Once again the Opéra Royal de Wallonie surprises us with "une rareté absolue", as the opera house announces Alzira by Giuseppe Verdi. It is indeed one of the little-known and rarely performed operas of the nineteenth-century Italian opera repertoire. It is significant that precisely with this opera Giampaolo Bisanti makes his debut as the new chief conductor of the Opéra Royal de Wallonie.
The opera dates from Verdi's early period, sometimes referred to as the "galley years" because he worked tirelessly to write one opera after another. He found the subject in Voltaire's Alzire ou les Américains, which he wrote as a drama in 1736. A rather surprising subject indeed, as it concerns the confrontation between the Incas in Peru and the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century. It is not surprising that Verdi seizes the opportunity to unite personal events and emotions with political and social ones, a characteristic that permeates his entire oeuvre. For the libretto, he is able to work with one of the most important librettists of the time, Salvatore Cammarano, who had also worked with Donizetti on his successes Lucia di Lammermoor and Roberto Devereux. The opera was created at the San Carlo theater in Naples in August 1845. The reception could hardly be called positive.
Verdi himself later distanced himself from Alzira, when he called the opera "completely bad". Verdi may perhaps be too harsh on himself, but the opera certainly does not yet have the dramatic force of his later work. Nevertheless, it is interesting to become acquainted with it as a step in his evolution. The production of the Opéra Royal de Wallonie is a co-production with the Gran Theatro Nacional del Peru in Lima, where it took place in November 2018 as part of the celebration of the bicentennial of the Republic of Peru. A small textual parenthesis in the first act briefly refers to the colonial context.
© ORW-Liège – J. Berger
© ORW-Liège – J. Berger
© ORW-Liège – J. Berger
© ORW-Liège – J. Berger
Summary
The story takes place in Peru in the middle of the sixteenth century. Gusmano, the Spanish governor in Lima, asks for Alzira's hand as a seal of peace between the Spanish and the Incas. But she has already pledged her love to Zamoro. It is assumed that Zamoro has died from the tortures of the Spanish. Alzira's father therefore insists on marriage with Gusmano to prevent further hostilities. Zamoro, however, reappears. The loving reunion is disturbed by the jealous Gusmano who has Zamoro arrested again. That Zamoro spared the life of Gusmano's father during earlier Inca uprisings cannot soften him. Zamoro is condemned to death. After new uprisings of the Incas, Zamoro is eventually released only on the condition that Alzira marries Gusmano. On the day of the wedding, Zamoro appears and stabs Gusmano. In his last moments, Gusmano forgives his enemy Zamoro, as befits a Christian, and grants him Alzira's hand.
Little inspired direction
This colonial domination could arguably be presented with a more critical approach in contemporary direction. Peruvian director Jean Pierre Gamarra clearly does not let himself be challenged by this and opts for a neutral presentation of the story with the emphasis mainly on romantic passions. The confrontation between the two peoples, the Spanish and the Incas, remains limited to the traditional love triangle of a woman with two suitors. Although one belongs to the oppressors and the other to the oppressed, they are primarily each other's rivals in love. The characters are portrayed fairly statically in a setting that in the first part offers an illusion of a rural plain, in the second act the setting is even more neutral and provides space for the wedding celebration. The background is always a kind of black bead curtain. Alzira is of course portrayed most beautifully as a fragile and especially pure being, first in her white dress, later dressed in black, perhaps a sign of her mourning and sorrow. Gusmano's elderly father, Alvaro, looks somewhat artificially old with a glued-on beard and the hats of the Peruvian men come across as rather ridiculous, especially since "local color" is otherwise avoided, and perhaps that's just as well. The governor Gusmano is mainly in grand ornate as Spanish oppressor at his wedding. The reversal in his behavior is of course written into the opera, but his literal portrayal as an "enlightened prince" who surprisingly and humbly applies the Christian virtue of forgiveness comes across, as portrayed here, as rather exaggerated and unconvincing.
© ORW-Liège – J. Berger
© ORW-Liège – J. Berger
© ORW-Liège – J. Berger
© ORW-Liège – J. Berger
Musically early Verdi
Since it is an opera from the so-called "galley years" of Verdi, composing had to be done quickly. The opera still adheres to the very traditional structure of introductory chorus, recitative, aria and cabaletta. The choruses, which have a considerable share in the opera, are skillfully performed. The male choruses are mainly combative and rousing, the female choruses which usually comment on Alzira's emotions, are lyrical and tender. Leonardo Sini conducted his orchestral apparatus accurately. Already at the overture we get the right atmosphere with the two aspects of the opera, the warlike on one hand and the tender and romantic on the other. Piccolo and low clarinet provided the exotic coloring. The triumphant moments of the Spanish naturally deliver the typical "oompa" music of early Verdi, but there are also moving moments, both in the love couple Alzira-Zamoro and in the confrontation between father and daughter, when he begs her to sacrifice her love for peace, where we then immediately get a cautious preview of the later father-daughter theme in Verdi's masterworks. Sini conducted for the first time at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie and stood in the orchestra pit as a replacement for chief conductor Giampaolo Bisanti. He also paid careful attention to the singers. Francesca Dotto sang with charm with a light soprano and beautiful fioritura with well-pitched high notes. She embodied the fragile and yearning girl but also sang with determined confidence the woman who fights for the love in which she believes. A type of woman, therefore, as she also appears later in Verdi's oeuvre. The tenor voice of Luciano Ganci focused mainly on power and could have had somewhat more nuance in the tender moments. But from his first appearance it is clear that nothing will stand in his way to achieve his goal. Baritone Giovanni Meoni was a convincing and thus little sympathetic Gusmano, and the smaller roles of the fathers were also correctly cast by Roger Joakim and Luca dall'Amico.
Not a top performance this time, but still the genuine Verdian melodies make it worthwhile to hear these early works live in a production as well. The audience was clearly pleased with it too.
WHAT: Alzira (1845) — Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
WHO: Jean Pierre Gamarra [staging & lighting], Leonardo Sini [conductor]
SINGERS: Francesca Dotto, Luciano Ganci, Giovanni Meoni, Roger Joakim, Luca dall'Amico, Orchestra, Choruses of the Opéra Royal de Wallonie
WHERE: ORW, Liège
WHEN: Sunday 27-11-2022 further performances until 3-12