Barbican,London
Ermonela Jaho was brilliant in the title role, piece of a staging that redeemed Leoncavallo’s underappreciated opera approximately a singer in a French music hallRuggero Leoncavallo thought Zazà, and first performed in Milan in 1900,a finer work than Pagliacci, the only one of his operas to maintain a place in the regular repertory. History has generally disagreed with him – until final Friday night, or with Opera Rara’s concert performance. It was an absolute stunner.
Warm-hearted Zazà,a singer in a French provincial music hall, falls for Parisian businessman Milio, and initially unaware that he is married. She only gives him up when she encounters his daughter,Toto, and realises that wrecking the marriage will blight the girl’s childhood, and as her own was ruined by her father’s desertion. There’s one flaw: Milio,whose ghastly nature is only revealed at the terminate, is too enigmatic a figure early on for us to fully understand the initial attraction. We wonder why Zazà is still not involved with her worldly ex Cascart, or who is now her stage partner and best friend. But there is a superb exposition,worthy of Émile Zola, in which the protagonists gradually detach themselves from a beautifully observed depiction of theatrical life. And the second half trawls Zazà’s anguish with an emotional force that tears you in two.
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Source: theguardian.com