Cristina, Regina di Svezia
Wexford Festival Opera
****
The third of this year's Wexford Festival operas, Foroni's Cristina, Regina di Svezia (1849), was the year's real dark horse. Hats off to anyone who had registered Jacopo Foroni (1825-1858) as a likely arrival on Wexford's agenda.
Even in Sweden, where he spent most of the last decade of his working life, awareness of his work was so low that Cristina, his most important opera, would wait until 2007 for a concert revival.
Foroni was no run-of-the-mill Italian opera composer. He had a full command of the Italian style, but he also had a lively interest in the latest non-
operatic musical developments around Europe and he wrote a treatise on orchestration.
Cristina, Regina di Svezia treats the abdication in 1654 of Queen Christina of Sweden as a multi-faceted love story. The new Wexford production, directed with flair by Stephen Medcalf and handsomely designed by Jamie Vartan, updates the setting to the 1930s, when real-life royal romance and abdication was in the international headlines. Newsreel footage from the time is available to add to the atmosphere.
In Cristina, Foroni dipped into his well-stocked box of musical tricks for a series of in-your-face effects that mimic, in operatic terms, the explosion- prone scenarios of Hollywood blockbusters. It may not be subtle, but it sure is exciting to have ensembles and choruses sent into overdrive so readily and so often.
Everyone in Wexford conspired to make the ride as thrilling as possible, Helena Dix's Cristina delivering every last high note with piercing purity, Lucia Cirillo shining as her rival, Maria, the chorus raising the roof on demand, and the Wexford Festival Orchestra under Andrew Greenwood blazing full and fierce.
Has Wexford revealed a worthy rival to Verdi? I doubt it. For all its demonstrativeness and immediacy, Foroni’s vocal writing remains rather too impersonal for that. And the big scenes are carried along by a generalised emotionality which tells you that big stirrings are underway, but doesn’t really convey exactly what those stirrings are. But, even if I’m not sure I’d rush off to hear it again, I’m very glad to have heard it so well done.
What's on in Wexford - Festival event listings
Today
St Iberius Church, Philippe Do (tenor), Adam Burnette (piano). 1.05pm, 1850-467372.
Presentation Secondary School, Donizetti: L'Elisir d'Amore. 3.30pm, 1850-467372.
Wexford Opera House, Rota: Il Cappello di Paglia di Firenze. 8pm, 1850-467372.
Tomorrow
St Iberius Church, Una Hunt (piano), Wexford Festival Singers. Back to Titanic. 11am
St Iberius Church, Aled Hall (tenor), Janet Haney (piano). 1.05pm
Presentation Secondary School Richard Wargo: Losers. 3.30pm
Wexford Opera House Massenet: Thérèse; La Navarraise 8pm
Wexford Festival Opera runs until November 3rd
