La Gioconda at the Easter Festival in Salzburg

The Easter festival ends in Salzburg. Instead of two opera performances, this time there were three, because Anna Netrebko sings in Amilcare Ponchielli’s La Gioconda. Tells Alexey Mokrousov.

Anna Netrebko performs abroad today much less frequently than before. At the summer Salzburg Festival, where her world fame began, the singer’s name will no longer be found on the playbill. All the more understandable is the excitement around “La Gioconda” by the Italian composer Amilcare Ponchielli at the Easter Festival in the same Salzburg – this is an infrequent opportunity to listen to Netrebko in Europe; this year the singer has announced performances in Naples, Milan, Verona and Wiesbaden – a modest list for a star of this level. And in Wiesbaden she will probably be met with dissatisfaction; discussions in connection with her performances in Germany do not subside.

There were posters “No Netrebko!” and before the premiere in Salzburg. But the public voted with their feet – the demand for La Gioconda is such that the organizers of the Easter Festival gave three instead of the usual two opera performances: sold out! The audience was not embarrassed by either the four acts or the intricate libretto created from the drama by Hugo Arrigo Boito – he went down in history thanks to the librettos for Verdi’s Falstaff and Othello, and could safely put an end to La Gioconda as a too verbose product of his time. And the music itself seemed to contemporaries not entirely original, too Verdiian, which did not prevent it from remaining in the world repertoire.

Director Oliver Mears, who runs London’s Covent Garden Theatre, tries to combine mothballs and modernity, if the willingness to talk about prostitution and pedophiles can be considered modern. In the prologue of La Gioconda, a mother sells her daughter, dressed in a golden dress, for pleasure to men – one of them is Barnaba (sung by Luca Salsi). The golden dress returns to the stage twice more, including in perhaps the most famous part of the opera, “The Dance of the Hours”—for many, Ponchielli evokes primarily ballet associations. The ballet scene turned out to be almost the best in Mears’s production, made according to the patterns of the repertory theater: solidly, for a long time, so that everyone understands and does not offend anyone. The performance is a co-production not only with London, but also with the National Opera of Greece in Athens; the scenery, costumes and masks were made in workshops in Salzburg.

Masks are necessary: ​​the action of La Gioconda takes place in Venice, it is difficult for the decorator not to be seduced by cliches. The artist Philipp Fürhofer did without San Marco, but built impressive arches in the spirit of Tintoretto. The coloring is modernized thanks to the bustle of tourists and the silhouette of a huge liner in the background. His appearance, and then the sinking on stage, reminds us how fleeting life is: while the opera was being prepared, the Venetian authorities banned large ships from entering the lagoon; it is now impossible to see them in the urban landscape.

The Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, conducted by Antonio Pappano, again pleased with its versatility – following its excellent sound in concerts, it also shone in opera. The choice of singers has been cancelled, the queen’s entourage matches the spectacular Ev-Maud Yubo in the role of Laura, and Tarek Nazmi as the inquisitor husband Alvise. In Mears’ version, Mona Lisa stabs both Alvise and Barnaba – however, what can you expect from the heroine, who is treated with electric shock by a doctor who looks like Barnaba right on stage?

Only Jonas Kaufman in the role of Enzo does not sound at the peak of his form. It starts out dull and colorless, only by the end reminding itself of its former self. He himself probably feels his current problems – having learned about three rather than two opera performances, the singer wisely refused his announced participation in Verdi’s Requiem at the festival. If this helped the voice, it was not very noticeable, although Kaufman coped with the main aria, “Cielo e mar” (“Sky and Sea”). But if Netrebko had not come to the aid of her long-time comrade, the performance would hardly have gone beyond the boundaries of an ordinary production. But it became a triumph for the singer.

Netrebko shines not only musically, but also theatrically. She now sings a little lower, the sound becomes so erotic – it’s not for nothing that Gioconda is a gypsy and a street singer – and at the same time she shows herself to be a bright dramatic actress, the director uses this side of her talent a lot, maybe even to the detriment of other performers.

It’s a shame that Netrebko’s heyday is overshadowed by claims of an uncreative nature. Moralizing comments do not only concern her – Intendant Bachler is also asked questions about the sponsors of the festival, among them billionaire Martin Schlaf, known for his contacts with Gazprom. To reproaches, Bachler calmly replies that Schlaf helps many people, starting with the Vienna Opera and La Scala, it’s just about the love of music.

In 2026, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Kirill Petrenko will return to Salzburg as a major participant. Bachler’s own contract with the festival expires next year, leaving his future as intendant uncertain.

But one fact in Bachler’s biography is known in advance; it is associated with a reluctance to agree with the rejection of Russian culture. The 2025 program is called “Wounds and Miracles”, it is built around a production of Mussorgsky’s “Khovanshchina” directed by Simon McBurney with the participation of Nadezhda Karyazina and Dmitry Ulyanov. The guest of the festival will be the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen; the concerts will also be conducted by Maxim Emelyanichev and Gianandrea Noseda, who is well known from his work at the Mariinsky Theatre. He will perform, in particular, works by Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich and will put another end to the debate about the abolition of Russian culture. Apparently, again inconclusive.