only real criticism I had was that some singers had poor French accents, to the extent that I missed some words.
However, at the end, the whole cast, including the conductor, Daniel Barenboim, received a fantastic acclamation of applause, well deserved, without a single hitch. That is until the the Producer, Emma Dante, was led onto the stage. She was booed like I've never ever heard anyone shouted down before in any form of theatre. The poor woman tried hard to keep back her tears but she was visibly broken. In a way, I'm not over-surprised, she designed the scenes and costumes, with some quite surrealist ideas. The uniforms of the soldiers were awful with floppy caps and decorated unmilitary tunics. In the bit where the kids imitate the marching soldiers, there was a background of a dozen boys, probably 10-12, wearing nothing but their underpants, prancing and cartwheeling. The lighting was often dismal, especially in the final scene outside the Plaza de Toros, where the picadors progressed in a style reminiscent of a Cossack dance. I can well understand that the Milanese high society, highly conservative and elegant by nature, appreciated the value of the operatic and musical art, but less the visual art.
However, at the end, the whole cast, including the conductor, Daniel Barenboim, received a fantastic acclamation of applause, well deserved, without a single hitch. That is until the the Producer, Emma Dante, was led onto the stage. She was booed like I've never ever heard anyone shouted down before in any form of theatre. The poor woman tried hard to keep back her tears but she was visibly broken. In a way, I'm not over-surprised, she designed the scenes and costumes, with some quite surrealist ideas. The uniforms of the soldiers were awful with floppy caps and decorated unmilitary tunics. In the bit where the kids imitate the marching soldiers, there was a background of a dozen boys, probably 10-12, wearing nothing but their underpants, prancing and cartwheeling. The lighting was often dismal, especially in the final scene outside the Plaza de Toros, where the picadors progressed in a style reminiscent of a Cossack dance. I can well understand that the Milanese high society, highly conservative and elegant by nature, appreciated the value of the operatic and musical art, but less the visual art.
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