Catalani: La Wally
Soloists
Monte-Carlo opera
Fausto Celva
This was the real thing. I knew the opera by reputation (and because becuase of its rather unfortunate title for an English speaker) and I had heard the famous Act I aria Eben? Ne andrò lontana but otherwise Catalani was an unknown quantity as far as I was concerned. I think that I had assumed that it would be a completely over the top ‘scream fest’ with the characters emoting at the tops of their voices. It fact what surprised, and pleased me, was the variety in the opera. Yes there was plenty of drama but also a lot of light and shade with plenty of local colour. The opera is set in Switzerland (the story is impossible of course and end with the heroine throwing herself down a ravine…) and perhaps because of that I heard faint echoes here and there of Guillame Tell. Certainly some of the music had a French tinge.
The end was gripping. The lovers are reunited after the tenor comes back from a near death experience but then after they come together then get caught up in a snowstorm. He falls down a ravine and she follows him with a final declaration of love. Catalani whips up the tension here very effectively and uses the chorus (perhaps remembering the storm in Rigoletto) to ratchet up the atmosphere. It certainly grabbed my attention - though it did wonder as I was listening how on earth it could ever be staged!.
This was Catalani’s last opera - he died at the age of 39 soon after writing it.. It does make you wonder what else he might have achieved had he lived into old age.
