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Número 276 - Zaragoza - Diciembre 2023|
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| Los repartos de Bayreuth 2003 |
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Saludos. En día tan señalado,la web oficial del Bayreuther Festpiele,"cuelga" los repartos del festival 2003. La novedad en éste año es la nueva producción de Holandés,con dirección de Marc Albrecht y con: Der Holländer. John Tomlinson Daland. Jaakko Ryhänen Senta. Adrianne Dugger Erik. Endrik Wottrich Mary. Uta Priew Der Steuermann. Tomislav Muzek El resto de las producciones no sufren cambios significativos respecto del 2002.A Tomlinson le han quitado de cantar el Hagen,sigue la Hertlitzius y los dos Siegfrieds son los mismos. Saludos. P.D. Algún forero,tiene noticias de como salió Les Troyens del Met,el estreno del pasaso día 10,con Ben Heppner reapareciendo despues de 14 meses y con 40 kg. menos.Y puestos a pedir,alguno tiene noticias del Wagner a tope de Berlin. Gracias. Antonio Pons |
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Te paso la crítica del New York Times aparecida recientemente. Saludos Love Burns in Carthage, Destiny Calls in Rome By ANTHONY TOMMASINI Joseph Volpe, the pugnacious general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, hates making the same mistake twice. So you might have thought that after the director Francesca Zambello, in her 1992 Met debut, turned a new production of the Donizetti favorite "Lucia di Lammermoor" into what was widely deemed a symbolism-strewn fiasco, she would be finished in Mr. Volpe’s book. But Mr. Volpe knew that at her best Ms.Zambello is a daring and insightful director. Not only did he turn to her again, but he also entrusted her with one of the most prestigious Met assignments in years: a new production of Berlioz’s epic opera "Les Troyens" to observe the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The judgment of the Met has been borne out. This new production, which opened on Monday night, is a visually stunning, seamlessly flowing and emotionally involving realization of Berlioz’s inspired, famously unwieldy opera, a retelling of Virgil’s "Aeneid." When Ms. Zambello and the production team came onstage for a curtain call, there were the expected boos from a contingent of buffs who presumably have never forgiven her for defiling Donizetti. But those shouting bravo were in the majority, and I was among them. If speculation over this production has been focused inordinately on Ms. Zambello, it’s because no one doubted that the Met had assembled a cast ? headed by the tenor Ben Heppner as Aeneas, the soprano Deborah Voigt as Cassandra, and the mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson as Dido ? that would do honor to this wondrous and challenging score. They did not disappoint. Nor did James Levine and the great Met orchestra. All the contrary strands of Berlioz’s work come together miraculously in this music. Romantic fervor, sumptuous colors and the sheer din of massed choral and orchestra forces are leavened by elegance and delicacy. The music looks forward with its wayward harmonic language, but also backward to the refined classicism of Gluck, Berlioz’s idol. The result is a ravishing score that hovers in some transcendent place. Mr. Levine and his players captured the sweep and power of the music without any sense of force and luxuriated in the soft expanses of wistful beauty without any loss of tension, let alone energy, which can be an issue in this five-hour evening. The principal clarinetist Ricardo Morales deserved a place onstage during curtain calls for his exquisite playing of the dolorous clarinet melody while Andromache, the widow of Hector, and her son appear in mourning. Completing work on this production must have been bittersweet for Ms. Zambello and the cast: in December the set designer, Maria Bjornson, who was looking forward to her Met debut, died at 53 at her home in London. In Ms. Zambello’s staging, all the action, which begins in a Greek encampment in the city of Troy and ends on the shores of Carthage, takes place against a semicircular back wall of metallic-looking rods and sticks stacked up like city ramparts, but also suggesting the pileup of spears and stilettos from years of war between the Greeks and the Trojans. Hovering over the back walls is a globelike structure that ascends to the rafters in scenes when crowds march atop the ramparts. Ms. Zambello’s style is embodied in a scene in Act I when Aeneas bursts upon the assembled Trojans, who falsely think themselves safe, with some horrific news: a priest and his two sons, suspicious of the wooden horse left by the Greeks, have been devoured by two sea serpents. As the chorus bewails this omen, which is as bad as they come, Ms. Zambello, working closely with the choreographer Doug Varone, presents a pantomime of their deaths: the bodies of small children are lifted and passed back and forth by dozens of entwining hands. Though stylized and very busy, the staging conveys the event powerfully and rides the nuances of Berlioz’s aching and resolute music. Image after image is unforgettable: Cassandra drawing a canvas curtain across the stage to isolate herself for her doom-saying soliloquy; the sunny opening of Act III, when the contented citizens of Carthage appear in simple, creamy- white costumes (by Anita Yavich), waving yellow streamers with fields of shimmering golden wheat in the background; a symbolic love scene between Dido and Aeneas enacted by two fearless dancers suspended in the air from wires; the lyric tenor Gregory Turay as the young Trojan sailor Hylas singing his homesick ballad while suspended high up on a swing; and the pitiable site of Dido buried under a pile of docking ropes, abandoned by Aeneas, who has sailed to Italy as fate has decreed. Ms. Zambello has elicited rich performances from her large cast. Mr. Heppner has shed so much weight he’s unrecognizable. You could almost call him strapping. Some may feel that his voice has lost weight as well, and the lower register does seem less powerful. But his top voice sounded bright, robust and ringing. That he cracked on high notes a couple of times on Monday should not alarm his admirers. For most of last season he struggled with vocal problems and is surely still recuperating, let alone adjusting to his new physique. All in all, this was a reassuring performance from an essential tenor. Berlioz conceived the role of Cassandra for a mezzo-soprano, but that has not stopped sopranos from singing it. Ms. Voigt brought her customary blend of burnished power and pliant lyricism to her work. And Ms. Zambello has emboldened her to give a physically rigorous and emotionally unfettered performance. Originally the mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina was to have sung Dido. A pregnancy forced her to withdraw. We are lucky that the Met was able to get Ms. Hunt Lieberson for the role. Even before singing a note, when she appeared onstage in a lacy cream-white dress, this lovely singer embodied the widowed queen of Carthage, dedicated to her people, with whom she mingled naturally, regal yet approachable, wise yet wistful, confident yet not naïve. The plaintive beauty of her voice, the intelligence behind every phrase, the mix of subtlety and passion, all these qualities and more endowed her distinguished portrayal. The baritone Dwayne Croft as Cassandra’s ill- fated fiancé, Coroebus; the mezzo-soprano Elena Zaremba as Dido’s supportive sister, Anna; the tenor Matthew Polenzani as the court poet, Iopas; the bass Robert Lloyd as Dido’s minister, Narbal, were among the excellent supporting artists. For 100 years after its 1858 completion, this opera was considered great in parts but ill conceived and impossibly long. In this production and this performance it seemed an inexorable work of genius. Since 9/11 no New Yorker has taken for granted feeling safe in a public space, especially now, with the country on high alert. But nothing will take you out of yourself like hearing the enchanted septet of Act IV, when Dido, Aeneas and their coterie sing Berlioz’s blissfully subdued music. I didn’t want it to stop. |