Madrid
Updated:05/04/2022 01:21h
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Umberto Giordano is, like his contemporaries Pietro Mascagni and Ruggero Leoncavallo (authors of ‘Cavalleria Rusticana’ and ‘Pagliacci’, respectively), an author known for only one opera: ‘Andrea Chenier‘ (in your case you could also talk about ‘Fedora’). But it does not mean that she did not compose any more works; in her catalog there are a dozen titles, among them ‘Siberia‘, premiered at the Scala in Milan on December 19, 1903 and which now arrives for the first time at the Teatro Real, which presents it on the 6th and 9th in a concert version. The musical direction is in charge of sunday hindoya and the cast is led by the soprano Sonia Yoncheva, one of the great opera stars of our days; He is accompanied by Elena Zilio, Mercedes Gancedo, Murat Karahan, George Petean, Alejandro del Cerro, Albert Casals, Tomeu Bibiloni, Fernando Radó, Moisés Marín and Claudio Malgesini, as well as the Choir and Orchestra of the Teatro Real.
For ‘Siberia’, Umberto Giordano had the libretto written by Luigi Illica, with whom he had already collaborated on ‘Andrea Chénier’ and who worked with Puccini on ‘La bohème’, ‘Tosca’ and Madama Butterfly’. He based this on two books: ‘Recuerdos de la casa de los muertos’, by Fiodor Dostoyevski, and ‘Resurrection’, by Leon Tolstoy. The composer thus returned to the Russian universe of the 19th century, which he had already tackled in ‘Fedora’. In fact, the score evokes Russian folklore, and includes popular melodies such as ‘Singing of the Volga rowers‘, which Falla or Stravinsky would also use.
The protagonist of ‘Siberia’ is the courtesan Stephana -wife, lover and heroine-, as stated in the three acts into which the work is divided. The woman secretly loves the officer Vassili and when he is sentenced to forced labor for wounding Prince Alexis Frouwor, Stephana’s lover, in a duel, she joins him in Siberia, willing to share the rest of her days with him. But her fate is hostile to her to the end: together with her former protector, the criminal Gleby -who had sold her to the prince in her day-, Stephana will be killed by the guards during an escape attempt.
Despite the fact that ‘Siberia’ was a notable success at its premiere in Milan and its subsequent presentation in Paris; that, according to some experts, it was the favorite title of its composer; and that a composer like Gabriel Faurè defined it “as one of the most interesting and unique works of the musical scene of the early twentieth century”, the opera fell into oblivion. sopranos like Renée Fleming, Angela Georghiu o Ermonela Jaho have included some of his arias on their record recordings, but the contemporary recovery of this title took place only five years ago in a production presented at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino stage directed by Roberto went and musically by Gianandrea Noseda. In the cast, two of the protagonists who will be on stage at the Teatro Real: the soprano Sonya Yoncheva and the baritone George Petean.
“Although currently there is some comment against its musical value – has written Fernando Fraga-, accusing her in the drama of being too opportunistic, ‘Siberia’ has all the interest and many of the ingredients of a traditional Italian opera: tenor and baritone love the same soprano woman, a woman with a somewhat questionable life and who for love seeks to regenerate. A moral ‘resurrection’ achieved at the cost of her life, which she loses, appropriately, in the arms of her lover and because of the wicked arts of the perfidious baritone ».
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