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

By James Imam, 03 October 2017

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“Vick blurs the boundary between observer and observed expertly”

Reviewed at Teatro Farnese, Parma on 30 September 2017

Verdi, Stiffelio

Teatro Regio di Parma

Guillermo García Calvo, Conductor

Graham Vick, Director

Mauro Tinti, Set Designer, Costume Designer

Luciano Ganci, Stiffelio

Maria Katzarava, Lina

Francesco Landolfi, Stankar

Giovanni Sala, Raffaele

Emanuele Cordaro, Jorg

Sofia Koberidze, Dorotea

Blagoj Nacoski, Federico

Coro di Teatro Comunale di Bologna

Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna

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

Storm clouds gather over Verdi Festival opener

Mark Pullinger, 22nd September

Audience protests against Roberto Abbado interrupt the opening night of the festival, Yannis Kokkos' staging of La forza del destino.

***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

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James Imam

James Imam is an arts journalist writing for publications including The Financial Times, The Times, Musical America and Opera magazine. He grew up in Manchester, read anthropology at Cambridge and has since lived in Milan. As a once-aspiring countertenor he has an abiding interest in Baroque music.