Anna Netrebko: La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012

Saturday, October 20, 2012

La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012

LA BOHÈME
Giacomo Puccini

Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012

DIRECTION TEAM
Conductor: Daniele Rustioni
Staging and sets: Franco Zeffirelli
Costumes: Piero Tosi

CAST
Rodolfo: Piotr Beczala
Schaunard: Massimo Cavalletti
Benoît: Domenico Colaianni
Mimì: Anna Netrebko*
Marcello: Fabio Capitanucci
Colline: Marco Spotti
Alcindoro: Matteo Peirone
Musetta: Ellie Dehn
Parpignol: Cristiano Cremonini
Sergente dei doganieri: Ernesto Panariello
Un doganiere: Roberto Lorenzi
Un venditore ambulante: Marco Voleri

REPORT
La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012
By Herbert

Yesterday I attended the first of only two performances of La Bohème in Milan with Anna Netrebko as Mimi. This time I was not very lucky because I only got a bad (a very bad) ticket – in the second Galleria right below the roof. The seats were very uncomfortable and narrow: I had hardly any stage view and people in the Galleria are not even allowed to enter the main hall and the foyer of La Scala! I had to enter through a side door instead and climb up the narrow staircase. As far as comfort and hospitality is concerned La Scala is the complete opposite of, for example, the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, where customers are treated very kindly. I don’t blame the staff of La Scala – I am sure they would be much nicer if they were allowed to be so, but obviously they have orders to separate those customers with cheap tickets from the others. So I am sorry, but I can’t recommend visiting the Scala (at least if you sit in the Galleria).

Of course I tried to get a better ticket yesterday afternoon, but I was told at the box office that the show was completely sold out. “The first night of Netrebko – IMPOSSIBLE! NO CHANCE!” They told me that at 9 a.m. already people began to line up for the last standing tickets which are sold right before the performance begins!

So my personal well-being was almost at the bottom – but still I enjoyed the evening very much. Although it was the well-known and almost ancient production of Franco Zeffirelli (costumes: Piero Tosi) which runs like a clockwork, but it was the cast which made it such an event. All singers were really good – on top, of course, Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczala who got cheers during the scenes and especially at the end with many curtain calls - and a bouquet of roses for Anna.

After the show both of them were awaited by numbers of fans at the stage door, and they spent a lot of time for autographs and photos, before they walked with some friends across the “piazza” and went to a restaurant in the spectacular Galleria Vottorio Emanuele II.

La Bohème at La Scala: the old, the new and the flowers
By Giulia Bonelli

«I remember I saw Otello, and the singer was so great that when he died and the curtain fell down I stopped to breath. All the audience was the same, and there was silence for at least two minutes: people just couldn’t do anything, they were shocked… and then there was a big shout. I think after that moment I understood: ‘Yes, I want to do that’.»

With these words Anna Netrebko during the Deutsche Grammophon documentary “The woman, The Voice” talked about her budding passion for opera. It was almost 10 years ago. Well, since then Anna did that: she moved the audience of all over the world with her performances, giving life to every single character she played.

And she did that on Friday night as well: after the final notes of the last act of Bohème at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, there were a few seconds of complete silence. A moment of pure emotion, just before a burning ovation that lasted more than 15 minutes.

The enthusiasm ranged from opera experts to young people: the 19th of October belonged to the fatidic “turn G”, where G stays for giovani (young) and La Scala opens its door to the new public with low cost tariffs for the season subscriptions.

This time it was a real stroke of luck for people under 30, to whom are usually reserved the second casts only: their discounted ticket valued a show with some of the leading singers in the world.

The old-fashioned staging and sets of Zeffirelli were dug up from the theatre archives: a bit dusty after all these years, but still worth with its charming bohèmienne garret.

What instead wasn’t old at all was the singing and acting: Piotr Beczala as Rodolfo and Anna Netrebko as Mimì gave the opera a fresh and new touch. Their unchallenged vocal skills and interpretational intensity made them a great team since their first scene together.

Both Che gelida manina and Sì mi chiamano Mimì got warm applauses, which were constantly triggered during the whole show and led to many curtain calls after the end of each act.

Also the rest of the cast kept up with these high standards: the sharp Musetta was beautifully played by the American soprano Ellie Dehn, while the Italians Fabio Capitanucci, Massimo Cavalletti and Marco Spotti perfectly fitted the roles of Marcello, Schaunard and Colline, Rodolfo’s shabby nice friends.

A Bohème full of vitality then, also thanks to the energetic baton of the 29-year-old conductor Daniele Rustioni.

And the same vitality was tangible at the stage doors, where a big group of fans was waiting for the artists: Piotr and Anna were easy going and friendly, and the diva didn’t seem too upset even when - believe it or not - a hawker florist snatched some roses out of her hands. Quite a weird ending for the haunting beauty who just played the flower seller Mimì, isn’t it?

PHOTOS