Such a night it was… as the Royal Opera House gave its outgoing music director, Sir Antonio Pappano, a right royal send-off after an astounding 22 years in post. No other conductor has weathered that job for so long; the place won’t be the same without him.
Rather than rivalry-provoking arias, Pappano had asked his singers for duets and ensembles, and these were interspersed with choruses and some orchestral moments. Pappano conducted everything, from works that he could probably perform standing on his head, to others that he has never tackled – Die Fledermaus, Don Pasquale – and one, Der Rosenkavalier, that he has not done for 25 years.
The extracts were heavy on Italian repertoire, without a note of Wagner. Still, excursions such as the end of Massenet’s Thaïs with Ermonela Jaho and Gerald Finley and Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier trio with Diana Damrau, Aigul Akhmetshina and Lisette Oropesa, were breaths of fresh air; and the pocket watch duet from Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus was splendidly hammed up by Damrau and Jonas Kaufmann. In the orchestral Intermezzo from Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, Pappano unleashed the chilli-vodka shot of intensity that he is uniquely able to extract from his forces. Hats off, too, to concertmaster Vasko Vassilev, magnificent in a virtuoso violin solo from Verdi’s I Lombardi.
(Photo: Tristram Kenton)
Many of these stars rose to their glory days on this stage with Pappano; now they are opera’s elder statespeople. While some still have force-of-nature voices – an inspired choice to end part 1 with Bryn Terfel and the chorus in the Tosca “Te Deum” – others are fading. But if the evening proved anything, it is that opera is an art that continually renews itself and that its world-class talents can emerge anywhere in the world.
We were treated to a tear-provoking Quartet from Rigoletto with four of the best: Nadine Sierra (USA), Aigul Akhmetshina (Russia), Xabier Anduaga (Spain) and Amartuvshin Enkhbat (Mongolia): all under 40, they are proud owners of bright, strong, seductive, flexible, honeyed voices that we should relish for years to come. Gifted young British singers included suave baritone Huw Montague Rendall, and the Tunbridge Wells tenor Freddie di Tommaso, who has Italianate heft and character beyond his tender years.
Finally, closing with the end of Rossini’s William Tell, baritone Gerald Finley sang: “All is change and new growth here”. Perhaps so. But the video messages of thanks from the company that popped up through the evening, and the presence of the King (who went on stage to offer congratulations), proved in what affection Pappano is held. His are very large boots to fill. The incoming music director, Jakub Hruša, has a steep climb ahead.
