Two words sure to put you ahead in Operamanship are giovane scuola. It’s most unlikely you will be asked what they mean but it’s as well to know, just in case.
In the 18th and 19th centuries bel canto composers made opera increasingly popular with a wider public. Bellini, Donezetti and Rossini are examples. Of course their operas are still extremely popular today but in the middle of the 19th century Verdi wrote operas in a different style – Grand Opera – a style recognisable in his choruses and arias. One of the joys of opera is its development from Monteverdi (no relation) to Adams, Birtwhistle, Dove and Glass today. So Verdi’s successors developed a new style: opera verismo. These operas had melodramatic, often violent, plots with characters drawn from everyday life. Opera lavello da cucina; kitchen sink opera, perhaps.
Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo is a great example of the style. He composed at least twenty operas and operettas but only Pagliacci remains in the repertoire these days; although Wexford has probably proved me wrong. It is often performed in a double bill with Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana. (They are both one act operas.) Mascagni and Puccini are the two best known opera verismo composers today and they are called the giovane scuola – the young school.
L’amico Fritz was first performed in 1891 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. The opera house is still there but under a different name. It perhaps did not reflect Italian values in the war. I saw Tosca there in 2017. It is by Mascagni and except for the cherry duet in Act II is largely forgotten except at Opera Holland Park where it is being performed, not for the first time, this season. Well, there was an excellent production at Covent Garden with Pavarotti and Mirella Freni (who died last year) in 1968; the EMI recording is beautiful. I went to OHP last week with l’amici V&A. After an excellent early dinner at Il Portico my attention wasn’t as sharp as it should have been but the critics were awake and recognised a slice of opera verismo from the giovane scuola when it was put in front of them with a bowl of cherries.
OHP has a tradition of unearthing little-known Italian verismo operas and L’amico Fritz is another triumph… If you’ve been feeling out of sorts in these COVID times, Friend Fritz may have just the tonic for you. (
Opera Holland Park made its name with verismo opera; it is heartening to see the company keeping up the good work. (
Unfortunately the last night was when I was there, so hard cheese. OK you can listen to the cherry duet.
It is a charming duet, but I am somewhat surprised to hear the rest of the opera passes muster. It must be a charming production, indeed.
The story of Freni and Pavarotti sharing the same wet nurse as children in Modena is better than fiction.