Poetical and funny
by Suzanne Daumann
Staged by Manu Lalli, La Cenerentola is full of charm and wit and Teresa Iervolino is wonderful as Angelina.
Florence, November 9th, 2018The Teatro del Maggio Musicale honours the memory of Gioachino Rossini, who died 150 years ago, with a new production of his Cenerentola.
It is staged by Manu Lalli, and full of charm and wit. During the overture, we see Angelina immersed in a book of fairytales. She is in the hall of Don Magnifico’s castle, in front of an open fireplace where a coal fire is burning. To her right and left, at the front of the scene, we see the sisters’ dressing rooms. Roberta Lazzeri’s stage designs are of classical beauty, with a few important personal touches, such as two piles of human-size books, which underscore the importance of books for Angelina, and from where emerge at times the fairies. At the beginning of the overture, Angelina is reading. As soon as the flutes begin their enchanting lines, she listens up, turns her head in time to the music - she can hear her destiny on the winds. One of the most remarkable features of this staging is its musicality: every movement derives directly from the music, there are many choreographic elements, one of them a group of ballerinas in fairy blue gowns that appear every once in a while. They will throw glittering fairy dust during the most magical moments, carrying withe umbrellas, they will dance the thunderstorm scene, and at the finale, they will leave the house, carrying bundles and suitcases - Angelina doesn’t need her imaginary friends anymore.
Not only dancers follow the rhythm of the music, all the movements of all the characters spring directly from it. Thus, Rossini’s wonderful rhythmicity, underscored and supported with drive and love for detail by Giuseppe Grazioli (heard years ago in France and never forgotten), becomes visible. We giggle as Dandini confronts Don Magnifico in the Act II duo. The look at each other, look away, look at each other…perfectly in time. We giggle a lot, we laugh outright, we are moved - everything is just right tonight, everything comes together, from the stage design to the singing to the orchestra to Gianna Poli’s costumes. They are pretty without being over the top. Don Magnifico and the silly sisters, as well as Don Ramiro’s servants and soldiers, appear in bordeaux red and white. La Cenerentola wears a simple dress in light brown that matches the grooms vest worn first by Dandini then by Don Ramiro.
She is interpreted tonight by the wonderful Teresa Iervolino, full of grace and possessed of an agile and generous mezzo-soprano. with perfect mastery of the voice acrobatics demanded by Rossini she brings to mind the great Angelina of her time, Lucia Valentini Terrani. Quite remarkable as well is Christian Senn as Dandini, with his warm and sensitive baritone, and great stage presence. All the buffo characters are as silly and funny as it can get. Luca Dall’Amico’s Don Magnifico is magnificently ridiculous and the two sisters, Eleonora Bellocci in the role of Tisbe, and Ana Victoria Pitts as Tisbe are sour-sweet candies, exuberant, ridiculous and a bit touching, too. Diego Godoy is Don Ramiro, tenor with a slightly metallic sound, and an eager actor. Ugo Gagliardo’s Alidoro seems a bit effaced, he doesn’t strike us as very remarkable. Maybe the dancing fairies have stolen his character’s scene a bit, maybe the all feminine stage direction crew wanted to re-introduce the feminine element that we find in Perrault? After all, the pumpkin also appears, in the arms of a wondrous, very young fairy. Vain speculations, but we do ask ourselves why the vicious stepmother and the godmother fairy have been replaced by male characters. We see Alidoro, Dandini and Don Ramiro and think in passing of Freud and his three instances - and we abandon such speculation quickly enough in order to enjoy Rossini’s music and tonight’s wonderful interpreters.
A lovely evening, a successful production, that left us with dancing feet, a light heart and a brain full of melodies.
