SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Other Links

Editorial Board

Google Site Search

Internet MusicWeb

Bellini, I Puritani:  Soloists,  Orquesta de la Academia del Teatro del Liceu. Chorus Premier Ensemble. Conductor: Miquel Ortega. Teatro Gayarre de Pamplona. 20.11.2008. (JMI)

New Production.

Director: Mássimo Gasparon.

Cast:

Arturo: Shalva Mukeria.
Elvira: María José Moreno.
Riccardo: Marcin Bronikowski.
Giorgio: Dimitri Ivaschenko.


The original interest  in  this I Puritani was the fact that José Manuel Zapata was to make his debut as Arturo, but he cancelled  six   months ago - a  good decision as it happens. This did not  deter  AGAO (Asociación Gayarre de Amigos de la Ópera) from going ahead with the  project  however, and they solved the problem of a replacement for him rather better than expected.

It is not easy to find a production to fit into the small stage of Pamplona’s  Teatro Gayarre so AGAO decided to commission  a  new production by Massimo Gasparon, who seems to have taken random elements of set and costume design  in order to  go ahead with the order. Gasparon made a very  efficient use of the more than limited possibilities of this beautiful theatre and with elegant good taste, some stairs,  a few fences and  some columns, delivered an attractive and very simple staging. There were some clues indicating that the opera had not be not rehearsed sufficiently, but this cannot have been his fault entirely. A 60 member chorus was something of an indulgence and  my own feeling is  Gasparon should have insisted that  the numbers  should have been cut down:  60 people are not necessary for this small theater and it is impossible to move them around effectively in such a small space.

The greatest contributor to the opera however was  Miquel  Ortega, who gave an almost  heroic performance.  He had everything under control, which was certainly not easy and  few other conductors could do such fine work in such circumstances. The Orchestra was below par, especially in the strings because  the Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra was unfortunately, busy with the Juan Diego Flórez concert scheduled for the following day. The  chorus  offered some good male voices but had quite a few other problems too.

All aficionados know that the biggest problem in  programming I Puritani is the difficulty of finding a tenor who can cope with the score. He needs a polished line in his singing, vocal beauty, a consistent middle register and a bright top, including the ability to sing several high Ds:  even Juan Diego Flórez is reluctant to sing Arturo more than once in a while. The Georgian Shalva Mukeria does not have all the qualities just mentioned,  but he  is one of the very few at the present time able to produce the high  notes, including the high Ds, with remarkable brilliance, which is of no little importance. His voice is not particularly  beautiful, the middle register is not too  consistent and his pitch is not always perfect. All businesses of course sometimes need to make compromises and opera is no different in this respect . How many Arturos actually exist today? The fingers of one hand are more than enough to count them and  Mukeria, with his balance of plusses and minuses is certainly a solution to this problem.

Maria José Moreno was  Elvira once again, more or less ten years after her debut in the role. She was in fact quite remarkable and probably the best singer in the cast. It is true that there were some shouted high notes, but overall this was a good interpretation. As it happens, it is my belief that  this soprano is unjustly overlooked by many Spanish opera house – she deserves a better deal.

Marcin Bronikowski played Riccardo and showed that he has not lost none of his quality in his middle range nor in his elegant singing. Early in his career he started to show too whitish a top register and this has not improved although to be fair we were warned that  he was slightly indisposed health-wise., Even so he  had a  lot of  problems at the top of his range so that his performance felt like there were two Riccardos, a good and a bad one.

The young  Russian  Dimitri Ivaschenko offered a beautiful voice in the centre of the tessitura but also suffered problems higher up Without them, he would be singing in the top opera houses in the world almost certainly, but sadly we cannot have great singers who are only good here and there.

Gabiella Colecchia was an experienced Enrichetta, while Carlos García-Ruiz showed a promising bass voice as Lord Gualtiero.

The audience gave a big success to María José Moreno and to Mukeria and  Maestro Ortega was also greatly  appreciated.

José M Irurzun


^{Back to Top                                                    Cumulative Index Page}