In an otherworldly dimension – which almost unconsciously reminds us of the end of the dissolute Don Giovanni – the bloody and ruthless revenge of Anna (by now belonging to the ranks of the Villi) takes place against Roberto, the betrothed who with his betrayal has brought the young fiancée to her death. The host of the Wilis, like Nordic Bacchae, tear the perjurer to pieces, brandishing his heart and guts, chanting – with no small amount of blasphemy – “Hosanna!”.
Thinking about Puccini and the concrete adherence to the human passions of the protagonists of his works, the fairy-tale setting of the subject of the works is quite surprising. Villi, a “dance opera” with a libretto by Ferdinando Fontana which marked the theatrical debut of the twenty-five-year-old composer who had just graduated from the Milan Conservatory. But in that period – we are in the 1880s – the little more than adolescent Puccini, who arrived in the Lombard capital for his musical studies, frequented with assiduity and curiosity the circles of the Milanese Scapigliatura of which Ferdinando Fontana was a leading exponent. Let us remember that the suggestion of the fairy-tale and the grotesque was among the characterizing elements of the literary and artistic movement that fired the souls of numerous Milanese and Turin intellectuals at the time.
The competition announced by the publisher Sonzogno for a one-act theatrical work was thus the occasion of the first collaboration between Puccini and Fontana: a partnership widely appreciated by the public and critics on the occasion of the troubled debut of the Villi (the opera did not win the prize but was staged at the Dal Verme thanks to the support of Casa Ricordi and a large group of leading figures of Milanese culture) and destined to be repeated a few years later, with less happy results, however, with Edgar.
At the Regio di Torino for the new production of Puccini’s first opera, proposed in the two-act version, the director Pier Francesco Maestriniaided by the evocative scenes of Guillermo Nova (who resorted, gracefully and without excess, to fascinating and evocative projections), exalted the côté fantastic and dreamlike of the plot, transposing the story of betrayed love and ruthless revenge from the original medieval setting of the story “Les Willis” by Alphonse Karr to the years contemporary with the composition of the work.
The costumes of Luca Dell’Alpi they stood out in all their colorful variety in the first act, in the sumptuous scene that celebrates the engagement of Roberto and Anna, the beloved and only daughter of William Wulf, a wealthy landowner of the anonymous village in the Black Forest. In a work in which dances and pantomimes have a leading role, we appreciated the elegant and communicative choreographies designed by Michele Cosentino. The theatrical and narrative potential of Cosentino’s figures were particularly enhanced at the beginning of the second act in the scene in which Roberto, having arrived in Mainz to acquire a large inheritance, gives in to the flattery of a skilled enchantress, thus solemnly forgetting the promise of love. addressed to Anna.
At the head of a fabulous Orchestra of the Regio, Riccardo Frizza he balanced the character of the score well between lyrical abandons and dark tones while highlighting a writing that shows us a Puccini who is more interested and confident than ever even in the symphonic context. Ulysses Trabacchin he instructed the choir with solid professionalism and the artists of the team, in addition to confident musicality and an always careful and refined vocalism, showed scenic and interpretative ability in a non-trivial title for a choral formation.
Roberta Montegna Anna was more convincing in the dramatic vocalism of the second act compared to the more bel canto style of the first. Taking over at the last minute from Martin Muehle, the willing one Azer Zada he honorably supported the part of Roberto by intoning with sufficient confidence and credible nostalgia the romance “Torna ai felici dì”, undoubtedly the most famous page of the opera. A little below expectations Simone Piazzola in the role of Guglielmo Wulf: the singer has a beautiful baritone and a noble accent in playing Anna’s desperate father, but the high tessitura did not always seem perfectly in focus. The consensus expressed by the large audience at the premiere was warm.
The review refers to the premiere of April 19, 2024
Lodovico Buscatti
Tags: Turin Teatro Regio Villi
