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D’Albert, Tiefland: Soloists, Orchestra and Chorus Gran Teatre del Liceu.Conductor: Michael Boder. Gran Teatre del Liceu de Barcelona. 11.10.2008. (JMI)

Production from Opernhaus Zurich
Director: Matthias Hartmann
Sets: Volker Hintermeier
Costumes: Su Bühler
Lighting: Jürgen Hoffmann

Cast:

Pedro: Peter Seiffert
Marta: Petra Maria Schnitzer
Sebastiano: Alan Titus
Tommaso: Alfred Reiter
Nuri: Juanita Lascarro
Moruccio: Valery Murga
Pepa: Michelle Marie Cook
Antonia: Rosa Mateu
Rosalia: Julia Juon
Nando: Marcel Reijans

The season opener at Barcelona’s Liceu this year is an unusual opera, very rarely performed in Spain, despite being based on a very popular  work in Catalonia, Terra Baixa by Guimerá. A  drama of outstanding quality and popularity however,  does not guarantee good opera and so I had always thought that  Tiefland ( The Low Land or Terra Baixa) must be of little intrinsic interest. Nothing could be further from the truth: this is a beautiful opera with absolutely wonderful music and it’s hard understand why it is so neglected.

Eugene d' Albert was something of a rootless person and it’s small  wonder that no single country considers its representative. Born in Scotland, raised  in London, he studied  in both Germany and Austria, and he died in Latvia as a Swiss citizen. Add his French name to this and you have a  very unusual case. For this reason perhaps,  Tiefland is hardly performed at all  outside German speaking countries. I always  thought that it  was  a verista opera, based  Guimerá’s rural  drama , but this is so only to a limited extent and in the last part of the opera at that.. Its music is very original belonging neither  to verismo or even to post –wagnerian  music. It is  a distinctive and original  work, in which the music flows very easily at all times.

The production comes from Zurich with stage direction by Matthias Hartmann, which left me slightly perplexed. Hartmann presents the drama (anything but rural) on a stage  that could be used for almost any opera and which, therefore,  has nothing whatver  to do with Terra Baixa. The set  is a semicircular office with wooden walls, which could be used in any modern production of Traviata or Lucia and which presents the prologue, supposedly taking place in the mountains, in a room with four display cabinets with people including Pedro, inside them. I understood  this to be the display windows in a Red Light District (Sebastiano comes here to select a husband for his lover), and at the end, seems  to be just a  way of showing that everyone, even those in the so called High Lands, are programmed by society. It felt like  much too much thought for such a trite result. Clearly Guimera and D’Albert  had no idea what  they were writing about!

The German conductor Michael Boder made his debut as Liceu’s musical director with this production and I must say that his performance was  very good, far better than his performance in Khovanshchina a couple of years ago. I received the news of his appointment to replace his appointment to replace Sebastián Weigle with lots of skepticism , but after this Tiefland,  shall be most interested to see his next performances. The Liceu’s usually not too brilliant orchestra produced much better playing than they often have in the past.

The role  of Pedro requires a heldentenor in the second part of the work, whereas in first one he needs to be  a pure lyric  tenor, quite a tall order.. Peter Seiffert met the demands magnificently and was  always convincing, with a beautiful and powerful middle register but with some high notes showing a too wide a vibrato, as usual. Even so, he was an outstanding protagonist.

Marta was  the Austrian soprano Petra Maria Schnitzer  - or Mrs. Peter Seiffert and  she too gave a remarkable performance. She is very good  whenever  a score does not demand a full dramatic soprano, and fortunately Tiefland calls for that only  in the last act.  Happily therefore, she was a very convincing Marta.

Sebastiano was the New Yorker Alan Titus;  on  paper something of a luxury, but something a disappointment  in action since I believe that the character demands a  “blacker” voice, a kind of Alfio or Tonio.  Additionally  his vocal state now has become  worrisome. The projection is not what it once was and he does not shine quite so brightly as formerly.

Alfred Reiter made a good Tomasso, although he lacks a resounding bottom register. The Colombian soprano Juanita Lascarro was a good Nuri too, with a very pleasant voice though she is not,  perhaps,  a great interpreter.

In the secondary roles,  the Ukranian baritone Valery Murga was a sound Moruccio and  the  Dutch tenor  Marcel Reijans was very suitable as Nando, a character who is  in theory a shepherd but  for Hartmann a kind of electronic programmer. tthe trio of women, who give much life and lightness to the opera were all very good: . they were Michelle Marie Cook (Pepa), Rosa Mateu (Antonia) and Julia Juon (Rosalía).

Though the  Liceu had some empty seats, the audience  enjoyed the opera and gave everyone a very warm reception, especially the Seifferts.

José M. Irurzun

<sup>Picture © Antoni Bofill

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