DVD review
Mirella Freni (Princess Fedora Romazoff), Adelina Scarabelli (Countess Olga Sukarew), Plácido Domingo (Count Loris Ipanoff), Alessandro Corbelli (De Siriex)
Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan c. Gianandrea Gavazzeni, p. Lamberto Puggelli, d. Luisa Spinatelli video director Lamberto Puggelli
TDK 24121 00197 (113 minutes)
Both Fedora’s available on DVD have the partnership of Freni and Domingo; this one, live from La Scala in 1993, predates an earlier release of a Metropolitan Opera outing in 1997. Here, Freni in her late fifties, gives a committed performance nicely charting a course from icy hauteur in Act 1 to some sterling scenery chewing in the last act. Freni’s lyric voice, which by the 1990′s was inevitably riper, led her to explore some of these dustier old verismo warhorses, notably Adriana Lecouvreur, and more enterprisingly, Giordano’s washerwoman-meets-Napoleon rarity Madame Sans-Gêne. Though she inhabits the role of Fedora admirably, temperamentally she is a degree or two too placid, lacking the range of vocal colour and the quicksilver verbal pointing that more accomplished singing actresses, like Magda Olivero and Renata Scotto, bring to the role – though, to be fair, Freni’s vocalism is securer and, indeed, lustrous on occasion. In this performance, she takes some of the upper options in the score, which she had relinquished by the time of the Met performances four years later. Plácido Domingo is vital and dashing and sings with his customary amplitude; and he and Freni interact well in the big scenes, really striking sparks in the Act two duet and the denouement. Alessandro Corbelli, luxury casting for the ungrateful role of the diplomat de Siriex, brings real acting versatility to bear; and Adelina Scarabelli is a gutsier than usual Countess Olga, who gets the usually cut little song in Act two about the failings of French men. The performance is prefaced by a tribute to the octogenarian maestro, Gavazzeni, marking this, his last appearance at La Scala. His shaping of the intermezzo is indulgent, but most sumptuous, though his affectionate reading of the score shows up the numerous bald patches that appear in this opera when the composing stops and the music continues.
The stock production features some beautiful backdrops, against which the rather cluttered realism of the props and furniture don’t quite work – and some of the comings and goings in the first act are confusing. Freni fans will enjoy this document, and no doubt enjoy the rather faded production qualities, as well. I can’t help thinking this Russian espionage pot-boiler would be given a new lease of life updated by an Alden or a Bieto, set in our very own Moscow-on-the-Thames; the Alpine idyll of the last act a Mayfair raclette restaurant lit by polonium……..I’d pay good money to see that!
[first published in OPERA magazine]
JULIAN GRANT 2007