Jarrett Ott / Critiques

Drei besonders wundervolle Momente schenkt mir diese Aufführung. Den ersten in Person Erwin Schrotts als Alidoro, der Cenerentola motiviert, aufs Fest des Don Ramiro zu gehen. In seiner Arie „Osservate. Silenzio. Abiti, gioie“ (Pass auf. Schweige. Kleidung, Geschmeide) offenbart mir Erwin Schrott seinen geschmeidigen, vollmundigen, kraftvollen Bass. Er singt gefällig, umschmeichelnd und souverän. Der zweite dieser Momente ist ein Stellvertreter für die Raffinesse Rossinis. Für das was mich bei Rossini packt, atemlos macht. Meine Faszination gilt den Ensemblemomenten. Das Finale des ersten Aktes „Mi par d’essere sognando“ (Ich scheine zu träumen) ist großartig! Die Stimmen flirren, flattern durcheinander, sind in einem Moment Teil des großen Ganzen und zugleich?, kurz darauf?, so schnell bin ich nicht in der Lage zu unterscheiden: es ist für mich ein Moment der musikalischen Explosion. Ich gehe darin auf, versinke und genieße. Der wesentliche Teil der Faszination: diese turbulenten Momente werden dann zum Ereignis, wenn jede einzelne Stimme exakt prononciert. Ist das nicht der Fall, fällt die Faszination in sich zusammen. Das ist eine ganz besondere Herausforderung bei Rossini. Die Sänger und Sängerinnen glänzen hier einzeln und in der Abstimmung zueinander meisterhaft. Der heute ausschließlich männlich besetzte Bayerische Staatsopernchor stützt nicht nur diese Szene maßgeblich in Gesang und Spiel.

The premiere of Henry Purcell's only opera Dido and Aeneas in 2022 will not take place in a girls' boarding school - as was the case for the London premiere in 1689. Nevertheless, the manageable number of premiere guests in the Aalto Musiktheater Essen gives the impression of being private. Chatting casually, shaking off the dust of the past year from your costume and suit, an exciting expectation hovers in the foyer. Will the Aalto protagonists and the opera-goers finally be able to expect more light in the pandemic-clouded sky this year? Purcell's one-hour tour de force through Greek mythology with the dramatic focus on the unhappy love of a woman for a man who carelessly spurns this love promises a musically ambitious, entertaining gallop into the second half of the 2021/22 season. The constellation between Dido , the queen of Carthage, who, despite her passion, sees herself as having state responsibility, and Aeneas , the Trojan hero who is destined by the gods to found a new Troy in Rome, combines happiness and sorrow into a tragedy . A material par excellence, made for a moving, inspired opera story. The libretto by Nahum Tate based on the 4th canto of Virgil 's Aeneid tells the story of the Roman odyssey of Aeneas after the Trojan War. He flees across the Mediterranean to Carthage with Jupiter's commission to found a new empire in Italy. Jupiter's will and claim to power become the fate of the burgeoning love between Aeneas and the widowed Queen Dido . The hero is ordered to sail to Italy immediately and follow divine destiny. Caught in self-doubt between divine mission and earthly love, he is caught by Mercury disguised as a witchunequivocally reminded of its mission. Aeneas sails to Rome to fulfill the founding myth - and sacrifices his love for a woman. Dido rejects his half-hearted offer to stay in Carthage anyway, pointing to infidelity as a punishment from heaven. She dies. Whether heartbroken or suicide is told differently in mythology. This romantically dazzling, tragically moving story is cast in colorless and powerless blackness in Essen. No sparkling sparks, no matter how hard Andrea Sanguineti tries with a chamber ensemble of the Essen Philharmonic to let these sparks jump onto the stage. Sometimes there is a leaden tiredness over Ben Baur 's uninspired production. The fact that one of the musicians repeatedly sinks into a nap in the long breaks between their performances and hardly resists the sleepiness does not make a good impression on the audience, who sits directly opposite the ensemble at eye level. In the long run, felt subliminally, an attention-braking eye-catcher that distracts from the music and what's happening on stage. If one considers that Dido and Aeneas is a semi-opera in the context of the courtly Singspiel of the 17th century, which has its (subordinate) place after the main program of theater and dance, questions arise logically: Can such a semi-opera work as an opera alone without the preludes? So must Baur 's attempt in Essen inevitably miss the mark? To approach Purcell’s semi-opera from a perspective of cultural-historical complexity or to approach it reflexively with a production, productions such as those by Sasha Waltz at the Berlin State Opera ( Strong Women Left Alone , November 6th, 2019) or those byDavid Marton as part of the Ruhrtriennale ( Martons Purcell- Kraftzentrale , August 31, 2019, both published here) with more convincing dramaturgy ( Christian Schreiber ) and staging stringency. A black-robed, often hooded opera choir from the Aalto Theater dominates the Essen stage . However , their harmoniously woven, atmospherically dense carpet of sound (rehearsed by Patrick Jaskolka ) does not succeed in anticipating light moments and possibilities beyond the dull gloom. For the audience, practiced in social distancing and connected to each other as masked fellow sufferers for two years, the negative darkness of the staging and equipment is very unconvincing. Looking at the solo vocal parts, it is noticeable that men tend to play more inconspicuous roles. Strong women dominate, left alone by men. Tobias Greenhalgh as Aeneas is the only man on the stage apart from the musically ungrateful marginal figure of the first sailor ( Ian Spinetti ). Purcell's composition gives Greenhalgh few opportunities to let the richly colored middle of his baritone shine. Even Jessica Muirhead in the role of Dido , contrary to the suggested expectation of the title, has relatively limited roles. Muirhead tops off with her Ah! Belinda I am prest after the overture at the beginning of the first act the field of action. Her silhouette, reflected on the bare stage background, evokes a cross image. Destiny takes its divine course. Dido's lament - When I am laid in earth - , one of the most famous baroque soprano arias, is performed with expressiveness that gets under your skin. Her silky, shimmering soprano proves the emotional power of music. Composer Purcell and librettist Tate give the acting and singing parts after Belinda ( Giulia Montanari ), Dido's confidante (also 1st witch and ghost) and the 2nd woman and 2nd witch ( Christina Clark) a greater plot presence overall. Her sopranos shine with a melancholic and powerful timbre. The applause for this premiere is more elegantly reserved than enthusiastically overflowing.

Like Milo Rau wringing his neck at La Clémence de Titus , by Mozart, in February, the Geneva stage invited us to a first scenic foray into the world of opera and another tussle with Dido and Aeneas , by Purcell, directed by the dancer and choreographer Franck Chartier , co-founder, in 2000, with the Argentinian dancer Gabriela Carrizo, of the Brussels company Peeping Tom . It is however clear that what appeared to us as a brilliant exercise of virtuosity in the first case touches on the masterpiece this time. Yet these are two radical rereadings, but one diverts the work while the other digs a channel in its meanders. Dido and Aeneashardly offers a plot. Dido, the queen of Carthage, loves Aeneas, the Trojan fugitive whom she has taken in and whom witches, using an evil charm, will push to abandon her. Dido will choose to die on one of the most sublime lamentations in the history of opera.In a huge, heavily paneled bedroom, with library and music room, topped by a parliament hall (a literal "parliamentary chamber") lives old Didi. A rich eccentric surrounded by politicians (the choir, servants and musicians, to whom she plays Purcell's opera over and over again), crazy about Queen Dido, whose deleterious loves and tragic destiny she endorsed. Terrific Eurudike De Beul, actress, performer and singer as we can see in a speech to her people modulated in the manner of a Sufi song of ecstasy. Thriller music invaded the space while, under a mountain of white sheets, contortions seem to mimic a sexual relationship. Didi will appear, legs apart, in the frustration of an unfulfilled desire before falling in love with one of his servants, a wounded man, survivor of war and fighting – a clone of Aeneas. The incidental music created by composer and cellist Atsushi Sakai will counterpoint Purcell's score, inserting itself into the interstices of the narration as well as into the recesses of Dido/Didi's psyche. A queen unable to love, eaten away by an erotic impulse that will end up destroying her. The text produced by the Peeping Tom collective portrays a woman of power, who will not hesitate to straddle her slender and Christ-like lover for a long time. An epileptic body alphabet Disarticulated, tortured, the choreographies are written in an epileptic bodily alphabet. Bodies thrown against each other. The strength of the show is that everything, visually, refers to the music. The tragic sometimes unravels in the grating effects of vis comica, like this woman à la Rossy de Palma moaning and barking when Purcell evokes the royal hunt which will separate the lovers. And what can be said of these suddenly gutted walls, of these windows opened by the wind, giving way to heaps of sand, which will end up invading the space, burying Didi, who dies, naked, on her bed, groomed by a servant, while Dido displays the splendours of her farewell to the world. During the cupids' final chorus, an amorous dance of death sees the woman devouring the heart of the man she loves. You have 35.45% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only. CONTENT SPONSORED BYOUTBRAIN Become a Data Scientist in 11 MonthsADVERTISING GREAT LEARNING Become a Data Scientist in 11 Months Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson Buys Georgia Farm - The Home Was Built For Mr. Johnson’s FamilyADVERTISING MANSION GLOBAL Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson Buys Georgia Farm - The Home Was Built For Mr. Johnson’s… 6 Actions to Invest in Nuclear FusionADVERTISING THE TECH INVESTOR 6 Actions to Invest in Nuclear Fusion Your car is in high demand! Sell at best priceADVERTISING SELLRIGHT BY SPINNY Your car is in high demand! Sell at best price ₹12,000 Crore US Lottery Now Also Available in IndiaADVERTISING THELOTTER ₹12,000 Crore US Lottery Now Also Available in India