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Also this issue: The Greatest Show on Earth Power to the People Threads of Majesty Holy Mypos! Mark Brodzik |
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April 4-10, 2002
opera
 girls’ night: Netrebko (left) and Donose star in The Capulets and the Montagues. |
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Sharp observers of the city’s bus-stop ads will have seen Rafal Olbinski’s striking poster for the Opera Company of Philadelphia’s upcoming Capulets and the Montagues -- two lovers (literally) cut from one fabric being forcibly separated -- and thought, ‘OK, we’re back on R&J turf.’ But who are those two strikingly beautiful young women? Alternating Juliets? Juliet and a seriously well-preserved Nurse?
Not quite. Vincenzo Bellini's stunning 1830 opera, among the most enduring monuments of High European Romanticism, opts for the 18th-century tradition of blurring gender where youth is concerned: Romeo is a mezzo in male drag, and Juliet a soprano. This makes for beautiful harmonies in the piece's several passionate duets, but also reinforces Bellini's emphasis on just how young these brave young lovers are. Working not from Shakespeare but from medieval sources he had used, the librettists fashioned a pared-down, urgently paced drama of Romeo and Juliet (and Tybalt, the only other major role) trapped in the warlike ethos of the older generation. Lord Capulet and Friar Lawrence are on hand, to be implacable and to whip up mistimed pharmaceuticals, respectively. Tybalt remains a fiery swordsman and takes on Paris' role as fiance. But that's it; no Prince, no mothers, no Nurse, no Mercutio, no footnote-requiring jokes. Bellini gets right at the flowing passion and elegiac sadness of ill-starred love.
To get back to the poster's "mystery babes," however: The Opera Company is very "well-starred" this time around. Romeo (Romania's Ruxandra Donose, the smiling one) and "Giulietta" (the Russian Anna Netrebko, the darkly intense one) are two of the most highly sought-after young singers in the world. With Misha Didyk's Tebaldo they make a distinctly camera-ready trio; and both women have internationally proven chops for bel canto, the style of long-breathed lines and cascading scales called for here. "Bel canto is about great purity," says Donose, whose teacher studied with the legendary Romanian bel canto singer Yolanda Marcoulescou, "Always making a beautiful line. You must never force."
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Donose scored with local audiences in 1999's Barber of Seville and figures prominently in future seasons here. Thoughtful in discussing her art, she is no stranger to "pants parts" but also enjoys singing sultry roles like Carmen and Poppea. These appearances mark a welcome return to Romeo, which she first sang with OCP's maestro Maurizio Barbacini in Switzerland at the very start of her career. When she first picked up the score, she confesses to shock: "I was horrified and excited at the same time! It's so huge! He sings practically all the time, the range is huge [often the same notes as the soprano], the range of emotions is huge, it needs such flexibility. As a character, he has in him this quick temper, but also such tenderness and love; you must always pull out what you need." She especially loves the deeply affecting sequence when Romeo enters the sleeping Juliet's tomb: "It's a gorgeous scene, a huge gift for the mezzo."
Netrebko makes her local bow in her very first Capulets just after turning New York on its ear with a sensational debut in Prokofiev's War and Peace; the lyric grace and balletic charm of her Natasha evoked Audrey Hepburn. At first puzzled by the seeming simplicity of Bellini's heroine compared with Shakespeare's, she (like Donose) expresses delight at Kay Walker Castaldo's direction: "She's wonderful! Kay is bringing out all the drama in the piece. I am lucky to have Ruxandra, so beautiful a Romeo. And the music: so subtle and lovely." Both praised conductor Barbacini's skill in animating Bellini's stop-time, haunting melodies.
With the superb team OCP has assembled, Capulets would actually make a great first opera: concise, tuneful, a story everyone basically knows. Bellini's sublime music can rock -- and soothe -- the soul. Besides, adds War and Peace veteran Netrebko, with a sly laugh, "It's so short !"
The Capulets and The Montagues (I Capuleti ed I Montecchi), April 7, 9, 11, 13, 17, 19 and 21, $21–$147, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Academy of Music, Broad and Locust sts., 215-732-8400, www.operaphilly.com.
