Lise Davidsen drives the Liceu loopy in her debut as Isolda | Culture | EUROtoday

When the legendary Wagnerian soprano Kirsten Flagstad, at 42, was requested how she managed to sound on the finish of Tristan and Isolde With the identical freshness as at first, he revealed his secret: “It’s easy. I have a table backstage full of plates of cold sliced ​​roast beef so I can eat whenever I’m not on stage.”

We have no idea the key of his compatriot Lise Davidsen, 38 years previous. But her voice within the so-called “death of love” of Isolde, which closed final Monday, January 12, the premiere of the brand new manufacturing of Richard Wagner’s opera on the Gran Teatre del Liceu—and her full stage debut within the character—sounded simply as recent, shiny and highly effective as at first. A monumental voice, able to returning sensations that appeared definitively misplaced within the Barcelona theater, which Flagstad herself heard as Isolde in 1950.

This efficiency additionally marked the return to the stage of Stokke’s gigantic pure soprano, after her retirement in March 2025 to turn into the mom of twins. The singer herself has acknowledged the journal Oper! who has the impression that her voice stays the identical, though her Isolde should develop operate by operate.

Davidsen had already left glorious impressions in November 2024, singing the second act in live performance model in Munich with the Bavarian Radio Symphony and Simon Rattle. But her start line with the whole character on stage, on the Liceu and in a brand new manufacturing by Bárbara Lluch, already locations her as a reference Isolde for the twenty first century. The tour will proceed in March, when one other new manufacturing by Yuval Sharon premieres on the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

He made an impression at first of the primary act as a result of quantity and brightness of his explosions of fury. The Irish princess’s subsequent narration to her maid Brangäne of her grievances with Tristan satisfied due to her capability to articulate and colour the speech with a heat and lyricism uncommon in dramatic sopranos. The naturalness with which she mastered the extremes of the character, sustaining a notable homogeneity of registers, prevailed on the finish of the primary act and did so once more at first of the second, the place the well-known excessive C’s of the encounter with Tristan have been organically built-in into her incarnation of Isolde in love. It is clear that Davidsen nonetheless has some option to go to delve into the complicated psychological evolution of the character, however he made clear his huge projection with a closing scene that’s exemplary for its energy and expressiveness.

The Norwegian soprano was the nice winner of the night and in addition confirmed indicators of a uncommon camaraderie. It turned clear on the finish, when, after the curtain fell, the viewers on the Gran Teatre del Liceu demanded her solo efficiency and she or he appeared accompanied by tenor Clay Hilley.

The American singer supplied a reliable and devoted Tristán, though far under the vocal stature of Lise Davidsen. In the primary two acts he sang with confidence and musical care, and handed the endurance check of the third with notable fortitude. However, his timbre is excessively metallic and dry, and his incarnation of the protagonist lacks a real dramatic dimension. On the opposite hand, the Polish bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny, like his lieutenant Kurwenal, displayed extreme theatrical capability on stage: his granite and extremely projecting voice labored higher within the third act than within the first, the place he was too explosive.

The mezzo-soprano Russian Ekaterina Gubanova has been a assure just like the Brangäne maid for years. Its bronze and homogeneous tone—though with a slight stress within the treble—turned the announcement of the second act into one other of the moments of the evening. It was helped, particularly for these of us privileged who have been seated within the stalls, by its placement on the fourth ground proscenium. The English bass Brindley Sherratt as soon as once more shone along with his painful vulnerability within the King of Cornwall’s monologue within the second act, however his Marke didn’t attain the solidity that we heard on the National Auditorium seven years in the past, with extreme tightness within the excessive register.

Among the secondary gamers, the versatile tenor Roger Padullés was a very good Melot and the bass-baritone Milan Perišić accurately resolved his intervention as helmsman, whereas Albert Casals managed to repair in the long run, as a shepherd, the issues that he had proven at first as a sailor. In reality, the start of the opera was disconcerting, with a number of moments wherein the Gran Teatre del Liceu Symphony Orchestra nearly went off the rails. This was the case within the vigorous Kurwenal music taken up by the sailors’ refrain, on the finish of the second scene of the primary act. Everything improved within the second and third acts, with good solos by Dolors Payá’s bass clarinet and Emili Pascual’s English horn.

However, the largest disappointment of this new manufacturing was the musical route of Susanna Mälkki, who was returning to the Liceu after her profitable Triptych Puccino on the finish of 2022. The glorious Finnish instructor was going through her first full manufacturing of Wagner’s opera, after having performed the second act in a live performance model in 2022 with the Helsinki Philharmonic. Its studying, hasty and with out stress within the preliminary prelude, led to a primary act stuffed with imbalances and issues. It is true that all the pieces improved within the second, with a extra devoted orchestra, however with out eroticism or emotion; and depth was conspicuous by its absence within the third, with one other prelude as quick because it was chilly and missing dramatic flight. Without a doubt, essentially the most fascinating factor about his conducting was his capability to underline the trendy instrumental mixtures that Wagner writes on this colossal rating.

The Barcelona theater viewers gave the Finnish director unreserved applause, however was unkind in direction of the stage director, Bárbara Lluch. His scenic proposal was superior to that of The sleepwalker from final season, with a more practical dealing with of minimalism and abstraction, so related to this opera for the reason that mid-Twentieth century.

The first act was, nevertheless, problematic when it comes to surroundings: the desk designed by Urs Schönebaum, on which Isolde’s future marriage to Marke is well known, brings collectively her dad and mom along with the pinnacle of her former fiancé, Morold, in a picture of doubtful dramatic effectiveness. Added to this was a remedy of lighting with out a clear symbolic hyperlink, excessively darkish in some passages and blinding in others, in addition to immature route of actors, particularly after ingesting the love filter.

The simplicity and effectiveness of the second act was appreciated, with that starry sky damaged by the opening within the background, wherein the traitor Melot, King Marke and several other knights seem in opposition to the sunshine. In the third act, the route of the actors improved barely, though the surroundings was once more unnecessarily overloaded and the fixed throat-cutting within the background didn’t contribute something substantial.

The costumes designed by Clara Peluffo favored Isolde greater than Tristán, who was not spared from putting extravagances such because the crimson leather-based jacket within the second act.