Arrigo Boito (1842-1918)
Nerone (unfinished, first performed 1924)
Nerone – Mikheil Sheshaberidze (tenor)
Simon Magus – Franco Vassallo (baritone)
Fanuèl – Roberto Frontali (baritone)
Rubria – Deniz Uzun (mezzo-soprano)
Asteria – Valentina Boi (soprano)
Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari/Francesco Cilluffo
Fabio Ceresa – Stage Director
rec. live, 16 February 2024, Teatro Lirico, Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy
Sung in Italian; Subtitles: English, French, German, Korean, Japanese
Dynamic 58047 Blu-ray [154]
Arrigo Boito is best remembered for his collaborations as librettist for Verdi on such operas as the revision of Simon Boccanegra; then later Otello and Falstaff. One cannot forget that he is also responsible for the less impressive libretto for Ponchielli’s La Gioconda. However, as a composer his reputation is much less sure. His opera Mefistofele was a dismal failure at its 1886 premiere at La Scala (it was withdrawn after just two performances) and despite constant revisions has only stayed in the repertory as a novel curiosity at best. Much of the remainder of his life was spent drafting the libretto and composing Nerone, which was left unfinished at his death. His friend Arturo Toscanini championed the incomplete score and pulled it together to achieve a notable world premiere in 1924 at La Scala. However, the opera makes Meyerbeerian theatrical demands on the budget of any opera company, combined with a score which is difficult to appreciate by the average opera lover which makes it a risky bet for any company to take on. Nerone is a case of an opera which was almost too ambitious to fully capture in the confines of the opera house.
The subject is roughly equivalent to the once well-known story of Quo Vadis, an epic novel by the 19th century Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz, most successfully dramatized in the 1954 MGM film with Deborah Kerr, Robert Taylor and Peter Ustinov (Note: Quo Vadis itself in 1909 was turned into a Five Act Grand Opera by the now completely forgotten composer French Jean Nouguès). With Nerone Boito again wrote his own libretto and music. Boito’s score is a challenge to appreciate fully; Paul Corfield Godfrey, in his review of a rival DVD, gives a thorough appreciation of its merits (review). My own reaction is that the music needs a great deal of help from truly exemplary performers to make it come alive and compensate for the fact that memorable tunes are largely absent from this score. A dream cast for this opera might be conceived to involve Mario Del Monaco or Jon Vickers as Nerone, Ezio Pinza as Fanuèl (Pinza sang Tigellinus at the La Scala premiere), along with Tito Gobbi as Simon Magus. For the female roles I could easily imagine Shirley Verrett as Rubria, and Rosa Ponselle, or even possibly the outstanding dramatic coloratura Christina Deutekom as Asteria (which many would consider unusual casting). All of these artists were wonderful communicators who would really make something memorable of the text, which would go a long way to making this opera more involving than it seems to be here.
The Blu-ray under review starts off with a thought-provoking production by Fabio Ceresa which does what it can to keep up to the enormous demands of the action. The sets by Tiziano Santi are well-proportioned and really attempt to do justice to the ancient Roman locale, but to be really effective this opera needs a gargantuan production budget which is clearly not the case here. The production team deserves admiration for making it all look as good as it does. The eeriness of the opening scene at the grave of Agrippina (Nero’s murdered mother) is especially well-managed by Ceresa and his team.
The singing, here, alas is fairly routine and doesn’t come anywhere near to what this opera really needs. Mikheil Sheshaberidze’s Nerone is neither vocally nor dramatically interesting enough to sustain the viewers attention in this lengthy opera. Nerone’s female counterpart, the wildly self-destructive Asteria, is sung here by Valentina Boi. Boi gives the part her all but her soft-centered soprano doesn’t fully gel in the part despite her impressive vocal range.
The Christians are represented by Deniz Uzun’s sympathetic portrayal of Rubria (who also just happens to be a despoiled vestal virgin). Uzun has a warm sound and a smooth vocal line which is appealing enough. She could improve her portrayal with more intensity of expression which would make her singing come more alive. Her chief love interest is the Christian leader Fanuèl, sung here by veteran baritone Roberto Frontali. Frontali’s voice now has a rather grey-sounding tone with a narrow top range that works against the gravitas and dignity of Fanuèl’s character.
Musical matters are in the hands of Francesco Cilluffo, who leads an efficient but not quite riveting enough performance of this admittedly very challenging score. One only has to turn to the lone studio recording of the opera on Hungariton under the incisive and energetic leadership of Eve Queler to see what is missing here. The Hungariton set has been carrying the torch for this opera singlehandedly for the last 43 years. The cast was spectacularly apt for their roles all them gving riveting and dramatic readings of their music. Ilona Tokody’s Asteria does emit the odd ugly high note, however; she can be forgiven for that because of the driven intensity with which she illustrates one of the most bipolar characters in opera. Janos B. Nagy gives a riveting portrayal of Nerone and his voice is far more ingratiating than Sheshaberidze’s on this Blu-ray. Ultimately I am left to wonder if Nerone isn’t better experienced in a sound-only recording. One’s imagination can do a far better job of conjuring up appropriate visuals to accompany this fascinating but difficult score.
Of Historical Note: After the world premiere in 1924 a series of electrical recordings were made with much of the original La Scala cast. Nearly half of the opera was recorded by the Fontopia and Gramophone companies. Some of these recordings were issued on a much-too-short Eterna LP decades ago. An enterprising company could do the music world an eternal service by issuing the full sets of recordings by both companies in new, modern transfers. Later in 1946 Toscanini would get around to broadcast some of the scenes from the opera which were issued on CD by the Guild Label (review), which is definitely worth investigating.
Mike Parr
Previous review (DVD): William Kreindler (February 2025)
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Other performers:
Tigellino: Dongho Kim (bass)
Gobrias: Vassily Solodkyy (tenor)
Dositèo /Oracle: Antonino Giacobbe (baritone)
Perside /Cerinto /A woman’s voice: Natalia Gavrilan (mezzo-soprano)
Temple slave/First wayfarer/Tenor voice: Fiorenzo Tornincasa
Second wayfarer/The slave admonisher/Bass voice: Nicola Ebau
A woman’s voice: Francesca Zanatta
A woman’s voice: Luana Spinola
Production details:
Giovanni Andreoli, Chorus master
Mattia Agatiello, Choreographer
Set designer, Tiziano Santi
Lighting designer, Daniele Naldi
Video details:
Picture format: 1080i/16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo/DTS-HD MA 5.1
Region code: All Regions
Booklet notes Italian, English
