‘La Gioconda’ returns to the Liceu with extra lights than shadows | Culture | EUROtoday

The composer’s fortune Amilcare Ponchielli he normally limits himself to his opera The Mona Lisa (1876) or, extra particularly, to his well-liked Dance of the hoursthe one ballet from an Italian opera that has discovered a spot within the well-liked repertoire. As a live performance piece it already fascinated on the Paris World’s Fair, two years after its premiere, and was enshrined within the movie Fancyby Walt Disney, with that endearing sequence of hippos wearing tutus.

But The Mona Lisa is, above all, a fantastic operatic spectacle that mixes the custom of melodrama Italian with the calls for of the grand opera French. A title positioned after Aidaby Verdi, and previous to the emergence of verismo and Puccini. It is predicated on Angelo, tyrant of Paduaof Victor Hugowhich Arrigo Boito He moved, in his advanced libretto, to seventeenth century Venice. And it requires six nice main voices, large choral scenes, a spectacular historic setting, an abundance of contrasts and a central ballet.

Perhaps because of this it’s a frequent title on the stage of the Liceu in Barcelona, ​​the place it has already exceeded 150 performances since 1883. In current a long time it could possibly be seen in 2005 and 2019, with a staging by Pier Luigi Pizzi designed for the Arena di Verona, and now it returns in a brand new manufacturing by Romain Gilbert, co-produced with Napoles, the place it premiered two years in the past. This younger and rising supervisor French combines musical sensitivity with an aesthetic respectful of the libretto and the unique setting, to which he provides a specific emphasis on plastic magnificence.

His fundamental success thus far has been the fashionable recreation of the unique manufacturing of Carmenby Bizetpremiered in 1875, which he made three years in the past in Rouen. Your proposal in The Mona Lisa maintains Vincent Chaillet’s choreography, which is ideally built-in with the dramaturgy by changing the Dance of the hours in a nod to the comedy del arte starring Columbine, Harlequín and Pantalón. It additionally has the historicist and meticulous costumes of Christian Lacroix and provides the surroundings of Etienne Pluss, which focuses on an oppressive and darkish Venice – with the assistance of the lighting of Valerio Tiberi -, with out hiding the grime of the mud and progressively degrading because the plot progresses.

Gilbert masters the weather of the stage motion with ease, which is kind of comprehensible regardless of the intricate nature of the libretto. La Gioconda, a avenue singer, loves the outlaw Enzo Grimaldi, who in flip loves Laura Adorno, spouse of the inquisitor Alvise Badoèro. The avenue singer will assist Laura – who has beforehand saved her mom, La Cieca – but additionally Enzo; He achieves this by agreeing handy over his physique to the evil spy Barnaba, though he commits suicide simply earlier than.

The stage course proposes good options and sure licenses for the tip of every act: the burning of Enzo’s boat within the second; the catafalque that Alvise exhibits below the bottom together with his supposedly lifeless spouse from the third; or, on the finish, the ghost of La Cieca terrorizing Barnaba. But the manufacturing suffers in Barcelona from the identical low degree of directing actors that it already had in its premiere, with a forged filled with stars reminiscent of Anna Netrebko, Ludovic Tézier and Jonas Kaufmann.

At the Liceu, the large winner of the opening night time was the Spanish soprano Session Hernandezwhich debuted on this identical theater in 2019 exactly giving life to the Venetian avenue singer. The Madrid native stood out for her assured vocal administration of this troublesome function, through which she was in a position to naturally combine the lyrical and the dramatic, shifting via spinto passages and coloraturas, though she was much less convincing when it got here to capturing the psychological evolution of the character. He particularly stood out within the fourth act, the place he acquired the most important ovation of the night time for the dramatic energy of his nice aria. Suicide! and saved all of the freshness within the ultimate duet with Barnaba, with a seductive nod to the flowery music belcantista.

The Italian baritone Gabriele Viviani chiseled the evil Barnaba with the identical mortar as Iago in Otelloinitially of the season on the Teatro Real. With a exact and well-projected intonation, however with a monotonous singing and a few tightness within the treble, which was evident in his monologue. The monument within the first act.

The different 4 protagonists debuted of their respective characters. Starting with the American tenor Michael Fabianowho burst in with out authority within the first act with quite a lot of power and within the excessive register when defending La Cieca. He shone in probably the most lyrical passages, reminiscent of in his duet with Laura within the second act, however, regardless of dealing with the half voices properly, he didn’t persuade in his well-known aria. Sky and seathe place the surplus of stress within the rise to the treble marred the ultimate half.

The mezzo-soprano Uzbek Ksenia Dudnikovawhich got here from singing Eugene Onegin in Valencia, he composed a superb Laura Adorno, with highly effective vocal means, regardless of an Italian diction that could possibly be improved. He stood out particularly within the prayer of the second act, Stella del marinar.

The American Bass John Relyeawho returned to the Liceu after his Father Guardiano in The power of future Last season, he was a stable and resonant Alvise Badoèro in the beginning of the third act, though his singing was equally monotonous and hardly threatening.

On the opposite hand, the mezzo-soprano Lithuanian Violeta Urmana She now approaches, from maturity and with particulars of sophistication within the vocal line, the character of La Cieca, after having performed Laura Adorno initially of her profession and having recorded the character of La Gioconda (EMI/Warner Classics). The supporting roles had been right and the intervention of the Gran Teatre del Liceu Choir was stable, proper from its preliminary look with Parties! Bread!and likewise within the second act, with these onomatopoeic results that evoke the ocean and to which the Cor Infantil de l’Orfeó Català joined.

From the pit, the Israeli director Daniel Oren asserted his credentials as a specialist within the melodrama Italian on the head of the Gran Teatre del Liceu Symphony Orchestra. It ensured a constant orchestral movement and attentive accompaniment to the voices. However, preciousness and subtlety had been missing in a studying that at occasions superior with a thick line. This is what occurred within the well-known ballet Dance of the hoursthe place he deployed a stolen excessively mannered and prioritized sensationalism, whereas gesticulating with fixed bombast. However, this new Mona Lisa del Liceu leaves an uneven however stimulating stability, with extra lights than shadows.