Past Production Reviews
6Mauro Peter incarne un Narraboth lumineux et émouvant, qui pointe son poignard sur Jochanaan avant de le diriger contre lui-même. Michaela Schuster est une Hérodiade cynique et condescendante, alors que Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke compose un Hérode faible et veule qui ne peut à aucun moment masquer son désir pour Salomé. Pour la petite histoire, on signalera que chacun des cinq juifs est chanté par trois interprètes différents, Andreas Homoki ayant découvert dans la partition une note de Strauss disant que les voix des solistes pouvaient être remplacées par des choristes talentueux, à la discrétion du chef. La saison lyrique zurichoise a démarré sous les meilleurs auspices.
Das interessante Bühnenbild besteht aus einer Scheibe am Himmel, welche den Mond darstellt und sich auf dem Boden in gleicher Größe widerspiegelt und als bewegliche Spielfläche dient. Aus dem verborgenen Palast, führt ein Steg hinüber zur sichtbaren Welt. Über sie betreten die Darsteller die Bühne. Dort symbolisiert ein riesiger Mahlstein die zerstörerische Kraft, welche sich langsam und drohend auf das Geschehen zubewegt.
The international cast brings together the voices of the Armenian soprano Lianna Haroutounian, in the role of Tosca; Mexican tenor Ramón Vargas , as Cavaradossi, and Lithuanian baritone Kostas Smoriginas , playing Scarpia. The opera features some of the most renowned arias, such as 'Vissi d'arte' and 'E lucevan le stelle', which will flood the Cervantes Theater next weekend along with the voices of Cristian Díaz, Fernando Latorre, Luis López and Luis Pacetti. "A very spectacular production", as Pedro Halffter points out, which will benefit from the play of lights and the Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra that will accompany the soloists together with the Malaga Opera Choir and the Pueri Cantores Malaga choir . The conductor wanted to congratulate the choir for their magnificent work and for allowing the children to enter the operatic experience. After very intense and fruitful weeks of rehearsal, the director hopes "that we will be all the strength and intensity of Puccini and be able to take it to the maximum."
It tells the tale of the 16th century Russian tsar Boris Godunov who seized power after the death of Ivan the Terrible, allegedly after supervising the murder of Ivan's son, and went on to be almost as terrible as his predecessor. In the opera, he is plagued with guilt and ends up going mad, so the whole thing becomes a case history of increasing derangement. Most unusually, there is no major role for a woman singer, so there are no great soprano arias to liughten the musical mood, and it is Boris who dies at the end after the plot has meandered through the darker realms of insanity. The credit for the power of this scene goes equally to Terfel and the director, Richard Jones, and his team, whose striking design and costumes provide a visual treat matching the power of the music. Jones does, however, rather overdo a repeated vision tormenting Boris of the murder of Ivan's son which brought Boris to power.With Bryn Terfel as Boris dominating the show, all other roles are reduced to bit parts, but it is worth mentioning John Tomlinson as a drunken monk, who provided a much needed comic interlude to interrupt the sombre tale. As always, however, Bryn Terfel is well worth seeing and the intensity drawn from the orchestra by Antonio Pappano is magnificent.
Dass sich auf der riesigen Bühne so etwas wie Intimität einstellt, das liegt auch an den Musikern. Stephen Costello ist ein viriler und stimmlich schneidiger Herzog, der sich mühelos in die Herzen der Frauen singt.
