Hector Berlioz - Les Troyens
L'Opéra national de Paris, 2019
Dmitri
Tcherniakov, Philippe Jordan, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Stéphanie d'Oustrac,
Brandon Jovanovich, Véronique Gens, Stéphane Degout, Cyrille Dubois,
Paata Burchuladze, Sophie Claisse, Michèle Losier, Christian Helmer,
Christian van Horn, Aude Extrémo
ARTE Concert - 31 January 2019
Dmitri Tcherniakov may not to everyone's taste as an opera director, but he is
still highly regarded in Paris, by the director of the opera house
Stéphane Lissner at least if not by the vocal traditionalists in the
audience. He's certainly highly enough regarded to be given a
prestigious event like the full version of Berlioz's Les Troyens on the
150th anniversary of Berlioz's death, the 350th anniversary of the Opéra
de Paris and the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Bastille
theatre. Whatever you think about Tcherniakov, he certainly rises to
the big challenge and occasion and doesn't compromise on his own vision
(playing a little safe only perhaps at La Scala with La Traviata in 2013).
The
director's strength is often in harnessing and clarifying the
undercurrents that drive an opera and present them in a modern way, but
his direction of singers to be capable actors and persuade them to come
on board with his ideas is also superb. That doesn't mean overriding
the intentions of the composer, and in fact Tcherniakov's approach to
Les Troyens is a measure of trust in Berlioz's work itself. It can be
updated, it's not just a historical work - either in mythological or
musicological terms - but a work that confronts human fears about war
and terrorism on the one hand and love, healing and security on the
other.
Is there anything more to Les Troyens than that?
Well, of course there is. As it stands, Berlioz's masterwork doesn't
need to be 'filled out', 'clarified' or 'updated', but that doesn't mean
that you can't read between the lines and interpret human actions and
motivations. Not everyone will like the interpretation that Tcherniakov
has proposed and the professional boo-ers at the Bastille certainly
don't (which makes you wonder why else they continue to go, since
creative modernisation has been the case at least since Gérard Mortier's
period in charge of the Paris Opera), but it's valid to interpret and
see the work as more than just a grand spectacle.
Part 1
of the work, La prise de Troie, does indeed present a very different
spin on Virgil's epic account of the siege of Troy, Tcherniakov placing
it in a Russian or Soviet setting that is much more familiar and easier
to elaborate on the underlying tensions and reality of war. He marks a
strong distinction straight off between King Priam and the royal family
in their wood-panelled mansion and the ordinary people fighting on the
streets, taking the time with large titles to ensure that the audience
know who each member of the legendary Trojan family are and what the
relationship is that lies between them, while a running commentary on
the developments of the coming to an end of the ten-year long siege are
rolled out on breaking news TV ticker-tape reports.
Cassandra addresses her premonitions then to a crew of shocked news reporters who are expecting a more positive outlook from the royal family, which is a nice touch
but it's not exactly new (Krzysztof Warlikowski did something similar
with his Princess Di lookalike Alceste for Madrid in 2014). Where
Tcherniakov dares to go further than most however is in projecting the
imagined thoughts of the royal cortege and the elements of distrust that
lie between them during the solemn ceremony for the Trojan dead.
Contributing to that - much more controversially - is the suggestion
that Cassandra has been abused as a child by her father Priam (perhaps
accounting for her being something of an outsider), and Aeneas is seen
collaborating with the Greeks (which accounts perhaps for feelings of
guilt and trauma later).
In terms of spectacle and the
sheer horror of the war that you expect to find overwhelming in this
part of Les Troyens, the Paris production is effective on every level.
Philippe Jordan finds the dark undercurrents in Berlioz's music and
there's a fine cast of singers to play out these deeper undercurrents
that lend it additional weight. More often associated with opéra-comique
and Baroque opera, you wouldn't expect Stéphanie d'Oustrac to carry
that necessary dramatic weight as Cassandra, and she does sound a little
light in places, but it's a strong performance of great conviction and
it's supported by the likes of Stéphane Degout as Chorèbe, Brandon Jovanovich as Énée and Véronique Gens as Hécube. It makes the fate of
Troy more present. Or maybe not 'more' since Berlioz's composition has
been proven to work effectively as long as it has scale, grandeur and
conviction, and it certainly has all those elements, Tcherniakov's
direction in no way diminishing the impact.
Which, of
course is only half the story, since Les Troyens à Carthage has even
more of a spin placed on it. Rather than arrive in Dido's Carthage, the
displaced survivors Aeneas and his crew spend the second half of
Berlioz's epic end up in a PTSD centre for victims of the war. Énée is
almost catatonic from the trauma and guilt for his part in the downfall
of Troy, hearing voices in his head calling 'Italie!', with only
occasional moments of lucidity and spurring into action coming through
group therapy role play battles and relaxation yoga sessions that bring
about that "nuit d'ivresse et d'extase infinie' with Dido, who has also
been dealing with loss and bereavement and is also looking to find
peace.
It all perhaps takes away from the romanticism of
the work in favour of psychological realism, and perhaps romanticism is
actually more in keeping here for Berlioz. For a modern audience too
perhaps an escape from the brutal reality of the world outside wouldn't
be such a bad thing. So we really need to see the contemporary world
reflected and imposed upon Les Troyens? Well that would depend on what
you want to get out of the work, whether you see it (and Latin epic
poetry) as having contemporary relevance, or whether it's just escapist
grand opera musical entertainment and spectacle.
Tcherniakov
nonetheless is successful in tapping into the undercurrents (even if he
has to invent some if it to fit) and in how they are relevant to today.
The spectacle is there too in La prise de Troie, even if it the
glamour is undercut by Les Troyens à Carthage, but I'd argue that all
the romanticism and escapism is there still in the music. Philippe Jordan is mindful of Berlioz's musical sensibilities and influences and
he plays to the works melodic colours and dramatic strengths. Brandon Jovanovich and Ekaterina Semenchuk also bring a new colour to the royal
couple with soft lyrical sweetness that taps into their sensitivities
and their past suffering, very much humanising the characters in line
with Tcherniakov's direction and purpose. After an effective La prise
de Troie however, Les Troyens à Carthage becomes repetitive, lacking in
ideas and consistency, its purpose increasingly distant from the grander
vision of Berlioz.
Links: L'Opéra national de Paris, ARTE Concert
Giuseppe Verdi - Aida
Salzburg Festival, 2017
Riccardo Muti, Shirin Neshat, Anna Netrebko, Francesco Meli, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Luca Salsi, Roberto Tagliavini, Dmitry Belosselskiy, Bror Magnus Tødenes, Benedetta Torre
ARTE Concert - 12 August 2017
It's hard to imagine that a production of Aida can miss its mark, or even worse, be boring, but it does seem to happen with increasing regularity. I'm sure it's a lot to do with the nature of the work itself, which much be fairly intimidating to approach, where there are exceptional demands placed on the singers and on the need to meet audience expectations for an opera spectacle of the highest order. There's merit in Riccardo Muti's belief that you don't have to go either the route of the full Zeffirelli or modern abstract but that you can find an in-between alternative, and the resulting 2017 Salzburg production certainly returns the focus on the musical qualities of the performance, but it has to be said that Shirin Neshat's incredibly static production misses the mark by a mile.
Although the director might have been an unknown quantity, expectations were nonetheless high for this Salzburg Festival Aida. The principal reason for that was of course for the opportunity to hear Anna Netrebko take on the famous role for the first time and as the consummate professional, it can't be denied she doesn't disappoint in the slightest. She might look and act more like an Egyptian Princess than an Ethiopian slave girl, but she's going to carry that aura in every role, no matter how good her acting performance. If you paid a fortune to see this production in Salzburg in person, you will certainly have got your money's worth. This is as good an Aida as you'll hear sung in your lifetime.
Netrebko's voice has matured into a fully rounded voice, secure in every register and impressive at the high end. Her assumption of the role - as always - is full of conviction. You can get lost in the presence of Netrebko singing a role, she just commands attention and is compelling to watch. That's to the benefit of at least giving the kind of strong focus the opera needs that is not provided by the decor or the direction, but it's no reflection on the rest of the cast assembled here. Francesco Meli, like many tenors before him, is faced with the intimidating challenge of 'Celeste Aida' with scarcely any time to warm up, but by the time we get to Act IV, he's firing on all cylinders, along with the rest of the cast.
Much of the musical strengths of Aida lie in the fact that it is a tour de force and a great ensemble work, that provides unparalleled opportunities for individual singers and chorus, but it's also a work that can really spark into life when all the individual characters work together and push each other to the heights required. Ekaterina Semenchuk on her own is just terrific, utterly compelling in Amneris's fury in that final act, but throughout she also works well off and alongside Netrebko and Meli. In any other production, Semenchuk would prove to be a formidable rival for Aida - and acceptably so - but well, it's hard to imagining anyone outshining Netrebko. Luca Salsi too provides a luxurious timbre for an Amonasro that complements Netrebko beautifully. With Muti conducting the impressive Vienna Philharmonic through a glorious account of the score, the work builds and coalesces through to a quite phenomenal final Act.
Musically at least, this is as good as it gets. Unfortunately it's held back and very nearly destroyed by an unimaginative and static stage production. Prior to this performance, the production stills held out some promise for a stylish spectacle that didn't rely on hokey middle-Eastern props, but its limitations become evident very quickly indeed. The set consists largely - very largely - of two huge blocks which revolve to alternately provide a wall on one side for background (and a screen for occasional projections) and a hollowed-out interior that essentially provides nothing more than a platform to arrange the cast and chorus for the big choral scenes to project oratorio-like towards the audience.
It really is as static as that. I don't think I've ever seen a Marche Triomphale quite as uneventful and underwhelming as this one. Everyone stands around looking outward and awkward, a few extras pretend to play trumpets and a group of dancers wearing animal skulls make some half-hearted moves. It's as if the opera has suddenly just stopped for a rest, breaking the momentum that has been built so far. The opera almost dies a death, and that is not the impression that this famous scene should make.
If the set-pieces were incompetently handled, there was no sign of any ideas or direction anywhere else. Netrebko, Meli, Semenchuk, Salsi and Tagliavini seemed to have been left to stand and sing, or if they were feeling particularly moved, to pace from one spot to another and project out to the audience. Netrebko, who has some ability as an actress or can at least inhabit a role well, makes a little more effort to actually engage with her lover, her rival and her father, and in the process brings more out of them. A few Syrian refugees are randomly projected onto the walls in a throwaway concession to contemporary relevance, but otherwise the director trusts in Verdi and Muti to do the bulk of the work, and fortunately that's managed very well. If you were listening to this on the radio it would undoubtedly have sounded very impressive, but as an opera performance it was sorely lacking.
Links: Salzburger Festspiele, ARTE Concert
Giuseppe Verdi - Il Trovatore
L'Opéra National de Paris, 2016
Daniele Callegari, Àlex Ollé, Ludovic Tézier, Hui He, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Marcelo Álvarez, Roberto Tagliavini, Marion Lebègue, Oleksiy Palchykov, Constantin Ghircau, Cyrille Lovighi
L'Opéra National de Paris, Bastille - February 2016
When it comes to early Verdi operas it's often the case that the plot doesn't matter quite as much as the passion in which it is presented. There's a balance to be found of course between quite how far to push those passions and where to push them, but when it all comes together the effect is unlike what any other opera composer can achieve. Il Trovatore is one of the most difficult to balance drama and passion, but between the production and the singing, Àlex Ollé's 2016 Paris production proves to be one of the better attempts to harness and unleash the work's unquestionable power.
Àlex Ollé's production goes for a simple set of adaptable black monoliths that can be used for multipurpose application. Looking not unlike the Berlin Holocaust memorial, the pillars rise into and out of the ground at variable heights to represent steps, seats, high towers and trees, flattening when required into gravestones. Disappearing altogether, they also create doorways to hell from which ghostly figures emerge as Azucena relates the story of the burning of her mother for witchcraft.
There's no imposition of any concept here, the abstract designs rather being used simply to serve the playing of the drama while having a strong visual sensibility at the same time. Primarily however, the set design works in conjunction with the lighting to establish a distinctive mood. The dominant mood in Il Trovatore is a sombre one of dark and dire portents and there doesn't appear to be a great deal of variegation within that. Using mirrors and shifts of lighting however, the infinitely configurable set proves surprisingly adaptable to subtle changes of a measured tone that never lets it all spill over into hysterical melodrama.
Despite its propensity towards going over the top with a notoriously wild plot of misfortune and chance, and with highly-charged music to match, Il Trovatore however is itself not terribly dramatic. The characters tend to stand around and relate events in a story to others, emoting and declaiming quite a bit. Ollé's production doesn't really enliven this much or particularly add anything much in the way of character development. I'm not sure that having the Conte di Luna and his troops dressed in Nazi-like uniforms really helps either. Nor does Daniele Callegari's conducting of the Paris orchestra, although the musical performance is good - it just lacks the kind of Verdean fire you might like to find there.
By way of recompense however, the Paris Opera have assembled an excellent cast here. It's not perfect by any means - it's hard to get a uniformly great Verdi cast together - but everyone throws everything into the performances and they balance each other out well, if not always to the expected strengths of Il Trovatore. It's Ludovic Tézier's Conte di Luna and Ekaterina Semenchuk's Azucena who contribute most towards that tone of darkness and danger. Tézier is impressive and wonderfully lyrical in a way that gives the Count a suavely evil character. His breath control and ability to sustain his notes is not only technically impressive, it adds to that character. Semenchuk is a fire-breathing Azucena, again demonstrating marvellous control with a rich timbre.
Without underestimating the challenges of the tenor and soprano roles, Marcelo Álvarez and Hui He aren't quite as note perfect and show the strain of singing these roles a little more, but only a little. Hui He's lovely fullness of voice gives intensity to the role of Leonora, while Álvarez puts more effort into his acting performance than is usually the case, and it makes all the difference. Whether all the elements were perfect or not however, the stage direction that weighs and balances the tricky dynamic of Il Trovatore was clearly effective, with an incredible finale that gives you shivers, as it rightly should. Verdi's unforgettable melodies, some fine singing and an impact like that is all you want from Il Trovatore, and you get it here in Paris.
Links: L'Opéra National de Paris
