Nicola Luisotti raises ‘La forza del future’ with rigor and keenness on the Liceu | Culture | EUROtoday

The fantasy of The power of futureby Giuseppe Verdi, as a cursed opera, is said to 2 tragic occasions in 1960. In early March, Leonard Warren died whereas singing the character of Don Carlo di Vargas throughout a efficiency on the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. The American baritone was struck down by a cerebral embolism earlier than ending his third act scene, which paradoxically begins with the exclamation “Die! Tremendous thing!” And, on the finish of September, Dimitri Mitrópoulos carried out this title by Verdi, in Vienna, in his final operatic efficiency, as he died all of the sudden on account of cardiac arrest just a few weeks later. The Greek-American director had chosen to maneuver the opera’s overture to the top of the primary act, after the Marquis of Calatrava cursed his daughter Donna Leonora.

13 years in the past, stage director Jean-Claude Auvray determined to revive this unusual placement of Verdi’s overture. Its co-production with the Paris Opera was carried out in Barcelona in 2012, and final Saturday, November 9, it returned to the stage of the Gran Teatre del Liceu. Auvray argues within the hand program that this unusual placement of the overture helps to conceive the primary act as a prologue, a apply that Gustav Mahler already carried out in Vienna round 1900. In actuality, Mahler by no means directed this opera by Verdi and the thought of transferring the overture was by the playwright Franz Werfel, who tailored it into German The power of futurein November 1924, for the Vienna Volksoper. a wierd wagnerization by Verdi that Fritz Stiedry (a disciple of Mahler) premiered after which tried to export with out success to the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in the course of the Nineteen Fifties.

The overture, which Verdi redid for the 1869 model, makes excellent sense at first, as it’s a magnificent orchestral medley of the opera’s most important themes. Starting with that dramatic whirlwind of future, in E minor, which splashes the 5 subsequent themes and finally ends up turning into, in E main, an indication of hope, which agrees with the revised ending of the opera. Fortunately, Nicola Luisotti compensated with Italianness this nonsense from the stage director, in his debut on the Liceu in Barcelona. The maestro from Viareggio, well-known in Madrid as the primary visitor conductor on the Teatro Real, turned the overture into essentially the most applauded variety of the night, regardless of the aforementioned relocation.

The Italian director knew learn how to discover from the pit an excellent widespread denominator for the motley mixture of the tragic, the comedian and the grotesque that Verdi proposes in The power of futureprimarily based on his rereading of the Duke of Rivas sprinkled by Schiller. A relentless combination of rigor and keenness, which permeated even the accompaniment of the recitatives, and which extracted admirable particulars from the Gran Teatre del Liceu Symphony Orchestra. Darío Mariño’s clarinet solo stood out, at first of the third act, virtually a live performance that Verdi wrote with Ernesto Cavallini in thoughts for absolutely the premiere in Saint Petersburg, in 1862. The Choir of the Barcelona theater, directed by Pablo Assante, additionally gave a glorious efficiency with exact assaults, sound density, good dynamics and clear articulation, which we hear, for instance, within the well-known Rataplan, rataplan, della gloria on the finish of the third act.

In addition to Luisotti, the orchestra and the choir, the forged was of nice high quality. Starting with the Italian soprano Anna Pirozzi, who was the good winner of the evening with a memorable Leonora, the central character of the opera after the revision of 1869. The Neapolitan singer chisels the character, dealing with the vocal coloring and dynamic nuances with ease. He already shone within the first act with a heartfelt aria Me, pilgrim and orphanand added higher emotional depth within the second act with Mother, merciful Virgin. But it was within the fourth, after an interval of virtually an hour and a half with out showing on stage, the place he raised the well-known Peace, peace, my Godinserting ethereal notes that made you maintain your breath, like his spectacular assault of the excessive B flat in pianissimo.

The tenor Brian Jagde was an imposing Don Alvaro, for his vocal supply and the ability of his treble, however with a really restricted dynamic palette, as we may hear, in September, on the Teatro Real in his interpretation of Maurizio in Adriana Lecouvreur. The American is without doubt one of the most important present interpreters of this Verdi function and he shone particularly within the third act along with his aria Life is hell for the sad manthe place he discovered somewhat extra flexibility and was one of the vital applauded numbers. Artur Ruciński was a great Don Carlo di Vargas, similar to final season with Renato in A masquerade ball. The Polish singer is a superb Verdi baritone, however his musical supply lacks higher psychological depth in a personality who’s glad hating to demise. Ruciński additionally had his greatest and most applauded second within the third act, with an beautiful efficiency of the aria Fatal urn. And one can’t overlook the brilliance of each singers of their duets within the third and fourth acts.

The exemplary Fra Melitone by Pietro Spagnoli stood out from the remaining. The Roman baritone created the one character at a theatrical degree that we noticed on stage and, as well as, he vocally related with out stridency the heritage of the bel canto bass singers with the longer term Verdian Falstaff. The younger lady mezzo Caterina Piva was additionally a superb Preziosilla, attentive to the temper calls for of this frivolous well-liked chief who combines Ulrica with The troubadour with Oscar Masquerade ball and anticipates Bizet’s future Carmen. Bass John Relyea was a stable and resonant Padre Guardiano, though considerably monotonous in singing. And Maestro Trabuco, led by the Granada tenor Moisés Marín, and the veteran bass Giacomo Prestia deserve a point out, whose well being didn’t permit him to sing as Padre Guardiano, however he was a convincing Marquis de Calatrava.

Auvray’s stage manufacturing works properly, regardless of the aforementioned relocation of the overture. Musically, it doesn’t dispense with any quantity from the 1869 model of the opera. On a scenic degree, it’s a monumental and minimalist proposal that transfers the advanced 18th-century plot of the opera to the Risorgimento and the Sexenio. Leo Castaldi’s revival has had an influence on the administration of the ensembles, though the path of actors stays very restricted. However, the set design by Alain Chambon and the costumes by Maria Chiara Donato stand out for his or her evocation of pictorial photographs, with the assistance of lighting by Laurent Castaingt, who recreates work by Zurbarán or Delacroix within the second and third acts, changing the refrain Rata plan in a wink of Liberty main the individuals.

Before the beginning of the efficiency, tribute was paid to the DANA victims in Valencia with an exquisite solo cello efficiency by The track of the birdscarried out by Òscar Alabau, cello soloist of the Gran Teatre del Liceu Orchestra. To this we should always add the gorgeous and hopeful A flat main, with the tremolo of the strings and the harp in pianississimo (ppp), which places an finish to this Verdi opera after a lot tragedy.