Amilcare Ponchielli: La Gioconda

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Deborah Voigt, Elisabetta Fiorillo, Ewa Podles, Richard Margison, Carlo Guelfi, and Carlo Colombara star in this 2005 Gran Teatre del Liceu production of the Ponchielli opera conducted by Daniele Callegari.

Amilcare Ponchielli: La Gioconda Review

Ponchielli was a contemporary of Verdi. Arrigo Boito, the composer of the opera Mefistofele, and the librettist of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra and his two final masterpieces, Otello and Falstaff, wrote the libretto for this opera. La Gioconda is a beautiful opera although not on the level of Verdi's best scores. But it contains a few hits like the soprano beautiful aria Suicidio or the tenor very famous aria Cielo e mar. The baritone act one monologue O monumento is very close to Jago's Credo monologue in Verdi's opera. And there is of course the very famous and charming Dance of the hours...

I am quite familiar with the works of the Italian director Pier Luigi Pizzi from a few DVDs of his staging that I have. I like his working method. His stage is never overcrowded and beautified a la Zeffirelli. But it is always very aesthetic and does not have a ragged look either like in the work of a few German directors that I have seen lately... there are a few ravishingly scenes, like the burning in the ship that closes Act II. The conductor Daniele Callegari is doing a fine job and the Liceu orchestra is playing splendidly.

Deborah Voigt is singing the title role. I am not completely convinced that her voice and singing is ideal for the Italian repertoire, but I liked what I heard and was especially impressed in the big ensembles when the voice is heard clearly over the loud chorus and orchestra. The Suicidio aria was done decently, but I heard better versions.

In the leading tenor role of Enzo Grimaldo was singing the Canadian tenor Richard Margison. The voice is beautiful in the lower range, but the high notes are forced. The great hit Cielo e mar was fine but not brilliant. His lover, Laura was sung by Italian Mezzo Elisabetta Fiorillo. She is fine. So is her husband Alvise, sung here by the very good Italian bass Carlo Colombara. Italian baritone Carlo Guelfi sings here the baritone role, Barnaba. He is an experienced performer, but I heard better rendering of this role. His O monumento monologue is very effective. Last is Gioconda mother La Cieca. She was sung here by Polish contralto Ewa Podles. She is a great artist with an impressive stage presence and good acting abilities, but alas, her voice here is not in good shape. I hardly recognized her voice, but the audience loved her performance...

And a few final statements about the dance of the hours: the way it is done here is absolutely charming: twelve female dancers in colorful dresses to indicate the months (?). The solo couple, ngel Corella and Letizia Giuliani is nothing less than amazing!! The audience went crazy after the dance, with very loud and long applause.

To sum up: this is not an ideal performance, but it has its fine moments. I liked it. Technical quality is first class. There is another DVD version for this opera that was filmed in 1985 at the Vienna state opera with Marton and Domingo. This version remains first choice for this opera on DVD overall, but the spectacular Dance of the Hour at the Liceu is far superior to the one from Vienna!!

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