Based on a drama by Giovanni Verga, “Cavalleria Rusticana” relates the lives and passions of simple Sicilian peasants. It was the first opera of the “verismo”, or realist, school. Director Åke Falck adds a cinematic dimension to what would otherwise be a fairly straightforward screen document of celebrated director Giorgio Strehler’s La Scala production by means of outdoor shots of Sicily’s splendid landscapes during the overture and intermezzo. Combined with the lavish set and costumes by Luciano Damiani, these images intensify the feeling of a sultry southern landscape as a background to the inflamed passions and violence of the action. As Santuzza, Fiorenza Cossotto’s passionate intensity make a good contrast to Adriana Martino’s gaily-dressed, light-hearted Lola. Gianfranco Cecchele makes a rakish Turiddù, and Giangiacomo Guelfi is a strong, swaggering, confident Alfio. The production was filmed in 1968.
Così fan tutte
The aristocrat of conductors, the autocrat of the baton, Riccardo Muti cuts a noble figure at the head of any orchestra, and ennobles every ensemble through his charismatic personality and red-blooded musicality. In many respects, including his unwillingness to compromise over artistic matters, he is reminiscent of the great Arturo Toscanini, who was also a demanding ruler at the podium. Born in Naples in 1941, Muti studied at the Conservatory of his native city, where one of his teachers was the later celebrated film-score composer Nino Rota. He made his breakthrough as a conductor in 1967, when he won an important competition, and was appointed principal conductor of the prestigious Maggio Musicale in Florence in 1969. His rise to international fame set in with his guest conductorships at the Salzburg Festival in 1971 and at the head of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1972. Muti became principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra a few years later, and was named its music director in 1980, succeeding the legendary Eugene Ormandy. Always a conductor of both the symphonic and operatic repertoire, Muti advanced to the post of music director of La Scala in Milan in 1986. The 1990s saw Muti consolidating his reputation at the head of this venerable institution, as well as in countless other high-caliber venues around the world. Today he is one of the undisputed giants among the leading conductors of the world. “Così fan tutte” contains some of Mozart’s loveliest arias and the greatest number of ensembles in any of his operas. Although its libretto is often said to be frivolous, it is a foil for Mozart’s lucid and utterly non-Romantic view of the sexes. Director Roberto de Simone captures both the comedic and tragic core of the work from within and makes its depth palpable. Since the beginning of the 1990s, conductor Riccardo Muti has been increasingly making a name for himself as a Mozart specialist. Austria’s leading daily “Die Presse” gushed: “Roberto de Simone simply directs the work itself in harmony with Riccardo Muti, who does the same in the orchestra pit .. a triumphal reprise at the Vienna State Opera.” And the “Neue Kronen Zeitung” reported that “Muti wonderfully polished his successful Vienna ‘Così’ with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra: Mozart played with an abundance of freshness, impulsiveness and humor.”
Don Giovanni
“Il dissoluto punito, ossia Il Don Giovanni” is the full title of the opera that is widely held to be the most perfect work of its genre. Luckily, it is known today merely as “Don Giovanni,” a title that far better evokes the hero in all of his seductive power, his disregard for the social order, his merry wantonness. It is this hero who fascinated Mozart, not the “dissoluto punito” – the “rake punished” – who harks back to the morals and conventions of the late 18th century. The work, again on a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte (like “Figaro” and “Così”), was written for Prague after “Figaro” had enjoyed such an overwhelming success in the Bohemian capital. It was premiered there on 29 October 1787. The opera’s perfect fusion of opera buffa and opera seria is suggested by its novel designation as a dramma giocoso, or merry drama. It is a moral tale of murder, sexual exploitation and betrayal that is lightened by comedic elements that infuse the whole with warmth and humanity. The aristocrat of conductors, the autocrat of the baton, Riccardo Muti cuts a noble figure at the head of any orchestra, and ennobles every ensemble through his charismatic personality and red-blooded musicality. In many respects, including his unwillingness to compromise over artistic matters, he is reminiscent of Arturo Toscanini, who was also a demanding ruler at the podium. His rise to international fame set in with his guest conductorships at the Salzburg Festival in 1971 and at the head of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1972. Muti became principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra a few years later, and was named its music director in 1980. Always a conductor of both the symphonic and operatic repertoire, Muti advanced to the post of music director of La Scala in Milan in 1986. The 1990s saw Muti consolidating his reputation at the head of this venerable institution, as well as in countless other high-caliber venues around the world. Today he is one of the undisputed giants among the leading conductors of the world.
I Pagliacci
“Pagliacci” is often celebrated as one of the finest examples of verismo, or realist opera. It is even based on a true story: Leoncavallo’s father, a judge, once presided over the trial of an actor who, in a fit of jealousy, murdered his wife immediately following a performance. “Pagliacci” is frequently performed along with Mascagni’s one-acter “Cavalleria Rusticana”. Director and conductor Herbert von Karajan does not simply recreate a standard work; rather, he examines, it, psychoanalyzes its protagonists, lays bare the people behind the masks. In the process, he also makes a magnificent musical statement. Karajan is obsessed with faces – open, shadowed, distorted – suggesting his belief in the adage that eyes are the windows of the mind and the soul. Through elaborate intercutting from four or five cameras, he moves stealthfully from members of the crowd to his principals and back, gradually tightening the dramatic knot which binds them all together in this tale of love, hate and retribution. Joining the superb Jon Vickers is soprano Raina Kabaivanska as Nedda. Hers is a brilliant, multi-faceted performance of fascinating detail. The fine Tonio is Peter Glossop; George Wakhevitch designed the elaborate setting, the square of an Italian village.
La Cenerentola
The popularity of Rossini’s delightful fairy-tale opera is, to a great extent, due to Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s now legendary production, first seen at La Scala of Milan in 1971. Claudio Abbado, who was then the artistic director of La Scala, has put together for this production a cast – including Frederica von Stade, Francisco Araiza and Paolo Montarsolo – that boasts an outstanding affinity for Rossini’s humor in addition to peerless musicality.
Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville)
Based on Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s highly acclaimed Salzburg production, the action was filmed in a Munich studio, while the voices and music were taped in Milan, using the Scala orchestra and chorus. The brilliant cast includes Teresa Berganza, Hermann Prey, Luigi Alva and Enzo Dara, all great names in the international operatic world.
La Traviata
Explaining Riccardo Muti’s choice of a group of young, even very young, singers for the production of Verdi’s “La Traviata” staged by Liliana Cavani and premiered in 1990, a spokesman from the La Scala opera house reported: “We did not want to follow the path of comparisons with the past, but attempted to put together a little group of talented youths we had already been working with and whom we will be working with intensively in the future. We hope that the love of music will be greater than a the sometimes hysterical and divisive excitement that arises around certain operas.” Among the gifted young singers in this performance are Tiziana Fabbricini as Violetta Valéry and Roberto Alagna as Alfred Germont. The aristocrat of conductors, the autocrat of the baton, Riccardo Muti cuts a noble figure at the head of any orchestra, and ennobles every ensemble through his charismatic personality and red-blooded musicality. In many respects, including his unwillingness to compromise over artistic matters, he is reminiscent of Arturo Toscanini, who was also a demanding ruler at the podium. His rise to international fame set in with his guest conductorships at the Salzburg Festival in 1971 and at the head of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1972. Muti became principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra a few years later, and was named its music director in 1980. Always a conductor of both the symphonic and operatic repertoire, Muti advanced to the post of music director of La Scala in Milan in 1986. The 1990s saw Muti consolidating his reputation at the head of this venerable institution, as well as in countless other high-caliber venues around the world. Today he is one of the undisputed giants among the leading conductors of the world.