SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Verdi, Falstaff:  Soloists, Orchestra Simfònica and Choir Gran Teatre del Liceu. Conductor. Fabio Luisi. Gran Teatre del Liceu de Barcelona. 14 & 15. 12.2010. (JMI)

 

Coproduction Welsh National Opera and Opéra National de Lyon

Direction: Peter Stein (Original), Nick Ashton (Revival)

Sets: Lucio Fanti

Costumes: Moidele Bickel

Lighting: Robert Bryan (Original), Ian Jones (Revival)

 

Cast

Sir John Falstaff: Ambrogio Maestri / Juan Pons

Alice Ford: Fiorenza Cedolins / Maite Alberola

Ford: Ludovic Tézier / Ángel Ódena

Mrs. Quickly: Elisabetta Fiorillo / Enkelejda Shkosa

Nannetta: Mariola Cantarero / Ruth Rosique

Fenton: Joel Prieto / Carlos Cosías

Meg Page: Maite Beaumont / Anna Tobella

Doctor Cajus: Raúl Giménez

Pistola: Carlos Chausson

Bardolfo: Francisco Vas

Production Picture © C. Anton I Bofill

Falstaff returns to Barcelona after 27 years and it does it in a production almost 23 years old. It is clear that the economic crisis means that we are attending more and more to revivals of old productions. This has happened this year in Madrid, Bilbao, and Seville and now in Barcelona. That needn’t be a bad thing, provided that the old productions are worth being revived. In this case that is fortunately the case.

The production bears the signature of German Director Peter Stein and is a co-production of the Welsh National Opera and the Opera de Lyon. The production had its premiere in Cardiff in 1988 where it was also last revived in March 2008 with Bryn Terfel (S&H review here). In Lyon it was last seen in July of 2004 where Laurent Naouri sang the title rôle.

Like Glyn Pursglove (see above 2008 review), I think highly of the production. It is the work of a director who knows the score perfectly. (You would think that’s the rule, but it is not.) Peter Stein achieves something very important by making the stage movements always respond to the music coming out of the pit, which gives the staging an air of ballet in the best sense. The direction of the actors is—and remains—excellent. The production is classical and traditional, which is in no way at odds with it being truly refreshing. The sets present the action as if it were a theatre performance in the 16th century in Tudor England. There are excellent costumes and good lighting to complement the show. One problem of production stems from the fact that it is placed far back on stage, which penalizes the voices. The change of scenes also takes longer than ideal.

Fabio Luisi made his debut at the Liceu here, and it was successful by all means. Until recently he was the Music Director at Dresden Staatskapelle and Opera and currently he is the principal guest conductor at the Metropolitan in New York. It seems that the tiff between Maestro Luisi and the new Semperoper management has been very well exploited by other theatres and it has given us the opportunity to hear him in Barcelona. His reading of the score was been wonderful, full of life, lightness, and fun. To this we should add that under his baton the orchestra offered one of the best performances I’ve heard from them. In short, it has been an outstanding night in musical terms, complemented by the ever-excellent choir of Liceu

These performances of Falstaff offered two vocal casts, the second one being an “all Spanish cast” with all but one of the singers in it from Spain. We had two authentic specialists in the role of Sir John Falstaff, Ambrogio Maestri and Juan Pons. Both were excellent. To my taste Juan Pons offered aperfect symbiosis between character and player. It is now 30 years since he debuted in the character at La Scala and I must say that he is still a great Falstaff. Only in direct comparison could Ambrogio Maestri’s excellent Falstaff said to have been a lesser performance—although his voice has a freshness that Mr. Pons’ can’t match nowadays.

In the first cast Fiorenza Cedolins was Alice Ford—back after several cancellations due to health problems that needed surgery. She is now more than slim, but her voice is also much reduced, almost inaudible in the ensembles. Maite Alberola—with her appealing voice and fine acting—confirmed the positive impression of her previous opera performances.  Ludovic Tezier was an outstanding Ford in vocal terms, exemplified by his terrific aria “E sogno o realtá”. Angel Ódena improved upon his performance in Bilbao last May and excelled, in part by more convincing acting than Tezier could offer.

Elisabetta Fiorillo knows how to solve problems and she offered a Mrs. Quickly that took advantage of her sonorous bottom notes even as the rest of the tessitura is rather tired. Albanian mezzo Enkelejda Shkosa—the only non Spanish member in the second cast—was rather short of volume in "Reverenza" or "Povera Donna".

Mariola Cantarero’s Nannetta had particularly beautiful piano passages. Ruth Rosique’s acting was as appealing as her voice, except for the strained top register. Joel Prieto has an attractive voice for the part of Fenton, but it is rather small which becomes notable as his projection is not too good. Carlos Cosías’s Fenton was more mature than usual for the character. His voice is good, heavier than Prieto’s but unlike the lithe and agile Prieto, he struggled to make the figure come to life. Maite Beaumont was an outstanding Meg Page, both as an actress and as a singer and Anna Tobella, too, was a well suited interpreter of the character.

José Mª Irurzun

 

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