(Salzburg, Austria) The national holiday got off to a memorable start at the Salzburg Festival with a performance of Verdi's Messa da Requiem in the Grosses Festspielhaus.
Riccardo Muti led the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna State Opera Chorus and soloists soprano Krassimira Stoyanova, mezzo Olga Borodina, tenor Saimir Pirgu, and bass Ildar Abdrazakov in a reading that made no bones about the operatic and dramatic aspects of Verdi's writing.
The opening notes were whispered out by the muted cellos while the male choristers sang the opening word "Requiem" in a guttural tone.
The opening of the Dies Irae was simply blood-curdling, though Muti unfortunately allowed the orchestra to briefly cover the chorus. Later in this movement, trumpets played antiphonally from a small space in the proscenium walls. At one point, Muti incorrectly cued the soprano soloist instead of the tenor soloist, though this didn't result in any miscues from the performers. The Agnus Dei was rendered sweetly. During a quiet passage in the Libera me, someone's cell phone went off, much to the dismay of the audience.
Abdrazakov and his wife, Borodina, sang the Latin text with slight Russian accents. Borodina, who was ordered to take a vocal rest some months ago by doctors, was in relatively fine voice. Even so, she wasn't going full out in tutti passages with the chorus, and in one instance finished singing long before the others. And she also had slight intonation problems on the word "luceat" in Lux aeterna.
Pirgu, Albanian by birth, but largely Italian by training, sounded quite Italian, floating his notes beautifully in the Domine Jesu. He sang most of his material directly at Muti. Brownie points.
Stoyanova had many fine moments, though her "voce cupa" on the words "tremens factus sum ego" was a bit on the dry side.
Muti & Co. racked up about ten minutes on the applause-o-meter. And if you're keeping score at home, the ViennaPO had four women in their ranks this morning.
Photo by Leonard Turnevicius: The musicians in Verdi's Messa da Requiem at the Grosses Festspielhaus.
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