SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL  OPERA REVIEW


Gluck, Iphigenie auf Tauris: Soloists, Orquestra Julià Carbonell de Lleida. Cor de Cambra del Palau de la Música. Conductor: Jan Michael Horstmann. Gran Teatre del Liceu de Barcelona. 4 and 5. 9. 2010 (JMI)

Production: Tanztheater Wuppertal.
Director: Pina Bausch.

Sets and costumes: Pina Bausch.

Choreography: Pina Bausch.

Casts:

Singers:
Iphigenie: Elisabete Matos/Danielle Halbwachs.

Orest: Christopher Maltman/Markus Eiche.

Pylades: Nikolai Schukoff/Norbert Ernst.

Thoas: Gerd Grochowski.

Diana: Cecile Van de Sant.
Dancers:
Iphigenie: Ruth Amarante.

Orest: Pablo Aran Gimeno.

Pylades: Fernando Suels Mendoza.

Thoas: Jorge Puerta Armenta.

 

 

Production Picture © C.Antoni Bofill

Barcelona’s Liceu opens its season much earlier than in the past this year, and begins by offering these performances of  Gluck's opera presented as a ballet. Christoph Willibald Gluck premiered his Iphigenie en Tauride in Paris in 1779 and two years later, back in Vienna, he wrote a German version of the same opera. This version is hardly ever performed today outside of German speaking countries and this was certainly its premiere in Barcelona if not for Spain as a whole.

The performance is essentially a ballet with only dancers on stage, while the singers perform from the side boxes and singing from scores. The production is by the late Pina Bausch and had its premiere in Wuppertal in 1973. As a stage show it does not have all that much interest unless one is especially keen on ballet and I found it slightly dull in its first half, but more lively afterwards. Sets, costumes and choreography are all by Pina Bausch herself and in fact it is she who is the work’s greatest attraction since she has provided some fine productions at the Liceu over the years.

Musical direction was in the hands of Jan Michael Horstmann, son of a famous German actor and a well known dancer himself. His specialises in ballet and is musical director of the Tanztheater Wuppertal, where this production comes from. His performance was rather good, improving in the second half of the work and under his baton the Orquestra Julià Carbonell de Lleida played very well for him. There was an equally good contribution from the chorus singing from the pit.

The Portuguese soprano Elisabete Matos was very good in the character of Iphigenie, although I prefer her on stage, since she is always a remarkable actress, as she proved in this same role in Oviedo – although not in this German version of course. In the second cast, the German soprano Danielle Halbwachs offered a fairly homogenous voice, lighter than her colleague’s, and with some noticeable problems at the top. British baritone Christopher Maltman was Orest and again, it was a pity to have him singing from a side box since he too is a great singing actor and we had experienced only part of his artistic abilities. Markus Eiche was also an acceptable Orest, but without the interest that Christopher Maltman provides.

Pylades was Austrian Nikolai Schukoff, a tenor with an interesting voice, but not especially appropriate to the demands of this music or even the tessitura demanded of the character. Norbert Ernst made a more lyrical Pylades and was much better suited to the part. Gerd Grochowski was a very appropriate interpreter of Thoas and Cecile Van de Sant completed the cast in the minor role of the goddess Diana.

The Liceu had some empty seats on the first evening, but filled up on the following day. The audience reception for the artists was quite warm on both occasions

No translations were offered for this production and I don’t share the management’s opinion that the choreography should be sufficient to allow the audience to follow the plot’s action. It is good to note though that at the Liceu, titles are now available in the seats as well as being displayed on a large screen over the stage.

José M Irurzun

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