Verdi’s middle period favorite, though not very often performed today, can nevertheless be heard in the heart of Central Europe.  Matthias von Stegmann’s staging for the Hungarian State Opera updates the action from the historic events of 1282 to a late industrial miasma, but not without effect.  I wearied of the set-dominating rusted steel panels and massive bolts that hold them together.  Over the course of the evening, I grew numb to the idea that the characters and their national and romantic passions are enclosed in some kind of impenetrable container.  The somberness made it hard for me to believe that the director is responsible for the German-language adaptation of The Simpsons.  But I enjoyed the idea that the Sicilian Vespers could be so readily connected to the era of Italy’s final unification.  The appearance of a lady of liberty carrying an Italian tricolor flag – in homage to Delacroix’s famous painting from his country’s Revolution of 1830, which featured the other, more revolutionary tricolor – risked pure camp, but to my mind it avoided caricature at the  opera’s final moment , when Procida’s irreconcilable forces sweep down on the French for their bloody vengeance.

Budapest audiences enjoy some very good if not altogether excellent singing.  Leading the cast’s efforts in every sense was the Russian baritone Anatolij Fokanov, a true Verdi baritone long resident in the Hungarian capital.  Possessing a fine legato and impressive upper range flexibility, he captured all the moods of Monforte – stern governor, paternal father, man of peace – that the composer usually demands in the complexities of his dramas.  It seems strange that a singer able to master the notoriously difficult tessitura found in Verdi does not enjoy a more accomplished international career.  Attila Fekete performed with verve as Arrigo, Monforte’s long lost son and sometime champion of the national cause.  Some of the notes were too pinched for a heroic Verdi tenor.  Istvan Racz’s bellowing bass got off to a rough start as Procida, but grew progressively more focused over the evening.  Eszter Sumegi’s soprano is blessed with a fine lyrico spinto quality.  I found her top notes too undisciplined to be credible as a great diva, however.  The middle range, though competently delivered, suffered somewhat from an odd hoarseness.  Gergely Kesselyak’s orchestral effort palidly avoided an engaged dramatic reading of the score and sometimes fell out of synch with what was happening on stage.