If trying to think of an unintentionally prescient opera, there could be few more apt candidates than this, The Great Flood, written by Donizetti in 1830 about the biblical tale of Noah, but never more relevant than in this time of climate change.
Cadmo, governor of Sennaar, refuses to believe Noah’s warning about impending disaster, and in this production by Nicolo Massazza and Iacopo Bedogni, he continues with his cronies to indulge in sybaritic feasting until it is too late. This being opera, there is the inevitable personal tragedy with the social one, involving Cadmo’s wife Sela, who has turned to Christianity, and her scheming rival Ada, but the essential argument is about faith, religious in Donizetti’s day, environmental today.
The composer revised the piece four years later and even banned access to the former version, but the latter is the one performed here, simply because the Bergamo Donizetti festival is obliged to use his original, autograph scores. This is less dramatic than the redraft, in that the character of Ada is underdeveloped and musically inferior, but it still contains some fine ensemble writing. One of its most interesting features is the use of Noah’s three sons and three daughters as a chorus within a chorus. There is not a lot of action, and with its oratorio-like structure, it fits somewhere between Rossini’s Mosè and Verdi’s Nabucco.
Three top-rate singers in excellent form head the cast. Giuliana Gianfaldoni is a dignified Sela, with silky-smooth legato and assured coloratura, Enea Scala struts about as the adamant, arrogant Cadmo, forceful and agile to the top of the tessitura, and Nahuel Di Pierro is an imposing, solemn Noah.
The directors, who go by the combined name of MASBEDO, are credited for "project, direction, live direction and costumes" with others listed for visual dramaturgy, sets, stage movements, light and video. Too many cooks? Whatever, whoever is responsible, the production suffers from one major drawback.
I remember when TVs were a small box in the corner, since when screens have grown in some cases to fill a small wall. Video in opera has gone the same way, and I wish it would stop.
A projection, more than twice the height of the main area of action below, runs without a break, with extreme close-ups of faces, skin, eye, food, a pheasant being plucked, insects etc and is hugely distracting. Yes, there is a long sequence of environmental destruction, but this comes halfway through the piece, not for the climactic inundation.
Then, admittedly, there appears a beautiful, quietly expressive image, reproduced above, but overall the video would have achieved greater effect if used more selectively, with greater relevance, or at crucial moments only, including for the final scene, but by then I was trying not to look.