Outgoing full-scale class – Newspaper Kommersant No. 50 (7495) dated 03/24/2023

The famous Italian tenor Fabio Sartori performed for the first time in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with arias and duets by Verdi, Puccini, Leoncavallo, accompanied by the Tchaikovsky State Orchestra. Svetlanov under the direction of Denis Vlasenko. Tells Vladimir Dudin.

The performance in one of the main metropolitan halls of the Italian star in the situation of foreign names that disappeared from Russian posters seemed to be something from the realm of unscientific fiction. Especially if we are talking about the 52-year-old Fabio Sartori, today’s recognized successor to the traditions of Luciano Pavarotti (among other things, among his teachers in Venice was the pianist and conductor Leone Madgera, Pavarotti’s friend and teacher). True, the Trevisan Sartori is much less spoiled by the glamor industry and mass cultural projects, but it is difficult for him to complain about the lack of demand. Daniel Barenboim at one time constantly invited him to sing in Berlin – in Puccini’s Tosca, Verdi’s Requiem, Macbeth and Simone Boccanegre. Fabio Sartori sang the part of Gabriel Adorno from Boccanegra almost seven years ago in Moscow, when La Scala brought the Verdi opera on tour. This season, the singer is expected mainly on the main Italian stages (Milan, Florence, Verona, Venice, Bologna) in Otello, Attila, Two Foscari, Verdi’s Il trovatore, and he will return to Berlin with Calaf in ” Turandot” Puccini.

In Moscow, his first appearance was a piercing recitative-scream to Macduff’s aria from Macbeth by Verdi – it was in this party that the singer made his debut on the stage of La Scala in 1997. The recitative began with the words “O figli, o figli miei! Da quel tiranno tutti uccisi voi foste” (“My sons, this tyrant killed you all and your unfortunate mother too”), continuing with the aria “Ah, la paterno mano” (“Ah, father’s hand did not shield you, dear ones, from vile murderers “). It was this hero of Shakespeare’s tragedy and Verdi’s opera who was destined to gather an army to overthrow the usurper Macbeth, distraught with fear. On the dramatic stage, such a thing can be boldly shouted out, but it is absolutely impossible to do it in a Verdi opera, because everything in it is verified by the harmony of bel canto. Sartori demonstrated this art with rare enthusiasm in the Moscow concert from the first to the last note.

The guest revealed the rich lyrical and dramatic nature of his tenor from aria to aria, among which almost all were chosen from the golden repertoire of opera hits, except for the rarely sounding aria of Oronte from the early Lombards by Verdi. In the way the singer internally theatrically built the dramaturgy of each of his numbers – always a mini-performance, be it Cavaradossi’s dying aria from “Tosca” or Canio’s sobbing arioso from “Pagliacci” – the departing nature of the real, purest test of the Italian opera artist was nostalgically heard. Having played with his Canio and dived deep into the image, Sartori even almost brought himself to tears, but quickly caught himself and returned to the reality of the Moscow concert hall. But with all this drama and acting experience of music, the soloist steadily put the line of bel canto in the foreground: the warmth of the heart of tone, the evenness of the registers, the smoothness of sound leading, the freedom of breathing.

In two duets with soprano Daria Rybak from Switzerland, Fabio Sartori showed himself to be a sensitive and empathic partner, especially by the standards of today’s digital times. This was heard both in a duet with Desdemona from Verdi’s Otello, and in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, where the age difference involuntarily added to the effect, which made both female characters seem young, fragile and defenseless against the background of the main character. However, these epithets did not fit the performance determination of Daria Rybak. Suffice it to say that as her first solo number, she bravely chose Donna Anna’s aria “Non mi dir” from the second act of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”, which not every successful diva would have dared to do. Her really big lirico-spinto still has a lot to learn (at least a more subtle and soft legato), and yet in its promising volume and timbre, fleetingly reminiscent of Mirella Freni, and Maria Dragoni, and Fiamma Izzo d’Amico, it was also difficult not to feel the energy of the Italian great tradition.