Frühere Produktionsrezensionen
6Über "Pagliacci" ist vor allem das sensationelle Nedda-Debüt der Sopranistin Luiza Fatyol zu vermelden - kongenial für diese teils tragische, teils verspielte Figur.
In the title role, Natalya Romaniw was a complete star. This Tosca was tempestuous and fierce, driven by extremes of passion and envy, vengeance and despair, but Romaniw made such emotions feel so human and real, overcoming the practical obstacles and capturing the audience’s eyes, ears and hearts. During Scarpia’s Act 2 manipulations, I found myself truly drawn into the drama, forgetting the chilly breeze, the boomy sound and the fact that I was essentially watching a film-screen rather than an operatic stage. It was all the more remarkable as Romaniw, bare-shouldered in a beautiful blue gown, must have been frozen! As the wind whipped up off the water, no wonder she hugged her arms tightly around herself during Scarpia’s torturous onslaught. ‘Vissi d’arte’ held the moment entirely: there was not a shuffle or whisper from the captivated audience – and no doubt the birds and beasts in the Park were entranced too.
This was thanks to Puccini’s magic, to the orchestra’s vibrantly committed playing under Richard Farnes’s direction, and to larger-than-life performances by three outstanding singers. Baritone Roland Wood’s Scarpia (with perfect diction) had exactly the right kind of death-dealing menace, and when his duet-duel with soprano Natalya Romaniw’s Tosca reached its bloody denouement, some women in the audience let out an involuntary cheer.
Luxury casting abounds as Thomas Allen returns as the harassed Music Master, Nikolay Borchev impresses as a priapic Harlequin and Karen Cargill's Exocet mezzo brings her brilliantly sung Dryad to the fore. Another mezzo, Ruxandra Donose, is dynamic as the hapless Composer. The high-lying passages may challenge her (like so many of Strauss's female roles it was intended for a soprano) but she sings her concentrated set pieces with idiomatic gusto and acts with practised ease as the proud creative artist who's beset by (understandable) mood swings. Jane Archibald has performed the flirtatious coloratura clown Zerbinetta far and wide, and her assurance in the character's big solo scena is now breathtaking. Show-stopping, jaw-dropping, the casual precision of Archibald's stratospheric brilliance has to be heard to be believed. All of these seemingly disparate parts are wrought into a seamless whole by the conducting of Lothar Koenigs in a distinguished Royal Opera debut. How sensitively he gauges the balance of Strauss's orchestrations! They're unusually light in this opera, but he supports the voices subtly: airy for Zerbinetta, full-blooded under Mattila's dramatic soprano and Smith's Heldentenor in the expansive, neo-Wagnerian finale. Five-star shows are hard to define - they're not necessarily about perfection - but you know when you've seen one. This is a shoo-in.
Para el final, y expresamente, hay que citar al más que interesante Masetto del barítono Josep-Ramon Olivé y a la soprano Leonor Bonilla como Zerlina, quien fue de menos a más para acabar deslumbrando con una voz de gran calidad, muy cuidada línea canora y perfecta adecuación al rol.
»Irina Simmes erlebte man als grazil-erhabene Konstanze, eine elegante, aber auch mit kraftvoller Stimme ausgestattete Künstlerin, bei der Männerherzen in Ausnahmezustände geraten"
