Past Production Reviews
4Durchaus geschickt, insbesondere für eine Reise-Produktion, sind die von Felix Nolze entwickelten Bildelemente: So wird etwa eine Wippe umgedreht zur Brücke und hochkant aufgestellt zu einer Bar-Theke. Linienprojektionen des Videodesigners Andreas Dihm spielen mit den Umrissen eines Hauses, dessen Interieur dann mit Bett Tisch, Klavier und Grammophon als Komponistenstube bespielt wird.
We enjoyed the Austrian baritone Florian Boesch (1971), -with Justus Zeyen (1963) at the piano-, resident artist of the Cycle this season, who will offer three recitals throughout the season, and which was debutant in the Cycle in the 2010-2011 season. The recital's design featured a wide selection of songs by Franz Schubert and Hugo Wolf - their Italienisches Liederbuch (1892-1896) - along with a less frequent repertoire around Frank Martin's Sechs Monologe aus "Jedermann", in a historical zoom line that would go from the past to the present so that you can see how the Lied has evolved stylistically. Approximately seventy minutes of recital, without pauses, in which we were able to enjoy -especially in Schubert-, Florian Boesch's vocal media, executing quality bass-ductile and bronze-, which adequately communicated text and singing from stormy environments of the nature beautifully exposed by Zeyen's piano. This group of songs, that oscillate between the unleashed of Waldesnacht [ Night in the forest ], the calm of Im Frühling [ In the spring ] and the introspective of Das Heimweh [ Nostalgia] were adequately exposed in the mid and low range, although we do not understand that in the moments in which the high range is required, the singer would limit himself to intermittently humming with open and fluffed sounds - it is not justified even thinking that the The resource was merely expressive, forgetting that the vocal technique can also be put at the service of expressiveness, without losing the purest Liederista style. Herbst [ Autumn ] was the absolute credit of Zeyen, with that continuous sound mesh based on a measured pedal that only he knows how to synthesize to recreate a true autumn atmosphere.
The drama of this music, is truffled with declamatory overtones, and does not represent any problem for our baritone, except in the high range, not liking how it resolves these moments: with a shouted, narrow voice -high larynx-, fixed and bland, with stridencies far from what we understand as an expressive device, although the artist probably "sells" that this is his intention. Reisebuch aus den Österreichischen Alpen , is a very valuable work, which we like very much. We had already heard it at the March Foundation, in January 2015, in the Cycle Los antimodernos, also with Boesch as the protagonist -in a version a few points more restrained in drama, much slower, more sung and less declaimed-, accompanied in that occasion by Roger Vignoles. Although we prefer the 'in medium, virtus', counting on the plus of the greatest drama applied on this occasion, which is also good for the piece, it is not surprising that the audience cheered both interpreters with volleys of applause and shouts of ¡ Bravo, bravi !, for the interpretive effort and the dramatic emptying that these interpreters managed to achieve and that -of course- reached all the seats of the Teatro de la Zarzuela. Like all good Cycle completed well, no tip was offered, as we understand it should be done.
Hingegen versprühte seine Bühnenpartnerin Giulia Semenzato mit jedem Ton, der ihre Kehle verließ, eine unwiderstehliche Mischung aus Liebreiz und List. Sie verlieh der Rolle mit karamelligem Timbre und technischer Souveränität neue Facetten und lief ihrem Figaro dabei mühelos den Rang als Hausintrigant ab.
