Giacomo Puccini and Richard Strauss are polar opposites when it comes to their operatic styles; the former using economy to maximise emotion, the latter rich with notes and colour designed to overwhelm. The two works presented by Sir Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms emphasised this point. The Symphonic Fantasy from his opera Die Frau ohne Schatten is a distillation of the composer’s most opaque and musically complex opera. The music that he extracted mostly represents the gentler and magical aspects of the score, with the climax giving a taster of the more aggressive music. The LSO are the ideal orchestra for this music; lovingly shaped by Pappano, every section blossomed but was distinctive within the fabric of the luxuriously orchestrated score.
The main event was a concert performance of Puccini's Suor Angelica. This one act opera is the centrepiece Il trittico and shows the composer at his most pared back and restrained. The emotional impact of Angelica’s fate at the end becomes even more impactful given the simplicity of the earlier depiction of convent life.
Pappano is the master of this Italian repertoire and his control of pace and management of his soloists were faultless. As a concert piece, it was hard to bring the early convent scenes to life without the freedom of movement a stage setting affords. However, as Angelica’s story unravelled it became even more powerful not to have the focus distracted away from her. This meant the quality of the performance of the singer was put in the spotlight.
Carolina López Moreno proved to be more than up to the task. With a strong stage presence, even her silence at the beginning of the opera was telling and when she started to sing, then her voice was rich, firm and pliable. The confrontation with her Aunt Princess saw her showing a great range in both her acting ability and her vocal skills. Kseniia Nikolaieva, impressive as the malevolent Princess, has an extraordinary dark brown resonant voice which was rock solid and implacable. This encounter set fire to López Moreno at the point she was told that her son, who had been taken from her at birth, had died two years earlier. This was a spine-tingling moment and her aria “Senza mamma” that followed was exquisitely heartbreaking, the purity of her grief portrayed superbly. Angelica’s death scene was tastefully pulled together by the whole ensemble and was extremely moving. The LSO were again at there glittering best, with the London Symphony Chorus and the Tiffin Boys’ Choir completing the aural spectacle splendidly. This was a classy performance with a real sense of occasion.
