Czech Republic Nino Rota, The Florentine Straw Hat (Il cappello di paglia di Firenze): Soloists, Chorus, Ballet and Orchestra of the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre / Marek Šedivý (conductor). Antonin Dvořák Theatre, Ostrava, 20.3.2025. (GT)
Nino Rota (1911-1979) is well known as the composer of film scores for Italian classic cinema, most notably for the films of Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and Francis Ford Coppola, yet the child prodigy from Milan wrote the first of his eleven operas at the age of just eleven. Rota studied with Orefice and Pizzetti and in Rome with Casella. His first work, an oratorio L’infanzia di San Giovanni Battista, was performed in Milan and Paris in 1923. His debut opera, Le Principe Porcaro, premiered in 1926. He later studied at the Curtis Institute and in conducting with Fritz Reiner; after returning to Italy, he continued his studies at the University of Milan. He taught at the Liceo Musicale Bari and was the director there until he died in 1979. Among his many compositions, he also wrote three ballets and symphonies, concertos, songs, choruses, piano and chamber pieces.
Based on an 1851 comedy – Un chapeau de paille d’Italie by Eugene Labiche (1815-1888) and Marc-Michel (1812-1868) – Rota wrote the libretto jointly with his mother, Ernesta Rota Rinaldi (1880-1954). The Florentine Straw Hat is a musical farce in four acts and five scenes from 1945 and was first performed at Teatro Massimo Palermo in 1955. The stage work was performed at the Metropolitan, La Scala, Santa Fe, Graz, and at the 2013 Wexford Festival. Rota’s fourth opera is an attack on society’s moral values, its falseness of the aristocracy and the wealthy in a comic satire and a characterisation of innocent human lives in love, of tradition, and with seemingly throwaway jokes at the expense of society. Jiří Nekvasil’s new production, for whom this is another triumph, premiered on 13 March 2025.
The opera is a trivial story of the loss of a fashionable straw hat that has been eaten by a horse en route for the wedding of the young Fadinard, and of his luckless search for a replacement prior on the day of his wedding to his bride-to-be Elena. A strange fact is that the hat is for Anaide who is invited to the wedding and Anaide’s friend the lieutenant Emilio threatens Fadinard with a duel if he doesn’t get a replacement straw hat. Straw hats from Florence were then at the height of Parisian fashion.
The score employs a pastiche of Italian opera – Monteverdi, Puccini and Rossini, and there is a hint of Wagner’s ‘Spinning Song’ from Die fliegende Höllander. The music flows in a swiftly moving and amusing score that embellishes the hysterical comedy of the farce. The costumes of Zuzana Bambušek Krejzková were colourful, set in the post-war Italy – curiously similar to the fashionable style of the Italian cinema of Fellini and Visconti. Elena was throughout attired in her wedding dress and her bridegroom, the poor Fadinard in his suit and tails. The wedding guests were attired in bright colourful pastel coloured dresses, and the policemen in typically blue uniforms. The dancers in their carnival costumes were typically garish and macabre though stunningly attractive to watch.
Act II is set in the factory where the famous straw hats are made, and the ladies’ chorus sings in a delightful scene (hinting, as suggested, at Wagner) with the hats appearing and floating above the stage. This was a coup de théâtre: magnificent to watch with great choral singing. Another brilliantly enacted scene is in Act III, as the fully clothed Baron Beaupertuis is taking a bath, and his poor servant pours scolding hot water over him. The sudden arrival of Fadinard searching for the hat turns into a comic scene of slapstick fun worthy of a Marx Brothers or Chaplin movie. Another highlight was the gymnasts in the finale of Act IV turning somersaults on the stage during the wedding festivities that included the visit of a famous violinist Minardi. At the close of the opera, we saw another coup de théâtre as the Baron and Baroness Beaupertuis look back nostalgically at the wedding scene from beyond the orchestra as Fadinard and Elena embrace finally in a happy ending as man and wife.
Of the singers, the rich young bridegroom Fadinard was superbly performed by Berk Dalkılıç, and it was the star performance of the evening from a singer unknown to me before; he exhibited a beautifully vibrant tenor that was beautiful to listen to. His bride-to-be, the Elena of Lada Bočková, was another star of the night with her beautiful light soprano and her portrayal of the poor fiancée – unaware of what was going on – who only at the end fulfilled her longing. In her ill-fitting golden coloured gleaming evening dress, the Baroness of Champigny by Alzbeta Vomáčková was another great performance with her amusing characterisation and excellent singing; she is a superb comic actor and was humorous in every scene whilst sometimes appearing aloof. Of the other major male and female characters, the adulterous Anaide of Miroslava Časarová was outstanding in acting and a delightful soprano, often absurdly funny as she tries to hide her infelicities from her husband. The characterisation of the Baron by Roman Vlkovič was outstanding in his darkly-hued bass singing and entertaining acting.
Nonancourt’s characterisation by the excellent Miloš Horák was also superb with his dark bass-baritone with an authoritative all-round presentation especially in one scene with his poorly fitting shoes and comically noting the Count’s shoes fitted him perfectly; yet as the Count emerges from his dressing room, he is startled to find the small-sized shoes abandoned by Nonancourt. An adventurous novelty in the show was the two silent actors, Ondrej Friedrich, and Adam Holub who emerged from the opening curtains before the overture and mimed the horse eating the Florentine Straw Hat pointing to the white horse spotlit on the auditorium’s decoration above the stage. At the end of Act II, the two would engage in a bizarre boxing fight as everyone erupts into an uproar. Finally, the two would perform superb acrobatics as the wedding is celebrated in a joyous scene.
The choreography by Števo Capko was magnificent with countless funny episodes superbly managed – and the final scene could have been from a Fellini movie with the glitteringly dressed wedding guests jealously eyeing up and envying each other. David Bazika’s sets were of a series of doors in a country house through which the main characters enter and exit. A large ball serves as a source of fun when characters try to sit on it. At the musical centre of the whole production was the wonderful orchestral performance directed by Marek Šedivý who evinced every nuance of humour and expression from his first-class musicians. The singing and characterisation by the chorus were superb throughout, in all this is a terrific production by the Ostrava opera company and represents a fabulous triumph by Jiří Nekvasil. This new show by Ostrava’s National Moravian-Silesian will be performed at the Estate Theatre, Prague on April 14. Tickets available here.
Gregor Tassie
Production:
Music director – Marek Šedivý
Stage director- Jiří Nekvasil
Set designer- David Bazika
Costume designer- Zuzana Bambušek Krejzková
Movement director, Gagman- Števo Capko
Chorus master- Jurij Galatenko
Dramaturg- Juraj Bajús
Cast:
Fadinard – Berk Dalkılıç
Nonancourt – Miloš Horák
Beaupertuis – Roman Vlkovič
Vezinet – Václav Morys
Emilio – Daniel Kfelíř
Felice – Martin Javorský
Achille di Rosalba / A guardsmen- Vincenc Ignác Novotný
A corporal of the guard – Ihor Maryshkin
Minardi – Vladimír Liberda
Elena – Lada Bočková
Anaide – Miroslava Časarová
A milliner – Marcela Gurbaľová
La Baronessa di Champigny – Alžběta Vomáčková