Off you go

2008 Wiener Opernball

Having seen recent pictures of Anna Netrebko at the Vienna Opernball, I was thinking to myself she had definitely gained some weight and should consider starting a diet.

Well, it turns out she's pregnant and is expecting the child this autumn.
These are indeed fantastic news, as it means she won't sing for a while (and already canceled her engagement for the Salzburg Festival where she was supposed to sing alongside Rolando Villazon in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette).

Curtain issues

I know I'm overreacting and focusing on things that shouldn't matter, but I have to write a few lines to express my disapproval over the new curtain of the Opéra de Lyon. We used to have one perfectly integrated in the aesthetics of the place: black, simple, discrete. Alas. Times change, and rarely for the better. In this seventies atmosphere we're emerged in, it was only a matter of time before someone at the Opera House had the great idea to turn the princess into a pumpkin and provide us with this disturbing new curtain (actually worse in real than it appears on the pictures).

I hope they don't plan on refurnishing the house with more of this kind of brand new ideas. I'm so not longing for a complete redesigning including hundreds of wall stickers, all in the name of fresh innovation, of course.

A week in music: week 2

Week 2: Monday Jan.28 -> Saturday Feb.2, 2008

• Tuesday
  Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore








• Wednesday
  Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri, MET broadcast Feb.28 2004 with JD Flórez & Olga Borodina, James Levine conducting


• Thursday
  Puccini's La Rondine, live broadcast from Il Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, May 28, 1989; Mietta Sighele, Veriano Luchetti, Daniel Nazareth conducting


• Friday
  Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, MET broadcast Nov.10 2006 with JDF, Diana Damrau, Peter Mattei & Samuel Ramey, Maurizio Benini conducting

The perception of music

Warning: to get my point, this post actually requires that you take the time to listen carefully to this YouTube extract (the concept of it not the execution, obviously). I am deeply convinced Rossini sounded that rock 'n roll when Il Barbiere di Siviglia premiered in 1816 in Roma. This opinion was truly unraveled when I first listened to Riccardo Muti's interpretation of Gluck's Orfeo e Euridice (2007 Maggio Musicale Fiorentino).
Trivial, don't you think?

Hospital noticeboard in France too

The pandemic amongst opera singers is indeed worldwide. After recent cancellations by JDF (Kansas City & Chicago), Dmitri Hvorostovsky (London), Anna Netrebko (London) and Andreas Scholl (also London), Angela Gheorghiu has canceled her upcoming recital in Paris (Salle Pleyel). Tickets will be reimbursed, as no alternative date could be found.

A pain in the throat

La Fille du Régiment, 2007

I get that you can't always be lucky in life, and that you can indeed become sick over almost everything.

But when I hear (via this or that) Juan Diego Flórez is canceling both his Kansas City recital and all the performances of the upcoming production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Chicago over ... a fishbone, "les mots me manquent" (I'm speechless) to use a very recurrent expression of mine.

But then again, fishbones are a real con to eating fish anyway.
Doctors told Flórez to cancel all engagements til the end of March.
He'd better keep his April 21st one at the MET though.
I hope I'm not flying over the Atlantic to attend the premiere of Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment without Flórez. That would be a real pain in the ass.

Score di bravura

Semirade, Antonio Salieri "Sento l'amica sperme" Opéra de Lyon Diana Damrau recital Jan.25, 2008

Tri karty: La Dame de Pique

Opéra de Lyon
Jan.28, 2008 (next performances Jan.30, Feb.1, 3 & 5)


The Queen of Spade
Opera in 3 acts
Music - Piotr Illitch Tchaïkovski
Libretto - Modeste Tchaïkovski (adapted from Poutchkine's novel)
New production

Conductor - Kirill Petrenko
Stage director - Peter Stein
Orchestra & chorus of the Opéra de Lyon

Hermann - Viktor Lutsiuk
Liza - Olga Guryakova
The countess - Marianna Tarasova
Tomski - Nikolai Putilin
Prince Eletski - Andrey Breus
Pauline - Elena Maximova

Libretto in russian here, in russian and french here.


I have never been a great admirer of Tchaïkovski's operas (nothing to do with his music for ballet or symphonies). The Queen of Spade is no exception.
Musically, I find the first act very painful, and the only interesting pieces in here are, for me, the duet scene between Liza and Prince Eletski (middle of act 2) and the suicide scene of Liza (beginning of act 3).
I also admit dramatically the long scene at the end of act 2 where the countess dies without revealing to Hermann the 3 winning cards he desperately longs for, is indeed quite interesting.

But the libretto has some big dramatic issues; the first scene of the opera, with the kids soldiers brings absolutely nothing to the action and actually harms it, as well as the ridiculous entrance of tzarina Catherine after the opening scene of act 2.

The recurring appearances of the countess' phantom during act 3 are also difficult to stage, because it's so easy to fall to ridiculous images and lightning effects.
So I think this opera is actually pretty hard to direct, thus requiring a very talented guy at the helm.

Peter Stein is not that guy.

When a good idea is required to make the scene believable, Peter Stein delivers a stupid and unimaginative cliché, that lacks complexity and sophistication.

The entrance of Catherine is beyond ridiculous (picture left) and would be expected if you were attending a circus show, definitely not an opera. Both appearances of the countess' phantom are equally preposterous and ludicrous.

The thunderstorm (scene 1 #6, act 1) was also totally screwed (picture left), in that recurring "circus for dummies" kind of atmosphere (the picture does not accurately demonstrate the ridicule of the staging).

So basically, I don't understand at all why Serge Dorny, the director of the Opéra de Lyon, likes this guy so much; why he keeps on inviting him to direct Tchaïkovski (Mazeppa in 2006, Eugene Oneguine in 2007), unless his plan all along was to present a silly and unattractive trilogy (these three operas will be shown here all together next season).
But then again, this is just one of the many issues I have with Dorny.


The chorus of the Opéra de Lyon was great, as usual, totally deserving his title as best chorus in France, with nuances, subtility and incredible homogeneity, as always.
The orchestra responded pretty well to young and interesting conductor Kirill Petrenko, although sometimes the brass section was lacking a bit of clearness and smoothness.


Finally, a word about the singers: great performance of mezzo Elena Maximova as Pauline, interesting ones from bass Nikolai Putilin as Tomski and tenor Andrey Breus as Prince Eletski.
Both Viktor Lutsiuk (Hermann) and Olga Guryakova (Liza) were forgettable, not awful, just average.

Last 3 pictures
1. Beginning of Act 1
2. Act 2
3. Death of the countess, end of act 2

All pictures above courtesy of the Opéra de Lyon.

Curtain calls.

Further readings:
- "Une lecture fidèle", Jean-Louis Validire for Le Figaro, who liked his evening a lot (I wonder if this guy ever disliked an operatic performance).
- "Décevante Dame de Pique", Marie-Aude Roux for Le Monde, was disappointed by Peter Stein like I was but loved the chorus and the orchestra of the Opéra de Lyon as well as the conducting of Petrenko.
- "Peter Stein tire la mauvaise carte" from ResMusica.com
- "Trois sept as : Dame de Pique à Lyon" from concertclassic.com

Queen of the night

The program can be downloaded here.

An evening with Diana Damrau is full of fun, for starters.
If some people still have that cliché about opera, serious and solemn, where there's absolutely no place for fun or spontaneity, they definitively need to attend a concert with Damrau, who will tear to pieces these preconceived ideas.

Singers in their thirties and forties are generally fun and do not hesitate to interact with the public, some (Natalie Dessay) more than others (Juan Diego Flórez). Diana Damrau beats out everybody, making jokes just a few seconds before an aria whilst having problems adjusting her score holder, coming back on stage with a sweater in her hands to tell people to go have a drink because it's intermission time, having a laugh on stage, miming a sore throat to explain why there won't be more than one bis - one of the true disappointments of the evening, I would have hoped she would have sung an aria from Die Zauberflöte, after all Mozart was the core of this program (such as this one).

The pleasure she takes singing is communicative beyond words and I found myself smiling every time she was on stage, filled with unconditional joy.

And it is really a true blessing to hear her sing: the high notes are always spot on, the low ones are outstanding (which is not often true with sopranos) the nuances are superb, the emotions are always there - as she really experiences each and every note and its emotional intend, all concurring to a magnificent performance (being able to overshadow my dislike for Mozart and Salieri is an accomplishment very few have achieved).

Alas, the concert was really built to showcase equally Damrau and Rohrer, meaning she only sang in half of the pieces performed - 8 total, including the only bis. I would have loved for her to sing more... I guess I'll just have to wait till the end of June to hear her live again...

All photographs taken during the evening.

Jérémie Rohrer, le roi de l'esbrouffe

Diana Damrau Recital

Ensemble orchestral: Le Cercle de l'Harmonie

Direction musicale: Jérémie Rohrer

Opéra de Lyon

January 25, 2008

Julien Chauvin (left), Diana Damrau (middle), Jérémie Rohrer (with the glasses)

It took me an awfully long time to figure out Jérémie Rohrer.
On the first aria (Mozart's Thamos, König in Agypten KV345, #2), I was quite impressed by the way he handled his musicians (impression later proven to be wrong) and heard some interesting nuances. Then, 5 pieces later, on Mozart's 26th symphony, I simply dozed off, therefore effectively ending my 5-minute love affair with Rohrer.

It took me a while to recover but I was looking forward to the two Gluck's pieces from Orphée et Eurydice. When the first one was played though ("Ballet des ombres heureuses"), I couldn't believe my ears: this is one of the worst performances of this piece I have ever heard. But it led me to figure this Jérémie Rohrer out. I am all for fresh, young and dynamic new conductors... as long as they have something new to bring to the table.

Playing with 18th century instruments is definitely not a good way to start something new. I'm sorry, but the flute has more to do with the "thing" we each experimented with in school than with an actual instrument capable of emitting beautiful sounds. The violins induce a weird resonance and a rather irritating sound, the oboe is... not the oboe I love so much and even the bassoons are funny sounding. The biggest problem with Rohrer though, is that he can sound dynamic and sharp. This illusion is well preserved when the scores are deliberately staccato, as often with Mozart and Salieri.

But when the music is legato (in the Gluck's piece for instance), Rohrer looses all perspective and ends up delivering a slow and boring interpretation. Nuances are nowhere to be found, but heavy and solemn are everywhere.

So in the end, it all seems like a fraud, because what's happening really is that he only delivers nuances because the few milliseconds between each staccato allow him to switch to another idea. But when there's no time for switching, boredom is just around the corner. Everybody seems to be talking about this guy (at least they do all the time) well, I was rather disappointed there.


From ForumOpera: "Mais si Rhorer sait être – extrêmement – rapide, il peut aussi être impitoyablement lent. Le ballet d’Orphée étiré comme un vieux chewing-gum sans goût ne s’en remet pas. L’auditeur non plus, d’ailleurs. (...) Si encore l’orchestre était bon ! Mais non ! (...) ce n’est qu’attaques floues, imprécises ; cuivres naturels qui détonnent ; équilibres très instables où la partie droite écrase impitoyablement la gauche. Ce sont des cordes rêches, métalliques, sans aura ni portée."

A week in music: week 1

I wanted to do this for a long time, so here I start it, finally.
A day-by-day music journal, so that I can keep track of the CDs I listen to most.


Week 1: Monday 21 -> Friday 25, January 2008

• Monday
  
  Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment, MET live performance, 1972; Richard Bonynge conducting, Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti (available in CD with the same previous three, but recorded with the Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra, Covent Garden).
  


• Tuesday
  Beniamino Gigli's New York recordings (1927-1928), volume 5


• Wednesday
  Verdi's La Forza del Destino, CD1 (Act 1 & beginning of act 2)


• Thursday
  Verdi's Don Carlos, CD3 (Act 4 & 5)


• Friday
  Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana (Pietro Mascagni conducting in this 1938 recording)
  

The decline of obscurantism in Turkmenistan

Congress Centre
Achgabat- Turkmenistan

"Our flourishing nation should not stand separate from the world. It absolutely should have a worthy operatic theater and a worthy state circus."
Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov - Turkmenistan president

Can you believe opera was banned for 7 years in Turkmenistan, before Berdymukhamedov announced this week "Today a new period is starting in our country which we have called an era of great renaissance", effectively ending this ridiculous ban set by former leader Saparmurat Niyazov (who died in late 2006) ?
This announcement was made during a televised interview during which he also estimated the first opera would be performed in six or seven months. He did not mention anything regarding the return of ballet.

Where the operas would be performed remains a problem, as Niyazov also destroyed the only building available for that purpose in Archkhabad in 2001.
And one more good news for people living there: they will be able to watch movies in theaters again, as Berdymukhamedov also ended that ban.


More on the matter:

- Reuters: "Country ends ban on opera and circus"
- AP: "Opera, circus bans in Turkmenistan ended"
- International Herald Tribune (from AP): "Turkmenistan's president lifts 7-year ban on operas, circuses, citing country's development"
- Le Parisien: "Réouverture des cinémas, interdits depuis une dizaine d'années"