E avanti a lui fischiava tutta Roma
“A Zeffirelli, dopo le polemiche della vigilia che lo hanno opposto al soprano Daniela Dessì, da lui ritenuta non giusta per il ruolo di Violetta in questa Traviata, qualche dissenso misto agli applausi al momento di comparire in proscenio assieme a Gelmetti.” [Il Messaggero]
On the other hand, maybe the dissenters were disgruntled canary fanciers?
On 18 December 2009, the opening night of the production, there was no ‘high E flat’. In the Rome theatre, Zeffirelli’s foes were immediately ready to point out that to please the director, second-choice singers had been hired.
A couple of points in response to Mr. Pennisi’s review:
If this Traviata, a rehash of an earlier Zeffirelli production, was sold out in September, might that not indicate that the caro publico was rather more interested in Dessi’s role assumption than the same old sets and costumes enlivened by some new choreography? Who goes to Traviata for the divertisement chez Flora?
Mr. Zeffirelli denigrates updating or staging that violates the composers instructions: then why stage the prelude (a very modern directorial device) or introduce the ultra-modern full-stage tilted mirror in Flora’s after having established a lush, 19th century painted drop and wing set as the production’s style previously? He speaks out of one side of his mouth and gives instructions for whatever he wants to do out of the other.
I was struck by the statement that “in Zeffirelli’s opinion, the conductor, the orchestra, the soloists and the chorus must be in line with the director’s reading of both the text and the score.” The CONDUCTOR! the SOLOISTS! must be in in line with the DIRECTOR’S reading of the text and SCORE??!! In what universe does the director give the conductor a reading of the score? or tell the singers how to phrase?
I am more than willing to bet that even the great bêtes noires of Regie at the MET, Zambello, Vick and Bondy, never rushed up the aisle at dress rehearsals to give the conductor notes on tempo–or would ever have dreamed it was their place to do so. If Zeffirelli truly believes this, then HE is the megalomaniac many of you believe modern directors to be, and a Regiemostro of enormous proportions, not some guardian of the composers’ intentions. This man deserves to be committed.
I have to admit that’s quite a thrilling set. TRAVIATA just isn’t the same in a Soho loft.
Note that Violetta finds the time to change in a night gown during the second act finale.
I think it’s remarkable that one of the Irish Tenors is cast as Germont.
I thought this was Traviata. Why was I suddenly watching the Mad Scene from Lucia (sans blood) set in an early Victorian fun house? Composer’s intentions my ass!
Did Violetta also have time to collect her gold and jewels before the sunrise execution?
Maybe she got confused and changed into her last-act costume too early.
And how often does one see somebody sitting on the steps to engage in a dramatic conversation?
Isn’t it nice that all the female guests except Violetta chose to wear dresses of the same color? The female choristers walk on stage like a bunch of longshoremen.
It is a beautiful set!
What’s so beautiful about it?? It’s the same sort of generic over-the-top chintz Zeffirelli has been peddling for years.
The hipocrisy of the man is unbelievable. There are tons of examples throughout his career where it becomes all about FRANCO and the composer’s intentions be damned. Did Verdi intend TRAVIATA to be a flashback? Did he want the musical prologue staged? Did he want Violetta to come back at the end of Act III in her nightgown? The dancing cows????
What about the musical cuts Franco demanded to make the film of OTELLO “cinematic”? The elevator and completely unnecessary scene change in TOSCA? The hundreds of people onstage in BOHEME that makes the principals invisible/superflous and completely makes a hash of the intended end of act II?
“The dancing cows????”
I don’t know about you, but I’ve had some dancing cows in my career, too. It’s not fair — though tempting — to keep judging an artist’s life-work by that gaffe.
Why wasn’t Sally Silver or Claire Rutter flown in to save the Roman production?
Sally Silver isn’t British, of course, unless the Vicar is still under the impression that South Africa is a British colony. By the same reasoning, that makes Renée Fleming British…..
Poppycock! There are and have been lots of splendid UK-based South African singers who count as Commonwealth Artists: think of Joyce Barker, Wendy Fine and Lizzie Connell.
These people aren’t Boers, one hopes you know!
(Fleming– not a patch on Ava June– is reportedly of Czech extraction.)
Gee Vicar,time to stop confusing others here , with what is a clear fallacy. It appears you are living some self deluded time warp about your ‘Commonwealth people’…that is anyway from countries that once were a British Colony. Britain is now a complete back -water basket case in every aspect…….The sun has truly set and gone down completely, on its once presumed ‘glorious and inbred Empire’! Its era of source- slumming exploitation of resource materials of any kind has also long gone into the annals of History…..The days of British expatriates sipping tea, getting eroded morally and wilted both by local customs and terribly aaaaawwwwful hot weather ,on a shaded plantation veranda are long gone. It belongs back in the romantic pages of W.Somerset Maugham, and Kipling.
Why do you think other countries now, have such trouble with incompetent British ‘artistic know-all would- be invaders’, trying to bum into jobs’ elsewhere?
Yes, I admit there were days when silly people flocked to be recognized and accepted at dear Covent Garden and similar Pommy ilk establishments……………………..but today???!!!
Anywhere but! Today,their intended destination is anywhere in the World, where excellence is truly valued.
Christ – Wendy Fine is a blast from the past.
If you want to talk insane, she’s a humdinger!
And all of those people are Rednecks btw not Boere.
is it just me or is the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma a little lackluster?
the Scala boys are much cuter.
OMG, rommie! I am in LOVE with the guy narrating this video!!!
get your hands off my man! i only share him on wednesdays and its clearly friday
Sorry Kiddos, he is already mine. He swore to me that nobody but me would even own him.
I like them, too. But they make Will Berger seem like Chuck Norris.
now now Alto… let’s not hate just coz he has a 10incher.
i am recruiting him via facebook
Can I just say: this boy is HOT…that mouth…my gawd…hehehe “gay pride di Genoa”! I would love to go the “Notte Bianca” with him anytime. Ok, son finito.
do you reckon theyre lovers?
boys, who’s this queen? i didn’t watch the whole thing, just wondering what is this about?
btw, the other day i saw the most beautiful man in the subway, i swear, he looked just like jonas kauffmann, with the curls and aquiline nose, and the vaguely dark mediterranean looks, except his hair was blond. he was astonishing looking.
Kauffmann’s younger lover? I mean, younger brother?
Well one thing is indisputable about Old Franco…The man loves him some drapes. And lots of ‘em.
I could swear this is like the fifth Traviata set of his I’ve seen in which there are drapes and curtains out the ass to a degree (and a budget) not imaginable to Verdi.
Funny, because I was watching an interview with La Dench (why not? She deserves it, too), in which she said she did Tea with Mussolini (Berlusconi) simply because Franco asked her to do it, even though she thought the movie afterward was complete crap (although more eloquently put). I wonder what she thinks of the man now, as he ebbs into deeper and deeper senility.
Stick a fork in him, I say.
Perhaps Dan : With all that organza tulle and drapery on show , Zeffirelli might have had an inspiring offer made, too good to refuse like thee following example, I relate.
I knew of a highly sexed voracious woman, (she was in fact also the wife of the top head of Government, at the time!) who ran a dress making fashion house. It was said , if someone wanted to sell a truckload of fabric to her, send along a full truck with a ‘willing’ handsome man with ‘a big bulge in his pants’, doing the call.
People said , knowing her appetite: if he was willing to succumb, she would be likely to buy every bolt of material off the truck, sight unseen!
Still Zeffirelli today, if he is already so senile, would not be in a position to know how to fully capitalize on such a matter….and I am not meaning ‘the fabrics’.
Dan, those drapes are not real. They are skillfully painted on flat scenic pieces.
My lord, if search engines ever do become truly brilliant, that photo of that set will be the first result when image searching “Old Queen.” Ms. Franco has gone from camp to archetypal.