Giacomo Puccini died in Brussels, 29 November 1924, 65 years old. Precisely on that day, the Opéra Royal de Wallonie pays tribute to the composer with the creation of a new work, Pucciniana, composed by Andrea Battistoni on commission from the Opéra Royal de Wallonie. In the second part, fragments from his operas are programmed.
Judging by the inspiration of conductor Giampaolo Bisanti, I dare assume that the chief conductor of the ORW certainly played a key role in initiating the commission. Recently he conducted Tosca at the Hamburg opera house, and during the concert the enthusiasm and intensity with which he directed soloists, choir and orchestra were boundless! He proved himself to be a fantastic Puccini conductor and received an extremely concentrated response from the orchestra. He let his orchestra shine on stage, with some beautiful solos, such as the viola player with the choir in the delightful "humming chorus" from Madama Butterfly.
Pucciniana by Andrea Battistoni is a cantata for soprano, tenor, choir and orchestra, "a musical dialogue in five scenes". The composer says about it himself in the programme booklet: « with this piece, I wished to dialogue with his music and his artistic heritage to pay them sincere homage, full of admiration and gratitude. »
In the extensive fresco we of course recognize quotations from Puccini's operas, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, La Rondine and so on. But Battistoni also draws on a project about Queen Marie-Antoinette of France, which was never realized, but which Battistoni allows to merge with opera divas such as Tosca or Manon Lescaut. A few salon compositions by Puccini also add charm to the second part. Melancholy alternates with more cheerful passages and the piece ends with an elegiac conclusion in which a crescendo from choir and orchestra gradually becomes hushed and softly fades into the distance. Giampaolo Bisanti also ends the entire concert with a choral arrangement of Nessun dorma from Turandot, the opera that Puccini left unfinished, a touching tribute to the master of Lucca.
The soloist pair, tenor Gaetano Salas and soprano Marigona Qerkezi were physically completely mismatched, but fortunately their voices blended beautifully and they performed with great feeling both their passages in Pucciniana and the arias in the second part. Salas has a warm yet clear timbre, though in the first part somewhat too strong vibrato, but in the arias he could let loose. He was a moving Rodolfo and Cavaradossi with moreover perfectly intelligible diction. This was not at all the case with Marigona Qerkezi. Like her figure, her voice too is lush. Her tones are powerful and expressive, but not a word is intelligible.
The audience was clearly delighted with this beautiful concert, an excellent tribute to this fantastic opera composer.