The Washington National Opera is celebrating the bicentenary of Wagner and Verdi this season, and to honor the latter, artistic director Francesca Zambello has chosen what she called one of his “more elusive” works.
Obscure is what she means regarding “La Forza del Destino,” otherwise known as “The Force of Destiny,” and there may be a reason for it having been only occasionally produced: It’s a choppy story of a forbidden love between families, complicated by a mistaken murder that ends tragically.
As Zambello notes, Verdi rewrote it several times through his lifetime. And though its themes of social upheaval and war may be considered adaptable to today, it doesn’t seem so, especially as staged.
Like a lot of the most memorable productions at the Kennedy Center, “The Force of Destiny” offers a cast of dozens to fill the stage and Peter J. Davison’s set emphasizes a fuzzy contemporary era, where some characters dress like 1970s pimps, the cityscapes are graffittied decay, a la “Blade Runner,” with corrugated steel marked by spray paint and more than anything, stacks and stacks of storage containers.
While this is remarkable to see, as they are stacked three and four high, it also suggests the whole of the opera is staged dockside, or during the second season of “The Wire.”
The splashiest set is the one seen for the briefest time: a pulsing, neon-bleeding crossroads with a sex shop and bar, and a series of exotic dancers that just seem out of place — especially when men of the cloth enter and bless their food.
“Amen!” everyone says, as the pole dancers take their place.
With the main curtain a scrim with a gun breaking through the surface and a cross splashed with street paint, you might think this some kind of Kung Fu retelling of Verdi.
Still, the three hour opera begins in the oddest of ways: In a silent dinner scene in who Donna Lenora of Vargas nervously awaiting her lover. Her family has relocated from the city to the country to break up this very pairing, and the arrival of Don Alvaro (with the music) starts the tragedy.
In the notes, the dramaturg says Alvaro’s gun misfires after he throws it on the ground; on stage, it is Lenora’s hand that guides and fires the shot that kills her father.
She escapes to a religious community of packing containers; Alvaro flees to the war — a strange, generic battle against an unidentified enemy in some of the strangest fight choreography. There’s little hope for this army if they fight like this, scattered and criss-crossing the stage and waving their light little toy machine guns.
Introducing weapons of war doesn’t update the opera as much as cheapen modern conflict Bringing in prisoners of war with black bags over their head as a crowd cavorts plays like an off-putting Abu Ghraib -A-Go-Go. A priest who condemns this is pelted with litter.
The second act has the revenge-seeking brother and his target meeting unknowingly; they trade fake names as one saves the other. When the identity is revealed, the brother insists on satisfaction despite their friendship.
Alvaro escapes to a religious community as well — an easy out in this country, and in the end they all meet. It had been a long time since Leonora and Alvaro had even seen each other.
In the central female role, American soprano Adina Aaron cuts a striking figure, especially as she visits her love as in a dream to start the second half. Her singing is forceful though without the typical flourishes one expects from the lead soprano.
Chilean tenor Giancarlo Monsalve is sufficiently stirring as Alvaro; it’s impressive he has to do a lot of his singing while lying down. He and the vengeful brother, sung by American baritone Mark Delavan, have a couple of strong scenes together as well.
But the musical highlight may be watching diminutive Chinese-American conductor Xian Zhang in her WNO debut, practically jumping from her perch, earning some of the loudest acclaim.
“The Force of Destiny” may not be the big birthday gift for Verdi that was intended, but has several bells and whistles opera fans will enjoy. Alas, that may be its destiny.
The Washington National Opera production of “The Force of Destiny” continues through Oct. 26 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.