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.
For Brussels one world creation would seem adequate, two already a bit too much. But this year we get 3 (three) world creations: one by Dusapin, one by Attahir, and one by Kwiecinski. Funnily enough, in this 200th anniversary of one of Poland’s most beloved composers, Stanislav Moniuszko, we don’t get to hear an opera BY Moniuszko, but an opera ABOUT Moniuszko (sic). The three modern creations are counterbalanced by the umpteenth staging of the Da Ponte trilogy. I hope in a more pleasant staging than the last ones i saw. The presentation of the trilogy in the programme booklet flings words such as sexual morality, de Sade and #MeToo. I can’t wait… The program is rounded off by two more 20th century operas (R. Strauss and Honegger) and furthermore by the only two operas I really look forward to: Tchaikovsky’s Pikovaya Dama and Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann. The Monnaie/Munt doesn’t seem to want to offer its paying public a diversity in ballet either, maintaining a modern ballet-only policy.
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 (!!).
Overall the most diverse programme with the more interesting names come from Liège. Although yet another Don Carlos is given in parallel to Gent (I would help if thew talked to each other…) together with a second Verdi (Nabucco), the singers are the experienced Gregory Kunde, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, Yolanda Auyanet and Kate Aldrich. Rossini’s Cenerentola has the interesting newcomer Tenor Sekgapane in its cast, Bellini’s Sonnambula the wonderful Nino Machaidze, Barbera and Mimica. A rare Alzira (a third but at least a rare Verdi) and an even rarer Lakme (with Jodie Devos in the title role) are also on the programme, which includes also a Pecheurs de perles with Annick Massis, a Candide in concert version and Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice. 10 operas are played in Liège, a quantity which I sometimes found detrimental to quality. I could have done with a Verdi less, But at least the programme is diverse.
https://www.operaliege.be/saison_19_20/
https://www.demunt.be/nl/program
https://operaballet.be/nl/het-huis/blog/ontdek-seizoen-2019-2020
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.
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.
