Coenraad Visser
Tenors at the end of their careers. That is what the State Theatre’s production of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s I Pagliaci and the Three Tenors Bravo Africa Concert on Sunday at the Union Buildings have in common.
In the bloody twins, Maurizio Frusoni manages Turridu with musicality and little voice, but then becomes mostly inaudible as Canio. Dramatically, too, he made little sense of these two roles, a pale impersonation of two of opera’s most lusty male characters. A more unconvincing Vesti la gubba is hard to imagine.
Opposite him, Virginia Davids is a warmly vibrant Santuzza, even if not always firm enough of line. Marissa Vitali is, predictably, an intense Nedda, full of temperament, and vocally and dramatically often touching.
In smaller roles, Elizabeth Lombard (Mamma Lucia) is the only focused voice on stage, richly coloured in suitable autumnal tones. Paolo Stecchi’s moving Tonio compensates for his timid, vocally lacklustre Alfio.
With the chorus uneven and often simply not in tune, it is to conductor Bruno Aprea’s credit that he holds the production together, almost against impossible odds. He coaxes a vigorous performance from the New Arts Philharmonic Orchestra, never exaggerating but always pointing up key dramatic moments.
But there is a less obvious link between Cav and Pag and the three tenors concert: Placido Domingo will open the next season at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in these works, in the process breaking Caruso’s record for the greatest number of opening night performances with this company.
Of the three tenors, Domingo is the only one whose career still expands as he ventures into new roles. Last week, at the Met, he stunned audiences with his portrayal of Ghermann, in Moshinsky’s definitive production of Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades. His repertoire now includes more than 110 roles, ranging through the Italian and French spectrum to Wagner and Richard Strauss.
Like Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti celebrated this season the 30th anniversary of his Met debut. As his recent breathless and anxious performance of Cavaradossi in Tosca in this house shows, his once considerable vocal powers are fast diminishing. But to many opera lovers he remains the one singer whose way with words makes Italian the most musical language in the world.
Since his American debut came in 1965 with Joan Sutherland, he hasforged a partnership with her and her conductor husband Richard Bonynge which brought him to the attention of the opera world.
With his many appearances also on television, in movies and in outdoor concerts in vast venues, Pavarotti’s impact on the music world has been as enormous as his girth. To many, the tenor with the signature white handkerchief personifies the romantic world of the classical tenor.
Ironically the youngest of the three, Jos Carreras sadly has least semblance of a serious career right now. But for what he lacks in terms of vocal quality, he compensates with his total dedication to the Jos Carreras International Leukemia Foundation.
His autobiography tells the extraordinary story of his life and career, his illness in the late Eighties, and his devotion to his family and children. His video portrait, A Life Story, won an Emmy award. A protege of Karajan’s with whom he first appeared in Verdi’s Requiem during the 1976 Salzburg Easter Festival, Carreras enchanted the opera world with his gentle lyricism, often heard best with soprano Katia Ricciarelli.
The concert on Sunday will be conducted by Marco Armiliato, who also accompanied Pavarotti on his last visit here in 1996.