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Bellini,  La Sonnambula: Soloists, Orquesta de Castilla y León. Coro Amigos Teatro Calderón. Conductor: Antonino Fogliani. Teatro Calderón de Valladolid. 22.4.2009 (JMI)

Production from Seville’s Teatro Maestranza.
Director: Patrick Mailler.
Sets: Maria Rosaria Tartaglia.
Costumes: Patrick Mailler.
Lighting: Juan Manuel Guerra.

Cast:

Amina: Sonia De Munck.
Elvino: Antonino Siragusa.
Count Rodolfo: Felipe Bou.
Lisa: Ana Nebot.
Teresa: Raquel Pierotti.
Alessio: David Rubiera.


Valladolid has become an opera centre of major importance in Spain because of two different organizations, the new Miguel Delibes Auditorium and the more traditional and longer established Teatro Calderón. The last opera of this season was Bellini’s La Sonnambula, returning after a long absence from Valladolid.

The production comes from Seville’s Teatro de la Maestranza, where it was premiered in February 2006. Stage direction and costumes were by Patrick Mailler and did not offer anything of real interest. The whole idea is based on the familiar notion that everything is just a dream, with Amina living in a kind of bubble, shown as a metallic globe, while the stage is rather barren, apart from some sheep,  and a bed for the Count’s room. Costumes are uniformly in white, black and grey, except in the final scene where everything changes into colour. For the sleepwalking scene and the aria “Ah, non credea mirarti” the stage made use of a laser ray which was quite disturbing for the audience. In sum, this was a rather tedious production.

In charge of  the musical direction was the young  Italian maestro Antonino Fogliani, who replaced Fabrizio Maria Carminatti. It is difficult to judge Fogliani’s work, beyond the fact that he was able to go head with the opera in a more or less controlled way.  His tempi were in general quite lively, which in this case is most appropriate. There were some very serious problems between stage and pit, but it is necessary to remember that the so-called chorus was not a professional group, but  a group of friends.  They were unable to manage the challenges presented by a work like La Sonnambula and the Orchestra was also below its usual standard.

The protagonist Amina was played by Sonia De Munck, who  only sang in this first performance (the other two will be  covered by Sabina Puértolas). Sonia de Munck was the Shepherd in the recent Tannhäuser at Madrid’s Teatro Real. She is a light soprano with a small voice who is not quite up to the demands of the character and would be better suited to Lisa than to Amina. I am sure that things will improve with Sabina Puértolas.

Elvino was played by Antonino Siragusa, a luxury in an otherwise disappointing cast, but he was not particularly convincing either. Siragusa seems to me a very suitable tenor for Rossini, but in Donizetti and Bellini you need a more beautiful voice than his with its frequent nasal tones. On the other hand, Bellini demands very particular phrasing and an elegant and quite long line and Siragusa needed to take too many breaths after his opening aria “L’anel ti dono”. It  is unfair to compare him with Juan Diego Flórez, in a class of his own as Elvino, but Siragusa has some name, prestige and cachet  of his own and, from my point of view, was not up to what might be expected from him. Felipe Bou was a good Conte Rodolfo but with the disadvantage that his voice did not run freely. He sang  with good taste and very good style, but was somehow lacking in characterisation.

In the secondary roles we had Ana Nebot, who sang a decent Lisa, with a voice rather too similar to Amina’s.

There was very little applause during the opera and the final bows there was only polite enthusiasm, with the major principals receiving the best receptions.

José M Irurzun


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