Umberto Giordano Siberia opera to libretto by Luigi Illica. Directed 2021 by Roberto Andò at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Stars Sonya Yoncheva (Stephana), Giorgi Sturua (Vassili), George Petean (Gléby), Caterina PIva (Nikona), Giorgio MIsseri (Il Principe Alexis), Antonio Garés (Ivan), Francesco Verna (Il Banchiere Miskinsky), Emanuele Cordaro (Walinoff), Francesco Samuele Venuti (Il Capitano), Joseph Dahdah (Il Sergente), Alfonso Zambuto (Il Cosacco), Adolfo Corrado (Il Governatore), Davide Piva (L’Invalido), Amin Ahangaran (L’Ispettore), and Caterina Meldolesi (La Faniciulla). Also features extras Paulo Arcangeli, Mauro Barbiero, Fabrizio Casagrande, Alessandro Ciardini, Leonardo Cirri, Cristiano Colangelo, Giacomo Dominici, Stefano Francasi, Marco Martelli, Stefano Mascalehi, Matteo Mazzuccato, Domenico Nuovo, Federico Vazzola, and Silvio Zanoncelli. Gianandrea Noseda conducts the Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentio (Chorus Master Lorenzo Fratini). Features chorus soloist Alfio Vacanti. Set and light design by Gianni Carluccio; costume design by Nanà Cecchi; video design by Luca Scarzella. Directed for TV by Tiziano Mancini; video production by Metis; sound recording, editing and post-production by MASClassica Audio Recording with Claudio Speranzini and Antonio Martino. Sung in Italian, disc has 5.1 dts HD master audio sound. Released 2022, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
What would seem more curious than an Italian opera about life in a Siberian labor camp? Well, this was Siberia under the Tzar, not Stalin. But still it would seem to be a subject far removed from the sunny and verdant hills of Tuscany. Tim Ashley, writing in the May 2022 Gramophone (pages 98-99) views this as a finely done work with a beautiful score in which Giordano was the first in Western Europe to popularize the ‘Song of the Volga Boatmen.’ Eric Myers gives Siberia a thorough review in the September 2022 Opera News at pages 60-61. He found the staging fussy, the singing good, and concludes that “Noseda makes a strong case for Siberia as an opera long overdue for rediscovery.”
This seems to be a good bet for those willing to venture off the beaten path to trails in the Russian tundra. Who do you love the most? Would you be willing to trek to Siberia for a chance to live with that person in a labor camp? Here’s an official trailer from Dynamic:
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