LEONCAVALLO Zazà (Soltész)
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Genre:
Opera
Label: Unitel Classics
Magazine Review Date: 02/2022
Media Format: Digital Versatile Disc
Media Runtime: 127
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 805308
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Zazà |
Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Composer
(Arnold) Schoenberg Choir Christopher Maltman, Cascart, Baritone Dorothea Herbert, Floriana; Mme Dufresne, Soprano Enkelejda Shkosa, Anaide, Mezzo soprano Johannes Bamberger, Augusto; Marco, Tenor Juliette Mars, Natalia, Mezzo soprano Nikolai Schukoff, Milio Dufresne, Tenor Paul Schweinester, Courtois, Tenor Stefan Soltesz, Conductor Svetlana Aksenova, Zazà, Soprano Tobias Greenhalgh, Bussy, Baritone Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra Vittoria Antonuzzo, Totò Dufresne, Speaker |
Author: Neil Fisher
Christof Loy is making a habit of turning pandemic theatre to his advantage. In summer 2020 he conjured up a cut-down, stripped-back Così fan tutte at the Salzburg Festival; the next summer, at Glyndebourne, there was a Luisa Miller made more heart-rending because the cast hardly touched.
Between these two productions came this Leoncavallo rarity, Zazà, which opened the season in September 2020 at the Theater an der Wien. As with Loy’s Luisa Miller, the chorus (the Arnold Schoenberg Choir) were restricted to offstage. Again, however, Loy manages to focus in his surgical, sparing way on the essentials. Zazà is a story about showbiz – the heroine is a jaded music hall star who has a fling with a married businessman – but never having her cheering audience onstage (we hear occasional, distant applause) makes it clear how ephemeral Zazà’s spangly domain really is.
The party is always elsewhere in Loy’s productions (I also thought of his poignant, domestic Tristan und Isolde for the Royal Opera House) and, aided by a rotating set by Raimund Orfeo Voigt, Loy evokes the wings, waiting rooms, dressing rooms … the ‘in between’ places where artists hang out. It’s a potent way of expressing the purgatorial nature of Zazà’s professional life, and well captured here by video director Tiziano Mancini.
I just wish Leoncavallo’s 1900 opera was deserving of such a polished staging, as well as the diligent conducting by Stefan Soltész and warmly responsive playing of the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien. It’s a forward-thinking opera in terms of subject matter but there is a lot of forgettable music in it. Leoncavallo tries to keep the drama going in fluid, chattery phrases (both the vocal and orchestral parts) but in doing so it rarely feels like we’re up close and personal with the characters or invested in the drama.
The clear highlight is the most unexpected showdown, between Zazà and Totò, the (non-singing) daughter of Zazà’s lover Milio. In this sentimental but striking exchange, the schoolgirl’s simple innocence forces Zazà to realise that if she breaks up a family she will be ruining a life. Ingeniously, Leoncavallo then threads Totò’s piano practice into an expressive scena, the turning point that forces a devastated Zazà back to the stage.
It’s possible we would be more touched by the two lovers if the performances were more beguiling. Soprano Svetlana Aksenova is tirelessly, physically invested in the role but missing hefty dollops of charm and frailty in her delivery. Tenor Nikolai Shukoff’s Milio sounds unpleasantly tight and forced in his top register – and there’s only so much he can do with this off-putting two-timing cad. There are two decent supporting roles, well taken here: Enkelejda Shkosa is affectingly ditzy as Zazà’s unhelpfully sozzled mother, and Christopher Maltman smartly exasperated as Zazà’s onstage partner, Cascart. The role can be played for laughs but Maltman makes it much more potent.
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