Before dying at just 33 years old, Vincenzo Bellini had time to give the world of opera his last masterpiece, The Puritanswhich the Teatro Regio of Turin will stage for six performances from 6 to 17 May. After inaugurating the 2023 season with Il barbiere di Siviglia and having signed La rondine in 2024, the Frenchman Pierre-Emmanuel Rousseau he returns to the Savoy city with a new creation of which he signs the direction, sets and costumes.
Right from the title The Puritans it is a choral work, yet dominated by a single figure, Elvira. The great story of Cromwell’s English Revolution and her individual and personal story, that is, her love for Arthur, are intertwined around her.
Rousseau, how did he find his personal balance between chorality and individuality?
«The violence of the English Revolution is more a factor of the environment, a background. The war is present, but it is not essential to the drama, in my opinion it is more of a pretext, so much so that Bellini wrote all the most beautiful and extraordinary pages for Elvira. So, I think it’s really a portrait of a woman. There is a prevalence of the particular, of Elvira’s individual story over the great history, which instead remains in the background.”
There is a color in his scenography that runs through the entire work, black. Why did you choose it?
«It’s true, my entire installation is black with variations on grey, but there are two red “moments” that represent Elvira’s blood: it is she who ruins the walls of the palace by using red to write the name of Arturo, her beloved, and to erase the faces of the women on the paintings. The choice of black, however, depends on the fact that I wanted to set the action at the time of Bellini’s composition, in the mid-nineteenth century (the English Revolution instead took place around the mid-seventeenth century, ed.) recovering the black and white of daguerreotypes, the first forms of photography that were born in that period in France. Black is also suitable for representing a very rigid society, that of the Puritans, a society without colour. The only point of light in this dark and dark world is Elvira, who has a blue dress and a white one.”
Therefore Elvira breaks away from black, that is, she breaks away from Puritan society and this separation is also rendered chromatically.
«Yes, she has chosen an enemy of the family as her husband and with this choice she wants to break the rigidity of the society to which her family belongs. She chooses a man with another religion and with other rules.”
Of the Puritans In Turin she signs the direction, sets and costumes. A commitment that is certainly greater than directing alone, but perhaps this allows her to coordinate the entire visual part of the work.
«Yes, it’s easier because it’s a holistic, global vision. The only thing I don’t manage is the lights, but I’ve been working with my light designer for 20 years. Apart from the lights, I do everything else because it is very important for me to have control of this global vision.”
The absolute premiere of Puritans it was held in Paris in 1835: an Italian opera, by an Italian composer, with an Italian libretto, who however is of French birth: do you find elements of “Frenchness” in the Puritans? As a Frenchman, do you feel close to her?
«I think it is a completely Italian opera, but at that point in his career perhaps Bellini felt the influence of Rossini, of Meyerbeer, of Cherubini, of all these composers who lived in Paris like him. Perhaps we can say that the massive use of the chorus, almost always on stage, is a bit of French taste.”
As in a grand opera?
«Yes, but in the Puritans we don’t have a ballet, while for the French tradition of grand opera it is mandatory to have a ballet; for the rest it is an Italian work, without a doubt. The melodies, the orchestration… yes, it’s truly Italian.”
Gilda Fiume makes her debut in the role of Elvira.
«And I must say that she is an absolutely crazy artist, she is truly “my” Elvira. Compared to the role of Arturo, which has two dimensions, the role of Elvira is a very complex role, even psychologically. It is therefore very important to find a soprano who can perform and convey all of Elvira’s different “lives”. For us it was very important to find an Elvira with a great scenic impact, not only a great singer, but also an actress.”
Then there’s also John Osborn in the part of Arturo, a guarantee.
«Of course, John has already sung the Puritans many times in the role of Arturo. And then I resume a truly happy collaboration with the conductor, maestro Francesco Lanzillotta, with whom I work for the second time at the Regio di Torino”.
