’Cavalleria rusticana’ on the Calvary Hill

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’Cavalleria rusticana’ on the Calvary Hill

Mascagni's opera ’Cavalleria rusticana’ at the Bartók Plus Opera Festival. Review.

For many years it has been a tradition at the Bartók Plus Opera Festival in Miskolc to present performances ’in the street’, that is, to make outdoor productions at various locations in the town. As part of this series called "Opera for Thousands" presenting popular operas, this year the audience of the Festival saw Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana taking place on an unconventional site again: on the Calvary Hill of Miskolc.

It is a huge space, with the chapel at the top of the hill, and with two smaller and a larger stage below, built for the performance. In the middle a large chestnut tree colors the landscape, while on the left a huge staircase can be seen. Many scenes – primarily the arias and duets – were put on these stage platforms, but in the crowd scenes Italian tage-director Paolo Panizza took advantage of the grassy hillside in its entirety. With a little fantasy we could easily imagine ourselves being there in the story of Cavalleria rusticana, which takes place on the main square of a Sicilian village, in front of the church on Easter Sunday. Paolo Panizza created a real show; the special scenery even made it possible for Alfio, the carter to arrive home on a real two-horse wagon. And the inhabitants of the village were almost at our fingertips, walking, dancing on the grass, living the life of the small community.

In order to fill this spacious area, a large choir was needed. This time it consisted of the expanded Choir of the Miskolc National Theater, the Festival Choir, which was made up of different choirs from Miskolc, and the South Korean Asan Civic Choir. (Asan is the twin town of Miskolc, and the choir also gave a concert at the Opera Festival.)

Before the performance a special guest was introduced: Guida Mascagni, the great-granddaughter of composer Pietro Mascagni, who also watched the composer's opera Iris on the following day.

Using the microphone in an open-air performance is unavoidable, but it makes it difficult to get an accurate picture of the vocal performances of the singers, especially the volume of their voice. The main characters, Gabriella Balga, Hector Lopez Mendoza and Zsolt Haja were the same singers, who played the leading roles in Puccini’s Edgar a few weeks ago in Budapest. It is a coincidence, but it provides a good basis for comparison. Then all three were great, but this time only Gabriella Balga was able to repeat the high quality of her former performance.

Gabriella Balga and Hector Lopez Mendoza

The young singer, portraying now Santuzza, was definitely the best of the show. Her acting was sophisticated, full of passion and pain. Her soprano voice was balanced throughout, and she sang with refined phrasing and secure high notes.

Hector Lopez Mendoza, in the role of Turiddu, was vocally not at his best. His tenor did not soar in the usual way, he also probably moved and ran too much, and soon ran out of breath. His legatos became fragmented, and he seemed to be a little hoarse, too. However, his lively, energetic acting could make us forget his somewhat weaker vocal performance.

I had a similar opinion on baritone Zsolt Haja, portraying Alfio. As always, he acted spiritedly, with great intensity, but sometimes he sang off-key. I had the impression that because of the open-air performance the two male protagonists wanted to sing with full power all the way through, not relying on the microphone, which they are obviously less used to.

Eszter Balogh proved to be a good choice for the seductive role of Lola, this time arriving from the top of the huge staircase. Her singing was of an appropriate quality, as well.

Eszter Balogh

Sound engineer Carsten Kümmel did an excellent job. The voice of the soloists singing into the microphone sounded without any distortion, and he professionally created the delicate balance between the sound of the chorus singing without microphones and the sound of the soloists. (Anyway, a disturbing noise of a drone, circulating above us, could also be heard during the performance.)

Conducted by Balázs Kocsár, the Miskolc National Theater Orchestra – which was also situated on the side of the hill – performed well under the given circumstances.

Gabriella Balga

Many things can go wrong in an outdoor production of this kind, and the weather is just one of these factors. Thanks to the thorough preparatory work and the right number of rehearsals – and some luck – this time almost everything went well. We saw Cavalleria rusticana from a perspective and in an atmosphere, which a theatrical performance can never provide.

Balázs Csák

photo: János Vajda