Marc Minkowski ‘breathes wind into the sails’ of a memorable ‘Giulio Cesare’ at Les Arts | Culture | EUROtoday

For Marc Minkowski (Paris, 63 years previous), the origin of his model as a conductor dates again to an evening in 1985, when he attended the oratorio on the Salle Pleyel Theodora by Handel performed by Nikolaus Harnoncourt on the head of the Concentus Musicus Wien. That aesthetic influence—the notice that the orchestra might generate discourse and theatricality by itself—was mounted as a revelation.

In his latest memoirs, Conductor or centaur. Confessionsevokes that have as a conjunction of power and delicacy that marked him indelibly: “How could the thought of an instrumentalist, who was also a director, produce such expression, such theatricality, only with an orchestra? The singers obviously added a higher level of expression, but not everything depended on them; it was the orchestra that produced the speech.”

At that point Minkowski was a younger bassoonist who had simply based Les Musiciens du Louvre—later Les Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble. Its first nice milestone got here with the fashionable restoration of The triumph of Time and Disillusionmentby Handel, which he recorded in 1988. From Harnoncourt he inherited a conception of sound based mostly on incisive articulation, muscular vitality and a continuing theatrical pressure. That ideology retains its effectiveness intact and was the driving drive behind the success of Julius Caesar in Egypt final Saturday, February 28, on the Palau de les Arts. Vincent Boussard’s manufacturing premiered in May 2023 on the Cologne Opera, with refined visible splendor, was served by a solid the place high quality took priority over flash.

The Valencian theater has as soon as once more surpassed the Teatro Real this season, even with the identical Handelian title on the invoice. While the Madrid coliseum opted per week in the past for a live performance model with Il Pomo d’Oro and names with sturdy worldwide projection – the countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński and the soprano Sabine Devieilhe -, the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía has strengthened its personal orchestra and opted for the Spanish debut of the countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen and the primary Handel of the Valencian soprano Marina Monzó.

The strategy was paying homage to final season on the Gran Teatre del Liceu, with William Christie within the pit and the manufacturing kitsch by Calixto Bieito, though then the end result was inferior. In Valencia, alternatively, the cheers – with a great a part of the auditorium on their ft after virtually 4 hours of efficiency, with a single 25-minute break – confirmed the success of a efficiency that flowed naturally and with a sustained pulse.

Minkowski appears to have totally measured the bodily limitations of the theater designed by Calatrava, the place he debuted 4 years in the past with Hoffmann’s tales, from Offenbach. On this event he raised the pit and efficiently managed the large distance that separates him from the stage. It is true that, at the start, the quantity of the 45 musicians didn’t make issues simpler for the voices, however the Parisian conductor ended up balancing the ensemble with out shedding an iota of depth.

His route propelled the singers in every aria with genuine sound meatiness; In his memoirs he defines that process with a exact maritime metaphor: “breathing wind into their sails.” He supplied an imaginative steady accompaniment, through which the wonderful harpsichordist Yoann Moulin shone, sustaining the identical theatrical liveliness in well-cut recitatives. He adopted the 1724 model fairly faithfully: he preserved all of the from scratch —with the only exception of Giulio Cesare’s much less impressed aria, Isn’t it so obscure and exquisite—; from the primary act he deleted Cleopatra’s third aria, as he already did in his recording for DG/Archiv (You are my star), and probably the most substantial reduce was Sesto’s final aria within the third act (Justice already has on the bow).

The manufacturing relapsed into the identical drawback as on the Liceu by scheduling a single break after virtually two hours and in the course of the second act. In Valencia, nevertheless, an efficient resolution was adopted at the start of that act: the orchestra situated on the stage moved to the middle of the room and each Cleopatra and Giulio Cesare sang their arias from the stalls. The useful resource was particularly engaging within the chook aria If in a pleasing flowery meadowwhich led to a spectacular musical duel between the solo violin of Stéphane Rougie, on stage, and the voice of Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, within the viewers.

The American countertenor, 31, was one of many winners of the night. His qualities as a Roman chief had already been evident in his debut, two years in the past, on the Glyndebourne Festival. In Valencia, Handel’s character created for the gelding Senesino since his first intervention was confirmed as a present reference. Wicked, I’ll say, you’rethe place he displayed dizzying vocalizations, brilliance within the excessive register and refined variations within the from scratch. His interpretation didn’t cease rising, with successive flashes of musicality, till culminating within the third act with an impetuous and spectacular That stream, which falls from the mountain.

The different nice winner of the solid was Marina Monzó. In her first incarnation of a Handelian character, the Valencian soprano, of the identical age because the American countertenor, emerges as a Cleopatra to be taken into consideration. Added to this are notable appearing and musical expertise to go from sensible coquetry to fury and emotional depth. He demonstrated this particularly within the third act with I’ll mourn my destinyone of many highlights of the evening, from the intoxicating timbre of the preliminary disappointment to the virtuosic violence of the center part.

It didn’t detract from the remainder of the solid. The Persian-Canadian countertenor Cameron Shahbazi was a extra completed Tolomeo than in Barcelona final season, as an efficient counterpoint to Giulio Cesare. In Valencia he not solely created a extra advanced villain, however, regardless of a decrease quantity than his American colleague, his voice was projected from starting to finish with the required incisiveness, as evidenced in his final aria, I’ll tame your delight.

The expertise of the solid was supplied by mezzo-soprano Venetian Sara Mingardo, who has been enjoying the function of Cornelia for at the very least twenty years. He corroborated it with a number of flashes of musicality, as within the duet They are cream to tears together with his son Sesto on the finish of the primary act. The transvestite character that Handel wrote for the well-known Margherita Durastanti was assumed in Valencia by the Italian soprano Arianna Vendittelli, who sang unwell—as introduced—though she knew the right way to steadiness vengeful youthful hearth and contemplative lyricism.

For his half, Canadian bass-baritone Jean-Philippe McClish captured Achilla’s evolution with a deep voice. In recitatives and choruses, each the baritone Bryan Sala and the mezzo Lora Grigoriev had been, respectively, Curio and Nireno solvents.

Vincent Boussard’s manufacturing stood out, as already famous, for its visible splendor and aesthetic cohesion. But additionally resulting from an efficient route of actors, attentive to the dramatic evolution and supported by some engaging concepts. This is the case of the doubling of Cleopatra by an actress with the identical black bob wig, a useful resource that enables the seductive facet and politics of the character to be proven in the identical aria. Also the conception of Ptolemy, initially evil, however evolving in direction of the grotesque and ironic, in distinction to his advisor Achillas, whose costume traces a journey from jester to defeated man.

There is little doubt that Christian Lacroix’s costumes are one of many pillars of the manufacturing. He imaginatively distinguishes Romans and Egyptians, contrasting Western conventions with colourful and fanciful exoticism. He performs intelligently with nods to totally different eras—crinolines, tricorns, armor—and exactly outlines the protagonists: Caesar’s luxurious cloak and Cleopatra’s darkly shiny tunic.

The best success is, nevertheless, the set design by Frank Philipp Schlößmann, decisive for the fluidity of the present. A rigorously deliberate system of shifting partitions, mirrors and environmental projections that dialogues with the music in each probably the most intimate and probably the most spectacular passages. In quick, a manufacturing through which motion, music and scene come collectively till you lose monitor of time.