BWW Reviews: A French Kiss for Verdi with LES VEPRES SICILIENNES at The Caramoor Festival

The Caramoor Festival in Katonah, NY said "Bon anniversaire, Joseph Vert"--that's "Happy Birthday, Giuseppe Verdi" in French--on Saturday night, with a performance of LES VÊPRES SICILIENNES, celebrating the composer's bicentenary. It offered a fine opportunity to hear an opera that followed the composer's "big three" middle works--RIGOLETTO, IL TROVATORE and LA TRAVIATA--but hasn't really found a place in the modern repertoire. It's not hard to see why not.

'Typical' opera story

Though it has been better known on these shores as I VESPRI SICILIANI (or "The Sicilian Vespers"), the work was the first written in French by Verdi directly for the grand Opéra in Paris (if you don't count JÉRUSALEM, an adaptation of Verdi's early I LOMBARDI)." It's your 'typical' opera story--boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl, and the French are massacred, set against the 13th century occupation of Sicily by France.

When it came to a night at the opera, French audiences of the 19th century seemed to have had all the time in the world. They demanded a five-act format--which translates into about two hours of intermissions, at a minimum--including a ballet, comic relief, offstage choruses and long orchestral interludes, among other conventions. Yes, it was a long evening, but one that was as much about socializing as about music. Foreign composers found it worth the effort to write for the French capital because of prestige of the commissions, as well as the long rehearsal periods the Opéra offered and the financial rewards involved.

Award-winner Angela Meade

Caramoor's performance--conducted with élan by the Festival's Opera Director Will Crutchfield--jettisoned two of the intermissions and kept the others down to about 20 minutes apiece; it also performed the ballet music without dance. Nevertheless, it still made for an opera that was much longer than the usual Verdi works, even if it did include some stellar music and performances, both orchestral and vocal. As Crutchfield wrote in his program notes, "The plot is suited to the kind of three-act opera that Verdi was used to writing and seems laboriously padded out to fill five acts."

As part of the Festival's "Bel Canto at Caramoor" programming, the performance was largely built around the young American soprano Angela Meade as Hélène. Meade has been winning vocal awards and has become a regular at major companies including the Met, where she is scheduled to sing Bellini's NORMA, no less, in the coming season. I find her still a work in progress; she has all the high notes and a voice as big as the Grand Canyon. But while she is assured in her technique and has the staying power for the long role, it is hard to call her work alluring or lush and she frequently does not seem to be connecting with the character. Meade was better as the opera went on--and loosened up enough in Act V to playfully throw roses to the audience after "Merci, jeunes amies"--which made me hopeful about the days ahead, as she reaches prime time for voices of her size.

American tenor John Osborn did a fine job with the role of Henri and held his own against Meade--no small accomplishment. He hit all the high notes, including a high D, and had all the ardor the role called for. Italian baritone Marco Nisticò as Guy de Monfort, French governor of Sicily and Henri's father, gave a nuanced performance, though his voice seemed a bit small next to the soprano and tenor. There were no worries about vocal heft from Turkish bass Burak Bilgili, as Procida, but he sounded furry until he warmed up sufficiently halfway through the opera. Joseph Beutel, a young bass-baritone with a rich voice who is part of the Caramoor Bel Canto Young Artists program, stood out as Bethune.

Lush orchestral showcase

Conductor Crutchfield propelled the long evening with the help of director Steven Tharp in marshaling his forces onstage. The Orchestra of St. Luke's did a marvelous job in Verdi's rich score, particularly in the orchestra showcase of the ballet, "The Four Seasons," which is best known these days in its incarnation as a work by George Balanchine for New York City Ballet. Chorus duties were handled admirably by the Caramoor Bel Canto Young Artists and Apprentice Artists.

While LES VÊPRES SICILIENNES may not be among Verdi's greatest creations, Caramoor's performance proved that even after his middle period triumphs, he still had some tricks up his sleeve. We should be thankful to Crutchfield for showing them to us.

Photo: Angela Meade

Photo by Gabe Palacio