Riccardo Muti leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Chorus and a cast of outstanding soloists in Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana. As an opera, Cavalleria rusticana is one of the most enduring works for the stage, and its extraordinary popularity has never waned. This exquisite concert performance from February 2020 vividly captures the unforgettable cut of its melodies, the intoxicating colors of its Sicilian atmosphere and the urgent, heart-racing pace of its drama, which has few equals in the repertoire. The entire ensemble, featuring the notable portrayal of Santuzza by mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili, captures all the emotion and nuance of Mascagni’s opera as it hurtles toward its inevitable catastrophe — the celebrated Intermezzo offering the only moment of respite. In the early part of its history, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was in the pit for an astonishing number of operas, including nearly 50 performances of Cavalleria rusticana. The orchestra’s founding music director, Theodore Thomas, conducted the Intermezzo on the second program the Orchestra ever played on October 19, 1891. Riccardo Muti, world-renowned for his superlative interpretations of Italian operas, reunites the orchestral prowess of CSO with the work (one it had not performed in its entirety since 1931) in this definitive 21st-century performance certain to stand the test of time.

REVIEW:

The performers seem determined to make listeners forget the concert setting and hear the drama. Like some other famous mezzo-sopranos, Anita Rachvelishvili handles Santuzza’s music with considerable assurance, including a brilliant high B to conclude the Easter ensemble early in the opera. Generally, she relies mostly on volume to register strong emotion, which can be exciting when the orchestra and voice go all out. She pays somewhat less attention to characterization and to the clarity and impact of the words.

Baritone Luca Salsi has the authentic Italian diction and timbre, as Alfio, to ensure verismo flavor along with passion. It’s mostly a reactive role but also a menacing one, as Salsi shows in his fatal, headlong duet with Santuzza.

In the final scene, Pietro Pretti’s voice shatters, flees, fights, and irrupts madly; it’s the sound of a man suddenly torn apart, facing the abyss. Ronnita Miller’s cavernous tone and tense reactions make Mamma Lucia a one-woman Greek chorus, and Sasha Cooke is alluring in Lola’s brief scene.

Muti is typically masterful in deploying the virtuoso orchestra and, of course, the excellent chorus, which plays a crucial role in the work. In the Intermezzo, he departs from his own tradition, balancing the rage and terror of the drama with unexpected restraint. Conductors on recordings have gone overboard in the Intermezzo’s climactic main theme ever since Mascagni’s own recording, in 1940, never sparing the string vibrato and tripling the forte indicated in the score. But here, almost startlingly, Muti shades and lightens the texture, suggesting rare poignancy and hints of grace.

-- Opera News