La Gioconda is very convoluted plot-wise, even more so than Verdi's Il Trovatore(which I still love though), but the music is divine, Suicido, Ciela E Mar and especially Dance of the Hours being the highlights. Productions of La Gioconda have been variable in quality, my personal favourite is the 1979 television film with Scotto and Pavarotti, Scotto doesn't have the ideal voice for the title role but her musicality and acting are superb and Pavarotti was born for Enzo. The 2005 Liceu performance for me is only let down by a bad Enzo, while the 1988 performance with Bumbry and Cossotto(not on DVD I don't think) is very good. The 1986 Vienna production is fine also, I didn't care for the production values all that much but Domingo and Marton are outstanding and Manuguerra is easily the best Barnaba on DVD.
Of the Giocondas seen(I haven't yet seen the Marcello Giordani version but it is on the top of my to-see list), this one from 2005 Arena Di Verona is the one that fared least for me. It is far from terrible but instead it is rather average. It does at least have a number of good assets. The orchestral playing is spot-on, being crisp, fresh-sounding and with the powerful and poignant depth that Ponchielli's underrated score needs. Danato Renzetti's conducting is both sympathetic and idiomatic and the chorus are excellent. The sound quality balances the orchestra and singers very well and the picture quality has great clarity. The video directing is rightly unobtrusive.
There are three performances that I found outstanding. Andrea Gruber's La Gioconda is a vast improvement over her Abigaille opposite Maestri and Burchuladze, much more pleasant-sounding and more suited to this role I think. She doesn't suffer from having too small a voice(like Scotto admittedly)- this role, and all the other roles as a matter of fact, in La Gioconda is very late-Verdi-like- but while big and hefty, the voice has more colour and dramatic intensity than heard before. Dramatically she is very involved and sincere as well. Alberto Mastromarino is second only to Manuguerra on DVD as Barnaba, in the Scarpia and Iago territory when it comes to villainous roles. I personally didn't think his somewhat portly figure detracted at all, and he is menacing and sadistic which is exactly right. His singing is firm and expressive in tone, while never sounding too "nice", his best moment being his cold rage as Gioconda is dying. Only Manugerra on DVD has given a more chilling account of this moment, though I haven't heard this part being sung or characterised better than Sherrill Milnes on record. And then there's the Alvise of Carlo Colombara, he is very powerful and physically imposing(again more than ideal for Alvise), and sings with a beautiful basso cantate tone and very good diction and a wide range of expression and tone colour.
For all these good attributes of the performances, there were a few things that I was very mixed on. I found the Dance of the Hours impeccably and gracefully danced, but I found the choreography more confused in concept rather than magical. Thinking about it right now I still don't have a clue about what it was trying to be or do. I found Elisabetta Fiorillo's acting of La Cieca very moving, but her voice is very unsteady to the point that it is distractingly wobbly. Ildiko Komlosi is very pretty and appealing as Laura, but she isn't always very motivated and while her voice is very strong and far from ugly I can't shake off the feeling that she's taking on too many heavy roles(she's also done the likes of Amneris and Santuzza) too early.
And then there are assets that I didn't care for at all. Top of the list is Marco Berti, who is quite possibly the worst Enzo I've ever heard or seen. His singing is certainly strong and loud, but that's all it is, and actually it did come across as shouting sometimes. He has no dynamic shading, sensitivity or tone colour variety whatsoever, and his tone is too monochromatic to be remotely appealing. I'm also trying to work out what the audience saw in his Cielo E Mar, they seemed to love it while I found the performance strained and muddled(the opening is completely fluffed) and sometimes singing notes and rhythms that I didn't recognise. His acting is no better, very stolid and phoned in as well as being seemlingly oblivious to his colleagues. I didn't care for the costumes and sets either, the sets don't even look like sets- all I saw was bridges that didn't seem to represent anything- and the costumes are unflattering and drab(I think I only noticed a couple, if even those, of costume changes and that was for the beginning of Act 3). Pizzi's stage directing was generally lacking in intensity and failed to make the confused storytelling of the opera interesting or more plausible. Some of the actions and gestures just came across as stock. The final scene was the one that came off best, and that was mainly for Renzetti and Mastromarino. Even the make-up was off, the large red circles around La Cieca's eyes looked ridiculous and didn't seem to be there for any reason.
Overall, excellent musical values and three great performances, a couple of reasonable ones, beautifully danced and confused choreography, dull production values, uninteresting staging and a disaster of a tenor, and you have an average performance. 5/10 Bethany Cox
Of the Giocondas seen(I haven't yet seen the Marcello Giordani version but it is on the top of my to-see list), this one from 2005 Arena Di Verona is the one that fared least for me. It is far from terrible but instead it is rather average. It does at least have a number of good assets. The orchestral playing is spot-on, being crisp, fresh-sounding and with the powerful and poignant depth that Ponchielli's underrated score needs. Danato Renzetti's conducting is both sympathetic and idiomatic and the chorus are excellent. The sound quality balances the orchestra and singers very well and the picture quality has great clarity. The video directing is rightly unobtrusive.
There are three performances that I found outstanding. Andrea Gruber's La Gioconda is a vast improvement over her Abigaille opposite Maestri and Burchuladze, much more pleasant-sounding and more suited to this role I think. She doesn't suffer from having too small a voice(like Scotto admittedly)- this role, and all the other roles as a matter of fact, in La Gioconda is very late-Verdi-like- but while big and hefty, the voice has more colour and dramatic intensity than heard before. Dramatically she is very involved and sincere as well. Alberto Mastromarino is second only to Manuguerra on DVD as Barnaba, in the Scarpia and Iago territory when it comes to villainous roles. I personally didn't think his somewhat portly figure detracted at all, and he is menacing and sadistic which is exactly right. His singing is firm and expressive in tone, while never sounding too "nice", his best moment being his cold rage as Gioconda is dying. Only Manugerra on DVD has given a more chilling account of this moment, though I haven't heard this part being sung or characterised better than Sherrill Milnes on record. And then there's the Alvise of Carlo Colombara, he is very powerful and physically imposing(again more than ideal for Alvise), and sings with a beautiful basso cantate tone and very good diction and a wide range of expression and tone colour.
For all these good attributes of the performances, there were a few things that I was very mixed on. I found the Dance of the Hours impeccably and gracefully danced, but I found the choreography more confused in concept rather than magical. Thinking about it right now I still don't have a clue about what it was trying to be or do. I found Elisabetta Fiorillo's acting of La Cieca very moving, but her voice is very unsteady to the point that it is distractingly wobbly. Ildiko Komlosi is very pretty and appealing as Laura, but she isn't always very motivated and while her voice is very strong and far from ugly I can't shake off the feeling that she's taking on too many heavy roles(she's also done the likes of Amneris and Santuzza) too early.
And then there are assets that I didn't care for at all. Top of the list is Marco Berti, who is quite possibly the worst Enzo I've ever heard or seen. His singing is certainly strong and loud, but that's all it is, and actually it did come across as shouting sometimes. He has no dynamic shading, sensitivity or tone colour variety whatsoever, and his tone is too monochromatic to be remotely appealing. I'm also trying to work out what the audience saw in his Cielo E Mar, they seemed to love it while I found the performance strained and muddled(the opening is completely fluffed) and sometimes singing notes and rhythms that I didn't recognise. His acting is no better, very stolid and phoned in as well as being seemlingly oblivious to his colleagues. I didn't care for the costumes and sets either, the sets don't even look like sets- all I saw was bridges that didn't seem to represent anything- and the costumes are unflattering and drab(I think I only noticed a couple, if even those, of costume changes and that was for the beginning of Act 3). Pizzi's stage directing was generally lacking in intensity and failed to make the confused storytelling of the opera interesting or more plausible. Some of the actions and gestures just came across as stock. The final scene was the one that came off best, and that was mainly for Renzetti and Mastromarino. Even the make-up was off, the large red circles around La Cieca's eyes looked ridiculous and didn't seem to be there for any reason.
Overall, excellent musical values and three great performances, a couple of reasonable ones, beautifully danced and confused choreography, dull production values, uninteresting staging and a disaster of a tenor, and you have an average performance. 5/10 Bethany Cox
