I am quite fond of La Forza Del Destino. It is not among Verdi's best, and with its sprawling story it is not very consistent. However, the best of the music(the overture, Alvaro and Carlo's duets and most of the arias) is up there with some of Verdi's very finest, I don't think he has written a better overture than the one for Forza. The DVD competition is a mixed bag, the best is the 1958 one with Tebaldi and Corelli followed by the 1978 La Scala and 1984 Met performances. The worst is the 2008 Nina Stemme production which had a couple of good performances but suffered from great distaste. This Forza from Parma is neither the best or worst, but could have been better in my view. Of the Tutto Verdi Collection, it is certainly better than 2005's Ernani and 2010's Il Trovatore, but I haven't seen anything yet that has dethroned 2008's Rigoletto as the jewel of the crown for the Collection, though 2007's Luisa Miller comes close.
Are there good things? Yes, if there weren't the rating would be much lower. The orchestral playing and Gianluigi Gelmetti's conducting were the stars here. The orchestra play with beauty of tone and real dramatic force and deserved better stage direction to match the quality of their playing. Gelmetti clearly loves the score and has a feeling for Verdi, I felt the same with his conducting for 2011's Un Ballo in Maschera as well. As a conductor he is very musical, he is accommodating and he feels the drama, great qualities to have. The chorus sing with good balance and a vibrant sound. The men are sonorous and the women's top notes soar very nicely. The sets are very simple and somewhat abstract but quite striking, certainly standing out from other productions of Forza or any of Verdi's work for that matter. Act 3 is particularly atmospheric.
Of the cast, Carlo Lepore is the standout as a truly delightful Melitone. He has the ability to sing and act with great authority and character, the voice has an appealing colour and used intelligently and really it is a beautifully characterised performance and in a different league to anything else there was on stage. I also think that Vladimir Stoyanov has a voice that is beautiful and powerful, it is also one that has depth and is used expressively. As an actor- in productions where the cast were not consistent he was one of the bright spots in this regard- he is good, he has the right intensity and command for Carlo(sadly not matched by Machado in their many duets together). unfortunately though for Stoyanov I could tell that he was starting to tire by the end, not surprising as he has a lot to do and it is a big sing(possibly the heaviest role I've seen him do), and while his acting is fine he doesn't quite bring much new to the role.
The rest of the cast are disappointing, and a lot of the problem is that they are singing roles that are too heavy for them. Dimitra Theodossiou is a conscientious performer with a voice that is growing on me every time I hear her. She displays some lovely soft singing and there is evidence of beautiful tone, seen in a truly heartfelt Pace, Pace Mio Dio, however her high notes sounded restrained when they should soar and her chest tone sounds forced. Usually she is a good actress, and while she is doing her best and is involved in the drama, a lot of the time she tries too hard with some expressions and gestures that are wildly over-exaggerated(I read somewhere that her acting style reminded them of that of silent horror films and that comparison to me is not far off). Acquiles Machado I think is the worst case for the singing-too-heavy-roles problem, he is constantly strained and monochromatic and the role requires a darker sound than a sound like Machado's that is bright and suited more to roles like Duke of Mantua. On stage he is the weakest of the principal performers dramatically, constantly ranging from bland to non-entity.
Roberto Scandiuzzi is no stranger to Padre Guardiano, but he has performed the role much better. His voice here sounds worn, unsteady and very underpowered. Even dramatically he is uninspired, he does show the benevolent and dignified sides of his character but he doesn't embody those qualities, and it even looks as though he doesn't care less about the staging. Mariana Pentcheva impressed me greatly as Cuniza in 2008's Oberto and Ulrica in 2001's Un Ballo in Maschera, but while her Preziosilla is an improvement on her 2005's Azucena(Il Trovatore), her voice here does not have a very pleasant sound and her interpretation lacked any kind of character or vitality. I didn't care for the costumes either, they were very drab and didn't really seem to gel within the setting, the sometimes too dark lighting doesn't help. The staging didn't involve me really at all and didn't make me care about the characters' conflicts, Alvaro and Carlo's duets lacked any kind of fire and disadvantaged that one performer was a good enough actor and the other wasn't. The chorus are static and don't bring much of a personality, while much of the acting ranges from trying too hard(Theodossiou) or not enough(Machado), only Lepore and Stoyanov avoided those two extremes really.
So all in all, has some good things but has too much bad to recommend it. 5/10 Bethany Cox
Are there good things? Yes, if there weren't the rating would be much lower. The orchestral playing and Gianluigi Gelmetti's conducting were the stars here. The orchestra play with beauty of tone and real dramatic force and deserved better stage direction to match the quality of their playing. Gelmetti clearly loves the score and has a feeling for Verdi, I felt the same with his conducting for 2011's Un Ballo in Maschera as well. As a conductor he is very musical, he is accommodating and he feels the drama, great qualities to have. The chorus sing with good balance and a vibrant sound. The men are sonorous and the women's top notes soar very nicely. The sets are very simple and somewhat abstract but quite striking, certainly standing out from other productions of Forza or any of Verdi's work for that matter. Act 3 is particularly atmospheric.
Of the cast, Carlo Lepore is the standout as a truly delightful Melitone. He has the ability to sing and act with great authority and character, the voice has an appealing colour and used intelligently and really it is a beautifully characterised performance and in a different league to anything else there was on stage. I also think that Vladimir Stoyanov has a voice that is beautiful and powerful, it is also one that has depth and is used expressively. As an actor- in productions where the cast were not consistent he was one of the bright spots in this regard- he is good, he has the right intensity and command for Carlo(sadly not matched by Machado in their many duets together). unfortunately though for Stoyanov I could tell that he was starting to tire by the end, not surprising as he has a lot to do and it is a big sing(possibly the heaviest role I've seen him do), and while his acting is fine he doesn't quite bring much new to the role.
The rest of the cast are disappointing, and a lot of the problem is that they are singing roles that are too heavy for them. Dimitra Theodossiou is a conscientious performer with a voice that is growing on me every time I hear her. She displays some lovely soft singing and there is evidence of beautiful tone, seen in a truly heartfelt Pace, Pace Mio Dio, however her high notes sounded restrained when they should soar and her chest tone sounds forced. Usually she is a good actress, and while she is doing her best and is involved in the drama, a lot of the time she tries too hard with some expressions and gestures that are wildly over-exaggerated(I read somewhere that her acting style reminded them of that of silent horror films and that comparison to me is not far off). Acquiles Machado I think is the worst case for the singing-too-heavy-roles problem, he is constantly strained and monochromatic and the role requires a darker sound than a sound like Machado's that is bright and suited more to roles like Duke of Mantua. On stage he is the weakest of the principal performers dramatically, constantly ranging from bland to non-entity.
Roberto Scandiuzzi is no stranger to Padre Guardiano, but he has performed the role much better. His voice here sounds worn, unsteady and very underpowered. Even dramatically he is uninspired, he does show the benevolent and dignified sides of his character but he doesn't embody those qualities, and it even looks as though he doesn't care less about the staging. Mariana Pentcheva impressed me greatly as Cuniza in 2008's Oberto and Ulrica in 2001's Un Ballo in Maschera, but while her Preziosilla is an improvement on her 2005's Azucena(Il Trovatore), her voice here does not have a very pleasant sound and her interpretation lacked any kind of character or vitality. I didn't care for the costumes either, they were very drab and didn't really seem to gel within the setting, the sometimes too dark lighting doesn't help. The staging didn't involve me really at all and didn't make me care about the characters' conflicts, Alvaro and Carlo's duets lacked any kind of fire and disadvantaged that one performer was a good enough actor and the other wasn't. The chorus are static and don't bring much of a personality, while much of the acting ranges from trying too hard(Theodossiou) or not enough(Machado), only Lepore and Stoyanov avoided those two extremes really.
So all in all, has some good things but has too much bad to recommend it. 5/10 Bethany Cox
