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4Nadine 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.
Milovníci opery sa môžu tešiť na ďalší skvelý zážitok. Na javisku Historickej budovy Štátneho divadla Košice v týchto dňoch vrcholia poslednými skúškami prípravy novej opernej inscenácie Roberto Devereux z pera skladateľa Gaetana Donizettiho. Jedno z vrcholných diel bel canta pripravovala košická opera už na jeseň a v novembri mala byť jeho premiéra rozlúčkou svetoznámej slovenskej opernej divy Edity Gruberovej s jej skvelou kariérou. Plány zmarila pandémia koronavírusu. Nová inscenácia, žiaľ bez Edity Gruberovej, tak za svojimi divákmi príde najprv prostredníctvom vysielania na portáli navstevnik.online v obsadení, v ktorom sa stretli domáci sólisti, ale aj známe mená svetového a slovenského operného sveta.
With the review of the new opera of the Košice State Theater, Donizetti's work Roberto Devereux, we are starting a new collaboration with the leading opera critic Michaela Mojžišová.
In the title role, Elena Maximova disappointed. She has the looks and moves for the part, power to burn and the right sort of dark colour in the voice. But a thick accent was allied to awful diction, with hardly a consonant intelligible all evening. I spent the evening struggling to work out the words from a combination of memory and back-translation of the surtitles, and that kills any possibility of being swept away by siren-like sexuality, which is required to make the whole opera plausible. Just like the singing, the orchestral performance was mixed. Bertrand de Billy kept things moving nicely and strings and woodwind gave good, precise performances: the prelude to Act III, when they’re playing on their own, was the orchestral highlight of the evening. But there were simply too many errors and hesitancies in brass and percussion: this is a score where anything less than immaculate timing of triangle or tambourine notes can throw the whole flow of the music. The result was an orchestral performance that was adequate without ever touching greatness. Zambello’s staging is appealing: her take on 19th century Seville is well lit and bustling, very much one’s ideal of a Hispanic city in the burning sun gathered from Zorro movies or elsewhere. But it gives a lot of rope on which a revival director can hang himself: there is a huge amount of movement on stage and it all needs to be executed crisply. Under the revival direction of Duncan Macfarland and choreography of Sirena Tocco, last night’s cast and chorus were good enough to execute it all correctly, but not good enough to give the sense of doing so with abandon. The defining example was extras abseiling down the walls, who landed with care rather than with a thump and a flourish; the exception was the Royal Opera Youth Company, with the children throwing themselves into the action with delightful abandon and brio. For anyone seeing Carmen for the first time, this production will have been a more than satisfactory evening. Old hands hoping to see something extra will find it in Hymel and Car, but not elsewhere.
