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On the Aisle

 

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CD/DVD Reviews: Berlioz: Les Troyens (ArtHaus), Alagna/Gheorghiu Carmen (EMI), E. Schumann’s Schubert Lieder (Naxos), Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer/Reiner/1950 (Naxos)

By Philip Anson / February 16, 2003
On the Aisle


Bizet: Carmen
Plasson/Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse
EMI 724355743428 (3 CD- 157.31)
5 stars $$$

This intriguing recording, starring French tenor Roberto Alagna and his wife, Rumanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu, is a remarkable and unique achievement. Almost a period reconstruction of Bizet’s opera, the aesthetic of this recording is small-scaled, intimate, and chamberish, as it might have been heard at its Paris’s Opéra Comique debut in 1875 (though here we have the sung recitatives, not the spoken dialogue). Though the recitatives make it opera rather than opera-comique, the emphasis is on the words and drama. The predominately French cast interact tightly and give every word its due weight -- the opposite of what you get at a Metropolitan Opera Carmen, where vast, blurry choruses bellow, tenors yell and sopranos screech in phonetically approximate French. The title role of Carmen is usually sung by a mezzo but soprano Gheorghiu acquits herself well as a singing actress. With her old-fashioned Eastern Block style she sounds more classy than most Carmens. Alagna, with his ardent throaty tenor, sounds more adolescent than most Don Jose’s. The odd vocal pairing works thanks to the unifying force of the precise and sensitive Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse under Michel Plasson. Every piccolo, flute, and trumpet sounds clear and natural. Thomas Hampson is an odd Escamillo: lighter than usual, and with good diction. Albanian soprano Inva Mula is a rather forceful Micaela; its hard to believe anything frightens her. Joie suprême: the French choruses are tasteful, modest and crisp. Two novelties: the recording includes a recently discovered (and wildly different) alternative entrance aria for Carmen, in addition to the standard Habanera; and Moralès’s rarely heard Act I scene and pantomime. Notes and libretto in English, French and German. Recommended, despite the fact that EMI stretched the recording over 3 full-price CDs when 2 would have sufficed.

Berlioz: Les Troyens
Cambreling/Salzburg 2000
ArtHaus DVD (2 DVD )
5 stars $$

Opera on DVD has come a long way in a short time. Gone are the days of badly dubbed, undirected singers moving in and out of frame, the static one-shot, and raw colour imbalances. Now the best DVDs combine the thrill of a live performance with the sophisticated editing of television and the finest digital sound. Take for example the new release of Herbert Wernicke’s staging of Hector Berlioz’s grand opera masterpiece Les Troyens from the 2000 Salzburg Festival. This is not just an excellent opera DVD, but may well be the best recording (either visual or audio) of Les Troyens on the market. Dramatically, musically, and cast-wise, it certainly beats the current Metropolitan Opera production of the opera.

Historians will be interested in this DVD as a memento of the last season of Salzburg’s controversial leader Gerard Mortier. It also represents one of the final works of German stage director Herbert Wernicke, who died in April 2000, during rehearsals.

The cast is strong. American soprano Deborah Polaski takes the double leads of Cassandra and Dido. Though a stiff actress, substituting rigid dignity for expressiveness, Polaski is a credible sorceress/queen. While not as lush as Jessye Norman or as classically pure as the womanly Régine Crespin, Polaski sings loudly and accurately. Her Aeneas is American tenor Jon Villars, who sings the high-lying role with ease, though this strapping, overgroomed young man is strangely supine when it comes to wooing Dido. Canadian baritone Russell Braun sings Chorèbe with a warm, full sound, but his on-camera grimacing is regrettable. Veteran British bass Robert Lloyd is an excellent major-domo-ish Narbal. Yvonne Naef is a juicy voiced, buxom Anna. Tenors Ilya Levinsky and the cute Toby Spence sing their cameo arias cleanly. The Austrian choruses, deploying a pure and delicate tone, treat the text with exceptional respect. Stars and chorus are all good-looking, and everyone’s French diction is virtually perfect.

The Salzburg Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestre de Paris play irreproachably and with remarkably idiomatic sensitivity (considering they had never played the work before) under Sylvain Cambreling.

Wernicke’s modern production updated the visuals from the ancient Mediterranean to a generic contemporary military society. The unit set represented a white ice-shelf, backed by two curved white walls with a single upstage opening for entrances and exits. In Part I, set in Troy, we see a wrecked plane and flaming ruins through the opening. In Part II, set in Carthage, we see a sunny sea shimmering in the background and, during the love duet “Nuit d’ivresse”, a starry sky. Rather than focusing exclusively on the fateful Aeneas-Dido love story, Wernicke’s production highlights the clash of ideologies between the military “hunter” Trojan society and the pacific “gatherer” Carthaginian society. To emphasize what might be called tribal differences, Wernicke has the belligerent Trojans wear red gloves, SWAT uniforms, and carry machine guns. The pacific Carthaginians wear blue gloves and fashionable leisure outfits, sing hymns to peace and plenty, and quaff champagne. The Trojans import passion and strife to Carthage, setting off a train of events that results in Dido’s famous suicide.

The choruses were marshalled efficiently, and the protagonists were centred on the mostly bare stage. The Royal Hunt was acted in subdued pantomime, as Berlioz wished, but the ballets were cut. The camera work is deft and pertinent to the action. Assembled from several performances, the audio continuity is seamless. I noted only one small visual continuity glitch: Dido’s funeral pyre seems to change between two takes. The audio sound is excellent.

Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer
Reiner/Metropolitan Opera and Chorus
Naxos 8.110189-90 (2 CD- 128.21)
2 stars $

This radio broadcast recording from Dec. 30, 1950, captures the run of Flying Dutchmans in which German bass-baritone Hans Hotter and Swedish baritone Sven Nilsson (a coarse Daland) made their Metropolitan Opera debuts. Astrid Varnay was only 32 when she sang this Senta but hers is the voice of experience: hard, strident, and durable where innocence, sweetness and lyricism would have been preferable. Hotter matches Senta bellow for bellow, resulting in a hog-calling contest that is hard on the ears. Reiner goads the Met Orchestra into a maelstrom of dramatic sound that might have been thrilling live, but comes across on CD as angry and forced. Producer Ward Marston has done his best with the pirated radio tapes but the splices are glaring, making this a collector’s item, not for the average opera lover.


Elizabeth Schumann: Schubert Lieder
Naxos 8.110731 (77.35)
2 stars $

Reputations are fickle. On the basis of this re-issue of Schubert songs by the famous German soprano Elizabeth Schumann (1888-1952), its hard to know what the fuss was about. Recorded between 1927-1945, the earlier songs (before 1933) demonstrate - at their best - character, expressivity, and style. At their worst, the songs sound twee, hard and edgy. After 1936 Schumann’s voice hardens unpleasantly, sounding dry and aged, though she was only in her late 40’s. Her style is smart and artful like Ameling’s, but without the Dutch singer’s tonal beauty. Producer Marston uses the best sources, so the sound is clear with only light surface hiss. Notes in English only. No song texts. For specialist collectors only.


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(c) La Scena Musicale 2001 and Philip Anson