OPERA NEWS Few musicians have the comprehensive experience of the entire Verdi opera canon now being acquired by Vincent La Selva. By the end of New York Grand Opera's audacious seven-year project (scheduled to end in 2001), La Selva will have conducted all twenty-eight operas in chronological order. The company is presenting each opera fully staged, outdoors, in New York's Central Park. This summer includes three of the Verdi operas with the thorniest performance histories: Les Vepres Siciliennes, Simon Boccanegra and Aroldo. OPERA NEWS: When Verdi wrote Les Vepres Siciliennes, he had had only a little experience writing for Paris: he had turned I Lombardi into Jirusalem. How did he write differently for Paris? VINCENT LA SELVA: He really thought of Vepres in terms of what [the Parisians] wanted. And in fact, he had done quite a revision of Lombardi. He said, "When you hear Jerusalem, you won't think of Lombardi, and after rehearsing it, I found that to be true. He had the unique quality [of being able to give] every opera a different color - the tinta. With Vepres, he of course really wanted to get into the act at the Paris Opera. The idea of that monster-type opera [French grand opera] appealed to him. He liked it in terms of something different, bigger ideas, bolder than what he could do in Italy. Vespri was always done at the Met in Italian, and nobody has done it in New York in French. I've never heard this opera done in French! But Verdi conceived it in French, and I thought, let's recapture that. ON: Something like the introduction to the bass aria "Et toi, Palerme" goes with the French idea. VLS: He wouldn't have written that way for Italy - he wouldn't stretch it out that long. He knew that in Italy they wouldn't sit through five acts and a ballet. Vespri didn't go over very well in Italy.
VLS: Nothing quite that bad, but he probably could have gotten better people to do it. It might have been good for him to do some of it himself ON: Yet singers resist the French. VLS: They aren't too happy about it. We had a tough time with it in French. The chorus had to work very hard at the French, and Vepres of course is even bigger. ON: You will do the original 1857 version of Simon Boccanegra, not the standard 1881 revision that is almost always heard. VLS: Verdi did a masterful job of combining the old and new material for 1881. And 1881
is certainly an improvement on 1857. But I like the 1857, because it's where he was at
that time. In the cycle I'm doing of all twenty-eight operas, it doesn't feel quite right
to do 1881, because he was so far [advanced] twenty-four years later. In the 1857 version,
you can see where the style is already developing. By 1881, there's no longer that ON: Fiesco seems a little softer in the revision. Verdi seems less tough on him. VLS: I don't know if there's really that much difference in his character. It's rather that Verdi's style has changed. There's a new lack of roughness. Everything is getting away from the set pieces. ON: In the case of Stiffelio versus Aroldo, the changes are much greater. VLS: We're doing both Stiffelio and Aroldo. They're two different operas. He only kept
something like 30 or 40 percent of the music. The whole last act of Aroldo is completely
different. In fact, that's an interesting thing about the overture. Both overtures are the
same, except he takes out a figure in the opening bars of Aroldo. Why? Because the figure
is taken from the final act of Stiffelio, and it doesn't exist in Aroldo. It had to be a
reference to something. He was very careful about that. VLS: I see the foreshadowings now. Even from the very first opera you hear already the later operas. For example, I love the Requiem, a late work. The music is so great! But [he sings a few bars of the "Dies Irae"] you know where he got that? Straight out of Giovanna d'Arco [one of the earliest Verdi operas]. I think he did it consciously. He was aware of his music. There's nothing new on this earth. We make it seem new, but it comes from something. In the Vepres overture, he makes this Slow, beautiful legato melody. Where did he get it? From the march in Giovanna d'Arco. He just elongated the rhythm. ON: When I hear a Verdi performance or broadcast, I always want more. I pull recordings off the shelves and have encores. Here you are, taking seven years for twenty-eight operas. Are you getting too much Verdi? VLS: No, no, no! Not at all. Because I never get tired of greatness. If it were
inferior music I'd never be able to do it. But you prove greatness by repetition. Verdi,
Shakespeare - you never get to the end of them. That's the amazing thing!" |
ON: Was the Italian translation part of the problem - like
the one for Don Carlos, where you get things like two syllables of a word divided with a
breath mark?