BWW Reviews Italy: 'Mad' About Soprano Peretyatko in PURITANI at Teatro Reggio in Turin

A season ago, when soprano Olga Peretyatko made her Met debut as Elvira in Bellini's I PURITANI, I marveled at her gorgeous voice and stamina, but noted that her inexperience in the role showed. I hoped for more from her when she got it under her belt. What a difference a year makes! As the heroine in a new production by Fabio Ceresa at the Teatro Regio in Turin, Italy (a co-venture with Maggio Musicale Fiorentino), she was, simply, wonderful, at the performance on April 19.

In brief, the opera revolves around the followers of Cromwell and the Puritans versus the supporters of the House of Stuart. The central soprano role, Elvira--a specialty of Callas, Sutherland and Sills, among others--is a killer, filled with trills, leaps and more high notes than only a bel canto composer would dare to ask for and expect a singer to emerge unscathed. Peretyatko, however, was triumphant. In her sumptuous costumes, by Giuseppe Palella, she cut a glamorous figure physically, but especially vocally, shimmering, simmering and going mad when called for, all in grand form.

From her first Act I aria, "Sai com'arde in petto mio" (when she tells her uncle that she will die if she cannot marry her beloved) to the charming "Son vergin vezzosa" (when she thinks she will marry her beloved) to madness ("Qui la voce ... Vien, diletto") and then back again, in the duet with her love, "Vieni fra queste braccia...Caro, caro...," Peretyatko delivered thrilling singing throughout.

She received wonderful, sympathetic support from bass Nicola Ulivieri as her uncle and ally, Giorgio, in their first act duet and elsewhere, as well as from baritone Nicola Alaimo as Riccardo. Mezzo Samantha Korbey also did well as Enrichetta, the widow of Charles I, whose need for the help of Elvira's true love unwittingly sets our heroine's bipolar episode in motion.

Speaking of Elvira's beloved, Arturo... When Dmitri Korchak debuted at the Met as Don Ottavio in DON GIOVANNI earlier this year, I found his intonation (or, rather, his lack of it) to be a real problem. He did better here, with some nice heft to his singing, except--and it's a big except--for his 'money' notes, including a high F. He missed all but one of them. To paraphrase Lady Bracknell (in Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest") "To miss one high note is a misfortune; to miss most of them is sheer carelessness."

Korchak's high notes weren't the only misfortune in this production. The dreary, gloomy sets by Tiziano Santi made one long for the tatters of the current production at the Met. But, never mind, when Peretyatko was singing, everything else seemed unimportant.

The Teatro Reggio's visit to Carnegie Hall last year, with Rossini's GUGLIELMO TELL, showed the high quality of the orchestral playing under music director Gianandrea Noseda and the stellar work of the Teatro Regio Chorus under Fattoria Vittadini. This time, the conductor was the rising star Michele Mariotti, music director of the Teatro Comunale in Bologna (who also happens to be married to diva Peretyatko), and he showed a real affinity for this music, as he did last year at the Met (as well as in Rossini's LA DONNA DEL LAGO). The orchestra and chorus shone brightly.

The Teatro Regio in Turin hadn't staged I PURITANI in 20 years. And while the production isn't one for the ages--and despite the absurdities of the libretto--with a score like this and a heroine like Peretyatko, it was good to have it back.

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Photo: Olga Peretyatko as Elvira

Photos by Ramella & Giannese/Teatro Regio Torino

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