old skool diversions

DtO reminds us on Twitter today that there is good stuff to be had on francetv's Culturebox. Among the points of interest for Old Skoolers is a production from La Fenice of Stiffelio, Verdi's (at the time) failed experiment in bringing ambivalence -- Breaking: Accused Soprano Actually Guilty! -- to the 19th century opera stage. Written between Luisa Miller and Rigoletto, with a libretto by Piave, it suffered a complicated fate, and more or less disappeared for the next hundred and forty years. It had its Met premiere in 1993.

I haven't seen all of this video yet. At first glance, production-wise, it doesn't appear all that interested in challenging performance conventions -- nothing says "Verdi opera" like a long wooden conference table with books strewn across it -- but since for this opera there really aren't any performance conventions, it's not much of a crime to cleave to the standard, at least while the focus is on the score. The key thing is, unlike other works from this period of Verdi's career, this one hasn't had decades of performance history with every great singer under the sun, so, if you'll forgive the baseball metaphor, it has yet to pitch a perfect game. Which makes every production worth a listen in...for anyone into this kind of thing.

addendum: and while you're there, if you are one of those people, and if your French is pretty good, you have a little time yet to check out the source material for the aforementioned Luisa Miller.