Erik Bruchez
Thu, 04 Dec 2003 00:10:56 -0800
I attended last week the concert performance of Guglielmo Ratcliff organized by Teatro Grattacielo (http://www.grattacielo.org/). This organization is dedicated to performing rare Italian operas in New York, and is directed by the energetic Duane Printz.
The concert took place at the Lincoln Center, a complex that includes the famous Metropolitan Opera and the Avery Fisher Hall, as well as the smaller Alice Tully Hall, which seats about a thousand people, and was actually quite filled for Ratcliff.
The performance was the American premiere of the work. The premiere was scheduled to happen in 1902 under the baton of Mascagni himself, but after weeks of rehearsals, the orchestra went on strike just before the first performance could take place, to the frustration of many music critics who had high expectations of the opera. Instead, they had to be content with Cavalleria, Zanetto and Iris.
The role of the protagonist is very demanding. Lando Bartolini is not a tenor in his prime, and he surprised many with the power of his instrument and the quality of his timbre. Sitting right in front of him on the third row, I was almost deafened. Although his performance was not flawless (in particular, he found himself off beat a few times), he was overall extremely enjoyable, and sometimes even exciting. His rendition of "Quando fanciullo ancora", one of the opera's highlights, was thrilling.
The character of Ratcliff does not appear at all during the first act. Instead the act is quasi monopolized by MacGregor and Douglas (or Dugla), with a few shorter interventions by Maria and Margherita. The role of Douglas was very well held by baryton Brian Davis. The role of MacGregor was held by Philip Cokorinos, who made his character brilliantly come alive, a rare occurrence in opera concerts.
Such "acting" was also the feat of Anna Tonna as Willie and Lawrence Long as Tom in the second act, which, except for Ratcliff's main number, is very humorous. The libretto of Guglielmo Ratcliff is directly extracted from the Italian translation of Heinrich Heine's text, all in hendecasyllable. It is not intuitive, and often the orchestra offers little support to the singers. Probably because of these difficulties, Lawrence Long often seemed to be walking a tightrope, but he managed his way through the act without incident.
"Il sogno di Ratcliff" ("Ratcliff's Dream"), the famous intermezzo (it
features in the movie Raging Bull), was the highlight of the third
act. This piece was composed by Mascagni when he was still a student
at the conservatory of Milan. Maestro Silipigni conducted it
brilliantly, as he did the whole opera, and got a deserved round of
applause.The last act requires a lot from Margherita, sung by Eugenie Grunewald. In spite of a cold, she did very well as the mad servant of Maria (Carol Ann Manzi). The final duet between Maria and Ratcliff was a delight, extremely passionate and exciting. I can still hear those "Guglielmo Guglielmo...".
One gripe: why did the conductor miss the opportunity of presenting a complete, uncut version of the opera? The cuts were definitely not as important, say, as the ones of the 1999 Parisina in Montpellier, but this makes it all the more irritating.
All in all the evening was a treat for the audience (it is a shame that there was apparently no way of recording the event because of excessive union requirements). Guglielmo Ratcliff, although not orchestrally as refined as Mascagni's major later works, from Iris to Nerone, is vibrant with inventiveness and full of melodies beautiful beyond the imagination. Romantic to the extreme, it makes you shiver even in a concert version. Teatro Grattacielo proved that you could put together a wonderful performance of the work with reasonable means. In a parallel universe, the Met would take over, with the same cast, for a dozen of staged performances!
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