January in Belgium (Les pecheurs des perles@Gent, Faust@Liège, Gioconda@De Munt/La Monnaie)

I saw two very nice productions last month, one in Gent and one in Liège. Although I am not fond, for different reasons, of either Bizet’s Les pecheurs des perles or Gounod’s Faust, both were very satisfying in terms of singers, conductors and directors and resulted eventually in very pleasing opera evenings.

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.

Les pecheurs de perles, Dirigent-David Reiland, Concept, regie & scenografie-FC Bergman, Regie-Stef Aerts, Marie Vinck-Thomas Verstraeten, Decor en belichting-Thomas Verstraeten, Joé Ageman, Kostuums-Judith Van Herck, Dramaturgie-Luc Joosten, Leïla-Elena Tsallagova, Nadir-Charles Workman, Zurga-Boris Statsenko, Nourabad-Stanislav Vorobyov. 15/01/19, photo-Annemie Augustijns

Faust, Conductor-Patrick Davin, Director, Set Design, Costume Design, Lighting, Choreography -Stefano Poda, Faust-Marc Laho, Marguerite-Anne-Catherine Gillet, Méphistophélès-Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, Valentin-Lionel Lhote, Siebel-Na’ama Goldman, Dame Marthe-Angélique Noldus, Wagner-Kamil Ben Hsaïn Lachiri, 30/01/19, photo Edoardo Piva Ramella&Giannese

La Gioconda, Muzikale Leiding-Paolo Carignani, Regie-Olivier Py, Decor En Kostuums-Pierre-André Weitz, Belichting-Bertrand Killy, , La Gioconda- Béatrice Uria-Monzon /Hui He, Laura Adorno-Szilvia Vörös/Silvia Tro Santafé, Enzo Grimaldo-Andrea Carè/Stefano La Colla, Barnaba-Franco Vassallo/Scott Hendricks, La Cieca-Ning Liang, Alvise Badoero-Jean Teitgen, Isèpo-Roberto Covatta, Zuane / Un pilot-Bertrand Duby, Un Barnabotto/Una Voce-Bernard Giovani, Un Cantore-René Laryea, Una Voce-Alejandro Fonté, 30/01 and 01/02/19. Pictures from http://www.Lamonnaie.be

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Le Comte Ory @ Liège

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-19^th 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.

Direction Musicale-Jordi Bernàcer, Mise En Scène-Denis Podalydès, Décors-Eric Ruf, Costumes-Christian Lacroix, Lumières-Stéphanie Daniel, Le Comte Ory-Antonino Siragusa, La Comtesse Adèle-Jodie Devos, Isolier-Josè Maria Lo Monaco, Raimbaud-Enrico Marabelli, Le Gouverneur-Laurent Kubla, Dame Ragonde-Alexise Yerna, Alice-Julie Mossay, Mainfroid-Stefano De Rosa, Gérard-Xavier Petithan, 02/01/19, photo by https://www.operaliege.be/spectacle/le-comte-ory/

Mariotti & Co in Liege: Rossini’s La donna del lago and Stabat Mater

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.

A couple of days later, with the same singers (Pizzolato, Jicia, Romanovsky, Orfila), Mariotti directed the Stabat Mater. I was not convinced. They all sounded a bit tired I thought. I much enjoyed Orfila, and next to him Pizzolato was the most balanced although with a fatigued upper register. Romanovsky was covered by the orchestra during much of his Cujus animam, but then shouted his cadenza. Salome Jicia did not convince in the upper register. I don’t know what it is, maybe all these roles are too high for her. I much enjoy her lower and middle register, but the runs in premuniri of the Morte Christi premuniri were very unrefined und with little legato. Mariotti pursues his play with dynamics and tempi, but rather unconvincigly this time, in slow movements he slows down even more, in loud parts he is exceedingly loud. A bit disappointing.

Direction Musicale-Michele Mariotti, Mise En Scène-Damiano Michieletto, Décors-Paolo Fantin, Costumes-Klaus Bruns, Lumières-Alessandro Carletti, Chef Des Chœurs-Pierre Iodice, , Elena-Salome Jicia, Malcolm-Marianna Pizzolato, Giacomo V-Maxim Mironov, Rodrigo-Sergey Romanovsky, Douglas-Simón Orfila, Serano & Bertram-Stefan Cifolelli, Albina-Julie Bailly, Elena Âgée-Giusi Merli, Malcolm Âgé-Alessandro Baldinotti, 8/05/12 and 12/05/18. Pic from Mr Mariotti’s facebook.

Belgium’s 2017/2018 opera season

(This article replaces the original one about the Brussels-only season with the present one about Belgium)

Brussel’s The Monnaie’s 2017-2018 opera season was recently announced. Although, with half of the 12 titles, La Monnaie/De Munt always leans towards modern music (and with modern I roughly mean the music around and after 1900) the choices are more varied than last year. We have a Wagner, of course, (Lohengrin) but at least we are spared Verdi and Puccini. I smile at Peter de Caluwe’s fear of staging Rossini and his overall mistrust in early 1800 music. So Tancredi in concert version, not the most original choice (it would if staged, though) but  always a pleasure to hear. Cavalleria rusticana and I pagliacci is a nice change considered it was given in Brussels 14 years ago (and Michieletto is always welcome). Lucio Silla is an inheritance from last year’s season, where it was programmed but not staged (as is also the Bartok) due to the delay in the renovations of the main stage. It is a rare but not minor Mozart – musically speaking, because action wise it is very thin (so why not this one in concert version?) – and performed far too rarely. Leonore (Beethoven’s first version of Fidelio) is given as concert version and I would much more appreciate a staged version in exchange of one of the modern opera’s, say Rihm or Boesmans. Conductor-wise I find the choices good, director-wise conventional and singer-wise there are some that are questionable but I am happy to be persuaded. An enjoyable rarity will be Dvorak’s Requiem while ballet wise I keep regretting the total absence of classical ballet. Let me finish with something that bothers me every year: is it not strange that there is not a single subscription that allows to see all opera’s?

 

Nicer surprises come from the two other opera houses in Belgium, the Opera de Liège and the Vlaamse Opera. I find the choices quite balanced with some very appealing surprises. In Liege we get the touching Donna del lago by Michieletto and the rarity Le domino noir by Auber. La favorite by Donizetti also contains lovely music and is rarely performed. Singer-wise the program is also very appealing although I remember Liege announcing a star only by replacing it last minute by someone less captivating (and not once). In Gent we get the extremely rare Das Wunder der Heliane, Donizetti’s Le Duc d’Albe next to a Clemenza di Tito and of course Verdi and Wagner (Falstaff and Parsifal). The Flemish Opera “continues its fascinating exploration of Russian opera” with The Gambler by Prokofiev. I am waiting impatiently for Dargomyzhsky, Cavos, Glinka, and Verstovsky….

Already available also the program of the Midsummer Mozartiade, which this year presents Don Giovanni at the Theatre de Martyrs.

The Bozar season also contains some vocal evenings.

Juan Diego Florez – French arias in Liège

A voice can sing anything. If Bartoli would sing fado or Lady Gaga yodel her way through the Tyrolean Alps……people would still applaud. Same with Florez singing French arias. And there is nothing really wrong with him singing French repertoire…. Technically speaking. But it is evident that in the more cantabile pieces his passion comes out the most. The first half of program was …ahem….discreet to say the least.  All French arias in the so called larmoyant style. So the first part was sentimentally charged to the point of rolling eyes to heaven. Were it not for the orchestra who interspersed the quieter, sung pieces with livelier ones . The second part started well with an Italian composing French (La favorite by Donizetti), it tickeled my interest with a rather rare Berlioz, briefly returned to the ranting-Frenchman-style with Gounod and finished off with a show stopper by Offenbach. It was not by coincidence, in my opinion, that the pieces which were not French came out with more enthusiasms. After all, it is in belcanto that Florez excels. And although he sells them all under a French hat, they do differ. Offenbach (a German, but let’s keep him as French)’s piece has a somewhat belcantistic imprint. As have the encore numbers by (the Italians) Verdi (Je veux encore entendre from Jérusalem) and Donizetti (Pour mon ame from La fille du regiment).

The orchestra does its best, as does the director, who dramatically sank in my esteem when he finished the ouverture to La Favorite with a decrescendo on the final chord. (at times it even was Florez who suggested the tempo though.). It’s always a pleasure to hear Florez sing, though the pleasure could have been increased by a program he excells in.

 

Adolphe Adam, Ouverture Le Toréador – Léo Delibes, Prendre le dessin d’un bijou, Lakme – Georges bizet, ouverture Carmen – Jules Massenet, O Nature, pleine de grâce, Werther – Jules Massenet, Pourquoi me réveiller Werther – Getano donizetti, Un ange, une femme inconnue La favorite – Gaetano donizetti, La favorite ouverture – Hector Berlioz, O blonde Cérès Les troyens – Hector Berlioz, Les troyens ballet – Charles gounod, Romeo et Juliette L’amour – Jacques offenbach, La belle Hélène Au mont Ida. Bis: Jerusalem Je veux la revoir, Verdi – Donizetti, La fille du regiment…Pour mon ame

 

 

La Cenerentola in Liège or Un’acqua senza sale

Lovely start of the Liège season with Rossini’s La Cenerentola. For the mise en scene, the Opera Royal relied on Cécile Roussat et Julien Lubek, the same duo that tackled Die Zauberflöte in Liège 4 years ago. In both cases one notices the effort that is put behind the creative concept. In the case of La Cenerentola the opera opens with Don Magnifico’s palazzo in agonia split in 3 parts on a rotating platform (Don Magnifico’s bedroom, the outside space, and an all-purpose room. The rooms change to the throne chamber in Act II). The singers move freely from one space to another and the platform follows them rotating from room to room. The style and clothes are those of a fairy tale (or children’s book) and everything is enjoyable to look at and satisfying as far as the scenery goes. What was fully lacking was a choreography. Everything was very static, with minimum interactions. Emotions were conveyed only by the libretto’s words and Rossini’s music. Very disappointing.

 

The singers are overall very good, though. I especially enjoyed Bruno de Simone as Don Magnifico with an important stage presence, an excellent diction and a smooth voice. An excellent fit for the egomaniac social climber. Enrico Marabelli was an amusing Dandini with convincing voice and fairly sure in the coloratura. Dmitry Korchak is an excellent tenor who mastered the prince’s part with ease although the acuti of “Dentro al mio cuo—RE“ had to be prepared with enough time…. Laurent Kubla as Alidoro started very convincingly in his key entrances in Act I [as a beggar and with his “book of spinsters” or Codice delle zitelle), with an admirable pronunciation. Pity that the aria with which he brings Cenerentola to the ball shows his limits. The sisters Julie Bailly and Sarah Defries (from the latter, one could understand every single word that was said), sing well. Now Marianna Pizzolato is surprisingly the weakest link. Not only does she move less than all the others [which is quite something with such a static choreography] but her voice is not at all what I remember her for her previous Rossini, in Liege and Pesaro. It’s a singer who until very recently showed a deep, warm, pleasant voice, with admirable coloratura, capable of filling a theatre twice as large as the Liege house. Throughout the performance however I barely heard her, her coloratura only approximate, the acuti strained and almost screamed, the low notes gone. She was, I unhappily must say – quoting Tisbe describing her sister – un’ acqua senza sale.

Paolo Arrivabeni directs satisfactorily an orchestra that improved much in the Italian repertoire.

Rossini in Bad Wildbad 2014

I was convinced i would hear Adelaide di Borgogna life for the first time when i ordered tickets in Bad Wildbad for the yearly festival dedicated to Rossini. A quick glance at my list of visited performances told me i saw the Pesaro performances as well. The cast at the time was “stellar”: Jessica Pratt and Daniela Barcellona. But I must admit I rarely listen to the CD with the wonderful Mariella Devia and Martine Dupuy either as the music has little appeal to me and the libretto is very insipid. The Bad Wildbad performance is enjoyable enough, Margarita Gritskova as Ottone has a smooth voice over the whole range, a clear enough diction and a fair coloratura. Ekaterina Sadovnikova as Adelaide and Baurzhan Anderzhanov as Berengario are also convincing. Luciano Acocella directs well. Antonio Petris is responsible for the mise en scene and he follows Schönleber’s bad taste.

This year the operatic rarity (which is analways welcome project) was Tebaldo e Isolina by Francesco Morlacchi. Tebaldo e Isolina premiered 1822 in Venice and was one of the major successes of the Perugia-born composer. Morlacchi’s score clearly assimilates the Rossinian writing, made evident by the structures of the musical numbers (for e.g. Isolina’s aria in the first act has several sections, cello introduction, the reading of a letter, pertichini and choir) and the fine orchestration. It is not a masterpiece if we compare it with the operas by Rossini of the same period, but the composition has beautiful pieces like the finale of the 1^st act and the romance for Tebaldo “Caro suono lusinghiero”.
Sandra Pastrana is Isolina. Her voice is a clean and clear but at times one wishes more dramatic weight. Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani’s Boemondo was a very positive surprise to me. He has a naturally clear diction, (even for Italians this is not that evident) and a very pleasant voice. The coloratura is very fluid and the high notes clear and sure. Tebaldo’s role (which was written for the castrato Giovanni Battista Velluti, for whom Rossini composed the role of Arsace in Aureliano in Palmira and Meyerbeer the role of Armando in Il crociato in Egitto) was interpreted by Laura Polverelli. Polverelli has slightly worn high notes but a full and warm middle and lower register and the coloratura is fluid. The orchestra plays well and the director gives the singer time to develop the musical phrases.

For the belcanto recitals, young singers perform in the recently renovated royal theatre (which seats 200 people). Some of the singers, which are students of Lorenzo Regazzo’s masterclasses (who joins in a terzetto from l’inganno felice), sing also minor roles in the opera’s in Bad Wildbad, many of them can be heard in the Viaggio a Reims, also performed in Bad Wildbad this year. They are all young and beautiful, they are all motivated and they all fully give themselves also in acting out their respective roles (I must say i was rarely moved so much during a recital). Some are very nervous and the heartily applause and cheering after each piece brings a clear relief and joy. The young artists are Cornelius Lewenberg, Guiomar Cantò, Baurzhan Anderzhanov, Matija Meic, Yasushi Watanabe, Artavazd Sargsyan, Olesya Chuprinova, Sofia Mchedlishvili, Silvia Aurea De Stefano, Carlos Cardoso, Lucas Somoza Osterc, Graziano Dallavalle, Anna Werle, Muriel Frankhauser, Alessandra Contaldo, Gheorghe Vlad, Miriam Zubieta. They were well accompanied on the piano by Michele D’Elia and Marco Simionato, Nicola Pascoli, Dimitri Candoni and Rossella Fracaros.

But if one thing is to enjoy their voices in carefully selected pieces, another is to endure a whole opera. Il viaggio a Reims’ score has been re-discovered only in 1984, and since then the opera serves as showcase for professionals and students alike.  But with singers which are not able to satisfy Rossini’s writing (it was composed for the best singers of the time, reunited in Paris for the coronation festivities of Charles X) a music director who hastily runs through the score and a scene director who fills the scenes with slap-sticks and buffoonery and clearly struggles with the amount of people on the stage, boredom and anger come up quickly. I will not describe the musical interpretation as the singers are young and full of enthusiasm (and some of them have remarkable qualities). But could another, easier opera not be chosen? This kind of operations are not in the interest of Rossini’s music, or the arts, or the singers themselves (among which I’d only single out Bruno Praticò and his experience). How difficult it is to cope with the Rossinian style was also recently shown in a scandalously poor performance of La gazzetta, given on a professional stage like the Liege Opera (Opéra Royal de Wallonie). I would, however, very gladly welcome the help of a film or drama school to take over the staging of operas.

Attila in Liege

Verdi is not one of my favourite composers. There was, however, one point of big interest in Liege’s production of Attila: the singer who impersonated the title role. What a pleasure it was to hear the wonderful timbre of Michele Pertusi. His ability to articulate each syllable within a steady singing line and warm, smooth voice is reason of real pleasure of this afternoon. Odabella is Makvala Aspanidze, who, given the difficulty of her entrance aria, gets acceptably through the aria, though not flawlessly. Her “Oh, nel fuggente nuovolo” on the other hand confirms the somewhat strained high notes, heavy fiorettature and lack of legato, though she has an agreeable voice in the middle register.

I liked Giovanni Meoni. His Ezio lacked the required grandiosity but his voice is nice and he sings with taste and musicality.

Giuseppe Gipali’s Foresto has a light-bodied and a bit colourless voice but he sings correctly, as do the last two members of the cast, Papuna Tchuradze as Uldino and Pierre Gathier as bishop Leone.

Ruggero Raimondi, one of the world’s most famous singers, is here the scene director. His historical settings are simple and functional, based on a vertical-moving two-level scene depicting once the Roman setting with horizontally colum-pedestals and Attila’s tents.
As the score does not contain particular difficulties, the orchestra plays well under the plausible but impersonal baton of Renato Palumbo.

Direction musicale-Reanato Palumbo, mise en scene-Ruggero Raimondi, Decors-Daniel Bianco, Costumes-Laura Lo Surdo, Lumieres-Albert Faura, Attila, Michele Pertusi, Odabella-Makvala Aspanidze, Ezio-Giovanni Meoni, Foresto-Giuseppe Gipali, Uldino-Papuna Tchuradze, Leone-Pierre Gathier, 22/9/13