RIGA OPERA FESTIVAL

From the beginning of June, the Latvian National Opera featured the finest works of Giuseppe Verdi, culminating in a grand finale concert. “La Traviata” starred the fiercely talented Marina Rebeka as Violetta with her sky-splitting soprano voice, matched by sensational tenor Murat Karahan as Alfredo. Verdi quietly opens this jewel box of an opera with a deceptively gentle overture; compared to the other operas at the festival, “La Traviata” has such delicate ghosting of tragedy. There are echoes of “La boheme” and “Manon” in the storyline but the opera has enormous depth. Violetta’s role is hugely demanding vocally; this is the opera which propelled the great Angela Gheorghiu to stardom. The set design by Andris Freibergs was as lavish and opulent as the costumes. The acting was flawless and rarely was a stage death so beautiful, so full of elegance as Rebeka even managed to make death lovely.

Whilst “La Traviata” was the beauty queen in the Verdi line up, “Aida” was the golden crown sitting aloft, regal and magnificent. It played for one night only with its epic stage setting as befitting a story set amongst the pyramids complete with an all star cast. “Aida,” more than most operas, cries out for a setting as elaborate as the gold, gilt, and glitter of the Pharaohs’ tombs. It would be difficult to find a trio who excelled as much as the lead performers in this exotic opera consisting of Liene Kinca in the title role, Olesya Petrova as Amneris, and Alexandrs Antonenko as Radames.
The other three operas in the festival are midnight black, reflecting Verdi’s fascination with the supernatural, curses, and fortune cards. Verdi’s favourite Shakespeare play was “Macbeth” and he created an intense opera like a jagged bolt of lightning hitting the auditorium. It was an angry, intense but wondrous production, devoid of Verdi’s traditional love triangles, instead bloodthirsty and brutal with a warlike orchestral score.

The storm which rages like a jagged rent in the sky was created by cinematic projection on the opera stage walls, setting the paranoia and hellish backdrop for this modernised production. Macbeth by Vladislav Sulimsky and Lady Macbeth by Julianna Bavarska were full of raw and raging thirst for glory not passion, reflected in the immense power of their voices. The descent into madness was magnificently portrayed by both singers, whilst the chorus of witches offstage added to the sensation of insanity as though a figment of Macbeth’s perturbed imagination.

“Rigoletto” is always a dark, marvellously melancholic piece. It contains one of those instantly recognisable arias, La donna e mobile. Yet this aria is not reflective of the general mood of Rigoletto,” which was tense, moody, and edgy. Samsons Izjumonovs was the tortured court jester; complex, paranoid, and mercurial with Elena Gordunova as Gilda, all sweetness and delicately rounded notes. The opera’s original title was “La maledizione” or “The Curse,” a fitting title as Rigoletto’s actions and superstition lead to the fulfilment of the curse. The curse is personified with its own orchestral score, which is so tangible it is almost like a central character in the opera, fighting for the audience’s attention.

“Il Trovatore,” a supreme work of darkness even by Verdi’s standards and directed by Andrejs Zagars, was arguably the opera of the festival. The orchestral score always dark and foreboding, the lyrics full of references to burning; literally on execution pyres or smouldering in anguished love. Conductor Janis Liepins swept through the crashing score, all heavy weeping strings and crescendos of pain, with meticulous precision. Azucena is the central pinnacle; the dramatic mezzo who provides the central storyline with all the other characters radiating from her like a spider’s web. Mzia Nioradze excelled as the vengeance-seeking gypsy casting her immense vocal power over the orchestra and auditorium like a magic spell.

Dinara Alieva was spectacular as the self-sacrificing Leonora, all soaring notes of long and lingering love and pain with Murat Karahan as her fated lover, Manrico. Janis Apeinis as Count di Luna had richly rounded baritone notes like spun silk; amongst the wasteland of death in the finale he finds no glory in his survival. Azucena’s vengeance in her final moments is also full of pain and not triumph.

Every opera ended in death whether with the melting softness of Violetta in “La Traviata.” the emotional self-sacrifice in “Aida,” or the violence of “Macbeth,” “Il Trovatore,” and “Rigoletto.” And of course, as passion and war rage, so too does “Di geloso amor sprezza” or the fire of jealous love from “Il Trovatore.” It has formed the backbone of so many opera plots for centuries, the dizzying madness which leads to murder.
Let it burn on.

All of the operas will return in the 2016-2017 season.