Daniela Tabernig / Recenzii

The version offered was clearly very satisfactory and its main strengths were the visuals, the solid preparation and the choice of the cast. Marcelo Perusso in his multiple duties as stage director, set designer and costume designer, served with excellence the work of which he is a librettist. The acting movement was coherent and precise. The timeless setting with stone columns and the clever use of the revolving stage served perfectly to frame each of the scenes. The wardrobe is beautiful and the lighting by Rubén Conde is plastically perfect. The choreographic movements of Guillermina Tarsi are adequate. The vocal cast was well-rounded, solid, homogeneous and with perfect diction and preparation. Alejandra Malvino was a Fedra of vocal excellence and expressive intensity. At his side, Daniela Tabernig's Aricia shone, offering the most lyrical moments of the work at the beginning of the second act. He effectively accompanied the tenor Marcelo Puente in the complex role of Hipólito. While sober and effective was Leonardo Estévez as Theseus. Haydée Dabusti overcame the nurse's complicated handwriting with vocal integrity and with careful correction created the minor roles Florencia Machado (Selene), Alicia Alduncín (Hécate) and Gustavo Feulien (Theramens). On the podium the composer himself conducted with sobriety, clarity and precision. The balance between the pit and the stage was perfect and at no time was the voices covered up in a work of abundant percussion and enormous timbral richness. Very good was the response from the Stable Orchestra.

The production was very much a ‘period’ one, dark reflecting the night time, with an airfield like building on one side and a three storey ‘operations centre’ on the other, and with a fence between separating the officials from the public. Projections added to the stormy mood. Il prigioniero (The prisoner), on the other hand, was given a more modern production, even though the setting is much earlier – in the second half of the 16th century. The work, which dates from 1948, portrays a tortured prisoner who is given the means to escape, only to wonder if he might not find his liberty in death at the stake. The connection in this case is rather by association, with the events under the military rule of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The setting used was the same as Volo di notte, although less obviously relevant in this context, and with the addition of a large rotating central cube representing the prisoner’s cell and torture room as the focus of events. Likewise similar and appropriately dark lighting. But there also was the odd addition of acrobatic dancers, supposedly representative of angels of death of that military dictatorship, but ultimately a distraction rather than an addition. Both conveyed well the events and feelings being portrayed with the differences between the two sufficient to well distinguish them. This was also due in no small measure to the two casts. In Volo di notte particularly notable were Daniela Tabernig as the missing airman’s increasingly desperate wife and Victor Torres – unfortunately lost under the orchestra at times – as the insistent but ultimately responsible Riviere. Adrian Mastrangelo well portrayed the Mother in Il prigioniero and Leonardo Estevez was an outstanding prisoner. Christian Baldini showed an affinity with Dallapiccola’s scores, with their varying and complex textures and the chorus responded well.