Franco zeffirelli: the romantic realist

by Lanfranco Rasponi

Franco Zeffirelli has left his mark in stage direction as well as set and costume designs for opera, theater, television and cinema. He goes from one to the other with skill, assurance and ease. Watching him rehearse an opera is an engrossing experience. He is never prejudiced and will listen to advice if he deems it sensible. He never asks the impossible of singers, knowing instinctively their limitations, working his way around them with a firm yet elastic hand.

105

Between making Endless Love and the delicate, long task of cutting it, he managed to squeeze in a new Cavalleria and Pagliaccl at La Scala in January 1981, even filming it for television with a few changes in cast (Teresa Stratas taking on Nedda, Renato Bruson as Alfio). (...) After launching his new Bohème at the Metropolitan, he has a new Traviata coming up at London's Covent Garden, which he will also film. These opera motion pictures are intended not for television but for regular audiences. Zeffirelli feels they now have a far bigger opportunity to succeed than previously, not only because of the greater thirst of the public for this formula but also because of advanced techniques in the medium. (...)

Since long before Zeffirelli became an international celebrity, he has gone at a furious pace, though he no longer needs to prove himself. His hair is now silvery, but he still maintains the same youthful face on which are mirrored the frequent changes of his state of mind. It is difficult to keep him on one subject for long: his interests are so varied, his thinking so agile, that he jumps away from the discussion.

How and when he finds time to read has always been a mys­tery, but somehow he does. Not only is he highly cultivated on artistic and humanistic levels, he is generally well-informed as to what is going on everywhere. (...)

Asked to define his continued success, he replied, "We have no guarantee for the present or the future. Therefore the only choice is to go back to the past and respect traditions. I have been a pioneer in this line of thinking, and the results have proven me right. People who think they can do better than previously, interpreting works of art in a new key, are very foolish. The reason I am box-office ev­erywhere is that I am. an enlightened conservative continuing the dis­course of our grandfathers and fathers, renovating the texts but never betraying them. The road has been irrevocably lost, and there must be a seath as to why and where this new breed of destructive thinking came into being, often encouraged by the press. (...)

In regard to Wagner, it has been said I'm not interested in di­recting his operas, but nothing would please me more, and Carlos Kleiber wants me to collaborate with him on Tristan. The problem is, how can one do this glorious work without the proper voices? Kleiber is unhappy about the recent recording he made - he had hoped, with the miracles of recent sound technique, the vocalists would appear more heroic. I'm not a director who worries only about the stage. The music is an essential part of the package, and I'm stunned by the shortage of first-rate singers. I can always find solutions for great singers who are not gifted actors, but there's nothing to be done about those who have a sense of theater and no voices. While acting is important in opera, the voice comes first, in no uncertain terms. Pathos or comedy is just as much vocal as vi­sual."

As for his new production of La Bohème at the Metropolitan, he

106

related, "Strangely, it's only the second time I've agreed to do this opera. The first, with Karajan in 1963 at La Scala, was such a suc­cess that for a long time I didn't see how I could improve it. It is still being given, with another series of performances last May, and it went on loan to the Salzburg Easter Festival and Vienna State Opera. I accepted the Met's invitation when I realized, with such an imposing revolving stage, I could fulfil ideas that had been circulating in my head for some time. This new conception brings out the fragility of the Bohemian group as against the large, gray French capital. (...)"

Discussing Zeffirelli's career, it is difficult to stick to opera. So many other elements have entered into it, starting with architecture studies at the University of Florence and going on to his long ap­prenticeship in various phases of the entertainment world, leading eventually to his explosion into orbit. Though he really began as an actor, he also got started early in opera at the famous Academia Chigiana in Siena. Here his mother's first cousin, the former La Scala soprano Ines Alfani Tellini, not only taught interpretation in the summer courses but also put on productions of forgotten mas­terpieces to give experience to her students. She asked Franco to help with sets and costumes, and he turned out delightful, inexpen­sive décor for the revivals of La Zingara by Rinaldo di Capua, Il Giocatore by Orlandini and Le Serve Rivait by Traetta. He knew he could deal with opera, a form he had loved since childhood. But fur­ther work had to wait a while, because he was involved in other projects.

His first meeting with Visconti was in 1947. The great innovator of the Italian legitimate theater had come to rehearse Tobacco Road at the Pergola in Florence with Vittorio Gassman and Massimo Girotti. (...) The following year Visconti engaged Zeffirelli to act in Anouilh's Eurydice and an adaptation of Dostoevsk's Crime and Punishment, alongside some of Italy's most highly reputed actors. From then on, all Visconti's productions credited the name of Zef­firelli in some capacity. (...)

For several years Zeffirelli worked as Visconti's assistant director, and he also designed the décor and costumes for most of Visconti's theatrical ventures.

"I was contracted to design a new Italiana in Algerl in 1953 with Giulietta Simionato and Giulini conducting," he said. "It was a hit, and when they offered me Cenerentola for the next season, with more or less the same principals and conductor, I accepted, providing they also let me do the directing. That same year I went on to L'Elisir d'Amore, with Giulini again, Di Stefano at the top of his form and Rosanna Carteri.

"In 1955 came my first experience with Maria Callas, in the only comic opera she ever really scored in, Il Turco in Italia. My inter­national career began the following year with a production of Falstaff, again with Giulini, at the Holland Festival. My association

107

with Covent Garden started in 1959 with Lucia di Lammermoor at the suggestion of Tullio Serafin - a real event, which established Joan Sutherland as a star. (...)"

Asked who was the most complete singing actor or actress he had worked with, without a moment's hesitation, Franco answered, "Maria - a genius in every role she approached. (...) I worked with her on La Traviata, Lucia, Norma and Tosca in Dallas, London and Paris. There were some really glorious moments, but then I lived through the nightmare when she became more and more un­sure of herself and the voice began to decline. At moments she was courageous, at others terribly afraid. Sometimes she made me feel I was very close to her, then suddenly there existed a wall. In the end she withdrew from everyone. I have known many complex human beings in my life but none more than she." (...)

At fifty-eight, Zeffirelli has more than fifty opera productions be­hind him. The works that fascinate him most are Falstaff and Don Giovanni. One he hates with a passion is the late Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra, which opened the new Met in 1966. "I didn't really believe in it from the beginning, but Mr. Bing had made his decision, commissioned the score and felt that it should be the work of an American composer. I liked Vanessa well enough and hoped this would even be better. At the orchestra rehearsals I kept waiting for some real music to emerge, but there is more meat in II Segreto di Susanna. When I tried to tell Sam that he must reinforce the score, he was adamant. I kept sensing a precipice facing us and did all I could to compensate with a lavish spectacle. We headed toward disaster, the score redeemed by a lovely finale, superbly sung by Leontyne Price."

Franco has seven productions of Falstaff to his credit, including the one that marked his bow at the Met in 1964. Now he would like to do another, with Carlos Kleiber, whom he finds the kind of perfectionist that is disappearing from the musical scene. (...)

What opera heroine does he consider the most complete? "Undoubtedly Violetta," he declared. "There's not one superfluous note. Then there are Carmen and Tosca, and it's interesting that all three existed as literary figures before being put to music. (...)"

"Opera is far more stable than the legitimate stage," ne went on. "The same works appeal to totally different publics, but with plays, one never knows. Two De Filippo comedies I directed in London with Sir Laurence and Lady Olivier were a tremendous suc­cess, but in the U.S. this Italian playwright is not appreciated, de­spite the huge Italo-American audience."

While he serves his art, he leads his profession. As he says, "Let's respect the geniuses responsible for these supreme works of art and realize we're here only to serve them."

From: Opera News, 1982

108

Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion

1. What is Zeffirelli's artistic approach to the score?

2. Briefly outline his career as an opera and film director.

3. Find in the text the passage describing Zeffirelli's principles of casting the singers for his productions. Do you agree with him? Explain.

4. When and how did his collaboration with Maria Callas begin? In what productions did she appear?

5. What was Zeffirelli's contribution to the art of opera produc­tion? Name some of his world-famous productions.

6. Summarize the text.

7. Have you seen Zeffirelli's film La Traviata with Teresa Stratas as Violetta? What do you think of the film? What other films were produced by Zeffirelli?