Storm clouds gather over Verdi Festival opener

Marco Spotti (Marchese di Calatrava), Gregory Kunde (Alvaro) and Liudmyla Monastyrska (Leonora)

Liudmyla Monastyrska (Leonora)

Amartuvshin Enkhbat (Don Carlo) and Gregory Kunde (Don Alvaro)

Annalisa Stroppa (Preziosilla) and chorus

La forza del destino, Act 3

By Mark Pullinger, 23 September 2022

Loading, please wait...

See full listing

“Enkhbat sang with a juicy, rounded tone, his rich baritone filling the theatre with ease”

Reviewed at Teatro Regio di Parma, Parma on 22 September 2022

Verdi, La forza del destino (1869 version)

Teatro Regio di Parma

Roberto Abbado, Conductor

Yannis Kokkos, Director, Set Designer, Costume Designer

Giuseppe di Iorio, Lighting Designer

Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna

Coro di Teatro Comunale di Bologna

Liudmyla Monastyrska, Leonora

Amartuvshin Enkhbat, Don Carlo

Gregory Kunde, Don Alvaro

Marko Mimica, Padre Guardiano

Annalisa Stroppa, Preziosilla

Roberto de Candia, Fra Melitone

Marco Spotti, Marquis of Calatrava

Andrea Giovannini, Trabuco

Natalia Gavrilan, Curra

Jacobo Ochoa, Alcade

Andrea Pellegrini, Chirurgo

Lamb to the slaughter(house): rare outing for 1857 Simon Boccanegra

Mark Pullinger, 25th September

Boccanegra butchered in Parma? Only in the sense that director Valentina Carrasca sets the opera in an abattoir...

****1

Turbo-charged Trovatore: Verdi at full throttle in Fidenza

Mark Pullinger, 24th September

All you need to stage Trovatore, according to Enrico Caruso, are “the four greatest singers in the world”. The Verdi Festival may have found the four loudest...

***11

A traditional Attila at the Verdi Festival in Parma

James Imam, 30th September

Traditionally, Italy's most unforgiving loggionisti are reputed to reside at Parma's Teatro Regio. Thankfully for the cast, they appear to be a dying breed.

***11

Wilson's lunar Trouvère the antithesis of grand opéra

Renato Verga, 29th September

When they asked Wilson to stage an opera by Verdi, the Texan director replied "I'll never do it!". Now he is at his fourth Verdi's production.

***11

A melancholy Falstaff at the Verdi Festival in Parma

Renato Verga, 1st October

Not a particularly revealing Falstaff, but a pleasing performance though. Maybe one would have expected something of greater impact from a festival like this one, but that goal had already accomplished by Graham Vick with his Stiffelio the night before...

***11

Nothing short of a coup: Stiffelio at the Verdi Festival, Parma

James Imam, 30th September

Without recourse to virtual reality or hallucinogens, Vick has created a suggestive, vividly surreal world where one's reference points are lost to the wind.

*****

More reviews...

Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.