Just over a month after a successful production of Tosca at Gozo’s Aurora opera house, there was more opera there last Sunday, albeit in concert form.
Rezza’s rendering of Io Son L’umile Ancella from Cuilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur was little short of exquisite- Albert Storace
Co-founder of the Classique Foundation presenting this concert in collaboration with Aurora opera house, Joseph Debrincat, conducted the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra led by Nadya Debono.
The concert was very well-attended. Because soprano Maria Pia Piscitelli could not perform, soprano Alessandra Rezza stepped in, quite splendidly too.
The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra was in fine fettle and it seemed that throughout the concert the team responded very well to Debrincat’s direction.
The overture to Bellini’s Norma, which had been performed at the opera up the road three weeks earlier, opened the evening, and there was more from Norma later when Rezza gave a very good account of the immortal Casta diva.
However, it was tenor Francesco Anile who opened the vocal part of the concert with La Vita È Inferno All’infelice…Oh, Tu Che In Seno Agli Angeli, from Verdi’s La Forza Del Destino in which one felt that in some parts he did not seem to put his best but with enough indications that he would certainly fare much better later.
Rezza’s rendering of Io Son L’umile Ancella from Cuilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur was little short of exquisite, followed by Anile in much better form in La Fleur Que Tu M’avais Jetée from Bizet’s Carmen.
The orchestra came back with a colourful and very good performance of part of the ballet music from Act V of Gounod’s Faust. The first part was concluded by both singers in a very powerful and highly charged duet from Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, starting from Ah! Lo Vedi, Che Hai Tu Ditto?
I was a bit disappointed they did not start with Turiddu’s irritated exclamation Tu Qui Santuzza, In Chiesa Non Vai? Still, what was sung came across most forcefully with Anile’s Turiddu maintaining his exasperation with Rezza’s Santuzza, who ranged from pathetic, rejected mistress to a vengeful woman dangerously scorned.
A rousingly martial and also at times very lyrical overture to one of Verdi’s best overtures, the one to Les Vêpres Siciliennes, opened the second half of the concert, followed by Anile in Amor Ti Vieta from Giordano’s Fedora, a very brief and reasonably competent rendering with Rezza again on very good form in Tacea La Notte Placida…Di Tale Amore from Verdi’s Il Trovatore, which increased all the way in accomplishment reaching a peak in the concluding caballetta.
Anile gave one of the most moving and heart-rending interpretations I have ever heard of Recitare Mentre Preso Dall’ira…Vesti La Giubba which brought the house down with much- merited applause.
Rezza did none the less in her Sola Perduta Abbandonata from Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, even if on two occasions she cut corners.
The orchestra took over again in a very warmly and deservedly applauded Danza Delle Ore from Ponchielli’s La Gioconda.
Tenor and soprano concluded the concert with the finale from Giordano’s Andrea Chenier, a sequence which always gives me the shivers, as it should and as the singers managed to produce.
Two encores from the Puccini repertoire marked the evening’s definite end: with Rezza singing O Mio Babbino Caro from Gianni Schicchi and Anile with Nessun Dorma from Turandot.