La Gioconda. Erkel Theatre Budapest
Sunday March 10th 2019
Surprisingly this was the first time I had seen this work; it’s been a long-time aural favourite and it is a work where I think the comment about it needing ‘the four best singers in the world’ applies well and perhaps more than to Trovatore. There is an almost ridiculous degree of extreme verismo passion about the story and the music – if the emotional dial maximises at 10, then there are a good many places where, musically an dramatically it hits 11 – not least the final words yelled in the dying ear of the lead character.
The best thing about this event were the singers – thankfully – it is not a work which could be carried largely by a production if the singers are not all wholly up to the mark. As Laura, Erika Gal was superb. Gutsily passionate with a rich expressiveness in her whole range – the role demands that the whole range of the voice is constantly used. Gioconda herself (Eszter Sumegi) was almost as good but here were moment when it almost seemed that focus failed a little and she was not quite as musically and dramatically engaged as others on the stage - but this was a minor flaw and she had the passion for the most part needed to drive the work along. As her husband Alvise, Krisztian Cser was decently adequate as was Gergely Boncser as tenor lead Enzo Grimaldo. His showpiece aria was decently performed but…Alexandru Sgache too was decently sound as Barnaba – his acting was vividly effective as it was for all the male leads.
The orchestra was, as ever, excellent, and Gergely Kesselyak hurled himself and them into the work with true Italian aplomb. This was one of the best general features about the performance in fact. I know it best through recordings, the best with pure-bred Italian singers- ones like Cossotto who always gave their passionate all, but here we had the same degree of commitment to this style and although the nature and timbre of the voices is different – there is something distinct about the East European voice I feel – they, like the Italians, can always be relied upon to go with the passion. This was also true of the chorus who were, again, very fine musically but very weakly directed although my companion told me, and he knows from the point of view of having inside contacts, that there often is not enough time to rehearse to the extent that having a dynamically engaged chorus as a central part of the action such as one sees in Berlin or Nuremberg that can be a part of the performance. They tended to just stand there and sing – and while some had occasional actions to perform during which they tended to look and act somewhat sheepishly as if they did not know why they were doing what they were asked to do. The ballet however was, as usual, excellent. The choreography was really vividly interesting – in one way tio did not really belong to the look and style of the production but it was a highlight. Ballet in operas can often be a tedious interruption (unless it is telling and developing the plot as with Venusberg), and the ballet in this work (which I am not at all convinced is needed dramatically anyway). Here however, even though that as the case, the erotic power style and interest engaged one 100% and those negative feelings were not there.
But now the weaker part of the evening – the production. To be honest it was a bit of a visual mess. Unclear from costumes exactly where and in what time we should be, the set itself was unconvincingly abstract – Venice suggested in a pretty clichéd way by a bridge, the St mark’s ‘lion’ pillar at the edge of the stage and a shallow pool that took up much of the centre of the stage and through which actors had to wade through (presumably think ‘what the hell am I doing’. There was a good rain effect though – and snow. It did not majorly distract from the work as this is a work that can easily stand regardless of the production if the singers are good enough and, thankfully, this was just about the case here. I would not want to see a production where this is NOT the case.
All in all though, a very enjoyable evening.