Mariusz Kwiecien – Il Dolce Suono

Quite a while ago now, I went with my dad to see my first ever performance at the Royal Opera House in London. Up until now, I had only been to performances by WNO and other travelling companies in Bristol, so this was very exciting. My parents and I arrived a bit early, so I got to look around in the shop and I bought this CD (although I was also very tempted to buy a giant poster of Simon Keenlyside to put up in my room).

Then my mum took this picture of me and my dad outside the Royal Opera House and went off to go and see ENO’s production of Wozzeck.

So we went inside and found our seats. We were sitting a little bit around to the left and towards the front of the Amphitheatre level.

The arrow shows roughly where I was sitting

There are two main things I need to talk about here: the performance and the opera itself.

This was my first experience of this opera and I really loved it because it really is one of Verdi’s best (in my opinion as someone who hasn’t heard several of his operas yet). The music is great and very moving. The thing that really struck me about this opera was how well the plot works and how closely the music fits with it. I think that this is one of the few operas where the plot really makes sense (not including the bit at the very end which makes literally no sense at all). It has lots of levels to it – you get to see the situations from the points of view of every main character and both the political and emotional drama that’s going on. This comes through especially clearly in the famous aria “Ella giammai m’amo”. I love this song because, apart from the fact that it’s beautiful music, you see Filippo as not just the bad guy but as an old man with too many decisions to make. Throughout the opera, I always felt sympathy towards each of the characters at different points and that made the performance as a whole much more emotional and involving. The other moment that really interested me was when Posa was asking Philip to help the Dutch people and Philip refused but you could tell that he really admired Posa for trying to change the world and being brave enough to challenge what those with power did. It’s much more interesting if the bad guy isn’t just a one-sided character.

Mariusz Kwiecien as Posa and Ferruccio Furlanetto as King Philip

The performance was beyond amazing. The best performers, I think, were Ferruccio Furlanetto as King Philip, Mariusz Kwiecien as Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa and Béatrice Uria-Monzon as Princess Eboli. I don’t think I will ever see a better performance of King Philip than Furlanetto’s, especially his ‘Ella giammai m’amo’ His weariness and frustration comes acr oss beautifully in the music. Kwiecien and Uria-Morzon both acted well and made their characters very developed using the music as well. Roberto Aronica (who sang Carlos) and Lianna Haroutounian (who sang Elisabetta) both did well but neither did anything particularly outstanding until Haroutounian’s Tu che le vanita, which she sang very beautifully and elegantly.

The sets were fine but didn’t really add anything to the performance and in some scenes just looked strange (what is the red Lego wall thing in Act 2 for?). But the singing and acting was magnificent and I don’t think I’ve ever wanted an opera to end less. Hoping to go back to the ROH as soon as possible!

This are the tweets I posted on the night:

https://twitter.com/DolceSuonoOpera/status/338261712455213056

https://twitter.com/DolceSuonoOpera/status/338262115670437891

https://twitter.com/DolceSuonoOpera/status/338262335644917760

https://twitter.com/DolceSuonoOpera/status/338415232676397056

https://twitter.com/DolceSuonoOpera/status/338416195923501056

https://twitter.com/DolceSuonoOpera/status/338417647370792961

https://twitter.com/DolceSuonoOpera/status/338418414148268032

https://twitter.com/DolceSuonoOpera/status/338418999442427904

https://twitter.com/DolceSuonoOpera/status/338419702177079297

Plenty of highlights to look forward to in the Met’s new season. My picks are:

L’Elisir D’Amore – In a relatively Netrebko-free season, this is her main appearance, alongside a cast including Matthew Polenzani, Mariusz Kwiecien and her husband Erwin Schrott. Good line up for what will hopefully be an entertaining show.
Un Ballo in Maschera – Part of the Verdi/Wagner bicentenary celebrations, this stars Marcelo Alvarez, Sondra Radvanovsky and one of my personal favourites, Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Radvanovsky and Hvorostovsky are known to sing well together and I look forward to discovering a Verdi opera I know very little about.
Roberto Alagna returns to Aida as Radames. Let’s see if he can keep his blood sugar levels low this time.
Dialogues des Carmelites, famous for its haunting end, does not often come round so this is something to look forward to.
Ildar Abdrazakov as Don Giovanni, accompanied by Mr. Netrebko as Leporello.
An interesting Traviata, with Damrau as Violetta and Placido Domingo sings Papa Germont for the first time.
What the Met claims is “a rare opportunity to witness Berlioz’s vast epic Les Troyens”, completely ignoring the very recent performance at Covent Garden
JDF returns in Le Comte Ory and Elina Garanca in La Clemenza di Tito
And of course the return of the vast Ring Cycle which has completely divided opinions. Personally, I love it, which is saying something given that I am not normally very patient at all with Wagner.
Also, a Don Carlo with Ramon Vargas although personally I would be more interested in Covent Garden’s upcoming production, starring Jonas Kaufmann.