Ponchielli: La Gioconda
Großes Festspielhaus, Salzburg, 23rd March 2024
Liudmila Konovalova (La Gioconda in The Dance of the Hours) and Anna Netrebko (La Gioconda)
© Bernd Uhlig
Amilcare Ponchielli’s La Gioconda is an opera it’s easy to scoff at: unlikely coincidences, disguises and fake poisons pile on top of each other at every turn in a tale of lust and vengeance in the middle of which pops up perky ballet The Dance of the Hours, forever associated in the minds of many of us with hippos in tutus in Disney’s animated classic Fantasia.
To his immense credit, Oliver Mears takes it deadly seriously, using the prelude and the ballet music to present a backstory where we learn about an abusive relationship between Gioconda (a ballad singer) and Barnaba (an Inquisition spy).