Too rarely is this masterpiece performed. It has a considerable length (usually between 4 and 5 hours) but the plot is well constructed and the music has practically no drops in tension, Meyerbeer creating a vivid intuition of dramatic situations and varied orchestral colours. The production by Andreas Kriegenburg is visually very pleasing, the cube structure fills the stage but feels very sterile, the moving stage allows to see what happens in two different places at the same time, the costumes are also beautiful. But choreography wise it is a bit boring. In Kriegenburg’s production the singers are often motionless, which is the antithesis of grand opera with its dramatic plot and finales and its amount of characters including the masses, who play a huge role. Also, it is not clear why the action should play in 2064. Does he want to say this tragedy can happen anytime? Would this be the only reason? Mariotti conducts well. At least much better than in Berlin. And although i wished a more dramatic rendering of the gloomy and sinister atmospheres (and i also had hoped in some grandiloquence) I still enjoyed his interpretation. Pity for some of the cuts in music. Although Meyerbeer himself didn’t mind and even proposed some of them, as comparison I can say that for the same amount of time, Minkowsky in Brussels proposed an almost complete score).
Jaho as Valentine has a beautiful, luminous voice. In the higher register that is, but it sounds a bit empty the lower she goes and her low notes are insufficient for her duet with Marcel and the one with Raoul. Nicolas Testé misses the extreme low notes but sings overall very well. Yosep Kang has all my appreciation for having stepped in last minute. His voice has a nice timbre in the middle register, his French is good, and he fills the huge Bastille room, but the role is heavy and this is audible at the high notes where he pushes the voice to its limits. Excellent Lisette Oropesa (who also steps in last minute replacing Diana Damrau) but has no problems whatsoever, she runs up and down the pentagram with no problems, her voice equal over the whole range, she delivers a credible performance and gets a long and deserved applause after her 2nd act aria. I never quite understood why Karine Deshayes is so praised in her home country. I heard her in Rossini and was disappointed. Meyerbeer suits her much better. I also thought Florian Sempey was very good as Nevers. Overall this Huguentos were not as excellent as the Brussels production (I keep coming back to this one, but except for the ballet everything was perfect, from Minkowsky’s stylistically impeccable conducting, over Py’s dramatic direction to the second cast led by a superb John Osborne with Henriette Bonde-Hansen and Ingela Brimberg) but still a very enjoyable evening. And what a wonderful music!!
Conductor-Michele Mariotti, Director-Andreas Kriegenburg, Set design-Harald B. Thor, Costume design-Tanja Hofmann, Lighting design-Andreas Grüter, Choreography-Zenta Haerter, Marguerite de Valois-Lisette Oropesa, Raoul de Nangis-Yosep Kang, Valentine-Ermonela Jaho, Urbain-Karine Deshayes, Marcel-Nicolas Testé, Le Comte de Saint-Bris-Paul Gay, La dame d’honneur-Julie Robard‑Gendre, Une bohémienne-Julie Robard‑Gendre, Cossé, un étudiant catholique-François Rougie, Le Comte de Nevers-Florian Sempey, Tavannes, premier moine-Cyrille Dubois, Méru, deuxième moine-Michal Partyka, Thoré, Maurevert-Patrick Bolleire, Retz, troisième moine-Tomislav Lavoie, Coryphée, une jeune fille catholique, une bohémienne-Élodie Hache, Bois-Rosé, valet-Philippe Do, Un archer du guet-Olivier Ayault, Quatre seigneurs-John Bernard, Cyrille Lovighi, Bernard Arrieta, Fabio Bellenghi, 4/10/18, photos de https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/season-18-19/opera/les-huguenots#gallery
Kratzer’s Lucio Silla in Brussels let me cold, but I was looking forward to this new production of Les Contes d’Hoffmann. The setting is actually beautiful. It represents a section view of several rooms in a three-story building. The central and biggest room was Hoffman’s bedroom. All the other smaller rooms around it change from one act to the other. Nicklausse stays in the middle room almost for the entirety of the opera, and keeps singing from the middle room even when dialoguing with other characters. This was a bit irritating also because filling a whole opera by one’s presence convincingly was clearly difficult. In the Olympia-act the top room is a cage where young, eyeless girls are kept captive, sleeping on the floor. In a short gory scene one of the girls’ face (Olympia) is sliced open (in the kitchen) in order to insert her eyes. Dressed up, she is pushed in front of the guests. She is scared, and every now and again, during her Oiseux aria, she searches shelter in the arms of Cochenille, but Spalanzani keeps pushing her back in front of the audience like an animal in the circus. Whenever she sings the other captive girls wake up, stick their arms through the cages, as if hoping they might be saved. I must admit it was very impactful. The Giulietta act is more traditional with empty rooms in 18th/19th style and wallpaper. Giulietta and Hoffman actually never meet and they sing from different rooms. Giulietta and Dappertutto also rarely meet. In the scene where Dappertutto is supposed to question her while she is in her room they DO meet, together with Crespel, who’s interjections sound a bit absurd as he is not supposed to see his daughter (very silly the whole thing I thought). I actually hate these inconsistencies. In my opinion, you either re-interpret it completely, give it another, deeper meaning, or you leave it as it is. In this case Kratzer’s “being original” was so cringe-worthy in so many moments I felt like leaving.
Although the house is quite effective from a storytelling perspective, it has its limitations. First of all one cannot always see everything, only very centrally seated people can, otherwise the action is hidden due to the rooms being too small and deep. Secondly the acoustics is terrible. Once the singers turn their head slightly the sound and volume change. Vocally I thought the women were all wonderful. Jaho has an amazing beautiful, full bodied voice. Irene Robert’s Nicklaus was also very good though her voice got more brilliance in the higher register. Minasyan as Olympia had quite a beautiful timbre and was technically flawless. Christine Rice has a lush, luxurious voice which pairs excellently with the role of Giulietta. John Osborn is a singer I follow since I saw him Zurich’s Clari. He never disappointed me and also in Amsterdam his interpretation was spot on, his French excellent, his search for nuances impeccable. But I thought I missed expansion in his voice. The rooms’ acoustics again? I was not very impressed by Schrott, a bit distant character-wise and a bit too light for the evil characters but the comments from fellow listeners were overall favourable. Rizzi directs speedily and sometimes covers the voices, with only sporadic dramatic tension. .
Magic flute, then, a very traditional title, directed by an unconventional director. Magic flute is one opera, which, in my opinion, HAS to be re-interpreted. The sun against the darkness, Pamino in search of Pamina, Monostatos, are the symbols of the progressive/active patriarchy against the evil/passive matriarchy, the manipulation of the natural for its own good, with a hint of racism and misogyny. An odious text, which got an enlightening new vest in last year’s Gent production by David Herman. On another planet we are with Castelluci’s view on the subject. While the overture stands for the darkness (all in black, a neon tube light is shattered etc), Act I is all in white. And when I say all, I mean everything. The people, the clothing, the shoes, the background, the props, the floor, everything. All singers and all dancers act with small and slow movements. The singers have doubles, which mirror their movements and even lip sync, the dancers behind them dance slowly, creating intertwined choreographic forms which are enhanced by the use of feathers and of slowly rotating platforms. No spoken dialogue, just one musical piece after the other. At the end of act one bizarre shapes (architectural forms designed by algorithms by Swiss architect Michael Hansmeyer) move together with the singers, dancers and the doubles creating a huge, white, barock cathedral.
Act two is totally different in that the setting has contemporary features. It starts with eerie music while pregnant women pump their milk from both breasts. I was too busy looking at the technicality of the process to read the text projected above them so i missed the philosophical point. However, with these ladies the mother figure started to get its recognition (the Mother/Queen of the night was also the only figure which was not doubled). The setting was not white anymore but all-beige, the floor, a separating wall, the clothes even the hair. The music starts, but while Act I was played without text, in act two newly created text is interposed into the musical pieces and recited. First by five women, later by five men. The women, one by one, tell us, within 1 minute each, about the moment they became blind, who at a small age, who suddenly while on a plane etc. They tell about the world they see, a world made of shadows and darkness. The men on the other hand tell about the moment in their lives when their skin was burnt, who through scalding oil, who through fire, an explosion etc, a world made of desperation, scarring skin and the moment of “too much light”. Latest by then it becomes clear that Castellucci opposes the moment of lights to those of shadows and pulls a parallel to the darkness and light of the Queen and Sarastro.
Castellucci certainly finds a way to make us think and breaks with conventions, but the message is so overwhelming that the music and the libretto lose all connection with their creators. The orchestra, which includes 18th century brass and timpani, has not much life, I heard Manacorda direct much better. None of the singers have any particular flaws but none are really memorable or touched me in any way.
It’s always interesting to follow the Viaggio a Reims of the Accademia in Pesaro, one can hear interesting young voices which might be successful one day. Excellent, I thought, was the Lord Sidney of Nicolò Donini, with not only fluid coloratura but also the emphasis he put on pronunciation and interpretation. Milla Mihova’s Cortese was also quite good with a strong voice, fluid embellishments and a steady top register. I would have loved to hear her as Corinna. A tenor I also enjoyed was Anatoliy Pigrebnyy as Belfiore, with a nice extension and a ductile voice. Corinna, Folleville and Trombonok all simplify the quick coloratura, Sennikova is a bit mellifluous. I would have loved to see Carles Panchon, who sang the role of Antonio the 17th, sing the role of Sidney the 14th (the students of the accademia alternate roles in two different dates). His voice was quite beautiful and strong and convinced even in the small role of Antonio with a funny mimicry. The orchestra was adequately conducted by Hugo Carrio.
Ricciardo e Zoraide was one of the main events in Pesaro this year, the opera was composed in Naples in 1818 but was not, also in modern times, very lucky with revivals. Juan Diego Florez comes back for yet another role composed for Giovanni David, the tenore di grazia active in Naples at that time. (In fact most of Rossini’s Neapolitan operas have 2 tenor roles, one tenore di grazia and one baritenor. The latter was Andrea Nozzari, for whom Rossini composed the roles of Otello, Rinaldo (Armida), Pirro in Ermione, Rodrigo (La donna del lago), Antenore (Zelmira). Juan Diego Florez, a
For the 150th anniversary of Rossini’s death this year, the ROF commissioned a new Barbiere di Siviglia, a choice much criticized on- and offline. The reason being Barbiere being one of the world’s most performed operas and the detractors wished a more rare opera. Nonetheless, in my view, it turned out to be a very good production. The setting is beautiful. In an atemporal Seville, Pizzi plays with the airy space and just a few touches of contrasts and colours. The singers’ movements are very generic, some good ideas but not everything convinces (Basilio’s stutter, Bartolo’s French R…). Very elegant the costumes.
Maybe Spagnoli is more delicate in the search of the right nuance, though I found his voice not always as round and soft especially in the higher register, but both have an excellent musicality, are wonderful actors, have wonderful body gestures. The phrasing is excellent, each word adapts to the flow of the music, the pronunciation impeccable. Two charismatic top singers. Mirinov is very good as count, not a big voice but he nimbly flies over all runs. Not very big isn’t Rosina’s voice either. I’m not sure why the ROF keeps choosing her in the mezzo or alto roles. The vocality does not suit her very much. The voice is placed high and one can hear that even in the recitatives which don’t have necessary weight in these low roles. In the rapid embellishments she’s not always audible. When she gets time she does reach the low notes, her coloratura is fluid, her pronunciation good and she moves well on stage. Elena Zilio is lovely as Berta and Pertusi a correct Basilio.
Saverio Mercadante’s Didone abbandonata contains beautiful music. The opera has magnificent melodies (the ouverture, both Enea’s entrance and second at aria, the act I finale and the act II terzetto, Didone’s final aria are all beautiful), gripping ensembles and a refined orchestration and it is easy to believe the success it had after its premiere in Turin being played in Naples, Paris, and London. I would love to see it staged again.
The set by Magdalena Gut works well. A rotating top floor of a concrete building-in-making with iron rods sticking out from the floor make for an unfinished carthagean palace. Cringy however the direction by Jürgen Flimm. Not sure a grotesque psychopath Jarba who rapes and strangles Selene, slaughters Araspe ans stabs Osmida is what Didone’s final aria needed. For the rest singers were left to their fate as it seems they didn’t always know what to do onstage and characters were rendered only superficially. Better Alessandro De Marchi who keeps things going swiftly and directs energetically. Remarkable and excellently prepared the Coro Maghini.
Nicola Vaccaj is now mainly famous for his didactic singing method for opera singers but in his time he was an accomplished composer albeit in the shadow of Rossini. His Giulietta e Romeo
The delicate Giulietta was extraordinarily interpreted by Leonor Bonilla. Her beautiful voice rose to the top, ethereal notes very easily. Raffaella Lupinacci as Romeo perfectly rendered the energy of young Romeo. Vocally she did an excellent job in the chiselling of colours but her voice is not strong enough in the low notes and at times she was not very audible. Christian Senn’s Lorenzo was also very good with an equal register everywhere and a very good pronunciation. Leonardo Cortellazzi was an excellent Capellio, good pronunciation, vivid top register, beautiful timbre and fine impersonation of the compelling character the librettist Felice Romani makes of the father. I was less impressed by Vasa Stajkic’s Tebaldo who’s interpretation was a bit monochrome. The excellent Paoletta Marrocu could only make a stage-wise impressive and vocally expressive loving mother.
The slightly gothic staging was simple but effective. A lateral transversal wall with medieval touches (representing first the Capulets’ palace with the balcony, and then the walls of the cemetery), a tomb and impressive lighting was enough to put us straight into the plot. The movement of the masses was excellent and also the single characters were admirably guided and thanks to Cecilia Ligorio’s direction the show had basically no drops in tension. In my opinion the only disagreeableness came from the conductor. He got loads of applause but in my personal view he directed too much on the slow side, so much as to sometimes lose the arch of the musical line. Directing in an open space he also did not balance the volume enough and some of the beautiful accompaniment got lost in the…open air.
I always wondered, in Belgium’s cultural life, what Belgians were most interested in. And as listener to concertgoers’ comments and to various concerts, I’m coming to the conclusion that not the music is the most important thing but the artist. Looking at the previous years’ Bozar printed programs, it almost bothered me how the orchestra or the main artist not only had the biggest font, but were in bold AND underlined. The performers were just below, the font slightly smaller but still in bold, and listed one by one, each performer deserved a single line of course. The composers 
came afterwards, not bold anymore, and the actual composition came in an even (slightlty) smaller font. Funnily enough sometimes even not listed separately, as if to save space. But hey, who was I to complain, all the info was there.
The Sesto of Anna Goryachova is wonderful, her range equal in all registers, her coloratura exact and she is fully immersed in the character. Her recitativo accompagnato that opens the finale of act one (O dei che smania è questa) is very dramatic and shows her also an excellent actress, but the highlight for me was the aria Deh, per questo istante solo (Sesto’s confrontation with the emperor) where acting, singing and directing were just excellent. Lothar Odinius as Tito has a strong voice and sings delicately but it is not light enough to sing the runs accurately and he sinks in intonation in more than one occasion. Vitella is Agneta Eichenholz, her upper and lower register are not fully convincing and sometimes she pushes the notes from below but she sings acceptably well, her notes being satisfactorily steady to pass unharmed the trio (Vengo! Aspettate!) and the final aria. Cecilia Molinari is an impeccable Annio with an excellent phrasing. Very good also the Servilia of Anat Edri. This wonderful production was completed by the Publio of Markus Suihkonen and the chorus of the Flemish Opera.
It was a pleasure to to see this production a second time, if only to see how well Michieletto can tell a touching story and only minimally interfere with the libretto. In this Donna del lago he tells the story with the eyes of old Elena and her secret love to the king. Elena and Malcolm have aged and they witness their own plot, discovering secrets they most likely didn’t tell each other. There were some very touching moments and I loved to see the show in the intimacy of the theatre rather than the huge space of the Adriatic Arena. Mariotti loves the score I feel. The rubati, the small plays with tempi and dynamics bring the score to life and it’s such a joy to hear him direct. The orchestra is far from impeccable but I never heard it play so well (bravo the clarinet). Rodvnanovsky had parts of his voice that sometimes sounded «unclean» (a cold?) but he masters his difficult role with relative ease. It’s more technical mastery, as where Pizzolato, although she lost some of the creaminess of her voice, has not only still impeccable coloratura but plays wonderfully with the colours, and her clear pronunciation makes poor Malcolm become a true romantic lover. Salome Jicia is less convincing than in Pesaro, she attacks her high notes a bit harshly at times, her pronunciation could also be improved but she makes a fine Elena nonetheless with a powerful coloratura and a beautiful closing aria. The small house of Liège is advantageous to Mironov’s voice, not large, but beautiful, light and flexible, sings excellently and in understandable Italian, his second act aria (whose melodic line I always found somewhat strange). Very well also Simón Orfila as Douglas. Barbaric the choir.
Mozart was 16 when he composed Lucio Silla but it remained the last opera he wrote for Italy for after the opera premiered during the Carneval season of 1773, the Regio Ducal Teatro (for whom Mozart wrote Mitridate and Ascanio in Alba) did not commission any more operas to Mozart. The opera has no easy or proper plot, which is not uncommon in operas of that period. Although the librettist Giovanni de Gamerra went on to play a small role in the development of what was to become romantic opera, the characters in Lucio Silla are very static. Mozart composed a varied palette of music, some conventional pieces, others remarkably deep, using some new and elaborate forms, a considerable amout of recitativi accompagnati-a more dramatic form than the recitativo secco-and expanding the orchestra with trumpets, giving the orchestra more elaborate writings then relegate it to a standard accompaniment. Recitivi were written when still in Salzburg while the arias were composed tailormaid to the strengths of the singers. They all turned up in Milan between end of November and beginning of December 1772. The first Cecilio was the famous castrato Venanzio Rauzzini, while the first Giunia was Anna de Amicis, equally famous. De Amicis “was very satisfied with the arias, and Mozart introduced in them passages which are very unusual, unique and extremely difficult and which she sings amazingly well…” father Mozart reported, who was in Milan with his son. Giunia and Cecilio each sing in 7 pieces. And Mozart gives them a wonderful duet to close Act I. Lucio Silla himself sings only in 3 pieces, which is either due to his text written to be conveyed dramatically by the recitativo or by the fact that the originally intended star had to be replaced last minute with a lesser known singer, or both. The new tenor arrived December 17th and the next day Mozart had composed the two arias for him. Cinna has also only 3 arias but has the privilege to sing the first, while Celia’s role lightens the atmosphere, seen that she is not included in the political plot. The full orchestra rehearsals were done the 18, 20 and 22 December, the dress rehearsal the 23rd and the opera was performed the 26th and run for 26 performance, a considerable amount. Mozart was pleased with both Anna de Amicis and Venanzio Rauzzini, and for the latter, around the 15th January, he composed the famous motet Exultate, jubilate.
The director sets the story in modern days and when the curtain rises, one sees a modern house (which later revolves) and tress around it, very much like in Pizzi’s Pietra del paragone, but less stylish. But the plot is quite thin, the da capo arias very long and Tobias Kratzer really only asks for very conventional movements (except for much cutting of veins and a dog running around) and the little action on stage starts boring very soon. The orchestra played the ouverture swiftly and nervously (maybe a bit too nervously?) but Manacorda directed and accompanied very well. I thought Jeremy Ovenden was just acceptable. His lower register weak, his interpretation extremely thin. Much better Lenneke Ruiten. Her role has extreme demands and she manages well with a beautiful and bright top register. In one of the most difficult arias ever written Ah se il crudel periglio she convinces much less (drops a note every now and then to breath). Anna Bonitatinus gave a lovely recital of Rossini songs a couple of weeks back. A forgotten repertoire that she rendered beautifully. But her Cecilio was not as convincing. Her tight vibrato is a bit unpleasant and it seems to me Cecilio is a size too big for her. Her 2nd entrance aria was sung with much transport and fury and was a joy to hear, as was her last aria, but there are constant struggles with pitch. Marvellous Simona Saturova as Celia. She sings her four arias wonderfully and with great taste. I had big hopes for the opening aria but i had to wait for Ilse Eerens to sing her other two arias which allows her to show her bravura. I like her beatiful timbre and clear top notes. Good also Carlo Allemano but untidy roulades.