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7Quickly at the head of this confusing congregation was the magician Cipolla, played by mesmerizing bass Andras Palerdi. With his flowing robes, long hair and beard, and air of mystique, the design of Palerdi’s Cipolla created a resemblance to the historical ribald moujik, Grigori Rasputin; a connection made all the more tangible by Cipolla’s overwhelming power of suggestion and hypnosis. The earlier parts of the opera featured a number of exchanges between Cipolla and the crowd of characters, wherein which a feat from the magician would send them into a burst of musical squabble before Palerdi’s seizing bass would silence them and, joined by more legato phrasing, would begin to work his spell again. Examples of this included a challenge from the crowd to solve complex arithmetic in his mind, and to find a hidden rose after being blindfolded; this later challenge featured an extended slow rise in the orchestra which heightened the anticipation leading to the reveal of the rose.
From the set design to the costumes to the incandescent vocals, The Royal Opera House raises the bar yet again with this performance of Don Giovanni.
You couldn’t ask for a more cultured pair of voices than our master and servant pairing of Erwin Schrott and Gerald Finley: both have burnished, smooth bass-baritone voices and effortless Mozartian phrasing which meant that, in purely musical terms, listening to them was a delight. However, Schrott’s comic timing seemed off in recitative – the little delays while he tries to remember the name of the woman he’s talking to held for slightly too long, an occasional hesitancy rather than confident gusto. In terms of comedy, Finley’s Leporello is something of a work in progress: in his role debut, the alternation of cringing and deviousness didn’t come across as natural. But these are two great singers and the chemistry between them improved through the course of this performance. Let’s hope that it keeps doing so during the run.In contrast, Adela Zaharia’s Donna Anna and Frédéric Antoun’s Don Ottavio looked completely comfortable in their roles from the moment they arrived on stage. Zaharia was the pick of the singers, with ardent delivery, clear intelligibility and a voice that made you sit up and listen. Antoun’s tenor has a slightly covered timbre but he injected plenty of emotion and played a full part in moving the action along. Nicole Chevalier (like Zaharia, a frequent star at Komische Oper Berlin) sang Donna Elvira with masses of character and total confidence throughout her range. I could have hoped for sharper comedy and some more chemistry between characters. But this is an intelligent staging, vocal performances were excellent throughout and the orchestral playing that kept us completely engaged from start to finish. Even with a half-full Covent Garden, it was good to be back.
Double-bound, semi-current, harmless, satirical entertainment theater at the Opera in Copenhagen with "Den glade Enke 2.0". Or have I been wrong and it is a life-threatening image of the eternal prostitution of cultural life? But as always: a chapel playing, as far as the survival of art was concerned. "The Happy Widow" from 1907 was then placed in a ridiculous diplomatic environment, which has now moved up to an equally old-fashioned theater environment. In an updated version, the story now takes place in a theater that lacks money and is in the clutches of busy officials, while politicians' demands for popularity, breadth and earnings torment everyone. On top of an overly reverent bow to the grotesque demands of the time for diversity in gender, body, etc. The many questions Art must ask questions! A mantra that is often said. And it's undeniably what Kasper Holten and Adam Price's new version do. The more pampered opera and operetta audience is probably a big question mark, but not by life's big fundamental question, (to be or not to be), but rather by everything else: Droit morale towards the composer and author Frans Lehár Obligations of the Opera Department The use of opera singers / actors in operettas The need for entertainment of the time Today's absurd demands for diversity in gender, appearance, ethnicity, but just not age! Aesthetics / functionality It may sound dry, but "the happy Widow 2.0" requires a closer health check: Moral right The seasoned folk high school and theater man Arne Skovhus once said in the rebellious 1970s, when the theaters had a hard time selling tickets: "If the churches were full every Sunday, there would be something to think about". As chief executive of the Royal Theater with an accounting balance of more than DKK 1 billion, Kasper Holten has something to ponder. So he would rather resort to a full house than to the opposite. Together with the handyman Adam Price, he has therefore created the new widow version so that the theater can fulfill several of its obligations: Large production at the opera, entertainment and happy ending, catchy music, easy-to-understand sales material etc. and hopefully subsequent positive reflection in ticket sales . But what about Franz Lehár, who in 1907 wrote a coherent piece of music over a novel from the middle of the 19th century? I'm neither an operetta fan nor crazy about stories of loose, younger women marrying old, fat, rich men to escape the clutter of the underclass. Such stories abound as fungal growth within the lighter opera and operetta literature: La Boheme, La Traviata and thus The Happy Widow. It is uninteresting, old-fashioned and sexist. Therefore ok from here to make the story about and also to write a new libretto, which unfortunately is sometimes grumpy with pressure in the wrong places, so it becomes fatal to the enjoyment. But nice with Danish subtitles for the Danish-singing actors. Then we understand the action! But the music in "The Happy Widow 2.0" stops many times, not least in the first part. There is too much talk with loud shrillness and artificial opera voices. It is a shame. In the second part, Lehár's score is supplemented by Aretha Franklin's top number: "Respect", originally written by Otis Redding in 1965 - here sung by a formidable Lise Baastrup. The hall boiled, the biggest applause of the evening and so afterwards. But a little too smart, right? And is it legal against Lehár's thoroughly composed score? Obligations of the Opera Department What does the Royal Theatre's opera department need? Of course sell tickets, but also play the great classics and newer works! During the short work of the Englishman John Fulljames, the opera department has been lively, although there are only a few soloists left and many other productions purchased. With a new political agreement, the repertoire must be more "user-friendly", social democratic, etc. Here a rewritten operetta fits well - and otherwise the theater must now also play musicals and thus enter into unequal competition with the private producers who often put houses and cottages in. as security every time a new product is produced. Uses of opera singers / actors With "The Happy Widow 2.0", Holten and co. lucky to have Morten Staugaard, who today is a baritone / bass at the Royal Theater, but originally trained as an actor. Therefore, it is plausible and extremely well-functioning with him as the theater director running around and looking like a strange relic of the past with checkered trousers, goat goatee and hairstyle a la Einstein. Unfortunately, there is not much music left in his role. Opposite this are especially the sopranos and tenors with problems in the many speech scenes. Both Gisela Stille, as the widow, and Denice Beck, the director's wife, are fine as singers in the two supporting parties, while their retort treatment sets us back decades. The baritone Palle Knudsen, in the role of Danni or Danilo, is in turn a joy to listen to and watch. Everything is in order and he is allowed to sing out. Likewise with Gert Henning-Jensen's figure, With the actress Lise Baastrup in an extra role as the DJ in the theater, the distance to good acting becomes significant. She knows her stuff, fills the stage when, as a busy official, she has to save the threads and also gets her own "moment of fame" with the song "Respect". Not without reason, she became the darling of the premiere audience. A little unfair to the others, because they struggled with the heavy lyrics and the many stairs, while they also had to have control of song and music. Conclusion It will not be me who reports the performance to either the operetta police or kvinfo. For "The Happy Widow 2.0", the theatre's huge machinery is set in motion with a well-playing chapel in the orchestra pit and the entire opera's keyboard in operation. But the question of the national stage's intentions hangs in the air: is there seriousness in the jokes, or does the theater just hope that the cheerful music and the "funny" yellow poster can attract the audience?
Kasper Holten has evidently made changes to the production since its first run, but the basic premise remains the same. Holten seems fascinated by the idea of memory, and the two parts of the opera (the first five scenes up to and including the duel, and the final two scenes which take place some time later) are stitched together by having the older Tatyana and Onegin appear during the opera's prelude. Holten then tries to play the whole opera as a memory, using two dancers (Emily Ranford and Tom Shale-Coates) as the young Tatyana and young Onegin.During the dance at Madame Larina's it became clear that the production was moving between the real and some sort of memory space. There were moments when the lighting made the fixed set (a series of openings which could function as doors, shuttered windows or curtained of areas) look shabby and down at heel and the playing area acquired the detritus of memory, the sheaf from the peasants dance in the first scene, Tatyana's books, and this continued so we had a broken chair from the fight at Madame Larina's, the blasted tree from the duel scene and ultimately the prone body of Lensky as Michael Fabiano lay motionless throughout the two final scenes.The young Australian singer Nicole Car came close to my idea Tatyana. She sang with bright flexibility, with an underlying strength and firmness. She seemed to flit effortlessly between the young and older Tatyanas and was that rare species of singer who is able to incarnate both of them. In the first scenes, as young Tatyana, she really did look and sound young, yet in the letter scene produced a superb sense of maturity and depth to her performance. Much of the letter scene was sung directly to the audience and was searingly intense whilst remaining musical. Car has the potential to be a finely poised older Tatyana but in this production she cracks in the last scene and goes to pieces as much as Onegin.Dmitri Hvorostovsky, whom I understand to be still under treatment for his brain tumour. showed no sign of the illness and sang with his familiar dark, firm tones. For the opening scenes he was quite restrained, and not perhaps as darkly sexy as some, but brought in very much the fact that Onegin is a dandy. You sense that Hvorostovsky knows his Pushkin. This combination of hauteur and dandyism made his put-down of Tatyana all the more devastating. The climax in the final scenes, as Onegin goes to pieces, was very well done, but lacked the shock element as we had already seen the older Onegin throughout the opera. The duet with Michael Fabiano's Lensky was profoundly moving, Holten's concept for once moving in tandem with the music and reinforcing the message.The smaller roles were all strongly cast. Jean-Paul Fouchecourt was almost luxury casting as Monsieur Triquet, whilst Elliot Goldie, David Shipley, James Platt and Luke Price provided strong support as a peasant singer, a captain, Zaretsky and Guillot. In the pit Semyon Bychkov gave use everything we wanted and more. This was a lyrically passionate account of the score which still flowed beautifully and where the passion never made the music feel overblown or driven. Rarely have a heard a performance of Eugene Onegin which sounded so right. I can understand some of the thinking behind Kasper Holten's production, but ultimately I found the closing scenes to be robbed of power by his almost over analytical approach. Thankfully the musical account of the score gave us the passion and lyrical beauty lacking in the production.
The orchestra played at its best, with good and polished sound and with contagious enthusiasm for the first time in the season. Even if Ivor Bolton gave a vivid rendition of the score, with quick tempi and vibrant accent, he did not find the unclassifiable tone that the score requires (he cannot be too harshly blamed, though). He rightly underlined the comic traits with a joyous touch of operetta and saturating sound in the tutti, favouring volume over contrast and colour. The chorus suffered a bit from the loud pit but sounded fine in the carnival scenes.A more attractive cast would have raised the stakes of the performance, but no singer seemed willing (or able) to take the lead. Manuela Uhl is a fine singer with a powerful lyric soprano that makes her perfect for Wagner's “blonde heroines". Isabella.Christopher Maltman was brilliant as the awkward villain, Friedrich. He is a great actor and was the only one who offered an original and genuinely comic performance. Vocally, his lyric baritone lacked authority and even timbre, but he gave an overall good rendition. Bass Ante Jerkunica, an interesting voice, made the most of his funny judgement scene. Ilker Arcayürek was overwhelmed by the otherwise reasonable requirements of the beautifully written role of Claudio, and even lost his voice during the final duo with Isabella. The other tenor, of a very similar vocality, Peter Lodahl, had better fortune as Luzio.
