Margaine, Tézier Find Favor

La Favorite at Bavarian State Opera in Munich

By ANDREW POWELL
Published: February 27, 2018

MUNICH — Sometimes the revival has the better cast. So it was for La Favorite at Bavarian State Opera on Sunday, when Giacomo Sagripanti, Clémentine Margaine and Ludovic Tézier made more sense of the music than their counterparts in the 2016 production’s first run (a Deutsche Grammophon DVD) — conductor Sagripanti instilling new urgency and sweep, Margaine singing magnificently as Léonor, Tézier’s Alphonse resonant and incisive. Matthew Polenzani and Mika Kares reprised their monastic duties as Fernand and Balthazar, Kares with impressive control of line. Much applause. It was, though, a night to listen rather than look because Amélie Niermeyer’s morally confused, for-the-camera staging serves neither the historical characters nor Donizetti’s.

Photo © Wilfried Hösl

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