This season marks Bruno Bartoletti`s 25th anniversary as artistic director of Lyric Opera of Chicago. It is not the sort of milestone that grabs headlines and, indeed, it passed practically unnoticed amid all the ruffles and flourishes that recently ushered in the company`s 35th anniversary.
Yet to have that kind of expert continuity at the top level of a leading American company is special in today`s turbulent opera world and speaks well for the slight, dynamic Florentine`s influence in every area of Lyric operation, from the quality of the orchestral playing to repertory and casting decisions.
Still, it is characteristic of the 63-year-old Bartoletti that he would rather talk about the Lyric`s artistic eminence than what he has done to help the company achieve that eminence. Free of megalomania, he sees opera as a collective effort involving many talents and is far more interested in the success of the whole than in personal glory. That is Bartoletti`s way.
It has been his way since 1964, when the late general manager, Carol Fox, named him and Pino Donati co-artistic directors. Donati died a decade later, leaving Lyric with a ruling duo that persisted until Ardis Krainik took over from Fox in 1981.
”I don`t think the fundamentals have changed; the position is the same,” Bartoletti says, in his heavily accented English. ”What is different now is the organization and the mood of the company. Running this theater is an ensemble effort. You must speak of the general director and then the artistic director. No, no, I don`t speak about myself.”
In a sense, Bartoletti doesn`t have to, for his record of achievement speaks persuasively for itself.
Over the years, no conductor has brought Lyric a wider range of scores or a more important list of first performances. Since his American debut with Lyric Opera in 1956 (the same year that Lyric engaged another guest conductor named Georg Solti), Bartoletti has presided over 389 performances of 48 operas with the company, a record unmatched by any other conductor at Lyric.
It was he who introduced the Lyric to such 20th Century operas as
”Wozzeck,” ”Peter Grimes,” ”Billy Budd,” ”Elektra,” ”Bluebeard`s Castle,” ”Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,” ”The Angel of Fire” and the world premiere of Penderecki`s ”Paradise Lost.” For years, his was the strongest voice of innovation within the administration. Now it is one of several, but easily the most respected.
Until Krainik took over the fiscally troubled company and sent it down its present, financially and artistically successful path, Bartoletti had to content himself with conducting modern opera on a sporadic basis during the three or four months of the year he spent in Chicago. The ”Wozzecks” and
”Elektras” were bones tossed him in exchange for conducting the standard Italian repertory. Bartoletti`s talents were underused, and worse,
underappreciated.
No more. With the Lyric`s decade-long retrospective of modern European and American opera, ”Toward the 21st Century,” scheduled to begin next fall, the maestro has become the key player in an ambitious project he himself helped to engineer. His first assignment as part of that initiative will be in 1991-92, when he will conduct the Chicago premiere of Prokofiev`s ”The Gambler,” directed by Liviu Ciulei in a production borrowed from Florence`s Teatro Comunale, where, not incidentally, Bartoletti also serves as artistic director.
”I must tell you, I am proud about this,” Bartoletti says of the Lyric`s 20th Century opera project, ”because it is very difficult to do modern works in a conservative city (like Chicago). The public has shown us they are very excited about hearing modern operas when they are done well, like our `Satyagraha` and `Lulu` in 1987.
”The success of those productions taught us we must listen to what the audience wants, especially at this moment in our cultural history. So for the next 10 years we will do a systematic panorama of the masterpieces that the century has produced. It is the right time.”
Major European opera houses already have shown a strong interest in Lyric`s bold new venture, Bartoletti reports. ”Everywhere I go-Florence, Milan, Munich-the reaction is the same. Opera people are very impressed, somewhat surprised and a little envious that all this should be happening in Chicago.”
Bartoletti has long held strong convictions about the 20th Century European works he believes the Lyric should perform, and he mentions Hindemith`s ”Cardillac” and Berio`s ”Un Re in Ascolto,” as ”operas Chicago must hear” before the company reaches the millenium.
He declines to cite any ”most deserving” American works beyond the Samuel Barber and Dominick Argento operas already announced for 1990-91 and 1991-92, although Gershwin`s ”Porgy and Bess” and Menotti`s ”The Saint of Bleecker Street” are known to be among the American scores being considered for future Lyric seasons.
Compared to Solti, who has never maintained a permanent residence in Chicago and who spends as little time here as possible, the Tuscan-born Bartoletti has been intensely loyal to the city. With the exception of two years in the 1950s, he has maintained an unbroken affiliation with his adopted Chicago. He and wife Rosanna divide each year between their home in Florence and a hotel suite not far from the Civic Opera House.
”The ideal for me is what I do now,” Bartoletti admits with an easy smile. ”I stay in Chicago three months. I conduct two operas. I collaborate with my colleagues in making the artistic decisions. I cannot make music like my colleagues do, rushing from this theater to that theater all over the world, conducting a different opera every week.
”To present opera beautifully takes time. And love.”
Bartoletti`s interest in modern scores is as much a trademark abroad as it is here. Last season, he directed the first performances in Florence of Benjamin Britten`s ”War Requiem.” He also has given the European premieres of Luciano Berio`s ”Opera,” Hans Werner Henze`s ”The Stag King” and Shostakovich`s ”The Nose.”
The six years that Bartoletti has served as artistic director in Florence appear to have invigorated the Teatro Comunale, giving it even greater prominence among the major centers for opera and concerts in Italy. This, as he wryly points out, is no small accomplishment, given the endless fiscal and labor squabbles, the nonstop political and artistic intrigues, that make Italian cultural life as juicy as any opera by Verdi.
A typical autumn season at the Teatro Comunale will consist of three operas, three or four weeks of orchestra concerts conducted by Bartoletti, chief conductor Zubin Mehta and guests (Myung-Whun Chung and Gustav Kuhn were among recent visitors) and ballet performances. The months of January to March bring more symphonic concerts.
May begins the two-month international festival known as the Maggio Musicale, when five operas are given in three different-sized theaters, plus major concerts and recitals. This spring, Bartoletti will conduct a rare revival of Donizetti`s 1833 Florentine opera, ”Parisina.” Mehta will conduct ”Il Trovatore” and ”Don Giovanni.” Chung will do another rarity, Rimsky-Korsakov`s ”The Invisible City of Kitezh,” and Berio will conduct Kurt Weill`s ”The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.”
Scheduling all this, Bartoletti concedes, is something of a nightmare;
for all that, he appears to be enjoying his job. One of the reasons may be that the Teatro Comunale has managed to remain relatively free of the problems that have beset more famous rivals like Milan`s La Scala and the Rome Opera.
”In the first place,” Bartoletti explains, ”Florence is far removed from Milan and Rome, geographically and culturally. It`s a city of old culture. The Florentines have always been an independent people. The only political problems we have are when it comes time for the city council to appoint the intendant (general director) of the theater. That can get very complicated, depending on whether the majority of the cuncil are Communists, Socialists or whatever. But for the past three or four years, everything has been relatively quiet. We haven`t even had any strikes. It`s a miracle!
”Artistically we are strong. Our public is very receptive to modern music, to innovative repertory of all kinds. When I conducted `The Nose` there it was a triumph. At the end of the same Shostakovich opera in Rome, some people in the audience yelled at me, `You are the victim of this music!` From the pit I yelled back, `I am not the victim! I like this music!”`
Bartoletti believes Chicago can be just as venturesome as Florence-and more-and he is counting on the longterm success of Lyric Opera`s ”Toward the 21st Century” initiative to prove the point. His commitment to the city and to the company that he has served for well over a quarter of a century cannot be doubted. As he puts it, ”I hope to be faithful to this theater forever. Sempre.”
