This is Albert Ehrnrooth’s website. I am a journalist and cultural commentator.

As a freelance journalist I have contributed to The Guardian(UK), The European, De Telegraaf(NL), NOS(NL), Hufvudstadsbladet(FIN), Yle(FIN), Svenska Dagbladet(SWE), ABC(AU) and many other media organisations. I write and broadcast in three languages: English, Swedish and Dutch.

I have lived in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Helsinki and London. I now call Melbourne, Australia home.

VERDI IN MELBOURNE AND LONDON

Most people outside Italy probably don’t associate Giuseppe Verdi’s operas with politics and revolution. But surprisingly many of Verdi’s 27 operatic works have a political message that would have been understood by his contemporaries. It is a wonder that so many managed to make it past the Austrian censor.

The setting and characters of ‘Un ballo in maschera’ (A Masked Ball) had to be altered before it could be premièred in 1859 in Rome Instead of a plot based on a real life event, the murder of the 18th century Swedish king Gustav III, Verdi and his librettist Antonio Somma had to change the setting to 17th century Boston where the fictitious English governor of the city gets killed. Originally commissioned for Teatro San Carlo in Naples the royal murder plot was never going to be approved by the kingdom and to make matters worse three Italians had recently tried to assassinate Napoleon III in France.

Opera Australia artists. Photo by Jeff Busby

Opera Australia (OA) is presenting the opera in the restored version with the aristocratic and royal Swedish characters. It is a co-production with La Monnaie in Brussels and Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, but Sydney hosted the world première. The real coup is that OA managed to get Alex Ollé on board. He is the artistic director for the Catalan theatre company La Fura dels Baus, Spain’s most interesting and idiosyncratic theatre ensemble. He clearly believes that ‘A Masked Ball’ still has a social and political message that is highly relevant, and not only in Spain where extremely high unemployment and corruption even now threaten the reputation of the monarchy. Ollé draws parallels with “the protester from the Arab Spring to Athens, from Occupy Wall Street to Moscow”. He writes in the program notes: “Interestingly, this protester is a global figure characterised by covering its face; in other words, by using a mask. “

Hence, everyone in this production wears a mask throughout the opera except for Amelia, Gustav and Ankarström who for their most revealing arias shed their masks. Maybe it seemed like a good idea at the onset, considering the title of the opera, but the meaning is a little bit too obvious. On the other hand it doesn’t get in the way of the singing.

Mariana Pentcheva as Ulrica Arfvidsson & Diego Torre as Gustav III.
Photo by Jeff Busby.

Gustav actually forgives the conspirators at the very end and also reveals that his love for Amelia was never consummated. But director Ollé wishes to impose his own political take on the proceedings at the very end of the opera – do not read this if you hate spoilers – and stages a kind of deus ex machina, a radical counter-revolutionary slaughter that would have pleased Heinrich Himmler and modern day jihadists.

The set design by Alfons Flores and the lighting by Lluc Castells are very effective and convey a cold and forbidding place where the palace is like a bunker and where love can only be declared underneath the gallows.

The singers vary from decent to good. Csilla Boross (Amelia) is in total control when singing sottovoce, but unfortunately she tends to shout her way to the very top notes. That is a dead shame because otherwise she is quite splendid, particularly in the aria ‘Morro, ma prima in grazia’.

Diego Torre (Gustav III) is a very useful lyric tenor but I find it hard to warm to his voice and it is even more difficult to associate his physical appearance with the, in real life, rather stylish king. José Carbo (Count Ankarström) is a fine baritone who convincingly portrays the dark journey from friend to foe, but only in Act III with ‘Eri tu che macchiavi...’ does he seize his spot in the limelight. OA needs more top class singers to match some of the excellent production values.

The Opera Australia Chorus is kept very busy and does not disappoint but the stars of the evening were for me the very perceptive conductor Andrea Molina and Orchestra Victoria who always puts the singers first, even when they drag out their cabaletta.

Opera Australia performs A Masked Ball in Melbourne, in Melbourne, 23 and 26 April, 3 May at the Arts Centre.

LEO NUCCI AS NABUCCO, LIUDMYLA MONASTYRSKA AS ABIGAILLE © ROH / CATHERINE ASHMORE

Verdi’s first real commercial success was Nabucco which was premièred at La Scala in 1842. It consequently had a run of 65 performances(!!) that same year, which is still a feat unequalled in that theatre before or since.

Every Italian knows this biblical tale simply because it contains their ‘second national anthem’ Va Pensiero (commonly known as the Slaves chorus). It is more of a lament than a revolutionary type of song but the role of the chorus in Nabucco is significant. It is the first time in an Italian opera that the chorus acts as the protagonist, and hence the ‘risorgimento’ movement (which was trying to achieve the unification of Italy) adopted Verdi as their musical spokesperson.

The current production of Nabucco at the Royal Opera House in London was presented at La Scala earlier this year, where it apparently didn’t receive very good reviews.

LIUDMYLA MONASTYRSKA AS ABIGAILLE © ROH / CATHERINE ASHMORE

Italians often take issue with foreign singers who aren't adequately Italianate and fair enough, Verdi is their national treasure and they demand perfect diction.

I saw this co-production recently in London and I can’t imagine anyone not appreciating the Ukrainian spinto soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska’s interpretation of Abigaille. She has the booming lower notes, the plangent lovelorn quality and is powerful in the upper regions. Oh, and she can act! Her Aida is apparently also awesome. I haven’t heard a better interpretation of Abigaille since Elena Suliotis’s almost raw and uninhibited recording from 1965.

Giuseppina Strepponi was the first to sing the very demanding role of the supposed daughter of the King of Babylon. Surely that helped her to find favour with the composer himself, who a few years later started cohabiting with her and finally also married the by then retired soprano.

Daniele Abbado (yes, the son of the conductor Claudio Abbado) does a fairly decent job directing the production but makes the Hebrews and Babylonians dress in a very similar fashion, which can be confusing. The Hebrews are very reminiscent of the pictures of Jewish refugees from the 1930’s. In a couple of scenes the set clearly is inspired by the concrete stelae that form the Holocaust Memorial to the murdered Jews in Berlin.

Daniele Abbado told me that he doesn’t see any parallels with current Italian politics in Nabucco. He had a more universal interpretation in mind:

The veteran Leo Nucci, who probably is the most experienced Rigoletto and Nabucco on the planet, sounded a bit croaky to begin with but by Act 2, scene 2 the Babylonian King was more than ready to lose his senses. Placido Domingo, who is even older than Nucci, has by now taken over and it is his début in this role. The basses Vitalij Kowaljow (High Priest Zaccaria) and Robert Lloyd (High Priest of Baal) are both solid and that is my overall impression of this production. Nicola Luisotti’s is conducting more than adequately and the orchestra is never too loud (easily done in this opera!).

PRODUCTION IMAGE © ROH / CATHERINE ASHMORE

Check this production out in Australian cinemas in June with Domingo as Nabucco.

http://www.palacecinemas.com.au/movies/pobnabucco/

ALBERT.

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