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Cavalleria rusticana, Pagliacci

Cavalleria Rusticana

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.

Cavalleria rusticana

Santuzza: Béatrice Uria-Monzon, Lola Patricia Fernandez; Mamma Lucia: Viorica Cortez; Turiddu: Luca Lombardo, Alfio: Carlos Almaguer.

I Pagliacci

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).