At the Bastille Theatre, the Paris Opera introduced us to a bizarre and ultimately counterproductive pairing of Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana with Hindemith’s very short Sancta Susanna, an emblem of early 20th-century German expressionism.
This was unfair to both operas. Quite apart from the clashing themes – a good old Italian verismo yarn about honour and vengeance versus a very Germanic tale of sexual obsession in a nunnery – Sancta Susanna (23 minutes) unexpectedly managed to upstage the preceding Cavalleria (75 minutes), leaving the audience stunned and wanting more.
That might say more about Mario Martone’s insipid staging of Mascagni’s best-loved work than enthusiasm for the Hindemith, were it not for the cast. Anna Caterina Antonacci’s Susanna was simply spell-binding, writhing around on her cell floor like Vanessa Redgrave in Ken Russell’s film The Devils and daring to go topless. She had terrific support from the sturdy mezzo of Renée Morloc’s Klementia and an efficient production that only went astray by introducing a giant spider into the proceedings.
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March 2017
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