And the boys are bloody in the mirrors

Rossini Festival takes place in Pesaro

This year the famous Italian festival celebrates a milestone anniversary - thirty years since its founding. This, of course, is not an anniversary, but still a decent age. To say that no festive events were planned would be unfair. They were planned, but in times of crisis, when even such monster festivals as Munich and Salzburg threatened to simplify the repertoire and give some operas in concert performance, even just strictly following the rather rich program announced last summer can already be considered a holiday.

The Rossini Festival has been and remains the most influential not only in the Marche region or the Adriatic, but throughout Italy. At the same time, other musical marathons take place in the summer: the Puccini festival in Torre del Lago, the festival in Sferisterio in Macerata, led by the talented stage director Pier Luigi Pizzi, the open air opera festival in Verona, in the famous ancient amphitheater, the festival in Spoleto and many other smaller festivals. This one is the best, because it is led by a subtle connoisseur and interpreter of Rossini's music, Alberto Zedda (although he is already a very old man and rarely stands at the conductor's stand). Zedda is not only a renowned musician of the highest class, but also an intelligent musicologist, who until recently took an active part in publishing and commenting on the composer’s legacy. In addition, excellent orchestras are always invited to Pesaro, specializing in the music of Rossini and other composers from the bel canto camp, and singers come here, including the main pearl of the bel canto repertoire, Juan Diego Flores. But most importantly, the organizers of the festival in Pesaro are well aware that the performance of any music in open air, even in acoustically acceptable ancient Roman theaters, brings nothing but bitter disappointment. Yes, many people go to the city of Verona lovers to watch the grandiose productions of Franco Zeffirelli, which, by the way, are repeated from year to year, or to listen to Leo Nucci, Jose Cura, Salvatore Licitra and other Verdi-Puccini celebrities, but, alas, people They deceive themselves - they listen to a surrogate from a microphone. The singers sing at full strength, there are no complaints about them, but the Greeks and Romans built their arenas not for acoustic pleasures, but for visual ones, so there is no way to enjoy open air opera.

In Pesaro there are three indoor venues that are used at the festival - the tiny and cozy Rossini Theater (built in the 19th century, and not so long ago luxuriously and very competently renovated), an experimental theater (graduate performances of students of the Rossini Academy are performed there - already for several years in a row the choice falls on “Journey to Reims”) and an impromptu stage inside the sports complex “Arena Adriatic”. Buff operas are performed at the Rossini Theater in the city center: the stage is very tiny and not suitable for large operas. This year, the premiere of “The Silk Staircase” directed by the young Venetian director Damiano Michieletto and “Count Ory” was played here - this production by Louis Pascal was transferred from the Teatro Communale in Bologna.

The main premiere of the Rossini festival and, perhaps, one of the most serious opera productions of this summer - the grandiose musical drama "Zelmira" - had to be played on the periphery, in the Adriatic Arena. Trips to this “artificial” theater, completely devoid of a theatrical atmosphere, are the only negative thing to experience in Pesaro. There is no way out of the sad situation with the venue for the performance of Rossini’s grand operas, although solutions are being sought. But this “Zelmira” was worth the inconvenience for her sake.

This is a completely new score, which has been restored and pieced together for many years by the musicologists of the Rossini Foundation. Those few productions that could be seen in other theaters in Italy (the last one was conducted by Evelino Pido at the Rome Opera about twenty years ago) are truncated versions of Rossini’s gigantic work. (If you trust the specialists who prepared the score and libretto of “Zelmira” for production at the current, thirtieth festival in Pesaro, then historically this opera lasted more than three hours.) The arias from “Zelmira” are quite popular on the concert podium, but the entire score, which turned out to be extremely interesting, presented for the first time.

On the Greek island of Lesbos, in uncertain times, there lived a king named Polidoro, much loved by the people. He lived with his daughter Zelmira, also a people's favorite, her husband, the Trojan prince Ilo, and his grandson. Once Polidoro refused to give his daughter's hand to the Mytilene tyrant Azorra, and he, harboring a grudge for the time being, suddenly invaded the king's possessions, having heard that Ilo had gone on a military campaign and, accordingly, was absent from the island. By the beginning of the opera, the tyrant Azorre lies dead on stage, having been killed by another tyrant Antenore (sung by the American tenor, long-time festival resident Gregory Kunde) together with his friend Leucippus (performed by the handsome young bass from Rimini Mirko Palazzi).

Librettist Andrea Leoneottola tried to recreate the images of the famous Greek tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogeiton, but Plutarch’s narrative, from which we draw information about this period of Greek history, is so confusing that an educated Italian of the early 19th century misinterpreted all the meanings. By mistake or ignorance, he turned the freedom fighters Harmodius and Aristogeiton into petty killers, who, among other things, were in an unambiguously tender relationship with each other.

The action then develops as follows. Zelmira (a festival debutante, young, but already very successful and well-known mezzo-soprano from America Kate Aldrich) manages to hide her father in the family crypt and feed her there until better times, when Ilo returns and wins the throne for Polidoro. Ilo (Juan Diego Flores) returns, but it is not easy for him to recruit an army to fight the tyrants, and Zelmira, in order not to anger the killers again and save the life of her child, is forced to pretend that she does not love her husband and is ready to sacrifice him to the tyrants. Ilo becomes depressed and burns with jealousy - he sings a whiny aria, but later collects his thoughts and begins to figure out how he can drive his enemies off the island. Meanwhile, Antenore reigns - and suddenly the people recognize him as a kind of messiah and take oaths of allegiance to him, forgetting about their former love for Polidoro. Everything ends wonderfully, as Ilo manages to defeat Antenora in a duel. Polidoro emerges from the crypt and the people welcome him back, as well as Zelmira and Ilo, who are reunited.

Usually at the Rossini festival there are primitive productions - not bad and not good, but understandable to any viewer. In the case of “Zelmira,” which was recorded on DVD, they decided to play at the Salzburg Festival, whose director, Gerard Mortier, once welcomed avant-garde directing. They invited Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, a man far from the theater, but very advanced in the field of contemporary art. He has done installations for the Venice Biennale and other contemporary art exhibitions, but is new to the theater.

The newly appointed director hung a large mirror under the grate, which reflected both what was happening on stage and what was not happening. While the heroes were explaining to each other, some naked, bloody boys (victims of all tyrannies in the world, probably), skinny and painfully beautiful, wandered around the catacombs - they could only be seen in the mirror. What follows is even more beautiful. It turns out, according to the director, the tyrants brought Christianity with them to the island, and Polidoro and his family prayed to the pagan gods, Venus was especially loved by them (that’s why Polidoro sits in the dungeon on the fallen statue of some buxom goddess). Orthodox metropolitans (typical elders from Mount Athos with beards and hoods) perform the ritual of anointing the newly-minted hero Antenore to the kingdom. But in order for the audience to understand that the Christians here are meant to be incorrect and that the defeated pagans need to be sympathized with, on the gold leaf wall of the temple there is an inscription in Greek - “false”. In the finale, the old gods return, Cupids and Venuses take their places on the mountain. And now Christians, that is, in this case, accomplices of tyrants, are shoved into the catacombs, and the boys’ bloody wanderings continue.

The musical and vocal quality of the premiere is beyond praise. Roberto Abbado and the orchestra of the Bolognese Teatro Communale, led by him, were at their best. The head of this group is the wonderful maestro Daniele Gatti, who for many years has been doing everything possible to ensure that his musicians, even when he is not around, play at the highest level. Every single vocalist was also good. Alex Esposito as Polidoro competed with Flores as Ilo. After success in London, where Esposito, a relatively young Italian bass, gave a breathtaking virtuoso performance of Leporello in Don Giovanni, his career took off rapidly. Praising Flores is empty; he was even better than always, and in spite of all the other tenors he was gaining more and more top notes.

The Italians booed the production - not a single clap for the director, only short and angry “boos” (after the second performance, Corsetti did not come out to bow at all - I’m afraid that the actors condemned him too). Apparently they didn’t understand anything. But they will also have to get used to the new culture - current directors have reached the sacred altars of Italy and are unlikely to turn back.

Ekaterina BELYAEVA, Pesaro-Moscow