Profile reviews
2Enescu’s “Œdipe” is a rarely performed work that premiered in 1936 and has since has made limited appearances around the world. It’s a work that depends on the dramatic powers of its lead baritone and one that many consider a challenge. This week, the Salzburg Festival is set to present the opera in a new production with Christopher Maltman making his role debut. Maltman is one of the leading baritones of his generation and one who has taken an interesting career trajectory. While Maltman has performed some of the leading Verdi, Puccini, Mozart, and Bel Canto roles, the baritone has also taken on a number of rarely performed classic works as well as new works that include “Marnie,” “The Tempest,” “Julius Caesar,” “The Rape of Lucretia” and “Thérèse Raquin,” among many others. With the title role of “Œdipe,” the baritone adds another powerful character to his repertoire and shows Salzburg audiences another facet of his diverse career. After the Salzburg performances of Enescu’s work, Maltman returns to the title role of Verdi’s “Rigoletto” in Berlin and Frankfurt before taking on the eponymous character of Rossini’s “Guillaume Tell” at the Wiener Staatsoper. He also sings in a new production of Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” at the LA Opera.
“Sehr überzeugend auch Christopher Maltman als Jochanaan: Von imponierender Ausstrahlung, maskulin, selbstbewusst, wenig Prophet, viel Rebell” “Christopher Maltman as Jochanaan is also very convincing: impressively charismatic, masculine, self-confident, more rebel than Prophet.”
Past Production Reviews
14Some of the opera world’s most glorious voices are currently filling the Kennedy Center Opera House in the Washington National Opera’s dazzling production of Verdi’s “Il trovatore” (The Troubadour”). Directed by Brenna Corner, with Conductor Michele Gamba at the helm of the Washington Opera Orchestra, the fantastical tale features a fearsome love triangle, mistaken identity, the burning of an innocent Gypsy at the stake, and her daughter’s unyielding drive for vengeance.
When you hear this music, you cannot help but ask yourself: Why are Richard Strauss' operas played all the time, but Alexander Zemlinsky's operas so seldom? There's a rocky story of rediscovery for almost every one of his works, and it's fabulously good music. "A Florentine Tragedy" lasts an hour (another advantage over Strauss), has such densely woven, onomatopoeic-theatrical music with exuberant motifs that it would easily last two hours if you thought of it more horizontally. And the story behind it comes from Oscar Wilde, so the insidious ambivalence of the text already puts you on a highly exciting level.
In the Parsifal program currently given at the Grand-Théâtre in Geneva, there is an article, Wagner or the pain of the world , by director Michael Thalheimer who notes: "The first thing that comes to mind about Parsifal -and that's positive- is that this work is impossible… I try to concentrate on the story, the protagonists and the chorus. I really try to tell on stage, end to end, this impossible story. It gives me a lot of pleasure, as well as the singers”.
The more one sees performances of Verdi’s Falstaff, the more strange it appears. Verdi’s last opera is not only atypical in his career for being only his second comedy (along with the early Un giorno di regno)out of more than two dozen total operas, it is far different in means than his main body of work. The opera is mostly dialogue and ensembles, there is barely a signature Verdi aria, and even that is incomplete.
Nadine Sierra as Gilda was outstanding. She is a light soprano, perhaps too much so for the second part of the opera, but was convincing at all times. Her ‘Caro nome’ was the best moment of the night: she gave an authentic demonstration of breath control in a final, endless note. I would also highlight her performance in the duets with Rigoletto and with the supposed Gualtier Maldé.
From the set design to the costumes to the incandescent vocals, The Royal Opera House raises the bar yet again with this performance of Don Giovanni.
You couldn’t ask for a more cultured pair of voices than our master and servant pairing of Erwin Schrott and Gerald Finley: both have burnished, smooth bass-baritone voices and effortless Mozartian phrasing which meant that, in purely musical terms, listening to them was a delight. However, Schrott’s comic timing seemed off in recitative – the little delays while he tries to remember the name of the woman he’s talking to held for slightly too long, an occasional hesitancy rather than confident gusto. In terms of comedy, Finley’s Leporello is something of a work in progress: in his role debut, the alternation of cringing and deviousness didn’t come across as natural. But these are two great singers and the chemistry between them improved through the course of this performance. Let’s hope that it keeps doing so during the run.In contrast, Adela Zaharia’s Donna Anna and Frédéric Antoun’s Don Ottavio looked completely comfortable in their roles from the moment they arrived on stage. Zaharia was the pick of the singers, with ardent delivery, clear intelligibility and a voice that made you sit up and listen. Antoun’s tenor has a slightly covered timbre but he injected plenty of emotion and played a full part in moving the action along. Nicole Chevalier (like Zaharia, a frequent star at Komische Oper Berlin) sang Donna Elvira with masses of character and total confidence throughout her range. I could have hoped for sharper comedy and some more chemistry between characters. But this is an intelligent staging, vocal performances were excellent throughout and the orchestral playing that kept us completely engaged from start to finish. Even with a half-full Covent Garden, it was good to be back.
He was widely admired as the grand old man of Italian opera but had not produced a new work since Aida some 15 years earlier. Yet Otello features some of his most powerful music, bursting with impressive originality and energy. With a very strong cast and Antonio Pappano conducting, Covent Garden does glorious justice to this fine work.
It’s good to have expectations confounded. For much of his career, American tenor Gregory Kunde specialised in bel canto repertoire, his light, flexible voice ideal for Rossini with easy top notes that also meant he could tackle Berlioz’ stratospheric tenor roles like Énée and Benvenuto Cellini with distinction. In recent years though, Kunde has taken an unexpected lurch into heavier repertoire. I was unconvinced by his Manrico and approached his Otello in this first revival of Keith Warner’s production at The Royal Opera with trepidation, having missed him when he played second fiddle to Jonas Kaufmann in 2017.
The orchestra played at its best, with good and polished sound and with contagious enthusiasm for the first time in the season. Even if Ivor Bolton gave a vivid rendition of the score, with quick tempi and vibrant accent, he did not find the unclassifiable tone that the score requires (he cannot be too harshly blamed, though). He rightly underlined the comic traits with a joyous touch of operetta and saturating sound in the tutti, favouring volume over contrast and colour. The chorus suffered a bit from the loud pit but sounded fine in the carnival scenes.A more attractive cast would have raised the stakes of the performance, but no singer seemed willing (or able) to take the lead. Manuela Uhl is a fine singer with a powerful lyric soprano that makes her perfect for Wagner's “blonde heroines". Isabella.Christopher Maltman was brilliant as the awkward villain, Friedrich. He is a great actor and was the only one who offered an original and genuinely comic performance. Vocally, his lyric baritone lacked authority and even timbre, but he gave an overall good rendition. Bass Ante Jerkunica, an interesting voice, made the most of his funny judgement scene. Ilker Arcayürek was overwhelmed by the otherwise reasonable requirements of the beautifully written role of Claudio, and even lost his voice during the final duo with Isabella. The other tenor, of a very similar vocality, Peter Lodahl, had better fortune as Luzio.
Francisco Negrin directed this production. It looks quite utilitarian (one set, grey with doors and openings on each side and a fire constantly burning at the front of the stage), however Negrin does some very interesting things with the production. He focuses on Azucena the gypsy and her history, the overture and the first aria (Di due figli vivea padre beato) in which a brilliant Tagliavini’s Roberto recounts the sorry history in one corner of the stage.Ludovic Tézier is, in my opinion, one of the best baritones in the world, and in this performance he more than lives up to that reputation as the evil Count di Luna. Tézier doesn’t just ‘do’ evil though. Through his wonderful use of colour and his strong acting, he humanises the Count, making him more morally grey in a black and white world. His singing is just perfect, that range, that timbre – it was a genuine pleasure to listen. Maria Agresta as Leonora was again, fantastic, she gave it everything that she had. Her D’amor sull’ali rosee in particular was stunning, and brought the house down.This production is a brilliant exploration of the characters. Negrin adds depth and humanity to the performance, which is so rare and important for this opera in particular. The leading cast and chorus were brilliant, with some truly phenomenal, and at points, haunting, singing and acting, a must see.
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.
