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SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL
OPERA REVIEW
Production: Oper Zürich
Direction: Robert Wilson
Sets: Robert Wilson
Costumes: Moidele Bickel
Lighting: Robert Wilson and AJ Weissbard
Cast:
Norma: Elena Mosuc
Adalgisa: Michelle Breedt
Pollione: Roberto Aronica
Oroveso: Giorgio Giuseppini
Clotilde: Liuba Chuchrova
Flavio: Michael Laurenz
Zürich
is one of the few cities in the world where you occasionally
have the possibility of attending two opera performances on a
given Sunday. On this occasion I even got to see three, with a
Norma at 2 in the afternoon and a double bill of
Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci at 8 in the
evening.
The Norma production is by Robert Wilson and hasn’t been
performed in Zurich since the 1995-96 season, when it aroused
considerable interest among opera fans. Add to the interest of
this revival the Romanian soprano Elena Mosuc in the title
role, a regular in Zurich.
I have been disappointed with Robert Wilson’s stage
productions in the past. If opera is passion, then directors
should be the vehicle to transmit the passions to the audience
by means of their staging. Robert Wilson is a very special
case among directors and I find it rather difficult for
singers to transmit emotions to the audience when they follow
Mr Wilson’s concepts which follow a very different aesthetic.
No question that his works are beautiful and they have
outstanding lighting effects and come together with very
original way of acting. I confess that, even as I realize the
excellent aspects of Mr. Wilson’s work, I might have been more
moved with a Norma in concert than this production, given that
the singers only get to move their hands, while their faces
remain like masks.
The musical direction was entrusted to Paolo Carignani, who
gave a lively reading of the score, particularly considering
that what he had in front of his eyes did not invite brisk
tempos. The orchestra and the Choir performed very well.
Elena Mosuc is a singer who has been part of the company for
many years now and she enjoys a strong following in Zurich. It
still surprised to me that she ad decided to make her debut as
Norma. Elena Mosuc is a very good a light-lyric soprano. But
when we check the names of the great Normas of the last 30, 50
years it is a different kind of soprano that comes to mind.
Mrs. Mosuc’s Norma is more in the line with Edita Gruberova’s
Norma of the last few years. In the first act Elena Mosuc ever
the excellent singer, was easy at the top and with an
outstanding coloratura. From the trio that ends Act I onward
and through the whole Act II her voice was not well suited to
the dramatic moments, but much to her credit she never pushed
her voice beyond her natural limits.
South African mezzo soprano Michelle Breedt was a fine
Adalgisa, with a small voice and a little tight in the upper
notes. Roberto Arónica has become a true spinto tenor,
displaying a wide, well projected, and shining instrument. He
has lost some of his former easiness in the high register, as
was notable in the cavatina "Ecco al altar di Venere”. Giorgio
Giuseppini had a weak start as Roveso, but improved much in
the second Act.
José Ma.
Irurzun