New Mexican Tenor Triumphs as Barcelona’s Nemorino

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September 18, 2012
From Seen and Heard International
By: José Mª. Irurzun; Picture © A.Bofill

Spain Donizetti, L’Elisir d’Amore: Liceu’s Orchestra and Chorus, Daniele Callegari (Conductor), Barcelona Gran Teatre del Liceu, 11.11.2012 (JMI)

It’s been seven years since the last time I saw this opera in Barcelona. Then, we were offered the same stage production but with Rolando Villazón at his best as Nemorino. Those performances were all big successes, so it is not surprising that Liceu decided to program Rolando Villazón as Nemorino again – although he will only be there for the second run at the end of May.
While Barcelona awaits Mr. Villazón’s return to his signature role however, another Mexican tenor has scored a great success at the Liceu, potentially making things quite difficult for his compatriot. He is Javier Camarena, and I’ll return to him in more detail in a moment or so.
The production is still the familiar one by Mario Gas, which had its premiere here some 15 years ago. It’s extremely well known in Spain since it has travelled several times to the country’s larger cities (Madrid, La Coruña, San Sebastian, Santander, Bilbao), and has become a marvel of longevity and profitability. The public continues to respond very positively to it and ultimately, that’s what really counts.
The action is moved to Fascist Italy, with Belcore’s troops appearing as “black shirts”. The stage direction is really rather good, with many visual jokes pleasing the audience, such as Dulcamara’s arrival in a “sidecar”, people leaning out of the windows at “O, rustici”, or the second act’s wedding reception, which opens with a recording of Gigli singing a Neapolitan song. To round off the fun, Dulcamara and Moretto walk through the stalls, handing out “elixir”, while the charlatan sings his farewell. The sets and costumes are all every appropriate and judging by the audience’s reaction this time, it looks as though the production is here to stay.
Daniele Callegari again took the reins for the music, as he did seven years ago. His reading was still very good, with vivid and brisk tempi – sometimes almost too fast – but always with good control of all the forces at his command. Callegari is not what I’d call an exceptional conductor, but he’s steeped in the great Italian tradition and so is always a guaranteed success in any opera house. He drew excellent performances from both orchestra and chorus.
The Mexican tenor Javier Camarena was making his debut in the theater and claimed an indisputable popular triumph. His is an attractive light tenor voice – or maybe a little more – which is always well-handled. He has very easy top notes, always singing with gusto and large doses of expressiveness while moving around the stage most convincingly. He gained favor with the audience from the start of the opera with “Quanto è cara, quanto è bella”, and instantly became the real center of attention on stage. He threw in a bright and almost endless high C at “Dulcamara, volo tosto a ricercar”, which gained him a spontaneous ovation. His “Furtiva lagrima “ was also very good and while there was no encore, there could well have been one, as the applause and bravos lasted no less than one minute and 50 seconds. When a good singer is evidently having fun on stage, his joy is contagious and reaches the audience very easily.
Thee American soprano Nicole Cabell was Adina and while the public liked her a lot, I did not entirely share their enthusiasm. I remember seeing her in the same role six years ago at Montpellier when I rated her voice as a nice enough, though rather small, soprano with some problems of projection and impossible Italian diction. Six years later things have not changed very much. She is now vocally more secure, but her problems with volume, projection and diction remain much the same.
The charlatan Dulcamara was interpreted by the Italian baritone Simone Alberghini, who was more convincing as an actor than as a singer. He is not the basso buffo that the role requires, as his voice is rather too light, nor does he have quite the stage skills of other outstanding performers. Angel Ódena was a good Belcore and Eliana Bayon made an average Giannetta.
The Liceu was filled to something below 90% of its capacity. The public were enthusiastic about all the artists, but the real triumph went to Javier Camarena.

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Hampson Steals “Boccanegra”

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From Seen and Heard International
By: James L. Zychowicz; Picture © Dan Rest

United States Verdi, Simon Boccanegra: Soloists, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Sir Andrew Davis, (conductor), Civic Opera House, Chicago. 20.10.2012 (JLZ)

In this Lyric Opera of Chicago presentation of Simon Boccanegra the musical and dramatic content receive equally strong attention in a memorable production—which makes use of the 1881 revisions in the score, rather than the 1857 version. The narrative concerns the tragedy of a fourteenth-century Doge, whose early triumphs winning power in Genoa are eroded twenty-five years later when he is usurped and dies, with his long-lost daughter marrying the man who was once his enemy. The details of the libretto are too complex to relate here, but suffice to say that mistaken identities, political intrigues and shifts of allegiance offer many situations for Verdi to use his masterful musical skill to intensify the drama.
As the title character, Thomas Hampson was in complete command of the role. His rich, nuanced baritone emphasized the character’s contrasts—from the early years when he attempted to reconcile himself to Fiesco, to later when a quarter-century of experience as Doge gave him the wisdom to seek peace. While some of Hampson’s upper pitches in the prologue were questionable, the remainder of the performance was exemplary in its delivery, especially the first-act duet “Figlia! a tal io palpito,” a high point in its command and drama. The penultimate duet between Boccanegra and Fiesco was similarly powerful, with Hampson giving complete attention to dramatic pitch, musical details and phrasing.
As Boccanegra’s enemy Fiesco, bass Feruccio Furlanetto gave a compelling performance. The prayer at the death of Fiesco’s daughter “Il lacerato spirito” boasted exquisite phrasing and delivery. Furlanetto’s even, full sound was impressive, with the lowest pitches resonating superbly. Such mastery was evident throughout, especially in the duet with Hampson near the conclusion.

The woman at the core of the plot, Amelia, was played by Bulgarian soprano Krassimira Stoyanova with a fine sense of style. Her first-act aria, “Come in quest’ora bruna,” showed the delicacy she can deliver, even with some imbalances in the orchestra. Yet as the opera progressed, Stoyanova used her vocal power well to deliver a persuasive performance. Her duet with Frank Lopardo (as Gabriele), “Si, si, dell’ ara il giubilo,” only continued the scene’s intensity. Parallel to the “Figlia” duet in the first act, “Parla, in tuo cor virgineo” was equally impressive. Stoyanova’s range of musical coloring and dramatic expression drew spontaneous audience acclaim.
Depicting Gabriele Adorno, Lopardo demonstrated his fine style and intensity, and responded splendidly to the role’s technical and interpretive demands. He sounded effortless throughout, particularly the second-act aria “Sento avvampar nell’anima,” in which he weighs his love for Amelia against his perceived jealousy of Boccanegra as a rival.
In the role of Pietro, Evan Boyer distinguished his character with clarity and stage presence, and Quinn Kelsey’s Paolo was notable for its energy. He made the scheming Paolo believable, and drew in the audience with his musicality. The chorus, an important part for many crucial scenes, was secure and nicely voiced—enunciation clear and distinct. At the core of the performance was conductor Sir Andrew Davis, whose stylish sense of pacing contributed much to the evening’s success—indeed, every element fit as if Davis composed the work himself.

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Dancing With Stravinsky

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What made the Fifth Annual Composers Festival stand out from the previous Composers Festivals was this year the University of Arizona School of Music joined up with the University’s School of Dance to present three choreographed works set to Igor Stravinsky’s music. The composer, one of the most honored and controversial of the 20th Century, was featured in a week-long tribute to his musical genius.

This unique partnership took place on Sunday, October 14th, at the Stevie Eller Dance Theater on the U of A’s campus, and, to its credit, the event attracted a full house of enthusiastic fans. If the three selected works were not as well known as the composer’s The Firebird or The Rite of Spring, they still succeeded in representing the artistic variety inherent in Stravinsky’s musical output.

First up was Michael Tevlin’s ballet, “And Ye Shall Be As Gods…” The dance was choreographed in 1978 to Stravinsky’s Serenade in A — a piano work in four movements which he composed in 1925. What was so enjoyable about Tevlin’s ballet was the fact the dance seemed as fresh today as it must have been when it premiered.  The work, whose title comes from Genesis 3:5, tells the story of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from Eden. The ballet’s story is told in three short scenes – Eve and Adam in love, the Serpent’s temptation of Eve and Adam and Eve’s tortuous life after they left Eden. Laura Kaufman, as Eve, showed us in the first part, a grounded woman turned alluring when she met up with Jared Baker’s sinuous Serpent. Adam Houston’s Adam was straight forward in his love for Eve and showed his strength in carrying the burdens of their expulsion from the Garden. But it was Tevlin’s talent for blending classical and modern dance moves into exciting jumps, lifts and undulating body lines that gave us a balletic representation of creation’s biblical beginnings. Eric Walter White in his erudite book Stravinsky: The Composer and his Works states that in this piece, Stravinsky “showed he was no longer interested solely in the instrument’s percussive qualities,” revealing “a deeper sensibility than the earlier keyboard works, and a much wider range of texture and timbre.” Tannis Gibson’s rendition not only demonstrated Stravinsky’s detailed approach, but paced the piece to suit the dancers beautifully-phrased lines.

Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale followed. This unusual work has three theatrical parts that are meant to be read, played and danced in equal measure. In 1918, the composer worked with C. F. Ramuz, his good friend and French novelist, at a time when both men were limited in securing fees for their works because of The First World War, so they decided to write this piece for a small chamber orchestra, a narrator and three dancers which they felt could easily be performed because it did not require big sets and costumes.

What makes this work so delightful is Ramuz’s text: “a kind of acted narration,” as White referred to it, written in equal parts of prose and verse taken from Afanasiev’s Collection of folktales. It features that part of the tale in which, after the soldier deserts from the army, the devil comes to claim his soul.

In this performance three narrators delineated the text instead of using one as in the original. Kristin Dauphinais, Grayson Hirst and Charles Roe did their best to bring out not only the humor, but the vagaries of the soldier’s foolish choices that Ramuz put into his story. But so much of what the trio tried to bring to the work was lost because of the inertia of the staging. The narrators were seated in chairs placed in the back of stage right, which really curtailed their interaction with the audience and cut off the audience’s sight lines. From where I sat, I could only hear Roe’s droll, cracking voice as he imitated the devil. Also, due to the placement of conductor Daniel Asia’s chamber orchestra in this small, confining area, the Tale was hampered from showing what White refers to as, “…the most remarkable feature of the score is the brilliant handling of the chamber orchestra,” and that Stravinsky’s, “…music is unique in the way it combines linear precision with sonorous perspective.”

But when it came to the dance segment, choreographed by James Clouser, the piece really came alive. He gave Nolan Austin as the soldier, Clayton Velasquez as the devil and Marissa Dudenake’s Princess, a style of dance that not only showed a vision of contemporary humor which brought out the details in the folktale plot, but showed the playful physicality of each dancer’s character. Their costumes, colorfully designed to fit each dancer’s personality, added to the dance’s lighthearted approach to entertain — a component the rest of the performance lacked.

The last dance was an artistic discovery. In the program notes, the work was cited as the following, “The choreography and costuming in Promenade fulfills the thesis requirement of David Krensing’s Master of Fine Arts in Dance.” What unfolded was a work as visually pleasing as it was emphatic in its storytelling. Set to Stravinsky’s Septet, a seven instrumental serial work filled with complex counterpoints and multiple rhythmic fugues, Krensing’s choreography molded Stravinsky’s challenging score into a lyrical, narrative ballet that was as unexpected as it was beautiful.

As the dance title suggests, Krensing presented three couples, who at different times during the dance, would stop, stage center, revealing the intimacy of their relationship. This intimacy was acted out through a series of small jumps, quick turns and open arm lifts that clearly showed their love for each other. Alexandra Yonkovitch, as a peripatetic traveler, continually danced in, out and around each pair, her powerful presence dominating their expressions of love.

Krensing dressed his dancers in a stylish mix of black, charcoal and orange, colors that enhanced the notion that each dancer was “dressed to impress” for their promenade. Keun Oh conducted Stravinsky’s music as if it were originally composed for dance, a feat I’m sure Krensing greatly appreciated.

Carlotta Hoffman contributed impressions about the dances and costumes.

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