Marco Armiliato charts the course in the direction of a superb ‘Adriana Lecouvreur’ at ABAO Bilbao Opera | Culture | EUROtoday

It could be unfair to cut back Adriana Lecouvreur by Francesco Cilea to a easy tear-jerking verismo. Whoever delves into this rating, premiered in November 1902, with an distinctive solid led by Angelica Pandolfini and Enrico Caruso, discovers a composer deeply fascinated by timbral refinement. An orchestra extra centered on ambiance and psychology than on speedy impact. And voices that show an inexhaustible vary of colours and nuances, removed from the excessive stentorian.

Cilea guides her protagonist, the well-known 18th-century actress from the Comédie-Française, by the hand, and writes on her musical notes an inexhaustible vary of inflections to intensify the sweetness or vehemence of her singing: melancholy, in a shrill voice, with light unhappiness… This final indication introduces the ultimate duet with Maurizio, No, my browwhich constituted the culminating musical second final Saturday, November 22, within the return of this title 11 years later to ABAO Bilbao Opera.

Adriana clings to the love of her lover, who has simply requested her to marry him, though the poison sucked from a bouquet of violets that may kill her is already flowing by her veins. However, the composer avoids falling into simple pathos and covers the music with a post-romantic refinement. He traces a deep melody in F main with a fragile embroidery on which he writes the indication lingeringinviting the singers to savor it. This is what the soprano Maria Agresta and the tenor Jorge de León did with beautiful softnessearlier than crowning collectively the B flat, the very best notice written for each by Cilea, who provides the indication stunted to underline its expressive depth.

To conclude the duet, that melody passes to the primary muted violins in the pianosurrounded by the harp. Marco Armiliato, who returned to the Euskalduna pit 15 years later, reworked it into an ethereal stroke, an overtly symbolist gesture that hyperlinks to the ending of the opera and the dying of the protagonist, the place nothing factors to a dramatic and deafening climax, however to an nearly unreal sweetness. The environment friendly and stable Genoese conductor, frequent on giant levels such because the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala or the Salzburg Festival, was the true architect of the success of the efficiency.

Armiliato laid the trail for the voices to totally discover Cilea’s signature delicate inflections. His path managed to beat a considerably monotonous first act, elevating the fourth to a really memorable expertise. He achieved this by enhancing the singing by cautious consideration to orchestral texture and adaptability of tempo. To do that, he relied on the sensible Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa (BOS), whose notable evolution lately was associated by the Italian director himself, within the native press, to the spectacular city transformation of the Biscayan capital.

Maria Agresta was, surely, the good winner of the solid, enjoying Adriana in fixed musical progress. The soprano from Salerno did not seize the vocal subtleties in her first look with the cavatina I’m the common-or-garden handmaidwhich lacked that delicate thread of voice that Cilea calls for initially of the ultimate couplet: a breath is my voice / which is able to die on the brand new day (“a breath is my voice / that will die at dawn”). A nuance that Francesco Cesari takes because the title of his wonderful essay included within the hand program. After the intermission, Agresta impressed with the recitation of the melodramatic monologue of Be capable of on the finish of the third act, and shone within the ultimate act with Poor flowersinterpreted with infinite unhappiness and delicate inflections in pianissimo.

The remainder of the solid was completely Spanish, with three very stable protagonists. The Canarian tenor Jorge de León displayed his vocal energy as Maurizio, though he didn’t initially obtain the subtleties of the character, when he addressed his cavatina in full voice. The sweetest effigyregardless of being indicated in pianissimo y in a low voice with transport. He shone within the second act with My soul is drained and provided agency treble within the martial The Russian Mencikoffbut it surely was within the fourth act that he absolutely built-in Cilea’s exact expressive inflections.

The mezzo-soprano Valencian Silvia Tro Santafé didn’t obtain the authority required within the haughty imprecations of Bitter pleasureinitially of the second act. However, her incarnation of the evil Princess de Bouillon, Adriana’s rival in Maurizio’s love and answerable for her poisoning, provided highly effective highs and resounding lows. In any case, it appears to be extra associated to the bel canto repertoire, judging by the wonderful Favorite by Donizetti that he carried out on this similar stage final season.

The baritone from Malaga Carlos Álvarez granted the Aristocracy to the endearing Michonnet, the councilor in secret love and protector of Adriana. His voice was considerably monotonous within the well-known aria within the first act. Here’s the monologuethough his efficiency went from much less to extra, reaching an impressive stage within the ultimate act. The six supporting roles have been one step beneath. The bass Luis López embodied a Prince of Bouillon missing in cynicism and authority, whereas the tenor Jorge Rodríguez-Norton lacked extra exact diction and a extra refined comedy as Abate di Chazeuil. The 4 actors from the Comédie-Française additionally did not outline their characters. However, the six introduced freshness to the buffo sextet of the primary act. And the Bilbao Opera Choir deserves point out, which solidly resolved its few interventions.

Marco Pontiggia’s stage manufacturing, premiered initially of final season on the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, is predicated on a superb metatheatrical conception. It transfers the motion from the 18th century to the daybreak of the twentieth century to pay tribute to Sarah Bernhardt, the well-known French actress who triumphed in 1907 enjoying Adriana Lecouvreurby Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé, in his personal theater and that, in 1913, he filmed a silent model of the work. However, the implementation of this proposal is sort of poor. Antonella Conte conceives a conventional set, composed of a modernist framework and backdrops, though Marco Nateri’s costumes present sure modernist nods, such because the attire of Adriana and the members of the refrain within the third act. The lighting efficiently matches the atmospheres of the plot, absolutely comprehensible regardless of the discreet path of the actors. And the ballet of the third act constitutes a modest eighteenth-century pastiche with out main aspirations.

Adriana Lecouvreur. Music by Francesco Cilea. Book by Arturo Colautti, based mostly on it Adrienne Lecouvreur (1849) of Eugène Scribe and Departure: Vegetable Mary, soprano (Adriana Lecouvreur); The Princess of Bouillon, Luis López, Baritone (Principle of Bouillon ). Josu Goat, tenor (Free), Olga Revolt, soprano mezzo-soprano (Mademoiselle Dangeville). Bilbao Opera Choir. Choir director: Esteban Urzelai. Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa. Musical path: Marco Armiliato. Stage path: Marco Pontiggia. ABAO Bilbao Opera. Euskalduna Palace, November 22. Until December 1st.