Fuoco Sacro (Sacred Fire) is a “behind-the-scenes” documentary about opera sopranos with many short video segments of Asmik Grigorian, Barbara Hannigan, and Ermonela Jaho. Most segments come from interviews and rehearsals with piano accompaniment. I normally exclude documentaries about the fine arts as they usually are compiled of trash. But I took a chance, paid retail, and watched this thrice. It’s more trash. My revenge is Grade: D-
The skilled soprano with her high-pitched voice can be heard on the opera stage over all the men on the stage, a chorus, and a huge orchestra. This fierce ability is, I think, the essence of the soprano “sacred fire.” On stage the fire is mollified by the acting, set, costumes, and other music surrounding her. But when the fire is heard solo or with a piano accompaniment, it can be overpowering and even harsh. That’s how these ladies sound much of the time on this disc. I feel burned.
The ladies also talk a lot, which is always a bad thing to get musicians to do. Everybody speaks English, but only Hannigan (from Canada) has an authentic accent and full command of the language. There is narrator voice trying to tie things together with some logic. But the narrator has a soft, mushy voice and mumbles like an amateur. There are no subtitles except for material from arias (for which there are stock subtitles available). Unless you are a native English speaker with the perfect hearing of a 20-year-old, you will probably understand little of what is taking place in the main title (which consists of a single 92-minute track).
What’s in the main title? I counted roughly the following segments: 8 talking, 15 singing, and 10 “fillers” showing buildings, dressing rooms, etc. Opera fans will recognize most or all of the singing, but they will sorely miss the orchestra and the stage. Newcomers will be totally lost. Most of the talking is completely forgettable.
There will be some engaging moments. I was touched by the friendship between Hannigan and the shuffling 80-year-old Reinbert de Leeuw (who died a year later). I loved the bit where Hannagan conducted bars from Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 while singing the soprano part from the podium. It was fun watching Grigorian pretending to be blind in a few bars from Iolanta.
The best thing about the extra features is the absence of the narrator. The next best thing are some art songs by Erik Satie sung by Hannagan (nothing to do with opera). With Satie the fire was turned down to a just a pilot light, and Hannagan’s voice sounded seductive for a change. De Leeuw plays 13 minutes of Satie Gnossiennes No. 2-6, but what does this have to do with sacred flame? You also see each star warming up with semi-singing that doesn’t strain the vocal cords. This was interesting to me. But I’m pretty sure these techniques are known to every pro singer on earth.
The worst thing about the extra features is that most have the following disclaimer: “Unprocessed raw footage without sound mix and color correction. “ And each track has an annoying timestamp blinking away with the hours, minutes, seconds, and fractions of a second used for cutting and coordination as the file is edited. Shame on Naxos!
Fred Cohn drew the unhappy task of reviewing subject title in the May 2023 Opera News (pages 48-49). His remarks are as ineptly mysterious and unsatisfying as is Fuoco Sacro itself. A word about my D- grade. That doesn’t mean this title is rotten for everyone. It’s a warning not to buy this unless you have a good reason to spend time on this pitiful attempt to light a fire. Here are two trailers:
