Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
La forza del destino (1869 version)
Leonora: Anna Netrebko (soprano)
Don Alvaro: Brian Jadge (tenor)
Don Carlo: Ludovic Tézier (baritone)
Preziosilla: Vasilisa Berzhanskaya (mezzo-soprano)
Padre Guardiano: Alexander Vinogradov (bass)
Fra Melitone: Marco Filippo Romano (baritone)
Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro alla Scala, Milan/Riccardo Chailly
rec. live, 2024, Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Italy
C Major 772608 DVD [2 discs: 200]
This was a festive occasion: the opening night of La Scala’s 2024-2025 season. Italian society has few higher celebrations. The DVD begins with the national anthem and plenty of shots of the VIPs in all their finery.
Stage director Leo Muscato’s production of La forza del destino will have given them little to worry or be shocked about. He plays it very straight, effectively giving us a traditional telling of the story. Nothing gets in the way and everything makes sense, though you could criticise him for being too fond of the theatre’s revolving stage. The one quirk is that the action moves forwards in time as it progresses. Act 1 takes place around the time of the opera’s composition, and Act 4 brings us into the 21st century. That is not a distraction, however, and several nice visual tics are fun to pick out as the same sets are re-used in different forms.
The set’s finest asset, predictably, is La Scala’s orchestra. Under their music director, they whip up a storm in the overture. Riccardo Chailly never really lets the tension drop. Even in the reflective arias, there is a sense of momentum that moves us unstoppably forwards, be it Don Carlo’s malevolent obsession with the chase or the altogether darker, blind passage of fate. The surround-sound option on the DVD really helps here, too. It creates a good “spread” of the sound on the front three speakers, so that lots of different aspects of the orchestra’s playing are rendered distinctive and fresh.
Of the three lead roles, by far the finest sung is Ludovic Tézier’s Don Carlo. He is surely the finest Verdi baritone we have had this century (so far), and he brings tremendous nobility of bearing to this desperately unsympathetic character. The malevolence of his maniacal obsession with revenge comes through in a touch of snarl to the voice, but it is discretely deployed. The voice rings with golden confidence in his solo aria, which gets the greatest ovation of the performance, and in the ensemble scene in the inn, which he really sets alight.
Predictably, Tézier’s duets with Brian Jagde’s Alvaro are tremendously exciting. If Jagde is not quite on the same level, then Tézier lifts him up for those highlights of Acts 3 and 4. Jagde’s voice is intermittently exciting without being subtle or, really, that beautiful. I am not sure his is a tenor that people will still be talking about in fifty years’ time – his attack is so forthright as to be a little disarming. Yet he can conjure up the adrenaline when needed, and that is genuinely memorable about his several duets.
Anna Netrebko, on the other hand, was not having a good night. The voice here sounds unfocused and squally, deployed with a blunderbuss rather than a bullet. She spreads uncomfortably on some of her top notes. When she tries to sing quietly, as in the prayer before Leonora rings the monastery’s doorbell, it sounds like a huge effort. It is a shame she did not record the role about a decade earlier; this is not an attractive listen.
The lesser roles are well cast, particularly Alexander Vinogradov. He looks far too young to be the Father Superior, but he sings with tremendous depth and lyrical legato. Marco Filippo Romano is a lighter contrast as Melitone, engaging enough in the part, though there is no more tiresome character in Verdi. Vasilisa Berzhanskaya is a pert, engaging Preziosilla who, thankfully, does not hang around in Act 3’s camp scene.
This production is effective in places, but if you want a traditional Forza on DVD, then top choice is still Mehta at the Maggio Musicale, with its handsome sets and marvelously singing cast. If you would like a challenge, though, then you will find even more exciting singing in conductor Asher Fisch’s and stage director Martin Kušej’s 2014 live recording in Munich (Sony DVD or Blu-ray). It features Tézier again, much more finely matched by Anja Harteros and Jonas Kaufmann.
Simon Thompson
Other personnel
Curra: Marcela Rahal (mezzo-soprano)
Marchese di Calatrava: Fabrizio Beggi (bass)
Stage director: Leo Muscato
Set designer: Federica Parolini
Costume designer: Silvia Aymonino
Lighting designer: Alessandro Verazzi
Choreography: Michela Lucenti
Video details
Picture format: NTSC/16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo/DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Sung in Italian
Subtitles: English, French, German, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Spanish
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