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eserved, allowing herself to feel the rhythm – her
aria from Maria la O cries out for a bit of swaying
of the hips! They sang four encores, with the last,
“Lippen schweigen” from Die lustige Wiitwe the
only non-Latin piece, a concession to the largely
Austrian audience. The two drew huge ovations
when they danced to the Lehár tune, never mind
that Domingo looked more like a man dancing
with his daughter at her wedding then two lovers
waltzing the night away – a truly delightful end to
an evening of music making.
JKS
Leoš Janáček : La Petite Renarde rusée
Elena Tsallagova (la Renarde), Jukka Rasilainen (le
Garde-forestier), Michèle Larange (sa femme/une
chouette), Hanna Esther Minutillo (le Renard);
Choeur et Orchestre de l’Opéra national de
Paris/Dennis Russell Davies
Metteur en scène : André Engel
Réalisateur DVD : Don Kert
Medici Arts 3078388
★★★★★★ $$$$
De plus en plus présents
sur les scènes
lyriques, les opéras de
Leoš Janáček sont en
voie de s’imposer
comme des incontournables
du répertoire du
XX e siècle. À juste raison,
car ces œuvres
profondément originales
renouvellent le
genre, explorent des chemins dramatiques surprenants
et offrent à l’auditeur une musique
irrésistible et riche en émotion. Créée en
1924, La Petite Renarde rusée est décrite par
son compositeur comme un «opéra-comique
qui se termine mal». Il s’agit en fait d’une
magnifique fable sur la vie, l’amour et la mort,
où les humains et les animaux se côtoient et
cherchent le bonheur. Le metteur en scène
André Engel propose à l’Opéra de Paris une
relecture fantaisiste et vivante. L’idée que la vie
humaine n’est pas si différente de la vie animale
lui inspire une certaine dose d’anthropomorphisme
(particulièrement dans les costumes,
inventifs et amusants, mi-animaux,
mi-humains) qui sied bien à la conception
panthéiste du compositeur. De la distribution
vocale, en tout point parfaite, on retiendra
Elena Tsallagova, qui offre une interprétation
pétillante et agile de la Renarde. La direction
de Dennis Russell Davies est claire et aérée,
entièrement au service de l’expressivité vocale
et des magnifiques et chatoyantes couleurs
orchestrales. Un pur plaisir!
EC
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3/Strauss:
Burleske for Piano/Bartók: The Miraculous
Mandarin Suite
Rudolf Buchbinder, piano; Wiener
Philharmoniker/Christoph von Dohnányi
Medici Arts 2072208 (82 min)
★★★★✩✩ $$$$
This is another film from the vaults of Unitel, a
Munich-based company that pioneered highquality
films of classical music concerts and put
most of its resources into
performances featuring
Karajan and Bernstein.
But other conductors
and soloists were represented
too. This film was
made in 1977 when
Dohnányi was fortyeight.
At the time he was
best-known as an opera
conductor and had just
taken over the Hamburg State Opera. It would be
six years before he succeeded Lorin Maazel as
music director of the Cleveland Orchestra.
Dohnányi, a somewhat pedantic and inflexible
conductor, can be, at his best, a strong leader and
authoritative in music of great complexity. He is
old-school, one might say, a Kapellmeister in the
best sense of the word, in the tradition of other
German conductors such as Böhm and
Sawallisch.
The Bartók is vivid and exciting and the
Strauss with Buchbinder is one of the most interesting
performances of this slight work I have
ever heard. It captures much of the charm and
playfulness of the piece. About this time
Dohnányi and the VPO made audio recordings of
all the Mendelssohn symphonies for Decca. The
Scottish is beautifully played and lively without
being hard-driven.
PER
WA Mozart: Don Giovanni
Simon Keenlyside (Don Giovanni), Kyle Ketelsen
(Leporello), Eric Halfvarson (Commendatore),
Marina Poplavskaya (Donna Anna), Joyce DiDonato
(Donna Elvira), Ramón Vargas (Don Ottavio), Miah
Persson (Zerlina) Robert Gleadow (Masetto);
Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House/Sir
Charles Mackerras
Stage Director: Frances Zambello
Video Director: Ferenc van Damme
Opus Arte OA 1009 D (2 DVD – 202 min)
★★★★★✩ $$$$
Don Giovanni is officially
designated a Drama giocoso
– but not at the ROH,
apparently, as the title
page of the booklet proclaims
it as an Opera
buffa in two acts. The distinction
may be a slim
one but Frances Zambello
pursues a pure buffa line
of development here and
she always knows what she is doing. This artfully
original and communicative theatrical director has
given us the most entertaining performance of
this opera encountered so far on the medium of
DVD. The outstanding septet of vocal soloists, a
truly stone-faced Commendatore, and no less than
Sir Charles Mackerras (by general consent, the
leading active interpreter of the orchestral and
opera music of Mozart) in the pit, combine to render
the perfect production of the perfect opera. It
is also very funny in all of the right places.
It is clear from his exquisite performance that
Simon Keenlyside has inherited the mantle of Sir
Thomas Allen in the title role, at least within the
British opera fraternity. His Don is an agile, athletic
sociopath, a man in a constant state of predatory
arousal. In the opening scene, Zambello makes
clear that the Commendatore has been disarmed
when Giovanni brutally stabs him. Reclining beside
the prostrate victim, Don Giovanni cynically
caresses the dying man and kisses his cheek – and
then exults over another conquest. Minor details
perhaps, but all part of a collage of impressions that
comprehensively depicts the blackness of a villain’s
heart. Donna Elvira’s arrival in town with a musket
slung over her shoulder also serves notice that this
is a Don Giovanni which merits, and will reward, the
closest attention. This production has everything
except a ‘parental guidance’ advisory. WSH
The Met Player
To inveterate opera fans, the recent announcement
that the Met is making its incredibly rich
archive of performances available on demand over
the Internet is welcome news. Imagine—we can
now relive performances that we heard over the
radio or saw on TV with a few mouse clicks on the
computer—it’s like Christmas in springtime! I
decided to give the new Met Player a test drive. It
should be noted that only a small fraction of the
performances is available at this time. The website
claims there are more than 200 full operas. I counted
a total of 219 performances, of which 64 are
telecasts. A random check reveals that many of my
favorites are missing, such as the wonderful
Stratas-Carreras-Zeffirelli Bohème, the 1983
Centennial Gala, or the 1996 Levine Gala. Let’s hope
that the Met will slowly add these and others to
the catalogue. A crucial factor of streaming video is
connection speed. With my DSL connection,
streaming of other sources such as Youtube often
suffers from starts and stops—it makes for a very
frustrating experience. So it is a minor miracle that
the Met Player, with its “new technology,” plays
flawlessly. I tested it at different times of night
and day, and there is no hesitation—for this I give
the Met Player full marks.The web interface is easy
to navigate, and it provides all the relevant information.
A performance is divided into tracks and
they play seamlessly. If I were to nitpick, there are a
few little things that need improvement. The
search engine can be inaccurate—I typed in
“Bartered Bride” under “Advanced Search,” knowing
that this opera is not available. Instead of coming
up empty, it came up with the 1967 broadcast
of Madama Butterfly. Huh? Also, the Met Player
does not allow for multi-tasking.When listening to
a performance, if I click the button “Browse
Catalogue” the streaming comes to an abrupt stop
and I am taken to another screen. Why can’t the
catalogue information open in a new window?
These quibbles aside, the Met Player is an absolute
boon for opera fans and is worth every penny of its
subscription price. metopera.org
JKS
Juin 2009 June 25