Posts Tagged ‘Zurich Opera House’

Christie Revisits Médée

Saturday, March 4th, 2017

Stéphanie d’Oustrac as Médée at Opernhaus Zürich

By ANDREW POWELL
Published: March 4, 2017

ZURICH — The goal presumably was to freshen the tale of Jason and his cooperative wife Medea as told by Thomas Corneille (filtering his brother Pierre and Euripides) and mise en musique by Charpentier. But stage director Andreas Homoki’s new Médée (1693) for Opernhaus Zürich, where he doubles as Intendant, presents only facile reductions of character and situation, eschewing spectacle and perversely going for laughs. Early on, we face the plain outside wall of a stadium where Jason the Argonaut and friends are playing cricket and rugby (at the same time). Later we encounter Oronte the soldier, on whose capacities the story turns but who counts for little once established as an imbecile; and Créon the king, a boor who will die without engendering sympathy. Homoki’s concept might have worked, in its contrarian way, had he developed a matching rebuff for each element of this Lullian tragédie and turned the thing upside down. Alas, he comes nowhere close to achieving that, unable even to explore potential in the divertissements and intermèdes and consequently getting trapped by them into narrative repetition. Lively costumes offset the bland sets, but they are plagued with cliché: kids in platinum wigs, military officers in sunglasses, demons in blackface (with afros). A blown opportunity, then, considering this opera’s rarity and the perfect scale of the house, at 1,100 seats, not to mention the caliber of the musicians assembled.

After partnering with Homoki on an acclaimed David et Jonathas (1688) at Aix-en-Provence five years ago, Charpentier veteran William Christie may have expected a more potent production, and it was unclear whether he sanctioned omitting the Prologue to shave twenty minutes off the 185-minute score. Zurich at least gave him a strong cast, centered on the ideally matched Médée of Stéphanie d’Oustrac and Jason of Reinoud van Mechelen. At the Feb. 12 performance, late in the run here, the mezzo-soprano sang with expressive, focused sound, avoiding shrillness in her tough Act III monologues, and she invested the role with dignity, deepening a portrayal filmed thirteen years ago at Versailles. The honey-toned, equally communicative tenor floated exquisite soft notes and declaimed Corneille’s text with aptly deceptive charm. Soprano Mélissa Petit, a modest yet sensitive Créuse, was required to mime much of the time, diluting her presence when it mattered. Ivan Thirion’s rich baritone suited the duties of Oronte despite projection problems, while bass Nahuel di Pierro neatly articulated Creon’s music. Christie enforced fluency, directly or indirectly, in the text-dependent vocal lines. He knowingly weighted Charpentier’s intriguing dissonances, applied nuanced but always precise shifts in the orchestral colors and flawlessly coordinated pit and stage. The Chor der Oper Zürich (with five hautes-contre from Les Arts Florissants) made affecting contributions, notably in the lament on the king’s death, and Orchestra La Scintilla, superb in all sections, seemed to revel in its assignment.

Photo © Toni Suter and Tanja Dorendorf

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Antonini Works Alcina’s Magic

Wednesday, January 11th, 2017

Alcina at Opernhaus Zürich in January 2017

By ANDREW POWELL
Published: January 11, 2017

ZURICH — Christof Loy’s staging of Alcina here, new in 2014 and just revived, imagines a blurred line between a theater troupe’s onstage roles and its members’ backstage passions and asks what it means to break free of illusion — this last substituting for Ariosto’s island magic, happily without demeaning the source. States of mind hinge on costume changes. Multiple stage spaces allow contexts to shift. Neither stylized nor abstract, the scheme advances judiciously on its own logic with nobody the center of attention, until Loy draws together his loose ends to reveal one trouper entrapped: Alcina herself.

At Friday’s performance (Jan. 6), Julie Fuchs sang a girlish and game Morgana with gleaming top notes but no real trill. As her sister the sorceress “queen,” Cecilia Bartoli commanded slenderer tones; extended arias Ah! mio cor! schernito sei! and Mi restano le lagrime, lacking resonance, aurally diluted rather than crowned an earnest, witty portrayal. Varduhi Abrahamyan offered the counterforce of a vocally plush, heroic Bradamante able to trace coloratura flights while sliding half-dressed between genders.

In his Opernhaus Zürich debut, Philippe Jaroussky ornamented Ruggiero’s music more sparingly than he had at Aix-en-Provence eighteen months earlier, for the good. He placed his notes in the service of complete phrases and longer ideas, largely through impeccable dynamic control. His sound: consistently sweet. His Verdi prati seemed frozen in time, floated as it was while he descended steps from the stage in an escape from Loy’s illusion. The contreténor from Maisons-Laffitte later kick-turn danced with the ensemble, sealing a triumph.

But the highest tributes to Händel’s score came from the pit, and not with showiness. Right from the overture, conductor Giovanni Antonini set his priorities: breathing musical lines, gentle accents, unexaggerated dynamics, sharp attacks. Orchestra La Scintilla, devoted to period-performance practice at this ornate 1,100-seat lakeside theater, responded flexibly, with fine internal balances. The strings sounded lush and mellow. There were wonderful wind solos, including from Antonini, who had no trouble leading with his recorder; this partnership began years ago.

Photos © Monika Rittershaus (performance), Philippe Jaroussky (backstage), Opernhaus Zürich (curtain call)

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