Offenbach died before he could layout his opera exactly as he intended it to be, and as many people laid hand on it afterwards, it is one of the opera’s that will always have one or the other piece cut or added. In this Brussels version the muse gets La vérité dit-on, Vois sous l’archet frémissant, Voyez-la sous son éventail, Giulietta gets her aria as well (L’amour lui dit), there is no sextet, no Scintille diamant and in the Olympia act we hear the trio J’ai des yeux. On the other hand the Olympia act starts directly with “C’est elle”, the Giulietta act ends with the duet and there were various other cuts and spoken additions such as an oscar speach.
Gabor Bretz sang very well but was scenically not very present to come across as a villain. Nicole Chevalier sang the three women adequately and some absence in flexibility and absence of vibrato in top notes did not dilute an overall convincing rendition; I liked Michèle Losier as Nicklausse, her voice never strained, a warm timbre, and very convincing on stage. Enea Scala has a voice that tends to get a bit tight the more he rises, but in middle and low register he has a nice timbre in a voice that he uses to sing with many facets. Altinoglu gets an extremely clear sound from orchestra and choir. He gets my applause also for not cutting the reprise of the Hofmann/Miracle/Crespel trio. He directs correctly and accompanies with taste and over the performances his dramatic tension increases.
Just like the librettist of Hoffmann Jules Barbier and Michel Carré took several novels by Hoffmann and created one which ended up being Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Warlikowski took several movies and forced them into being the setting and the plot of the opera. But while Barbier and Carré created something new, Warlikowski didn’t. By boxing a movie plot and an opera plot together Warlikokwsi creates many confusions and contradictions; Furthernore the concept does not make any theatrical credibility unless it’s explained. The plot is just a string of movie scenes, mechanically put one after the other with no link to Hoffman’s plot. The whole opera is stripped of any romanticism, love and diabolical elements and seems the worst of regietheaters. What Warlikowski did was the blandest form of project management resulting in an extremely boring evening, made even longer by two intervals and all the additions which make sense in Warlikowski’s head but not in mine (and of those who left at the second interval)
The only consolation of this dull evening is that the various Warlikowskis and whoever pays them will come and go. Offenbach’s music will remain. Just a pity this time even Offenbach’s music resulted boring. Quiet an achievement.
Conductor-Alain Altinoglu, Director-Krzysztof Warlikowski, Set Design And Costumes-Małgorzata Szczęśniak, Lighting-Felice Ross, Video-Denis Guéguin, Choreography-Claude Bardouil, Dramaturgy-Christian Longchamp, Hoffmann-Enea Scala, Olympia, Antonia, Giulietta, Stella-Nicole Chevalier, Nicklausse, La Muse-Michèle Losier, La Voix De La Tombe-Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo, Le Conseiller Lindorf, Coppélius, Le Docteur Miracle, Le Capitaine Dapertutto Gábor Bretz, Spalanzani, Nathanaël-François Piolino, Luther, Crespel-Sir Willard White, Frantz, Andrès, Cochenille, Pitichinaccio-Loïc Félix, Schlémil, Herrmann-Yoann Dubruque, Wolfram-Alejandro Fonte, Wilhelm-Byoungjin Lee. Fotos by Bernd Uhlig; 12th, 31st december 2019
A disappointing start of the season, this 19/20 opera season in Belgium. In Brussels the first 2 operas were from the 21st century, none of which will leave any mark. Macbeth Underworld was quite gripping stage-wise but musically superficial, I felt that this opéra had not much to add to opera literature. Le silence des ombres played in the KVS to a house empty by a third. Musically for me it all merges into the same really so nothing visionary or exciting in any of those pieces. Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice in Liège had a very interesting setting by Aurélien Bory with a mirror against the back wall which, dimly lit, allowed for some interesting effects, but the direction of van Waas was lethargic. Varduhi Abrahamyan sang Orfeo with no involvement and conviction. So I left there disappointed as well. Much better was the Don Carlos in Gent. The setting was a mix of computer-generated background sets, landscapes creeping into sight, and geometric design objects wheeled in and out and used by an almost childish Don Carlos. Vocally I much admired Leonardo Capalbo as Don Carlos and Kartal Karagedik as Posa and their voices merged beautifully in the famous duet Dieu, tu semas dans nos âmes. The opera was very well directed by Alejo Pérez. I am no Verdi fan but i didn’t get bored, that’s a touchstone. Macbeth in Gent on the other hand…
Luckily travelling has gotten easy, and refreshing productions are in fast reach, such as the 
The San Carlo in Naples gave Rossini’s Ermione. The opera had its premiere on this very same stage exactly 200 years ago. The setting was in a clean and linear white but the direction was a bit flat, with people just walking in and out and the chorus static. De Marchi’s conducted metronomically. Vocally there was really only John Irving who i found weak for Pirro’s part, and this mainly because he was inaudible. Teresa Iervolino was not as convincing as I found her in Semiramide but she has a beautiful, flexible voice and a stage presence which gave Andromaca an almost title-importance. Siragusa and Venditelli were almost excellent, radiant and charismatic voices, who portrayed the love-blind Oreste and the somewhat manipulative Ermione excellently, especially Ermione’s final aria which jumps from one state of mind to another. If anything, the Naples staging confirmed Rossini’s visonary genius.
Another rarity i had the joy of seeing was Cavalli’s Ercole amante. Valérie Lesort and Christian Hecq have staged a wonderful Domino noir by Auber (one of those must-see stagings), and Ercole amante confirmed their gift of staging complicated plots with technically astonishing ideas making it charming and entertaining. They recreated the fascination of barock staging with magnificent costumes, machinery flying in and out, hatches opening, palms growing onstage, flowers becoming human, appearances, disappearances, phantastic creatures etc etc. A feast for the eye. And musically exceptionally directed by Raphael Pichon and sung by a string of baroque specialists.
The staging of such a rarity as Gaspare Spontini’s Fernand Cortez is always worth a travel, worthwhile it is also to spend a few words on its genesis and staging history. From what we know, Napoleon, perfectly conscious of the political support it could get from the cultural institutions in general and opera in particular, wished to sugar-coat his Spanish invasion and asked for a libretto that would display modern liberalism over religious bigotry. The plot of Fernand Cortez was perfect for Mexican invasion was at the time interpreted as liberation of the Mexican people from the Aztec oppressors and their barbaric cults by Cortez. But Fernand Cortez, which premiered on 28th November 1809 with Napoleon himself attending, had only a moderate success in France in the first 2 years, which might be due to the disastrous results of the Spanish invasion. We don’t know for sure whether it was Napoleon himself who withdraw it from the scenes. Its success in France established only between 1817 and the second third of the 19th century, with its second version and almost 250 performances. Abroad, the opera had a big success from the beginning, being performed in cities such as Dresden, Brussels,Vienna, Prague (the premiere directed by Weber) Berlin, Budapest, Weimar and Naples (with Rossini conducting) already in the first 15 years after its creation.
The premiere in 1809 was famous for its bombastic staging including Cortez’ ships set on fire, 14 horses on stage as well as the loud music which was much criticized. What makes the opera alluring is the realization of how Spontini’s music was a forerunner of the grand opera and a model for the French operas by Rossini and Meyerbeer. Another reason why it is interesting to hear Spontini’s music are the harmonic inventions. Not having the gift for melody, he worked on big dramatic scenes, dynamic extremes and harmonics which give a sense of continuous movement, harmonic frictions and instabilities. Musical critics of the time wrote of “dissonances”, of “constant change of tonality “, or “ Full of modulations and dissonances which rapidly follow each other without a moment of rest.” Spontini’s accompaniment during airs and duets are often varied and delicate. However, director Jean-Luc Tingaud pays little attention to them and hastens over the score with little care on details. Additionally the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is big and has a pasty sound and a dubious acoustic, which prevents to hear all the delicate subtleties (at least from the side on the balcony it does) and therefore sometimes it took me time until i fully got the melody. Also, very often there was half a second time lag between the music in the pit and the singers or choir on stage. A quite unsatisfactory approach of the music.
I really admire the work of Cecilia Ligorio (and her whole team). She creates intriguing settings that manage well to absorb me into the physical space and psychological narrative of the plot. I had the same feeling in Martina Franca (Vaccaj’s Giulietta e Romeo) with its limited resources, and in the Venetian Semiramide last year. Also in Florence she plays with beautiful background canvases, which, masterfully lit, make for some evocative settings (the shore of lake Texcoco where Amazily wants to take her life with the weeds in the foreground is particularly attractive I thought). The movements are well choreographed and there never is a dip in tension. The ballets, a fundamental part in French opera, are modern yet gripping. The dancers (14, as the horses in 1809) give their best. The dances that close the opera, meant to celebrate the creation of a new Mexican culture (and idolize Cortez/Napoleon) are thoughtfully used by Ligorio to balance myth and reality: Cortez’ friend Moralez is seen during the last ballets writing his memoirs, thinking about the false views which are delivered by contrasting interpretations of history. He writes about the atrocities he saw, balancing the creation of new culture against the extermination of a whole society which was so praised by the self-celebratory Cortez, and admonishes to question false heroes. A wonderful and touching way of making theatre.
Amazily has the powerful and warm voice of Alexia Voulgaridou which fills the concert hall with ease. She sings well, has an audible voice in all registers, but sometimes a short breath, which are particularly regretful at the end of her first aria where the last top notes are separated from the rest, cutting the musical arch. Schmuck is scenically more credible in act 2 and 3, but he is not always able to bring the Spanish leader to life and his voice is often covered from the middle register down. The Telasco of Luca Lombardo is satisfactory and sings his aria well. Very good the Alvar of David Ferri Durà which, together with the two Spanish prisoners make for a nice Hymn in Act 3 . Remarkable also André Courville as Grand Pretre. Gianluca Margheri sings a fine Moralez
Nicola Manfroce was a man of talent. Born one year before Rossini in the Calabrian Palmi, he moved his first musical steps in Rome. Aged 19 he presented a cantata in honour of Napoleon (the reference to France is important) and an opera, Alzira, interpreted by the already famous Isabella Colbran, who would become a key figure in Naples for the operas Rossini would compose for her interpretative and vocals skills. Impresario Domenico Barbaja’s nose for excellent talents (he also “discovered” Rossini and Bellini) commissioned Ecuba for the San Carlo, which went on stage in December 1812. Manfroce died only a a few months later aged 21. His insight of the French style is evident from the ouverture, where he masterfully combines the French musical language with Italian melodic inspiration. Throughout, the tragédie lyrique of Spontini also comes to mind. A profound musical chiselling of the tormented characters is achieved with dramatic ariosi and accompanied recitatives in forms that run smoothly into the actual musical numbers.
I was looking forwar to hear Carmela Remigio but unfortunately she was indisposed. as was the conductor Fabio Luisi. Sesto Quatrini took over the musical direction and although he did well, I felt that precision was missing especially in the string section and a research in colours and details was absent. Lidia Fridman as replacement in the role of Ecuba was successful. A slightly tensed top register did not affect the overall musical rendition and dramatic interpretation of the tragic figure with a good technical baggage and a generous voice: I especially enjoyed Roberta Mantegna as Polissena, beautiful timbre and well projected voice. Norman Reinhardt interprets Achilles credibly with a bold vigor and tender reading in his duets with Polissena . Though the timbre of the second tenor is more agreable, the interpretation of Priamus by Mert Süngü needs to wait Act II to be fully convicing. Pizzi’s setting was credible and powerful, almost grand in its linear and static nature. The chorus was placed at the two outside corners while the main action happned in the central section. Movements are predictable but the whole works. Pizzi gets single boos at the courtain call, all others are applauded with enthusiasm.
A highlight, the Matilde di Shabran of this year’s opera in Bad Wildbad, given during its yearly Rossini Festival. Rossini composed the opera for the Teatro Apollonia in Rome. Last minute changes and time constraints made him ask the composer Giovanni Pacini to help out with 3 musical numbers. When the opera was later staged in Naples, Rossini exchanged the numbers written by Pacini with own compositions. The Bad Wildbad Festival decided to stage the opera in its first Roman version, with the Pacini numbers, among which the Matilde-Edoardo duet in act 2 and the Introduction to Act II. The director of this production was Stefania Bonfadelli, who I fondly remember as excellent soprano. As director she brings us into a journalistic, men-dominated newsroom, tyrannized by the choleric Corradino. The sets are nice in its grey, straight lines, which could represent Corradino’s cold soul (before meeting Matilde). The text is not always properly mirrored but overall the setting works. It was musically however, that the opera took off. Although the orchestra (new to Bad Wildbad) was not at its best, José Miguel Pérez conducted with much inspiration. Very good Michele Angelini as Corradino. The agility did not seem to pose the slightest problem and the voice is tender in its more lyric passages. Where Sara Blanch was slightly more convincing as Matilde is the ease she moves on stage, almost with a bit of cockiness in her inspired rendering of Matilde. Equally at ease with coloratura she moves up and down the pentagram as if it was the most natural thing in the world. With such singers their musical numbers were an absolute pleasure, Corradino’s entrance aria with its almost frantic runs, Matilde’s closing aria and most of all the quintet in act 1. Victoria Yarovaya had a warm voice which merged well with the soprano in Pacini’s duet No, Matilde non morrai. All other singers also contributed significantly to the success of the opera.
Two minor operas at this year’s festival, but nonetheless worth seeing, were L’accademia di musica by Giovanni Simone Mayr and I tre gobbi by Manuel Garcia. L’accademia di musica, though a thin libretto, had an excellent cast. Two of the singers, Maria del Mar Humanes and César Cortes were members in the masterclass which Bad Wildbad organizes every year. I particularly liked the agile though firm voice and the sparkly stage presence of Maria del Mar Humanes. Filippo Morace combines good actorial skills with a good technical preparation, while Ricardo Seguel sings well his part of Cecchino. Correctly sung and excellently interpreted was the Momoletto of Filippo Pina Castiglioni. Nicola Pascoli directs with much verve. Eleonora Bellocci is one of these voices to follow closely, strong in its middle register, excellent top notes, clear coloratura and refined interpretation. She interpreted also the role of Vezzosa in the one-act opera I tre gobbi by Manuel Garcia (who was Rossini’s first Count Almaviva and father of Maria Malibran) on a libretto by Goldoni and accompanied by one piano. The libretto is extremely modern for its time (a woman, finding herself wooed by three men, the rich Parpagnacco, the beautiful Bellavita and the good Macaco, not being able to chose, decides to live with the 3 of them) and Garcia composes lovely melodies for this spirited libretto. I already said about the positive impression of Eleonora Bellocci, I also enjoyed the three men, especially the nice timbre and agile voice of Javier Povedano. All four were accompanied on the piano by Andres Jesus Gallucci with much empathy, liveliness and passion.
Stanis
The greatly acclaimed staging by Pountney is minimal but was praised for including popular Polish elements and symbols. Pountney puts the plot in the 20’s and 30’s, keeps the gaiety of the libretto, works with tableaux vivants which he frames in the style of paintings and which he moves on stage. The staging is very lighthearted, full of humour and colourful and the singers are all well directed.
Compared to previous years the opera programmes in Belgium for the 19/20 season are a bit disappointing in my view. If the Flemish Opera or the Liege Opera somehow balanced the Monnaie/Munt’s predilection for modern works, this isn’t always the case in the new programmes.
The Flemish Opera, winner of the 2019 Opera Award for best Opera Company, presents the season of the new artistic director Jan Vandenhouwe. More diverse than the Munt, though I don’t see the need for two Verdi operas in one season (Don Carlos and Macbeth), and Cosi fan tutte again!! Two further titles are disguised as opera but are really a potpourri of music by Verdi and Wagner (Platel’s Choeurs) and the scenes from Goethe’s Faust by Mendelssohn. What stands out is an Schrecker opera (Der Schmied von Gent), a schoolopera by Brecht/Weill (Der Jasager), the Sheharazade/heure espagnole dyptic by Ravel and a welcome Rusalka by Dvorak. Interesting enough 3 productions (Rusalka, Choeurs and the Ravel dyptic) are mentioned under “opera” as well as under “ballet”. This year also the Flemish Opera offers a modern-only programme for ballet (!!).
A wonderful little rarity by Ferdinando Paer was staged by the Teatro Regio in Torino; Paer is one of many transition composers between Mozart and Rossini, who wrote excellent music, today unfortunately rarely performed. His Agnese was first performed in 1809 and then all over Italy and Europe until the 1820’s. The plot revolves around Agnese who elopes with Ernesto, fact which drives her father into madness believing her dead. Hen Ernesto leaves Agnese she goes back to her father to ask for forgiveness (with her little daughter whom she gave birth to in the meantime). The plot has a happy ending with the father regaining his mind and Ernesto asking for forgiveness. Diego Fasolis kept the music exciting and crisp with an orchestra of the Regio at its best and beautifully played solos.
Another rarity was presented in Brussels, albeit in concert version, Robert le diable by Meyerbeer. I was very excited when I read about it as I think Meyerbeer composed wonderful music, melodic, dramatic, romantic. Less excited when I heard the names. Korchak (is he really up for the role?) Pidó (eye rolling) Auyanot (pouting with scepticism), Courjal (who?) Dral (who??). And who was the soprano again? But I must admit the performance was one of the best I’ve ever heard. Pidó conducted with incredible energy an orchestra that was in top shape, he also accompanied the singers very well. Korchak surprised me with a resounding voice, an admirable stamina, flexibility and extension he kept from beginning to the end. It was the first time I heard Courjal but I find his warm voice very pleasant. He certainly is very good in the part of Bertram, though maybe not very diabolic. Another very good singer I really admired was Julien Dran in the role of Raimbaut. His voice light and flexible, he sang an impressive top note in his duet with Raimbaut. Yolanda Auyanet was very dramatic and well suited to the role of Alice. The soprano was of course Lisette Oropesa, who i remember well from her adina in Pesaro and even better from her Marguerite in Paris’ Les Huguenot. I thought she was stunning. Simply stunning. The timbre might not be as warm, but all notes, from the low to the high and top ones, all are there. The coloratura comes with apparent easy, the character of Isabelle well interpreted with beautiful colours and musicality. A very moving interpretation. A shame it did not come in a scenic version.
Les pecheurs des perles was told in a sort of flashback: from an elderly home, Zurga and Nadir re-live the past and their love for Leila. The past is then visualized by a huge sea wave and three dancers. The stage rotated regularly from present to past and in some occasions the two merged, such as when the dancers representing Nadir and Leila, were actually cuddling on a table in the elderly home, surrounded by the seagulls. A very lovely and touching moment of magic realism. From all the voices it was Elena Tsallagova’s Leila who stood out while David Reiland delivered a direction underlining the languish aspect of the score throughout the opera, which was played without pause (a habit I support).
Liège showed us a production of Faust by Stefano Poda already performed in Turin. It’s a symbolic and philosophical vision. The stage is dominated by a giant ring, which turns and lifts and around which everybody moves. The effect is stunning, the idea brilliant, the content and position of the ring vary along the acts and it allows movement of singers and masses. The visual and light effects are beautiful and underline each scene efficiently, the costumes are very nice and adequate and the Walpurgis ballet was beautifully choreographed. Patrick Davin directs with beautiful colours a score that I find far to “nice” for the subject. The cast was very good with a wonderful interpretation and a generous voice by Ildebrando d’Arcangelo as Mephisto and a good Faust by Marc Laho. Anne Catherine Gillet, except for a few pushed high notes in act 5, charms with a beautiful fleshy timbre.
I saw a less convincing Gioconda, too. “Py Makes it a sinister tale”, they wrote about the director, or…”chooses for…black“. I’m not sure, however, the intentional choice is much in Py’s power. There are recurring themes and objects such as the all-black, the dog masks, the feeling of grim and oppressive. Sometimes this works well-where Py is indeed able to add more than a setting (Les Huguenots were excellent, Les dialogues des Carmelites impressive)-sometimes it doesn’t (Hamlet or this Gioconda). The continuous black was a bit monotonous, then nudity became a recurrent contrivance and trash came into the picture (having sex on a table, while holding a frying pan with a fish in it?) plus a group rape during the dance scene (ok we got it: sex and violence is a constant in this Py-world, wherever it is). I was bored halfway through the first part. Vocally the two casts weren’t exciting either. None of the two Gioconda’s were fully convincing, one because of the colourless interpretation, the other due a certain distance to the character. Of the two Laura’s I liked the warm voice of Szilvia Vörös in the second cast. Really credible were the Enzo and Barnaba of Stefano La Colla and France Vassallo. The latter vocally and scenically also very convincing. Carignani’s direction is dry and nervous with no space for sentimentality. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t. Overall two unsatisfactory evenings.
Before Rossini’s last opera Guillaume Tell, a project came up which intended to re-use the music of Il Viaggio a Reims. This latter opera was written exclusively for the coronation of Charles X and was staged only a limited number of times. Le Comte Ory, the second last opera by Rossini, was staged with success from 1828 to the mid-19th century for approx. 400 times. Liege’s staging is a coproduction with the Opera Comique which had a set of very good singers. Antonino Siragusa, except for his dynamic poverty, has a luminous voice which he combines with a solar appearance, easy coloratura, excellent musicality and an instinctive acting. A pleasure to see and hear him. Jodie Devos has a beautiful voice, her timbre velvety and soft, her high and top notes clear, her embellishments delicate and light. The entrance cavatina was sung beautifully with the sensual voice matching the character’s melancholy. The cabaletta was not as sparkling though, partially due to the tempi, partially due to dubious variations. José Maria Lo Monaco makes for a good Isolier, and the two basses Laurent Kubla and Enrico Marabelli sing their respective arias with great taste.
The setting is not the one originally conceived (the time of the crusades), Podalydès puts it around the time of the opera’s composition, so that religious puritanism plays a bigger role. The stage design is simple with the interior of a church in Act 1 and the walls of the castle in Act 2. But there is basically very little action if not for the traditional singers’ movements. The (very) rare gags serve only their own purpose, there is no concept except for the temporally shifted setting. The opera works because the libretto is well written, but the staging is a but dull and clearly the singers don’t always know how to move. What to say about the musical direction of Jordi Bernacér. The tempi are extremely slow. So slow I rarely heard any opera directed (maybe Otello by Ferro in Naples, where I was equally bored). The effect is of a big long boring musical piece after another. The aria of the governor seemed endless. None of the pieces had any energy any vigour; the music sounded repetitive and tedious. This production didn’t do Rossini any justice, it’s nothing like Rossini should sound like.