"My children, my friends, I love you and love you and I leave you. And s' One thing that will never disappear, it is the warmth of your love. " Respect to this grand dame of French cinema and his words of love. Respect and silence.
Wonderful and terrible life as the poet novelist Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837), descendant of an African and becoming the first writer to have given its pedigree literary Russian language, such as revered in Russia. Youth tumultuous political dissident, exile and he knows the shackles recovery imposed official positions, including censorship, the opposite of libertarian aspirations. For the sake of his frivolous wife, he died in a duel as Lenski his hero in his novel in verse Eugene Onegin , started at age 22 and completed some eight years later. The classic simplicity of the language of this romantic exalted merit will inspire many composers, Glinka (Ruslan and Ludmila ) Dargomisky ( The Russalka, The Stone Guest ), Mussorgsky (Boris Godunov ), Tchaikovsky (Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades, Mazeppa ), Rimsky-Korsakov (Mozart and Salieri , The Golden Cockerel ), Rachmaninoff (The Miserly Knight ).
The work
The tormented Tchaikovsky, born prematurely in 1840 and died in 1893 without one knows what the equally celebrated in his country that Pushkin (he will be entitled to state funerals) created in 1878 his musical version the novel in verse. His will any modern truth leads him to refuse, for these lead roles of young lovers, singers, veterans and prefers the freshness and spontaneity of young soloists of the Moscow Conservatory.
More opera with a node, adventures and dramatic denouement, it is, as the composer of "Fair" lyric scenes "in three acts and seven scenes, moments in the life of the hero Eugene Onegin, a young dandy stilted, clothes and arrogant, playing dandies jaded and cynical in the English style of Richardson's Lovelace and Byron, in vogue in 1820. Immediately appealing the romantic Tatiana, a young provincial who engages him in a letter, a prisoner of his role, he rejects her, to fall madly in love when he found later married Princess celebrated in the capital, and will be rejected in turn. Meanwhile, he has killed his best friend in a duel, the poet Lenski, after a provocative banter with Olga, the bride of the latter. In short, they are almost, except the duel, almost like an accident that seems to have another impact on history that a long journey to Eugene, domestic scenes and mundane, with two balls antithetical (province capital) and two scenes equally between opposing Tatiana and Eugene, and two symmetrically opposite refusal rights, then women, responding to the love of another.
In this way, not tragedy, but tragedy of a time lag, they say, but we do not notice, two mismatched couples like those in Cosi fan tutte Mozart: the delicate poet Lensky, tenor, would be better suited to Tatiana, soprano like a dreamy and sentimental Fiordiligi's sister Olga, mezzo frivolous as Dorabella, better avenue libertine with baritone Eugene.
Achieving
It looks like this opera, by his feelings and situations, it is "verismo" if realism was often an exacerbation of feelings extreme, whereas here everything is in a respondent who, despite the passionate impulses, remains a great shame that even the transgression of Tatiana's love letter is just excitement that limit broken. The staging subtle Claire Servais glue to this text. It is therefore surprising the symbolic setting ( Jean-Pierre Capeyron, who was also behind the costumes), for the first part, which amounts to a more realistic space for the palace of the last act, expressive of lights out ( day, night, dawn and brutal blood) of Olivier Wery .
Bardé of these sheaves of wheat from the recent harvest, this circle of wooden ramp, playing with the bench planks of the same material and the floor of the ground, yard and garden bounded on large panels of wood too, with light gaps, Is it a concrete image and abstract at once the great Russian forest tamed and polished as the feelings, the carpentry and thoroughness of politeness? Books on the forefront, spreading the romantic love playing Tatiana, then less letters, are they not also be human - or destruction of the wood-paper? We do not need to say, but we must recognize the beauty of this strange circle ostensible wood kind of scene in the scene, altar or pedestal for the coming theatrical Eugene, degree elevation of intimate revelation for Tatiana, it allows a very tiering plastic characters groups, and pictorial effect very successful for the peasant dance with Olga the laughing seems the center surrounded by serfs. With the curtain falling drapery hangers, making for Tatiana, bed sheet protector for the girl frightened by itself, sailing wedding of her dreams or foggy, snowy shroud to Lenski, the effect is Poetic and effective. Claire Servais poetizes pretty long scene of the love letter Tatiana: a winter tree, dead, sharp edges in pencil, with leaves just for sheets, descends from the flies of reverie, and others scattered like so many drafts dead leaves already love hopes to flourish and take root, image of the home (?), will be read by the choir and accomplice heart of young girls in flower. Just a lot of detail which means this staging by simple and complex networks of delicate sense: when the cold and flippant Eugene, with a plea in her love makes the letter, the girl slipped between the ulcerated leaves of a book: flesh with dazzling revelation in the person of a practical man, the romance dreamed of the letter returns to the novel probably trigger . In the scene where it is opposite the old seducer became enamored of her that gives her a letter, she tore as a chapter of love never ended: circularity reverse the situation-which would have justified even the presence of circle now away ...
The costumes, in shades of general monochrome beige raw silk with touches of straw, located at the time of the creation of the work are of a dark beauty in the mundane scenes. But it surprised the dress and long veil Tatiana under a huge cape with a red passion stressed that smile when Eugene immediately recognizes in this bizarre and opaque attire.
interpretation
In the high vocal and musical signs the choice of distributions Raymond Duffaut is often staged to make a difference in the repertoire presented in Avignon. Eugene Onegin certainly does not lack great performers today, but it is rare to find, from first to last such a role consistency in quality. Thus, one finds pleasure with the dark voice of Jean-Marie Delpas , meticulous Minister of deadly duel, and the clear voice of Christophe Mortagne , minister of small pleasures and good manners in the role of French Monsieur Triquet.
At Madame Larina, very Slavic, lazily lying on the bench, Doris Lamprecht width lends his voice and his elegance and aristocratic languor relegated to the province, while the voice is darker and in any roundness of Isabelle Vernet gives Filipievna, heat protective and maternal, reassuring, the nurse, "Nannie" confidante of Tatiana. The carefree Olga is encamped by the grace of laughing Marie Lenormand , mezzo to the serious deep and round, who knows how to lighten his beautiful and flexible voice. These three female performers with serious tessituras close but different tones to make a sumptuous carpets clarifying soprano Tatiana entry in the duo which became a quartet, melancholy love song two girls with bittersweet counterpoint of two women aged three or four seasons in the lives of women, this youthful hopes and dreams and reality frustrated seniors. In this scene of great delicacy, there will be late (lateral spatial problem?) A disproportionate volume between the young couple and that of the old balance restored when Olga and Tatiana go behind the two mothers.
difficult role as the Prince Gremin, husband of Tatiana final: it has a stage and a tune, but sublime, to win: Nicolas Courjal , begins in this role but there between so that it is hard to imagine someone else. Fortunately it did not turn into big bluestem, and his love song to Tatiana, he murmurs modestly in confidence, with tender nuances difficult to great bass, often afflicted with a wide vibrato; with a rare elegance of phrasing, he caresses the words and notes from the G-flat major to E flat treble with the same ease and equality of this sumptuous tone.
Lenski, role poetic musical processing and voice of this poet, receive sensitivity Florian Laconi and his beautiful voice again that it is free, equal in volume, easy and flexible, his tone is light, bright treble its nuances and always expressive, would be nothing without this natural drama that upsets us to tears, involved in taking this role like a glove, elegiac and virile in his manner: "Kouda, kuud ...." In Eugene, Armando Noguera is, the vocal qualities and color, both equal and opposite of laconic tone dark baritone to the beautiful color throughout its range, it goes from low G to the ground acute distress tearing easily. Silhouette, light complexion and black beard, his appearance somewhat hieratic, make a hero sulfur almost Mephistophelean, perhaps more romantic.
Grave bodied without being heavy, sharp light that denser or lighter according to the text, Nataliya Kovalova , Tatiana embodies an exception. She reflects the voice misty romantic reveries, fever, insomnia sensual heat of the night following the discovery of love. In his letter, with music still means he must admire this passage, this breaking of the ethereal chrysalis into a young girl whose sense talk, confess, ask, require, expect and hope the man. In one night, fleshy and fruity timbre, his voice passionately and intelligently conduct, manifest vividly as the young girl with desire, found in she's a woman.
The work is delicate and spoil the pathos or the opposite extreme, the sentimentality. The head Rani Calderon avoids these pitfalls by conduct that is both firm and soft, but not saccharine, which showcases all that much detail: diaphanous strings which nappent the delicate colors of desks, almost Mozart , oboes, flutes, clarinets and the golden horn buttons for air Tatiana, the trumpet as a revelation. A great musical moment.
We also salute the dances always welcome to Eric Belaud and, in this work if the individual characters, but if the beautiful choral conducting choirs ( Aurore Marchand ). Which allows one to enter an audience to applaud enthusiastically unanimous success.
Photos: Cédric Delestrade / ACM-Studio / Avignon
1. From left to right, Vernet, Laconi, Noguera, Lamprecht, Lenormand, Kovalova;
We would miss the appointment The Twilight Teatime , the nightingales of CNIPAL (National Center for Workforce Development of Lyrical Artists). This time, unusually, devoted entirely to the Franco-Brazilian Yété Queiroz and fully sipped through this lovely mezzo, already admired here in the Djamileh Bizet to Pourrières in July 2009 . This time, with the complicity of the piano Nino Pavlenichvili , the singer has made a vast rainbow of music, from Baroque to the American operetta and songs, through the English zarzuela and other Hispanic and Brazilian melodies with equal success. And ours was total.
In vaporous robe shimmering gold lame Pineapple, showcasing her complexion of exotic fruit and intense black eyes, long earrings, she challenges her recital with the beautiful lament " Sposa, his disprezzata ... "without warranty attributed to of Bajazet Vivaldi . Carefully, she cut dramatically expressive breaths major arcs of the aria without destroying the curve but provides some nice trills crescendos and without exposing the perilous yet messa di voce . The stamp is equal, silky, full, free blowing, round voice, soft line is impeccable. Even without touching expression supported drama, a great nobility in the Lamento, the sober and heartbreaking farewell of Dido of Purcell. The ornamentation of da capo are beautiful, bright treble, bass, shady low down on this poignant, but it is not a major criticism to this charming polyglot advise him not too close certain vowels (a, o) of English. After these arie di portamento on the holding of the breath and legato, the third air baroque fury of Sesto in Giulio Cesare Handel, by contrast velocity desired volubly avenging the expressed affect, and further demonstrates the technical mastery and vocal style as much as the gifts as an interpreter of the singer.
green dress, her hair loose, her Hispanic part begins with two traditional pieces beautifully harmonized by the English poet Garcia Federido Lorca delicious Morillas de Jaen a zéjel e fifteenth century, short poem in verse octosyllabic monorhymed by three lines of verse and a chorus, a charming simplicity and a half all soft-tone, excellent fortune teller, she sings with a verve and dazzling colors perfectly the Hispanic Café Chinitas with a biting, sharpness, precision burr-free this true bel canto in English, always even flamenco virtuoso, known as "cantar limpio ',' sing own '. We find these qualities in both extracts zarzuelas, typically English lyrical works ranging from opera to operetta, "Song of the Gypsy" by The alegría del Batallón of Jose Serrano Andalusian with a grace and charm with a smile Madrid, the hot song of Paloma Barberillo Lavapiés of Asenjo Barbieri .
The other two tunes Catalan Xavier Montsalvatje , excerpts from his famous Canciones negras , the adorable "Lullaby for a negro" she sings with a tenderness and fruity "Yambambó" on the poem by the great Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén, had all the color and African Caribbean will those melodies all color and rhythm of Heitor Villalobos Brazil's original, beautiful gift because they are unpublished. New opportunity for the interpreter to show color and halftone varied, malicious, dramatic, down the bewitching Xangô , invocation percussion on the piano, the orisha , god of the pantheon of Santeria, a syncretic religion originating in Africa, naturalized by black slaves in the colonies. This trip ends with Villalobos Samba classico (male Brazilian] love song in Brazil that the singer is clearly in his account: "O my land, my people, my homeland ... "
Two excerpts from musicals U.S. of Kurt Weill still show the possibilities of multicolored interpreter, and two songs, one that modernizes the old baroque metaphor of life as theater, "Life is a Cabaret" and the other A Brazilian air that can not help but reflect back to him and honor the words captured "but that cosa linda ..." " moça of corpo "," lindeza that there has .
better when accompanied best Yété Queiroz Nino Pavlenichvili dialogue with her at the piano, sharing musical space as a soloist playing, first, a Sicilian Vivaldi with the dotted eighth note as a poignant melancholy fresh wound, then the Aria any dream of Bach, unrolling a range beautifully beaded, the languid tango habanera of Albéniz and Opening Opera Threepenny Weill.
Who are four in reality, of course, as the hero of Dumas. Four buddies so enamored of "nuevo tango", the new tango renewed in the 60s, by Astor Piazzola (1921-1992), united in 2000 to be interpreters at home and their success is such that they will bring this good news music abroad as well. First battle won in 2004: the four lads won the international competition Piazzolla Music Award Milan, crowned by a first disk, Libertango (Acon / Harmonia Mundi), followed by another in 2007.
's here tonight, in Cassis in the Oustau Calendal, to officiate at the ritual devotee Piazzolla and other great musicians from Argentina. Classically trained student composer Alberto Ginastera (inspired in his songs of Argentine folklore) and one-time disciple of Nadia Boulanger , Piazzola tango in his hard traditional instruments, guitar and bandoneon, the grasp of rhythmic dance and open to the influences of contemporary music, jazz, playing extended keys or boundaries, percussive sounds or rubbed the fingers, hands, on the wings of larger instrumental ensembles.
is a set of model that follows this with a Quartet Emblematic caliente bandoneon ( Gilberto Pereyra ), piano ( Cedric Lorel), bass (Nicolas Marty ) and also a brandished Flamberge violin like the wind (Michel Berner ). Each console has its moment of independence in this music challenging, virtuosic solo playing, even the bass ( Contrabajeando ). Undulating snake, fan pleated rainbow of harmonics, the bandoneon plays its stridency, its annoying and even scary but delicious acidity, and escaped towards acute flare streak or lovingly and angrily storms on the violin ( Verano porteño ) while the piano hammers agreements severe decomposed scansions on fatal double bass pizzicato in dark. The sound is full, generous, rich, enveloping warmth of the agreements refined.
In this magnificent setting, the gem of a voice, slow, delicate and strong at the time: the singer Sandra Rumolino . Slender and graceful silhouette of languid meandering s compadrita sleek, slinky black dress to the body, lace or light on dark skin underneath, short hair, a sparrow, a "sparrow" a Piaf, a lovely suburb of Tanagra porteños Buenos Aires. No effects magnified, no effective limit to the expressionist caricatures that are the lot, too often, singers of tango pitching glaucous sobs. Sandra has a right expression, rhythmically precise, and in that voice of remarkable purity, it glides with sensitivity without sentimentality, all the heartbreaking and human distress of these texts and music: it looks with tenderness and sweetness on sharp Chiquilín of this Bachini , this poor little flower vendor, crunches with the silhouette of humor Titer Borges, this compadrito type of boy suburb, and dashing clothes, big mouth, arrogant and feisty, playing guys, Mandon, authoritarian in its reports, pathetic puppet of urban clichés of masculinity. You go through the touching Balada para un loco , text Horacio Ferrer, with whom write Piazzola tango opera Maria de Buenos Aires , now a classic, which, in the milonga , Sandra Rumolino apotheosis a passionate identification. And we do not forget, in French, this intense and profound song about forgetting.
Tribute was paid also to the great pianist and composer Horacio Salgan, Gustavo Beytelmann, the duo Scarpini / Caldarella in this concert, beyond Piazzolla and the tango is a beautiful tribute to the music, great, that is to say, beyond gender, the beautiful.
Cassis Oustau Calendal, February 10, 2011,
Quartet caliente, Sandra Rumolino singing
Music of Astor Piazzolla, Horacio Salgan Gustavo Beytelmann, and Scarpini Caldarella.
Photos :
1. A singer with touches of grace;
2. From right to left: Nicolas Marty, Cedric Lorel, Sandra Rumolino, Gilberto Pereyra and Michael Berrier.
Opera of Toulon, led notified of Claude-Henri Bonnet became place of production a rare eclecticism which can be applauded as a season of repertoire that works and even fewer ever given in France, as the superb Street scene Kurt Weill that has already been mentioned here. 2010/2011 programming has already shown, next to a Thai now abandoned elsewhere, Orpheus in the Underworld by Offenbach come from Paradise Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, the one expects the uncrowded Rondine Puccini (25, 27 February and 2 March), little more vocally climbed Linda de Chamounix Donizetti (25 and 27 March) , Dido and Aeneas by Purcell , creating, with nothing less than Anna Caterina Antonacci (19, 22 and 24 April), another hilarious Offenbach by "Deschiens" these Robbers (13 and 15 May) but famous ghostly hand, a recital June Anderson (11 March) and now the romantic opera par excellence, creative Toulon, Der Freischütz .
The work
It is a tune for which I give,
all Rossini, Mozart and all while Weber .
A look very old, languid and mournful ...
We remember the nostalgic verses of Gerard Nerval which associated with these famous composers in his time Weber (pronounced Webre ), life still shorter than that of Mozart, his cousin by marriage, too early and too premature to him since he disappeared lived more than five years (1786-1826).
If the subject may seem outdated today, it should not be minimized, historically, the impact in 1821 in Berlin, the first opera proclaimed "romantic" and a German reign when Italian music in Europe, often with neo-classical themes Antique world or even medieval. Germany, fragmented into a constellation of independent principalities and kingdoms, ravaged during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), had emerged slowly during the eighteenth century and e Prussia, trying to impose a unit which will be a century later still in the camp of the conquerors of Napoleon, is looking for a cultural expression autonomous, anti-French course, and anti-Latin in general, what Wagner later succeed in music.
Weber is the first link with this fantastic story and realistic at once, which, on Germanic forest background, Satanism and mixes with local rural folklore, shooting competitions here, symbolically located here in 1650, just after the terrible bloodletting of the War Thirty Years. How to renovate the Middle Ages to the romantic mode is like a knight in a duel that Max, gamekeeper, must win the hand of the daughter of Prince ranger during a shooting contest in which he must win. Assailed by doubts about his abilities, he will not hesitate to sign a pact with Samiel, the Devil, through Kaspar, damned soul searching issue, which will provide the magic bullet of victory. Do not forget that the shade of forests and black magic is also another side of the Enlightenment who invented the Gothic thriller.
Realization and Interpretation
Considering all this, we salute the general atmosphere of successful designs ( Lawrence Peduzzi) costumes (Marie Sartoux) and lights (Joel Hourbeigt) : shady background, a huge moon, tables and inverted cross, slowly, characters dressed in dark, loose coats and hats vaguely detached faces. Otherwise still a nightmare, a daydream in a thick fog unhappy consciousness or dark, uncomfortable for sure. Wave bursts of yellow and red flowers: a pictorial scary atmosphere to Caspar David Friedrich , not a chronological reconstruction. Only light note, the long white dress neo-classical Agathe in his room in Act II, bullseye with this red moon in the house and bed restoration. The hellish scene Gorge aux Loups, like a downward spiral of his unconscious by Max, is represented by stairs and ladders, metal modern highlighted by red light.
In his staging, Jean-Louis Benoît seems to have opted for the plastic beauty of the paintings, but also accuses the droop, the only movement being given by the choreography of Erick Margouët nicely behind the dances of the peasants. Directing actors seems absent and abandoned the personal temperaments of singers, such as mobile and voluble Aennchen of Melanie Boisvert , as ravishing as its little trick, pretty soubrette role and voice of soprano or second accomplice and friend, pleasure for the ears and eyes. It is also the case of Kaspar Roman Ialcic , which is approved by both his acting and character possessed desperate to get rid of her pact with the devil by the beauty of a deep baritone voice low. Beside him, the Max Jürgen Müller , inevitably pale and suffers from a voice problem which makes the détimbrer piani to the inaudible, which is not caught by a set stiff and expressionless . In Agathe big and rangy blonde Jacquelyn Wagner has a beautiful and noble appearance, coupled with a voice quality as well, almost unreal instrumental, it takes no effort, beautifully and poetically rope like a cello or violin, beautiful line.
All the rest of the distribution is worth quoting: it welcomes back the ball low to the Kuno Nika Guliashvili ; Gnidii Igor, baritone, portrays a lot of Kilian mocking charm, another baritone, Bartolomiej Misiuda, is Prince Ottokar with authority and still lower in this opera of dark men vote with the exception of the tenor and two women, Fernando Bernad, is a vibrant Hermit. Actor Jean-Michel Fournereaux has the role of the Devil Samiel he plays his body and looks.
The choirs are remarkable discipline and shades and it not surprising under the baton of leadership and Laurence Equilbey . From the beginning, as a curtain raiser, it creates a dreamlike haze, dreamy, blurred bursts of horns of a strange sweetness, then place the pattern of Agathe like a golden thread of the partition. The colors of the various panels are highlighted on the soft lapping of the strings. It structured but flexible, well-articulated, with infinite finesse to glow the delicate gems that partition. An happiness.
Toulon Opera, new production
in partnership Opera Theatre of Saint-Etienne
28, 30 January, 1 February st
Der Freischütz
Musical direction: Laurence Equilbey
Orchestra, chorus and ballet of the Opera
Director: Jean-Louis Benoit; decoration: Lawrence Peduzzi, costumes: Marie Sartoux; Lights: Joel Hourbeigt; Choreography: Erick Margouët.
Distribution:
Agathe: Jacquelyn Wagner Aennchen: Melanie Boisvert ; Max : Jürgen Müller ; Kaspar : Roman Ialcic ; Kuno : Nika Guliashvili ; Kilian : Igor Gnidii ; Ottokar : Bartolomiej Misiuda ; L’Ermite : Fernand Bernadi :
After the triumphant reception given to the singing of verismo Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci between two of their performances, the audience was welcomed by Marseille apotheosis the current representative of the most consumed true bel canto within the meaning of the word, singing virtuoso inherited ornate Baroque Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez . Bel eclectic taste, wide range of vocal styles, but the common factor, or verismo bel canto, is the beauty of song, the commitment of the singers, that the public knows ardent acknowledge with gratitude.
Helped a remarkable pianist with dazzling charts, Vincenzo Scalera , which has accompanied the greatest singers, Flórez, that the greatest scenes in the world snapped up, from his first aria, dazzled a room immediately seduced, whose fervor is went up to a crescendo final repeat, apotheosis, communion standing passion with which said the generosity of the singer as inexhaustible, multiplying bis acrobatic, whose last famous air Daughter of the Regiment Donizetti with his famous series of cons ut chained raging delirium of the public screaming "Thank you, thank you."
There is, first, this presence, this presence, this look at once noble and simple, these gestures efficient, elegant music that accompanies finely internalized and externalized to the public. The stamp thick, dense, fine grain light points, with the elegance, the great Alfredo Kraus. The range of his recital embraced, in a remarkable equality of tone and volume, two and a half octaves, with cons ut and cons re an astounding ease, holding a stylish without weakness, which is only natural gifts were extraordinary if lined with a flawless technique, enhanced by a musical, a musical articulation and phrasing in the service of an expression without significant sentimentality, of sobriety intense great singer and great performer.
The first part opened with the air of meditation Titus Clemenza di Tito Mozart ("If need to be Emperor, having a severe heart, take from me the empire or give me another heart "), but agreed to the nobility which Flórez lent his natural nobility and his art of singing exercises full, clear, pearlescent, of supreme beauty. Then came two melodies from Rossini charming playful before this rare and tragic Otello the same, the formidable technical difficulties and contrasting emotions, in which Manuel García , the creator, was trembling with fear true his daughter Maria, the future Malibran . With a beautiful piano interlude, was crowned by a Agnus dei yet Rossini, singing piles bristling vocalizations evil.
Three English opened the second half, two extracts zarzuelas regaled in which the tenor of his mastery of this style and these typical ornamentations, often do not yield to difficulties in bel canto, followed by a traditional air Barrera Saavedra Adiós Granada , song of exile and mourning for the beloved dead, copy, upsetting, Engineering of the English people, with the characteristics of flamenco virtuoso trills around the same note, the interpreter adorned with a popular science lecture while the pianist was engaged in variations of the original beauty. He returned with two arias from Rigoletto , the slight "Questa e quella" and "Among the veder lagrime" dramatic, ending with a look much more rare alleging Verdi Un giorno di regno , with great difficulty.
Then came before an enthusiastic audience and standing, six bis chained, still keeping the same voice and technique, with the same generous and inexhaustible wealth. Great singing lesson in simplicity and sympathy smiling contagious.
Marseille Opera
Recital Juan Diego Flórez, tenor,
Vincenzo Scalera, piano.
Mozart, Rossini, Serrano, Soriano, Barrera Saavedra, Verdi.
Libretto Giovanni and Guido Targioni-Tozzetti Menasce,
music by Pietro Mascagni
Pagliacci
Libretto and music by Ruggero Leoncavallo
Opera Marseille
February 28
Triumphal return Marseille adapted these past two operas, in co-production, outdoor grand Chorégies Orange in 2009, proximity poignant room closed in on the tragedy.
Works: verismo
tradition has rightly linked the two short operas, the first Cavalleria rusticana ('Knighthood peasant ') Mascagni, act, ringing in 1890 the sensational debut of naturalism in opera, the "realism", the second two acts, 1892, Pagliacci (' Pagliacci ') Leoncavallo, confirming success in this vein, offering, with the iconic character of the Prologue, the manifest, the aesthetics of current verismo "characters of flesh and blood, real tears," Petition of realism and truth. Denied, of course, by the impossible verismo opera with characters who sing, no art also can not be realistically verismo in a naturalistic or truth other than artistic stylization of reality: thus, inevitably an aesthetic convention, it is ridiculous to oppose other currents, baroque or romantic.
If we abandon the abstract theories to the finding of practical designs, the realism, it is true, abandoned gods, demigods, heroes or historical noble characters in favor of apparently more common if the drama does not raise them above a common condition. It seems better defined by its choice of topics, we will refrain from improperly qualify for daily is because the various crimes of passion are fortunately not everyday. It is mainly characterized by its vocal that breaks with the tradition of bel canto singing romantic decorated (except that, La traviata would verismo in its subject), in favor of a rawer vocal expression and passion, in addition tessituras plants most often fed and an orchestra that has learned the lessons of Wagner.
Inspired by a new piece and then a writer, dandy Sicilian Giovanni Verga, the "peasant chivalry," ends with the duel of honor, legacy English Sicily, which pits a husband violated, Alfio in Turiddu young seducer of his wife, Lola, who has seduced and abandoned Santuzza, who, desperate for its rejection, will alert the husband tears and blood, but also all the weight of a company tied up with the prejudices of class and religion: the death as a sacrifice ritual takes place at Easter, the Resurrection. Opera gum the social dimension of the news of Verga: Turiddu, poor, returning from the army, finds his fiancée Lola married to a rich: he conquered his remake revenge for having and seduce as Santuzza, the richest heiress of the village. Simplification of the opera loses this density.
The most subtle Pagliacci has a poor troupe of traveling actors of the commedia dell'arte, whose leader, who plays the clown, clown, comedian traditional scapegoat, is informed of his misfortune by Tonio, hunchback Quasimodo's love and not malicious protector, despite the rejection of his advances and by the pretty wife of the first light. In the second act, seemingly festive mirror the first, during the performance, seeing repeated through acting his cuckold status, won by the reality of the fictional situation, when he claimed earlier that "the theater and life are not the same" tired of the clown to laugh at his Marriage costs, stabs his wife in the middle stage and the lover rushed to his aid. The Prologue, tragic character ringmaster, announced the start of the game, Pagliacci concludes the murder: "The comedy is over! "It was during the Feast of the Assumption, the rise in glory of the Virgin Mother in heaven, even the religion of love which, in the blood of the pagan religion honor, eventually to the adulteress, not forgiven, not stoned, but stabbed.
Two dramas excessive jealousy which remind one of Carmen, the first to reverse, since man is fickle, vainly pleaded by the lover, Don José female dies, the Second, rather the news of Garcia where the One-Eyed Merimee, Carmen's husband, instead of being assassinated by José kill himself lovers. We note: the nineteenth century e creates happy bourgeois vaudeville and the cuckold king, but the manifest Taste of crime of passion among ordinary people: the solution to each class of adultery. But social religion of honor, which contradicts the religion of forgiveness of sins, once the exclusive privilege of the nobility (except Spain), became confined to the people of his "Rustic Chivalry" or peasant, in short, People.
Cavalleria rusticana
Passions wild delight in the fresh air, but Jean-Claude Auvray resumed here closed its two stagings of Orange with an adaptation of Bernard Arnould decor under the lights subtle Castaingt Lawrence, raw, cruel, dark blue steel : symbolism for naturalism streamlined aesthetic of the work.
In verismo proven, realistic backdrop: the view from a village in Sicily in gray dawn, pile of houses, some with roofs cut in foreground, pink in the sun Rising to the sensation of depth relief. Houses Mediterranean cubic geometry, defined edges, faces, shadow and light in sharp contrast, a presentiment of cubism to come. At the top, crushing the baroque church and castellated peaks, the ruins of a fortress, the remains probably of the six centuries of English occupation: Cross and Sword, the repressive and oppressive force, religious and military on the minds and bodies. If you can not find the titanic black rosary, there are giant inverted Christ, fallen or fallen in vain flowers, prayed, begged ("Oh, Signor!") inflexible and inexorable idol, by the tortured heroine: Santa ('Holy', from its name), poor Santuzza, excommunicated simply for the sin of the flesh, which feels damned and doomed. Forbidden church in this religion of forgiveness mercilessly by misguided men, it is also relegated from Mamma Lucia, not daring to enter the mother of her lover forgetful: religion of the mother returned image of the Virgin, by revirginisée motherhood, which gives its blessing to the son, multiplies the signs of the cross, even on the Eucharistic bread before cutting.
Costumes ( Rosalie Varda ) are almost monochromatic: gray and black women, white shirts, cardigan, with marked social differences in the tailoring, bags, hats, ties, fashion 50's neo-realist film (true heir to the realism). Offences against the dark general austerity, Lola, the wife is slightly pink in the happiness of living without scruples, biting into pagan life ("kiss the earth"). She seems to believe in a loving God who forgives all that Santa, his dark and masochistic rival, seems to believe in a God punisher "All-seeing." This rigid society of appearances and what people will say we, men and women almost always separated, is aptly demonstrated in flight looks, dodging, the very white shirt and jacket gently deposited on a chair by the mother and son that relay breast lover abandoned her lover passes lovingly perjury, male flawless, fearless even if not blameless.
Everything sounds right and true. Except, the incongruity already reported, the scene where Lola and Turiddu, adulteries shade, flirt outrageously in broad daylight, is bécotent front of everyone, and almost on the nose and beard of the terrible spouse occurs. Even with milder manners, it would end badly.
At the head of the orchestra, Fabrizio Maria Carminati , just appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Opéra de Marseille, with a beautiful flame Italian, plays the game the music sometimes easy, this pathos that moves us, these brackets poetically gentle prelude and interlude strangely quiet in this torrential flow, passion that carries us: all the nobility of a popular vein poignant melodic simplicity.
The chorus, as in ancient tragedy, which takes place here in the agora, perfectly prepared by Peter Iodice not suffer very plastic and movements relevant to the staging.
Emotionally, Viorica Cortez found , which we still hear the mezzo broad, brassy, generous voice now darker, with a round mother, Mamma Lucia moving, already crushed the feminine feeling of inevitability about Santa and his son. Patricia Fernandez , camped in pretty voice, playing and approach, the lightness of Lola attractive, seductive, unconscious, cooing, graceful physical and vocal. The husband, rich carter brutal, almost capo mafioso, surrounded by his men in black for obscure chores, is magnificently embodied by the English baritone Carlos Almaguer : voice of large, powerful, dark, and his duet with Santa , torn by remorse, for having revealed his misfortune, does not need to say verbally that it excludes pardon all: his voice has already announced the black blood revenge.
In Turiddu, we find pleasure in him Luca Lombardo , luminous voice of French tenor for a role of dark Mediterranean, which serves the character and tragic light it seems felt in its fibers and strings: it is primarily the gay young cock of the village, hands in pockets and good about yourself happy for a good night well together, euphoria and intoxication of pleasure, cruel to the beloved carnal frustrated exapséré coarsely by pressing the Santa behaving already married or Mamma, easy male can not help but drool at the sight of the tidy Lola. Playing with fire will burn. The vote is conducted with elegance without succumbing to the brutal inelegance character facing his desperate lover, his highs are attacked with finesse, messa di voce until they hatch radiant. Contrite and aware after a fierce challenge to the husband violated greatness, no doubt ready to pay, atone, in his farewell to the Mamma, what Marseilles, moved, moves us.
What about more Beatrice Uria-Monzon , already admired in Orange, great singer defied the outdoors by a gigantic gaming, coupled with a superb actress nuanced in the privacy of large plans on TV? In the emotional closeness of a room, or indeed too far or too close, his singing and his playing remains just as true and always hit as hard emotionally and in every respect for the music, without external effects.
Proud beauty injured in their dignity and honor a woman, another popular nobility, she does not hesitate to torture the colors and silk velvet of her mezzo Santuzza to lend to the torment of the pathetic woman scorned, a sort of Don José female trying vainly to keep being loved one who abandons: wandering, running, running in a kind of madness that describes the paroxysm of denunciation murderer husband, she asks, begs, strokes, falls, love begs, threatens, curses and kills the fickle lover by proxy. The role is heavier voice, orchestral drama of a rare violence: a narrative pathetic ("Voi lo sapete, o mamma"), and two pairs of intense drama, with the fickle lover and then with the cuckolded husband. The great mezzo soprano or Falcon allows him to spend serious dark and anxious to treble its expression tearing, pain, jealousy, rage, remorse never hurts to beauty. As I said already, it has an authenticity that justifies realism in its universal humanity. Upon entry, wrapped in her black shawl, bumping like a poor bird not to the church, its taboos, symbolized by this Christ as lying with her bouquet of flowers in hand in supplication, it is a tragedy in progress that still hopes for salvation and, leaning over the body of the murdered lover, lying parallel of Christ, it becomes much as Mamma Lucia, Mater Dolorosa: the image of human pain, the woman holding in her arms rather than the child, not the lover, but the son died. Last look at last, query, misunderstanding, contempt, hatred or bitter derision, this Christ helpless, unresponsive and deaf to his pain, which she seems to find the hollow.
Pagliacci
Passage of neo-realism in black and white Italian comedy (which would be in Technicolor)? By contrast with joyful Cavalleria , costumes are a fresh gaiety, but always this way for years 50, makes it somewhat anachronistic and improbable, logic verismo, the delirium of a crowd for a show Commedia dell'Arte, antiquated, long since replaced at the time, just by the cinema.
Against a background of cranes, which could work in Marseille, letters immense askew, P A G L I A C C I , poorly colored, seem to underscore the ruins of a world beyond, perhaps one of the main character, a poor star these small shows village, whose world collapsed and prestige in discovering that mocked within the game that secured him success, he was scorned in life by his beloved wife: farce that turns into tragedy. A pickup truck topped by a drum for the parade of strolling players, a red wagon, a few wicker chests, and the elements of a theater trestles mounted sight, or rather circus that will be the former, sacrifice.
Effect Baroque theater in the theater, speaking before the curtain, Prologue, or ringmaster in charge of announcing the show and then Tonio hunchbacked evil clown by which the denunciation of adultery and misfortune arrive, we find Almaguer, grandiose in voice: he describes a beautiful phrasing, the text's manifest realism . Alliance of the game, means voice, changing colors in lovesick and vindictive, it is pitiful and terrifying, insinuating poison facing the husband, Othello formidable circus, it is chilling truth unhealthy and harmful. In contrast, with its serenade of Harlequin, tenor Stanislas Barbeyrac already welcomed in these columns, seduced stamped blonde, an easy issue, a youthful and poetic expression. Etienne Dupuis , elegant baritone, plays a large class of Silvio, the same beautiful voice, sensitive, which seems to go together, hand in hand with her lover, making the cruelest kind of misalliance with the brutal husband, Canio, Pagliacci, Nedda of the Columbine- Nataliya Tymchenko , crystalline soprano timbre air Slavic vibrato a bit wide in an acute but then channeled as a fresh source: coquettish and cruel with Tonio She cackles and casseroles, with a soft cooing trill dreamer with birds in his poetic reverie, but voice crossing shadows of foreboding drama, excited by love. Then she is in her finery really Columbine XVIII th century , dancing, twirling our menu minuet, light and graceful gestures in stereotypical of the Commedia dell'Arte, seized by anguish and accepting, like Carmen, without submitting The challenge and death by the cuckolded husband. He, Canio, Pagliaccio is Vladimir Galouzine , found in his greatness: player, beguiling, seductive and eye-catching with its audience of villagers face side, it is darkly threatening when we play with his wife or retrenchment or humor in the professional clown of cuckoldry: tenor baritone, the powerful medium of terrifying brilliance in the treble, squat, menacing look, dress and play roles, it leaves speak their human tear and his air of tragic irony upsets. It is a great wounded animal with talking, yelling, singing his pain, we drew tears with his.
Marseille Opera
28, January 30, 2, 4, 6 February 2011 .
Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni and Pagliacci Ruggero Leoncavallo
Opera Choir (Peter Iodice); Master the Bouches-du-Rhone ( Samuel Coquard) Opera Orchestra.
Conductor: Fabrizio Maria Carminati. Directed by: Jean-Claude Auvray. Assistant: Irene Fridrici. Sceneries: Bernard Arnould. Costumes: Rosalie Varda. Lighting: Laurent Castaingt.
Nedda: Nataliya Tymchenko; Canio: Vladimir Galouzine, Tonio: Silvio Carlos Almaguer: Étienne Dupuis; Beppe: Stanislas de Barbeyrac; Villagers: Frédéric Leroy, Rémi Chiorboli.
Photos: Christian Dresse Cavalleria rusticana
1. Santuzza and lover abandonneur (Luca Lombardo ) ; 2. The lover and the husband (Carlos Almaguer). 3. Santuzza before a mute God (Beatrice Uria-Monzon). Pagliacci 1. Canio, wounded beast (V. Galouzine; 2. The charm of the Commedia dell'Arte; 3. The drama erupted in the stuffing ( Nataliya Tymchenko Vladimir Galouzine).
