After the initial success of its premiere in 1819 at Teatro La Scala, Rossini’s “Bianca e Falliero” managed to hold its place on Italian stages and beyond for over 10 years before disappearing completely. It was not until 1986 that its first revival in modern times took place, thanks to the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. The performance proved to be somewhat of a turning point for the opera’s fortunes; if it did not exactly catapult it onto stages across the world, it at least managed to garner sufficient interest from one or two other companies to schedule the occasional performance, as well as giving rise to a number of recordings.
The revival of its fortunes, however, has little to do with Romani’s libretto, which, with its unremarkable plot, is of limited interest. Falliero, a courageous and successful general in the Venetian army, is in love with Bianca, and the pair wish to marry. Her father, Contareno, however, has a very different plan for his daughter.
He wishes her to marry the wealthy Capellio in order to restore the family’s fortunes and spends much of the opera bullying, cajoling and threatening her to acquiesce to his ‘request.’ Such is Bianca and Falliero’s determination to resist Conterano that he eventually relents, and the opera concludes on a happy note. It is, in other words, a storyline typical of the period in which the focus is on creating a series of highly charged emotional conflicts and expressions of love and jealousy for the composer to set as a series of musical numbers.
It is in this respect that “Bianca e Falliero” shows off Romani’s expertise as a librettist; the pace and the detail of the drama have been sensitively fashioned to ensure the necessary structure to allow the numbers to emerge naturally from the text. Romani, moreover, was no second-rate hack, and if the narrative itself was not particularly noteworthy, his development of one or two of the characters has merit, particularly that of Conterano, who in his treatment of his daughter stands comparison with many of the nasty and vicious characters that populate opera, including that of Verdi’s Otello. Not only does he try to emotionally blackmail and intimidate Bianca, but he also threatens to ruin Falliero, even to the point of trying to have him executed for treason.
He is truly a manipulative, despicable and ruthless individual. Unfortunately, it also means that his transformation in the final scene, in which he realizes the error of his ways and adopts the position of a loving father and proud father-in-law, does not ring true and completely undermines the foundations of his character. It is with Rossini’s fabulous score that “Bianca e Falliero” really shines.
Not only is it musically a beautifully balanced work, but the quality of some of the numbers is outstanding. The most famous piece is probably Bianca’s rondo, “Teco in resto,” with its immediately identifiable melody, which Rossini recycled from “La Donna del Lago.” However, there are others that stand out, most notably the stunning quartet “Cielo, il mio labbra ispira,” in which Rossini brings together Bianca and Falliero’s swirling emotions with Conterano’s need for vengeance and Capellio’s change of heart.
Grinda Shows His Skill as a Storyteller The director, Jean-Louis Grinda , opted to tell the story as it is in the libretto. There were no added extras; there was no attempt to develop subtexts or make it relevant for today’s society; there was no deconstruction or subversion of the text; nor did he feel the need to impose his own ideas onto the work. It was simply a straightforward and clear presentation in which the audience could sit back, relax, and enjoy the show; it is an approach that is not easy to employ successfully.
Grinda, however, is an excellent storyteller; he knows how to develop strongly defined, engaging characters and has the ability to craft scenes so that the dramatic tensions were finely managed to ensure a pleasing momentum that overcame the almost inevitable stop-start nature of the libretto. He was aided by set and costume designer Rudy Sabounghi , who opted for a versatile single set that could be moved rapidly to alter space, perspective and context, while the costumes were from a variety of periods to suit the character. The results were aesthetically pleasing and largely successful in promoting the drama.
Particularly impressive was the use of large red blocks, upon which the characters could stand to look down upon the stage, which were used for a variety of purposes, such as a viewing platform for the wedding guest or as a means for intimidating Bianca when they were brought close together to enclose her in a small space, with Conterano and Capellio looking down upon her. The conductor, Roberto Abbado , showed off his firm grasp of the bel canto repertoire with a splendid performance from the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, with a dramatically strong reading that captured the sparkle of Rossini’s music, especially in his signature crescendi, which bristled with energy and verve. Textures were beautifully crafted, and close attention was paid to the pace, which was nicely moderated to meet the dramatic on-stage situation.
He was also sensitive in providing the necessary support to the singers so that they were able to display their ability in bringing out the full beauty of the melodies, an opportunity of which all the soloists took full advantage. Wonderful Bel Canto Singing from Quality Cast Listening to Jessica Pratt sing Bianca was a real delight. It was not simply the beauty of her voice or her excellent technique that captured the attention, but that everything appeared so natural; every note seemed to emerge with ease; whether delivering complex coloratura runs or engaging in audacious leaps, her singing was graceful and secure, yet there were no signs of any effort at all; she spun out long notes that held their integrity until the end of the line and moved seamlessly between registers.
The absence of strain or anxiety in the voice allowed one to relax and enjoy her performance. As Bianca, she convincingly built emotionally clear relationships with the other characters that facilitated the dramatic development and brought depth and clarity to the ensemble pieces, and her rendition of “Teco in resto” was delivered with a sparkling flourish that brought the opera to an exciting conclusion. Mezzo-soprano Aya Wakizono was a suitably courageous and passionate Falliero, although such was the effort she poured into her portrayal that on occasions it all appeared too much; everything was done with an exaggerated swagger, and it knocked the shine off her image as a flamboyant hero.
To a much lesser extent, the same could be said about her singing. For sure, she possesses an agile voice able to spin out strong, complex passages of coloratura, can push the voice forward with strength, furnish the line with strong, and delicate emotions and was happy to take risks, but one could sense the effort that was being made, which could be a little off-putting at times. By any standards, however, it was still a very good performance, which she displayed effectively in many of the numbers, especially in her aria “No, non è reo, misero è solo,” for which she delivered an expressively powerful and technically assured rendition, for which she received a warm and deserved ovation.
Tenor Dmitry Korchak turned in an impressive performance as the hard-hearted, manipulative Conterano, notwithstanding his near-unbelievable transformation in the final scene that enabled the opera to end on a happy note. His management of his pivotal relationship with Bianca was exceptionally well-crafted; pumping out his anger towards Bianca, he flooded his voice with incandescent rage as she resists his desire for her to marry Capellio, before changing in an instant to a pleading father in the aria “Pensa che ormai resistere,” in which he voices his faux inner pain while in an aside revels in his victory over Bianca. Korchak’s sensitive and subtle vocal responses were masterfully rendered and made it one of the performance’s most dramatically satisfying scenes.
Bass Giorgi Manoshvili came across as slightly wooden in his portrayal of Capellio, relying on stock gestures and static postures. By contrast, his vocal portrait was excellent. His burnished, warm timbral beauty and ability to shape the vocal line added ballast to the vocal textures in the ensembles, while his recitatives were delivered with an attractive sheen; it is a voice perfectly suited to the bel canto repertoire.
Of the minor characters, bass Nicolò Donini stood out with a convincing performance as Priuli, the Doge of Venice, presenting him as calm, dignified and authoritative. Soprano Carmen Buendía was a suitably busy and loyal Constanza, while tenor Claudio Zazzaro produced a clear and secure performance as an official, and tenor Dangelo Diaz as the Chancellor acquitted himself well. The Coro del Teatro Ventidio Basso , under the management of chorus master Giovanni Farina , was in excellent form, producing an energetic and dramatically fine performance.
Overall, this was a pleasing production that even Conterano’s volte face could do little to disrupt and added more weight to the opinion that “Bianca e Falliero” is a quality work that is still unjustly largely ignored. Categories.
