by Natalia Di Bartolo – Roberto Alagna triumphs at La Scala, with Sonya Yoncheva in the role of Fedora. Directed by Mario Martone.

Sure is that the mix Victor Sardou playwright e Sarah Bernhardt actress had to be “explosive”: as happened to Puccini for Tosca, too Umberto Giordano, after having seen the drama of the French author “Fedora” at the Bellini theater in Naples in 1889 "est tombé amoureux" for the heroine protagonist. A dark and intricate drama, in which the Grand Guignol throws here and there, to which Sardou did not disdain to wink.

The French artist initially denied the proposal to perform the opera version of Fedora to the young Italian composer, snubbing him and granting him a concession only after the success of Andrea Chénier; but putting it to music according to the "modern" canons was probably not easy. In fact, the result was a discontinuous, fragmented and difficult work, which only at times opens up to the sublime melodies of the Jordan.

It is probably the aforementioned characteristics that have made the Fedora, with the booklet – divided into three acts – by Arturo Colautti, a little represented title: being, as mentioned above, a difficult work, even "strange", with each act set in a different nation. Therefore, in this sense, its fate, not always glorious, is explained, after the success of the first one, directed by Giordano himself, in which the protagonist Gemma Bellincioni and Enrico Caruso like Loris Ipanov undeniably determined the progress of the debut. Fedora, in fact, arrived at the Teatro alla Scala only in 1932, thirty-four years after the world premiere at the Teatro Lirico, also in Milan, on November 17, 1898.

On October 15, 2022, after several shootings over the years, Fedora she returned to the Scala stage 50 years after her debut, conductor il Master Marco Armiliato. The experienced musician gave lyrical impetus to undoubtedly the most beautiful parts of the difficult musical texture and above all to the interlude; which allowed breath to those parts, which, on the other hand, are more difficult to listen to and, obviously, to perform. Maestro Armiliato has confirmed himself as an excellent wand, authoritative and of great taste.

In the role of Fedora, the soprano Sonya Yoncheva, who has lent her splendid voice to a character that requires basses that are decidedly easier to achieve, compared to the great potential of the medium and acute area that the beautiful Sonya possesses and to which she has accustomed us. However, she skilfully disentangled herself in the moments less congenial to her voice, easily overcoming every obstacle in the serious area, which is very present, especially in some sentences.

Loris Ipanov was the tenor Roberto Alagna, making his debut in the role, in an evening of grace and returning to La Scala after many years of absence. His full-bodied, wide, impeccable voice gave life to a flat song, free from any impediment in the projection, capable of overcoming any difficulty of the score in the acute area. Alagna also sang with his own emotion and that of the character inseparably fused, as only he is capable of obtaining. So his song hovered on unprecedented vibrations, which poured out on the audience in all their splendor and deeply moved. The difficult role of him was also performed with a perfection in the linearity of the singing and a technical mastery of the legate that left the Scala spectators enchanted and aroused applause at the famous “Amor ti vieta”.

George Petean, baritone, was By siriex. The artist sang with a softness in the legate and a full-bodied tone of all relief. The interpretative and technical skills of Petean, already high and guided by a great school, are constantly growing and it is a pleasure to detect it, underlining its ease of emission, robustness and at the same time its smoothness and ductility: qualities that confirm it among the most beautiful baritone voices of today on international stages.

Serena Gamberoni, soprano, was the pretty one Contessa Olga Sukarev, she too struggling with an improbable and fragmentary score and with the direction that wanted her to be spinning on a bicycle; corrected the various other interpreters, Chorus including, directed by M° Alberto Malazzi, in the short speech behind the scenes.

The Director was entrusted to Mario Martone, who intended to distort the setting a little’ gloomy fin de siècle with a bizarre reference to the surrealist painting of René Magritte.
The setting was not unpleasant, with (too much) bare scenes Margherita Palli, the contemporary costumes (too) of Ursula Patzak and the well-kept lights of Pasquale Mari, but, including the “Magrittian” choreographies of Daniela Schiavone, one would have preferred to see the work in its own setting: the libretto speaks of Tsar, of nihilists: it is history and the story, good or bad, has very specific characteristics in the staging.

In this Fedora, however, with the excuse of the painting "The threatened murderer", metaphorically approached to the figure of Loris Ipanov, Martone has set up a potpourri of situations and apparitions of characters, partly reconstructing, to give another example, also the famous Magrittian painting "The lovers" with the veiled head and stripping the settings, to the detriment of the original atmosphere of the Opera.

It is not clear why, today, directors seek inspiration by groping (often in the dark) in the history of art books, as if the Opera needed to be "ennobled" or supported by the visual arts. Obvious: the director should have his own baggage (and also very robust) of knowledge of the History of Art and pure technical notions of Visual Arts, but then transfigure them into directorial creations, without shining the spotlight on this or that other artist, creating distorted and deforming superimpositions or juxtapositions, as happened in this production.

“Rejuvenating a work, with the excuse of the "cinematic cut" and the notions of a high school art history teacher, taking away from it the charm that the author himself has well described and wanted in the libretto, is always and in any case an operation arbitrary and meaningless. The public, in fact, did not like it and made itself heard. In reverse, overwhelmed the performers with a deluge of applause.
The palm of the most applauded of the evening a Roberto Alagna, who, exiting the theater, found the artists' entrance, all the way down via Filodrammatici, cluttered with fans looking for his autograph and the other performers and who, as is customary to please everyone, will have finished signing at two in the morning.

Natalia Di Bartolo ©

Photos Brescia and Amisano

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