Tribuna Musical

A final roundup of ballet and chamber opera

2012-01-11T11:26:00.000-03:00

Tchiakovsky´s "The Nutcracker" is a Christmas staple in many countries, and it has become so here in B.A. It is very much a family ballet. This year for the first time I saw it with my granddaughter, 6, and she fell under the spell. She was right: Iñaki Urlezaga´s presentation at the Citi Opera with his own revision of the choreography was really pleasant and accomplished. No version will ever come near in this city to the Nureyev at the Colón, stunning both in its dancing brilliance and marvelous satge designs. But that is far in the past.

Urlezaga´s Ballet Concierto, with the artistic direction of Lilian Giovine, the production and artistic realisation of Marianela Urlezaga, the lovely costumes of Rodolfo Sorbi and the technical direction (including lighting) of Miguel García Lombardo, gave us an enjoyable, well-danced and nicely presented evening.

In this version Urlezaga only dances as the Prince (the Nutcracker transformed), not as Nureyev who also did a finely acted Drosselmeyer. The Christmas scene had charm and dynamism. In Clara´s dream the fight of mice and soldiers was rather pat. In the Second Act the Snowflakes Waltz was quite nice, and the long Divertissment was a success. I especially liked the lithe and beautiful Celeste Losa as the Odalisque in the Arabian Dance, but such things as the Chinese and the Russian dances also went very well, and the corps de ballet was quite adequate in the big Flower Waltz. Of course, the great pas de deux at the end was the moment of special splendor for Urlezaga and his Clara, Eliana Figueroa. Drosselmayer was taken with professionalism by Jorge Amarante.

The Orquesta Académica de Buenos Aires played agreeably under the firm hand of a ballet connoisseur, Carlos Calleja, and the Coro Kennedy under Raúl Fritzsche sang correctly in the wordless Snowflakes Waltz.

I wrote recently about "Coppelius", the final offering of the Argentino´s Ballet, but an earlier event must also be mentioned. In October a double bill combined the Suite from Ginastera´s "Estancia" with the complete Stravinsky "Firebird". Carlos Trunsky as the choreographer of "Estancia" eschewed the conventional folk-inspired steps and in the eight chosen dances he combines couples in contemporary evolutions. As Trunsky says, he evokes Ginastera´s music: "the passing of time, the dichotomy between city and field, love between a man and a woman from contrasting sides"; plus a Trunsky addition of an allegory of a "gringo Argentina crying at the feet of the original men of these lands". I didn´t like it much, but others may feel more attuned to his concepts. It was well danced .

The original choreography of Fokin for "The Firebird" is a magnificent classic and I don´t believe it can be bettered, for it is wholly in the spirit it should have: that of a Russian fairy tale. Jorge Amarante´s choreography is respectful of the original story and steps, with only minor changes. The imaginative stage designs by Tito Egurza and costumes by Mini Zuccheri, well lighted by Roberto Traferri, made for a fine show. Larisa Hominal, a striking blonde, danced with full command the Firebird, abetted by convincing colleagues: Darío Lesnik (Kostchei), Stefanía Vallone (Princess) and Bautista Parada (Prince Ivan). The disciplined Corps de Ballet showed the knowledgeable hand of the Ballet´s Director Mario Galizzi.

The Mexican conductor José Areán got generally good results in the difficult scores apart from some horn fluffs.

Nino Rota´s "I due timidi", on a libretto by the famous film script writer Suso Cecchi D´Amico, is a bittersweet 56-minute opera on the disastrous results of excessive shyness. The Colón premiered it years ago with orchestra, and now the Argentino´s Ópera Estudio offered at the Sala Piazzolla the score in its original version as a radiophonic opera with piano. Composed in 1950, fully tonal, the music falls pleasantly on the ear but is hardly memorable. The witty Italian text was well projected by the whole young team, well prepared by musical director Guillermo Brizzio. Pablo Maritano did it as if we were witnessing the radiophonic performance, each artist doing his part but not interacting; it worked well. All were good, but I will especially mention Silvina Petryna, Darío Leoncini, Maximiliano Agatiello and María Luisa Merino Ronda.

The Festival Internacional Encuentros offered two well-known one-acters in their original versions with piano: Menotti´s funny "The Telephone" and Poulenc´s tragic "La voix humaine" on Cocteau´s text. Nicolás Aráoz as producer underlined the farce elements in the Menotti libretto, and soprano Valeria Albarracín and baritone Martín Caltabiano fulfilled their parts with gusto. The telephone is also fundamental in Poulenc´s one-woman opera, for it´s the last time she talks with her ex lover. In Jorge de Lassaletta´s expressionist concept the drama was well transmitted, and Marta Blanco, although with declining vocal means, was certainly an involved interpreter. Enrique Prémoli was the solid pianist.

A very short reference to Salvatore Sciarrino´s "Luci mie traditrici", an antiopera of exasperating stillness based on a seventeenth-century melodrama of treason. The completely dry rendering of the music by Raminta Babickaite, Ekkehard Abele, Daniel Gloger and Florian Just may be what the composer intended, but oh what a bore. The Ensamble Lucilin of Luxemburg with addition of Argentine musicians was conducted by Tito Ceccherini. Alejandro Tantanian as producer had the thankless job of keeping the temperature close to absolute zero. The venue was the Sala Casacuberta in the San Martín´s cycle of contemporary music.

A concluding concert panorama, Part One

2012-01-09T16:07:00.001-03:00

Wrap-up time for the concert season, a roundup of interesting concerts that somehow didn´t find place but deserve mention. To start, four Midday Concerts at the Gran Rex. Twenty-year-old platense" pianist Tomás Nessi won the Shell-Festivales First Prize in 2009; this recital proved his mettle with two masterpieces: Chopin´s Op.25 Etudes and Prokofiev´s Sonata Nº 7. Strong fingers, a clear mind, concentration; perhaps too impersonal but he´s very young. The Heath Quartet (debut, England), formed in 2002, is intense and precise, as shown in a fascinating combination of scores: Janácek´s Quartet Nº 1, on Tolstoi´s "The Kreutzer Sonata", and Schubert´s Quartet Nº 13, called "Rosamunde" because it quotes a famous melody from that incidental music. The flexibility and attention to detail of the Heath gave full value to both admirable pieces. No less convincing was the String Sextet of Milan´s La Scala Academy (debut), whose players offered complete understanding and technical command of dissimilar and lovely musics: the one-movement sextet that opens Richard

Strauss´opera "Capriccio" ( certainly a unique instance in the history of the genre) and Tchaikovsky´s "Souvenir de Florence", a light-hearted homage written with consumate ability. Finally, the very professional Orquesta Sinfónica Municipal de Caracas (debut) conducted by Rodolfo Saglimbeni (debut) executed a colorful Venezuelan score, "Santa Cruz de Pacairigua", and then accompanied well a master pianist, Peter Donohoe, in Rachmaninov´s virtuosic Third Concerto, played with stunning firmness and musicality.

From time to time comes along a perfect, exquisite recital of unusual repertoire. This was the case of the closing Sofitel-La Bella Música occasion. Four expert, talented people concocted an ideal panorama of Sixteenth-century Italian Baroque: baritone Víctor Torres in his very best form, mezzosoprano Mariana Rewerski showing much progress after a long European stay, and two great players: Juan Manuel Quintana (viola da gamba) and Dolores Costoyas (theorbo). Famous names (Monteverdi, Caccini, Fescobaldi) but also plenty of little-known ones, mostly trouvailles as Barbara Strozzi, Luigi Rossi, Sigismondo D´India, Dario Castello and Biagio Marini (the hilarious "La vecchia vecchia innamorata").

The last concert of the Bach Academy brought yet another premiere of a Bach cantata, Nº 127, "Herr Jesu Christ, wahr´ Mensch und Gott" ("Lord Jesus Christ, true man and God"). Rather short, in five fragments, it has a rich orchestration: trumpet, two recorders, two oboes, strings and continuo. The best parts are the initial Choir, the soprano aria and the dramatic interplay of baritone and trumpet in the recitative and aria Nº 4 with the same text as "The trumpet shall sound" from Händel´s Messiah". Fine singing from Mónica Capra and orberto Norberto Marcos and a distinguished account of his part by trumpeter Fernando Ciancio, also the soloist in the preceding Fasch Concerto in D. Nice work from the conductor, Mario Videla, the other players and the GCC-Grupo de Canto Coral led by Néstoltor Andrenacci.

Ars Nobilis has changed its style in recent years; instead of subscription concerts, now they are free. The quality is variable, but some a good, are good, such as the only one I could attend, at the Jockey Club, featuring the excellent guitarist Isabel Siewers. She chose a Spanish programme of composers who knew inside-out the secrets of the guitar, that intimate and expressive instrument: Fernando Sor (both his Variations on a theme by Mozart and his Grand Solo Op.14), Moreno Torroba´s Sonatina, three pieces by Tárrega, De Falla´s subtle "Homage to Debussy". Then, an Italian specialist of the guitar, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, in a number from the series "Platero y yo", based on uan on Juan Ramón Jiménez. Finally, the charming "Fandango Quintet" by Boccherini, where Siewers was partnered by the Schubert Quartet, a bit green.

The Fundación Música de Cámara has been led artistically for decades by the distinguished Guillermo Opitz. He always programmes and prepares concerts with two qualities: valuable but unjustly neglected material and the promotion of promising young artists. Another characteristic is the special venues selected. Thus, the magnificent Palace Sans Souci was the cadre for "Cancionero argentino", an ample digest of songs from earlier generations, starting with the nineteenth-century Esnaola. Aguirre, De Rogatis, Boero, Gianneo, J.J. Castro, Caamaño, Lasala, Ginastera and Guastavino were witnesses of the richness and quality of our song repertoire. Two works had special scorings: Lasala´s "Serranas", for tenor, flute, piano and "caja"; and Guastavino´s "Indianas", for vocal quartet and piano. Many songs werem new to me and quite welcome. Among the singers I would single out bass Walter Schwarz, soprano Jaquelina Livieri, tenor Santiago Bürgi, mezzosoprano Javiera Paredes and soprano María Goso. The pianists and flutist Da Dalt accompanied well

For the last concert, "Bach and Bachianas", as it included works by Villalobos, the cogent choice was Brazil´s splendid Embassy, although in the in the hall the sightlines were dicey. The night started with Johann Sebastian Bach´s Suite Nº 2 for flute and strings, with an impeccable Patricia Patricia Da Dalt accompanied by just five strings (led by violinist Pablo Saraví) and harpsichord. Then, three scores by Villalobos: Prelude Nº 3 for Nº 3 for guitar, beautifully done by Víctor Villadangos; an arrangement for soprano and guitar of the first movement of Bachianas Brasileiras Nº 5 (I much prefer the original with eight cellos), where Livieri didn´t quite sustain the final high note; and a perfect performance by Da Dalt and Gabriel La Rocca of the Bachianas Brasileiras Nº6. Finally, an agreeable staged (by Lizzie Waisse) Bach "Coffee Cantata", Nº 211, with Livieri, Schwarz and tenor Mauro Di Bert recounting the ingenuous anecdote and singing the deliberately simple music with engaging ardour. The players went along in the proper spirit.

The multiple worlds of chamber opera

2012-01-04T12:58:00.001-03:00

Opera was born in 1597 at the Camerata Fiorentina, whose name indicates that at first it was an art form designed for a small audience in an intimate hall. Eventually the exiguous Late Renaissance orchestra grew into a sizable one during Baroque times and public theatres welcomed opera. Even then, there were big pieces such as Cavalli´s "Ercole amante" with great stage machines and a quest for splendor, and "intermezzi" such as Pergolesi´s "La serva padrona", with just two characters. Classicism was a time for refinement and Mozart´s "Così fan tutte" is the perfect example of a chamber opera. The expansion of Romanticism gave the genre little space, but nevertheless there are such pleasant small operas as Donizetti´s "Rita". In the Twentieth Century chamber opera sometimes came about as the result of restricted financial resources, and the same author, Benjamin Britten, could write the ample "Peter Grimes" and such chamber pieces as "The turn of the screw". Ideally this repertoire should be done with the small orchestra most composers require, but sometimes the originals are so "chamber" that they make do with just a piano, and at other times money (the lack of it) imposes the piano as a replacement.

In 2011 we´ve had a good sampling of the genre, even if Pedro Pablo García Caffi scrapped two years ago the Colón Chamber Opera . But at least the ISA (Instituto Superior de Arte) has followed the good tradition established by Ana Massone during her many years with the Colón formative institution; now led by Eduardo Ihidoype, it offered a charming work by Valentino Fioravanti (1764-1837). The chosen opera has two versions: as "Le cantatrici villane" ("The gross singers"), in two acts, it was premiered in 1799 and in BA, the old Colón Chamber Opera offered it in 1970 with a splendid cast. This time we heard and saw the local premiere of the second version, reduced from two acts to one: "Le virtuose ridicole" ("The ridiculous virtuosi", not "The conceited ridiculous girls", as the "Argentine"-style put it: "Las vanidosas ridículas"), premiered in 1801. It was sung in "Neapolitan" Italian, and unfortunately dislodged in time and place to an approximately Fifties small town in the Province of Buenos Aires (the 1970 "Cantatrici" left things as they should be in time and place). The venue was the Teatro Margarita Xirgú, adequate for the purpose.

Two blots: no references on the work in the hand programme, and especially no supertitles! (by now they are a must). The adaptation of the libretto by Giovanni Palomba is by Betty Gambartes, who also produced. I certainly enjoyed the text of "Le cantatrici villane" and I presume that the one for "Le virtuose ridicole" was equally funny. The music is fresh and accomplished in the spirit of "buffo" Paisiello. The basic idea has surely been preserved: a sham maestro appears in a small village and in no time three local girls pretend to become prima donnas; this, plus some Romantic shenanigans with two suitors, is the whole plot. If you accept the transposal to 1950s Argentina, Gambartes´ production was fast and funny, and her collaborators were in the spirit of the farce: Gerardo Pietrapertosa (stage design), Alicia Gumá (costumes) and Gonzalo Córdova (lighting).

The Orquesta Académica del ISA was led with charm and professionalism by Carlos Vieu. There were two casts, I write on the second. Fernando Grassi was a splendid Don Bucefalo, he has perfectly assimilated the "buffo" school of his father Oscar. I was well impressed by the "ladies": María Eugenia Coronel Bugnon, Beatriz Quinteiro and Verónica Cano moved and sang nicely. A talented tenor looking like a young Pavarotti, Gastón Oliveira Wekesser, should have a fine career. And Claudio Rotella was a convincing Marco.

Earlier in the season, the plucky independent Lírica Lado B presented for the first time in Argentina an opera by Vicente Martín y Soler: "L´arbore di Diana". And recently they presented in eight performances the premiere of another opera by the same Spanish author: "La festa del villaggio", at the Manzana de las Luces, the same small amphitheatre they used in 2010 for Haydn´s "L´isola disabitata". "La festa…" has a libretto presumably by Ferdinando Moretti; he as well as Martín y Soler were residing in 1798 at Saint Petersburg, where Italian opera was much liked (both Paisiello and Cimarosa stayed there a number of years). The libretto presents typical comedic equivocations between three couples, plus a Marquis officiating as a Cupid; the music is always pleasant and classical, though hardly memorable.

There were two casts who intermingled; I write on the one I saw (the fifth performance). The men were mostly good: baritones Juan Pablo Paccazochi and Gabriel Vacas and especially tenor Christian Casaccio; I disliked the foppish and mannered Marquis of Esteban Manzano. Of the girls I preferred soprano Milagros Burga to Mercedes Olivera and found mezzosoprano Tamara Odón below par. An added dancer seemed superfluous. The 20-strong Orchestra was weak in the violin department but otherwise responded acceptably to conductor Camilo Santostefano, who has a good sense of style. A 9-member Choir was more enthusiastic than accurate.

Again I don´t respond favorably to the ideas of producer Diego Rodríguez; I find him arbitrary in the extreme and often tasteless, with outlandish ideas passing for imagination. A pity, for Lírica Lado B is bringing to us new pieces worthy of better treatment.

End-of-season ballet standards

2011-12-27T18:03:00.002-03:00

Last year disaster struck the Colón´s Ballet Season when a prolonged conflict between the Ballet and the theatre´s director Pedro Pablo García Caffi led to the cancellation of the subscription series. One of the obstacles was the absence of a decent dancing floor. At the start of this year, after denying the need for it and the existence of dancers with lesions, García Caffi caved in and bought two Harlequin floors. The corps de ballet pronounced it acceptable, and although big problems remain unanswered, dancers are happy to be back on stage and are trying to give their best, with reasonable success.

“The Corsair”, a famous ballet with a long history, was supposed to be back in the repertoire last year, and in fact the new production was ready. This season, with no subscriptions (at the start of the year both orchestras were on strike), “The Corsair” was reprogrammed.

Lord Byron wrote “The Corsair” in 1814, a typically Romantic text. Joseph Mazilier, long-time “maître de ballet” of the Paris Opera, made this full-length work in 1855 on an adapted scenario by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, and premiered it on January 23, 1856. The music was by the author of “Giselle”, Adolphe Adam. When the ballet was revived in 1867, Mazilier made some changes and asked Léo Delibes (author of “Coppélia”) to provide some new music (the “Pas des fleurs”). But another version was concocted by Jules Perrot in Russia, based on the original by Mazilier; there were musical interpolations by Cesare Pugni. Perrot´s Conrad (the Corsair) was Marius Petipa, who in 1880 presented his own version, modified in 1899, and with new musical interpolations by Riccardo Drigo (the famous “pas de deux”, often seen and heard here in ballet galas). Much later, in the 1950s, Piotr Gusev added in his choreography still more music, by Ludwig Minkus and by Prince Peter of Oldemburg (cousin of Czar Nicholas I), and changed the scenario with Yuri Slonimsky´s help. This version was premiered in 1955 and presented at the Colón in 1999. Finally, we now got to know Anne-Marie Holmes´ version, based on a later version by a Russian choreographer unidentified in the otherwise excellent programme notes by Enrique Destaville.

And out of this puzzle, what has come out? An agreeable, not very dramatic, often humorous concoction with plenty of brilliant choreographic passages, without any attempt (and I agree) to make it “contemporary”. This is the version that Paloma Herrera danced with Julio Bocca years ago, and now she was Medora, whilst her Conrad was the Canadian Guillaume Côté. There were three casts and I write on the first. Paloma, now 35, is a very accomplished artist of remarkable consistency over the years, and so she was again, although I have always felt in her some lack of poetry. Côté was a very good partner, even if in this choreography some plum bits are given to his sidekick Ali, brilliantly danced by Juan Pablo Ledo. Two other artists were outstanding: the refined Silvia Perillo as Gulnara, and the elegant Federico Fernández as Lankedem, the slave trader. The Pasha was mimed funnily by Marcelo Antelo. Others who danced well were Edgardo Trabalón, Maricel De Mitri and Natalia Pelayo. The Corps de ballet was generaly accurate and disciplined, especially the ladies in the “Animated Garden” scene, and the dynamic pirates.

The Buenos Aires Philharmonic played very well this light and agreeable music under the expert conducting of Hadrián Ávila Arzuza. Apart from some kitschy details, I liked very much the production, with splendid stage designs by Christian Prego, fine and varied costumes by Aníbal Lápiz and resourceful lighting by Roberto Oswald.

Most ballet “habitués” have seen Delibes´ “Coppélia” though the decades, for this is the best French ballet of the nineteenth-century along with “Giselle”. But the change of title at the Argentino, “Coppelius the magician”, intimated that Marcia Haydée´s choreography would be innovative. Indeed, she has changed the plot deeply and put Coppelius rather than Swanilda as the protagonist. As time passed during the performance I saw (fourth and last of the run), I became convinced that she has aimed at the children (which were numerous in the audience), corresponding to the Christmas season (her version was supervised by Pablo Aharonian). She has cut most of the Third Act (no big loss dramatically, for it is mostly a divertissement) and put the accent on a world of gypsies (First Act) and gnomes (the latter in the Second Act yelling and covering the often subtle music). And she has added some music from “Sylvia” (a splendid Delibes ballet shamefully neglected in our midst). What I disliked was the portrait of Franz (Swanilda´s suitor) as boorish and over-insistent. But otherwise a lot was fresh and humoristic, with interesting dance steps.

Coppelius in this version is young, charismatic; the part was very well taken by Bautista Parada. Franz was danced by Benjamín Parada (are they kin?), fleet and accomplished as a dancer but much too mincing in his gestures. Julieta Paul was a charming Swanilda. Esteban Schenone was a lithe and humoristic Zimmo (dream gnome), Juan Manuel Ortiz was a strong Gypsy and Elizabeth Antúnez was beautiful and sensitive as the Fairy of Love. The big ensembles went well with young, agile dancers doing their parts with enthusiasm and accuracy. The Orchestra played nicely under the accomplished conducting of Carlos Calleja. The effective stage designs were the joint debut of Lucas Borzi, Martina Urruty and Santiago Duarte; Gonzalo Giacchino did the imaginative costumes, and Rubén Conde lighted the proceedings with a fine touch.

A penultimate concert roundup: variety galore

2011-12-18T18:00:00.003-03:00

The last concert of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic had an unusual programme, for the original one was changed. The description “colossi of rhythm” was appropriate to the combination of Stravinsky´s “Les Noces” and Orff´s “Carmina Burana”, but the former was scrapped and instead we had a First Part combining a string quartet first with the orchestral strings (in the splendid Elgar “Introduction and allegro”) and then with the full orchestra in the premiere of Ludwig Spohr´s Concerto for string quartet and orchestra in A minor, Op. 131. The Petrus Quartet didn´t play in their usual topological disposition but were in a line in front of the orchestra on the left. I felt that the orchestra conducted by Enrique Arturo Diemecke didn´t cohere with the quartet and the result lacked richness in Elgar and enough precision in Spohr. The Quartet played well but not quite at its best. Spohr is an agreeable composer mixing Classicism and Romanticism.
“Carmina Burana” is by now a hackneyed, constant presence in our seasons. Diemecke has a strong rhythmic sense and did it quite well, with the firm assistance of the Phil and excellent work from the Colón Choir under Peter Burian and the Colón Children´s Choir under César Bustamante. Laura Rizzo sang resplendently, Luis Gaeta sounded veteran in both senses, for his easy professionalism solved the problems but the voice isn´t fresh, and Damián Ramírez was too mannered in his countertenor rendition of the poor swan singing as he is roasted.
La Bella Música is an institution led by Patricia Pouchulu that has presented several series of concerts throughout the last decade but had as its big event a choral-symphonic concert at the end of the year. However, in recent years Pouchuku has been studying conducting, and she chose to be this season at the helm of an orchestral concert at the Avenida. It was a pleasant occasion. Vivaldi´s “The Four Seasons” was done with a rather large string group (24) and four different soloists, all of them concertini of our orchestras. They didn´t attempt to play as Baroque specialists (such as Manfredo Kraemer) but they added ornaments in the right places and played with sprung rhythms and accuracy. Freddy Varela Montero (from the Colón´s Resident Orchestra) was the mainstay of “Spring”; Luis Roggero (National Symphony) did “Summer” brilliantly; Nicolás Favero (La Plata´s Argentino) dealt with “Autumn”; and Pablo Saraví (B. A. Phil) solved with bravura the picturesque intricacies of “Winter”. Pouchulu accompanied tastefully.
I have a soft spot for Beethoven´s Sixth Symphony (“Pastoral”) and I was agreeably surprised by an orthodox, careful reading that let us appreciate the calm beauties of most of the music but gave its due to the Storm. The ad-hoc Orquesta sinfónica de La Bella Música, 49-strong, had Grace Medina as concertino and many prominent players.
The prestigious Pilar Golf concert series is certainly the best of Greater Buenos Aires; it has a good hall in a beautiful building and a faithful audience coming from the abundant country clubs of that region. Although the programming tends to have too much crossover nowadays, there´s still some interesting concerts. This year I was sorry to miss the combination of soprano Verónica Cangemi and the Orquesta Barroca Argentina, both at Pilar and the Colón; unfortunately their concert at La Plata (I had that date reserved) was cancelled. But I enjoyed a rather strange recital fusing the voice of mezzosoprano Virginia Correa Dupuy and the exquisite harp playing of Lucrecia Jancsa. Indeed there isn´t much repertoire for this texture and this meant some special arrangements as well as harp solos. It was a pleasure to meet some unknown Britten: “Evening”, “Morning” and “Night”, from Ronald Duncan´s “This way to the tomb” (1945). After Fauré´s harp Impromptu, Ravel´s “Greek popular songs” sounded very nicely with harp instead of piano, and Correa Dupuy and Jancsa were exquisite.
The Second Part started with Manuel de Falla´s “Soneto a Córdoba” (Góngora) and Guridi´s harp piece “El viejo zortzico”. Then, the well-written “Dos canciones provincianas” by the Argentine composer Ernesto Mastronardi. Afterwards, two arrangements on Villalobos: “Bachianas brasileiras Nº 5” (only the Cantilena, where the harp doesn´t make me forget the cello octet of the original) and “Melodía sentimental”. Finally, four arrangements by Marta Lambertini on Paraguayan pieces and Sosa Cordero´s “Anahí”; Lambertini´s refined versions are interesting; Correa Dupuy, normally so stalwart, faltered precisely in “Anahí”. The lovely encore was Ponce´s “Estrellita”.
The final concert, as usual in Pilar Golf, presented the Camerata Bariloche. For some reason, the leader wasn´t Freddy Varela Montero, but on this occasion the Albanian violinist (with Argentine residence) Demir Lulja (member of the National Symphony). After a nice version of Corelli´s Concerto grosso Op.6 Nº 8, “for Christmas”, a beautiful interpretation of J.S.Bach´s charming Nuptial Cantata, BWV 202, “Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten”, with perfect oboe solos by Andrés Spiller and the fresh voice of Soledad de la Rosa. The arrangement by Camillo Sivori of Bottesini´s Grand Concertante Duet for violin, bass and string orchestra (the original is for two basses) was well done by Lulja and bassist Oscar Carnero, whose part is the devil to play (extremely high for a bass). The very musical and precise playing of Dvorák´s charming Serenade Op.22 ended the concert, followed by fine catering, fireworks and dancing, as is traditional in their final nights of the season.

The charm of Viennes operetta

2011-12-12T17:58:00.004-03:00

The makebelieve world of operetta first flourished during the French Second Empire and was interrupted by the Gallic defeat in the Franco-Prussian War; afterwards it recovered but again World War I put an end to it. The Pax Britannica of the Victorian Age engendered the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan (they called them “operas”). And the Austro-Hungarian Empire had a bright light in Johann Strauss II during the late Nineteenth Century but there were others: Von Suppé, Zeller, Millöcker. Later on, two Hungarians led the field: Emmerich (Imre) Kálmán with such pieces as “The Princess of the Czardas”, and particularly Franz (Ferenc) Lehár whose most famous operetta was “The Merry Widow” (“Die lustige Witwe”).

I am sorry that the Colón chose “The Merry Widow” to finish its season, not that I don´t like it (far from it) but because it was very decently offered just last year by Juventus Lyrica and also due to the fact that the memory is still fresh of the splendid version offered by the Colón in 2001 with Frederica Von Stade, Thomas Allen and Paul Groves, conducted by Julius Rudel and with production by Lotfi Mansouri. In fact it was the first time that a Viennese operetta was offered here in German, as it should be; and if anyone doubts this, let him think about “La Verbena de la Paloma” done in that language! For knowledgeable people, it´s just as shocking and inappropriate. Fortunately the present version was indeed in German, both in the spoken and sung parts. As I recently wrote about Joh. Strauss II´s “Die Fledermaus”, it´s certainly hard for non-German speakers to enact their roles idiomatically, but if they master the problem the results are enormously enhanced; so much so, that a bilingual version becomes intolerable.

I believe that the chance was missed to present such Lehár hits as “The Count of Luxemburg” (“Der Graf von Luxemburg”) and especially “The Land of Smiles” (“Das Land des Lächelns”), whose Prince Sou-Chong was Richard Tauber´s most famous role (he was the finest singer of the Lehár repertoire). Or Joh. Strauss II´s “The Gypsy Baron” (“Der Zigeunerbaron”). And one of Offenbach´s best operettas, such as “Orphée aux enfers”. It would be audacious but worthwhile to bring over a specialised cast and do Sullivan´s “The Mikado”. All would be “firsts” at the Colón even if they are very famous in Europe.

The best point about this revival was the re-use of the “art nouveau” stage designs of Michael Yeargan, very handsome and functional; at least the Colón didn´t spend on new designs. On the other hand, the costumes by Mini Zuccheri were generally agreeable and in style. Good lighting by Roberto Traferri. The production by Candace Evans (debut) had some lapses of taste, such as the scene of the “grisettes”, but she followed the fluffy plot well, although the “trendy interventions” on the original text by Viktor León and Leo Stein (uncredited but of apparent “porteño” vintage) to my mind are counterproductive to the Belle Époque Parisian mood (such as a reference to Messi, of course wildly applauded). The choreography by Rodolfo Lastra was generally well done (excepting the “grisettes”). The long ballet at the beginning of the Third Act, sometimes cut, was welcome, for otherwise the act would be too short.

On the musical side the best thing was the light, lilting pace obtained by conductor Gregor Bühl (debut), which shows his versatility for he has conducted a lot of Wagner. The Choir under Peter Burian was pleasant enough. I was very disappointed by Norwegian soprano Solveig Kringelborn, who used to have a nice lyrical voice, now strident and often unacceptable; although she moved well, you need vocal allure for “Vilya” or the famous waltz, and this was absent. Lyuba Petrova as Valencienne showed a small but accurate voice and acted with some charm. Baritone Mathias Hausmann (debut) has profited from his experience at the Viennese Volksoper; he sings with a serviceable voice but adds much style, and he moves elegantly, though some prefer more “devilish” Danilos. Though not a match for Paul Groves, tenor Benjamin Bruns (debut) sang a creditable Camille with firm highs (he and Petrova did the rarely included duet “Zauber der Häuslichkeit”).

Reinhard Dorn´s voice is rather worn but Baron Zeta speaks more than he sings and Dorn´s acting was very good. Evans exaggerated the rivalry of Viscount Cascada (the firm-voiced Norberto Marcos, who had to cope with many additions in Spanish of doubtful relevance) and St Brioche (tenor Carlos Ullán with diminished means and white hair). The Njegus, a sort of messenger for Ambassador Zeta of Pontevedro (the thinly disguised Montenegro), was marked by Evans with a grotesque body language endured by Gustavo Zahnstecher, who sang with humor a little ditty generally cut (this was a very full edition of the operetta). I was astonished that the normally good Marisa Pavón did such a gross parody of a grisette in her Zozo. Parody is alright in the spoken role of the old cocotte Praskovia, funnily done by Rosmarie Klingenhagen. Others in the cast were in the picture: Ernesto Bauer, Natalia Lemercier, Alejandro Meerapfel, Oriana Favaro, Leonardo Estévez and Ariel Ramos. Good dancing from the Colón Ballet with such solo artists as Maricel De Mitri and Edgardo Trabalón. There was a second cast (changing the five main parts) which I didn´t hear.

True and fake avantgarde

2011-12-04T17:57:00.001-03:00

For fifteen years Martín Bauer has been leading the Cycles of Contemporary Music of the Teatro San Martín. During part of that time he has also been at the helm (in that case in collaboration with Diana Theocharidis) of the Colón´s CETC. And when Marcelo Lombardero took the post of Artistic Director of the Teatro Argentino he created the TACEC naming Bauer as its head. So Bauer´s taste has had vast influence in the formation of a generation. Alas -and I stress that I tread dangerous and controversial ground- I feel that his choices have very often been wrongly oriented and I do hope that someone with ampler and more central ideas should take over these tasks. For his exaggerated concentration on certain pet composers such as Cage, Feldman and Sciarrino and on experiments of doubtful value have given a distorted and clique-ridden image of contemporary music.
Also, “contemporary” isn´t the right tag of what these concerts should be; I would propose for them (and for the CETC and TACEC) variants of titles such as “XX-XXI music”. For the object should be to give an authentic panorama of music of both centuries in every style. That´s what Gandini used to do, and I find his orientation the right one.
In what is surely an absurd decision, Pedro Pablo García Caffi, the Colón´s Director, is basing a new venture called “Colón contemporáneo” in a mere redundancy of Bauer´s Cycles. It would be a good thing if it brought -independently of the San Martín- new music worth knowing. But now I´ve said all this, I will have to eat my words concerning one very special concert dedicated to Edgar Varèse, true avantgarde indeed and a signal service to the information of music lovers, as the start of Bauer´s cycle and parting shot (this year, the only one) of the Colón Contemporáneo. I am happy to say that I find this project a fantastic success, a case where both Bauer and García Caffi are completely right.
For Varèse, as has been belatedly recognised, is the purest avantgarde of the Twenties and Thirties. His music was either ignored or savagely attacked, but he did have such a champion as Leopold Stokowski, and with good reason, for he was the pioneer of a new concept: without quite abandoning the traditional parameters of rhythm, melody and harmony, his stress was on pure sound, a precursor of what the Polish School would do after World War II. His ideas on texture are still amazing and new eighty years later; moreover, they are exciting and convincing.
The concert was wrongly billed as the integral Varèse; he wrote very little, for the general rejection forced him into a silence of many decades, but several pieces weren´t in this programme. A First Part of chamber music was followed by two big orchestral pieces: “Arcana” (1925-7) and “Amériques” (1922); I have never before heard them in concert and they may be premieres. The First Part started with the 4-minute “Hyperprism” and then “Ionisation”, well-known here, not quite the first score for percussion but certainly the first important one. Then, “Octandre” (1923) and “Intégrales” (1923-5) are splendid and intricate examples of chamber music (also known here). The two great orchestral pieces were overwhelming in their novelty and richness, especially “Arcana”.
This “tour de force” wouldn´t have been possible without the presence of Alejo Pérez, probably the only local conductor capable of solving the immense problems present in these pieces. He got admirable performances out of the Uruguayan Ensemble Perceum (percussion), fifteen Argentine chamber players and the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, all playing with fierce concentration. I was happy that a big audience gave them all a resounding success.
But afterwards, with rare exceptions, the Cycle fell (as it has in former years) into arid nihilism. I skipped many of the concerts simply because I knew what to expect and didn´t feel like exposing myself to a masochism session. Just for the record, I mention the visit of German creator Peter Ablinger, six composers played by the Ensemble Lucilin (Luxemburg), an experimental opera by Carola Bauckholt (“A keen ear”), percussion pieces by James Tenney with Alexandre Babel, again percussion (including Cage, Gubaidulina and Xenakis) by the famous Robin Schulkowsky, the Prometheus Quartet in Fedele, Reich and Ghedini, and with Carolin Widmann the Schönberg “Transfigured Night”(I count five players but this is a sextet) –Widmann also played violin solo scores-, Lionel Marchetti in “Electroacoustic improvisation around Varèse”, “Homage to Christian Wolff” (USA composer of the Cage school) and Satie´s “Vexations” (a 2-minute piece written in 1893 played 840 times according to the wish of this proto-Dada composer).
I was sorry to miss two concerts, one with valid Argentine composers (Tauriello, Gandini, Lambertini, Kröpfl, Viera), the other a chamber opera by Marcelo Toledo, “La selva interior”, on the writer Horacio Quiroga´s dying last minutes. I will leave Salvatore Sciarrino´s chamber opera “Luci mie traditrici” for a further article, and close this one with a reference to a debilitating experience, symbol of what I call “fake avantgarde”: the “Piano and String Quartet” by Morton Feldman. Its exact description: 80 minutes made up of slow piano arpeggios answered exasperatingly by slow string chords. Perfect boredom in music for me, “a masterpiece” for at least one colleague…The players seemed expert (pianist Emanuele Torquati and the Prometheus Quartet).

An overview of symphonic and piano music

2011-11-30T01:14:00.001-03:00

The Buenos Aires Philharmonic went on with its season at the Colón. Concert Nº 16 had as conductor Ira Levin instead of the Phil´s Principal Conductor, Enrique Arturo Diemecke, originally announced. Rachmaninov was the star, with his Second Piano Concerto and Second Symphony, two masterpieces. Pianist Vladimir Feltsman has visited us before; his comeback was very welcome, for this Muscovite born in 1952 is at the peak of his quite considerable powers. Poised, very professional and sensitive, his playing was a model of technique applied with style. A pity that Levin chose to accompany in too heavy a manner, altering the necessary equilibrium. But he came into his own in the ample, complex symphony, maintaining control and intensity throughout the 50 minutes packed with interesting incident. The players were fully up to par.

José Miguel Rodilla is Spanish and looks fortyish; his biography shows a varied career in many B-class orchestras of the world. His debut showed a good command of the music but little finesse. The programme was rather light. It began with an early work of Armenian influence by our Alicia Terzian: "Three pieces for strings"; it sounded under-rehearsed with poor intonation, though the modal harmonies may have given the players some difficulty. The charming and very Gallic Flute Concerto by Jacques Ibert was brilliantly rendered by Claudio Barile and acceptably accompanied. The Second Part was given over to the five pieces from "Iberia" by Albéniz that were orchestrated by Fernández Arbós; a pity that another piece, "Polo", in the orchestration by Carlos Suriñach, wasn´t played, though the concert was quite short (the "Polo" had been announced, and was commented by Claudia Guzmán in her programme notes). Rodilla was more comfortable in this style, but both transparency and charm eluded him (I remember a splendid version of "Triana" by Mehta). Some bits were very strident, even if the fault is partially the orchestrator´s.

Concert Nº 18 had a long programme with a weak First Part and an important Second. I´ve heard veteran Argentine pianist Luis Ascot in much better shape in the past; although he knows the style of Liszt´s Second Concerto very well, his technical level was shaky; also, there were many moments of disagreement with the orchestra. But the enormous and transcendent Mahler Ninth showed Diemecke and the Phil at their best. Here there was a deep comprehension of the message –a resigned sublimation in the composer´s way to the extinction of life. Again the fantastic memory and command of the conductor was in evidence, but also that curious dichotomy that makes him both an inspired leader of metaphysical contents and a clownish celebrator of his contact with the audiences. The symphony was a moving experience.

Now comes a chapter dedicated to recitals by pianists. Festivales Musicales ended its season with the local debut of the 38-year-old Ukrainian Valentina Lisitsa. By the end of the First Part, all-Chopin, I had no doubt about the marvelous dexterity of the artist, both in the fast bits of the Fantasy op.49 and in the immense challenge of the 12 Etudes op.25, but unfortunately there was much evidence of a mannered approach that meant unwanted stops and goes and quirky changes in rhythm as well as sleek rather than meaningful phrasing. But the Second Part, all-Liszt, would change matters. I can cavil at the quality of a mere display piece like the "Fantastic Rondo on a Spanish theme, El Contrabandista" (a melody by Manuel García, father of la Malibran), but there´s much imagination in the paraphrase on Verdi´s "Aida" ("Sacred Dance and Final Duet"), and both the Second Ballad (based on the legend of Hero and Leander) and the terrifically difficult piano solo version of the "Totentanz" ("Dance of Death) are pieces of real content and absolutely ground-breaking challenges of mechanism. I don´t hope to hear them played better than by Lisitsa, who was simply stunning in speed, accuracy, weight and sensibility. In Liszt she is a great pianist, for there her style and technique mingle ideally. The encores were ideal: the Schubert-Liszt "Ave Maria" and Liszt´s Hungarian Rhapsody Nº 12. A great pianistic discovery at the Colón.

Another special Colón night was called "Family secrets" and put on stage the whole piano-playing family made up of half-brothers Sergio Tiempo and Karin Lechner, their mother Lyl (De Raco de) Tiempo and Karin´s 11-year-old daughter Natasha Binder. Again the First Part, played by Sergio, wasn´t convincing in style, although the pianistic means were all there: Liszt´s three "Petrarch Sonnets" take more easily to Sergio´s very free (to the point of distortion) version of what is written, but his mixture of 12 Chopin Etudes from op.10 and 25 was disconcerting: violent accents, too speedy, unmarked arpeggios, clangorous chords; Chopin can take some of these characteristics in some Etudes but it ruins others.

However, the Second Part compensated and was at times moving. Six of Schumann´s "Scenes from Childhood" were charmingly played by Natasha, a true talent, and were followed by two delicious renderings of Brahms Waltzes by mother and daughter in four-hand piano. Then, a rarity, an expressive Rachmaninov Romance for six hands, by Karin, Natasha and Sergio. Splendid playing by Sergio and Karin in Ravel´s virtuosic "La Valse". And all the family in Bach´s Four-clavier Concerto based on Vivaldi´s original for four violins: a true celebration of family love and music.

For Buenos Aires Herald

Operetta and children´s opera have their turn

2011-11-19T17:52:00.001-03:00

This is a coupling of reviews on operetta and opera for children. I start with Juventus Lyrica´s final offering, a welcome vindication of the greatest of all operettas, Johann Strauss Junior´s “Die Fledermaus” (“The Bat”), in its original German. The institution had done it years ago with such poor results that I remember it as their all-time fiasco. This time the result was honorable, though scarcely ideal.
Mind you, operetta in German is for Argentines quite as difficult as a zarzuela is for Germans. For, along with other genres as zarzuela and opéra-comique, it has the added problem of spoken sections and it is notoriously more difficult to be idiomatic speaking than singing. It certainly showed on this occasion, and although they all tried hard, it wasn´t idiomatic enough, it sounded phonetically learnt in most instances. But I certainly prefer that to a bilingual version, with sung parts in German and spoken bits in Spanish.
As producer Ana D´Anna showed last year in “The Merry Widow” that she has a knack for the genre, and although this “Fledermaus” wasn´t as successful, it was certainly pleasant. There was somewhat more parody than needed, for this is in fact a refined comedy, but especially in Laura Penchi´s assumption of Adele and Eernesto Bauer´s of Dr. Falke, the result was communicative fun. They both sang quite well, in addition.
Chilean soprano Macarena Valenzuela is beautiful and moves with elegance, though not with natural comicality. And she managed the difficult Czardas with musical accuracy. Mariano Spagnolo sang Eisenstein with metallic forthrightness and too robust physique. As Alfred is supposed to be an Italian tenor, accent didn´t matter in Sebastián Russo´s performance; it was liberally sprinkled with snatches of arias introduced by D´Anna and probably conductor Carlos Calleja; his acting and singing are a bit green yet but promising. Prince Orlofsky´s trouser role was well taken by mezzo Griselda Adano with appropriate spleen. Frank, the jail director, was convincingly done by Fernando Álvar Núñez. Norberto Lara was a good singer-comedian as Dr. Blind, Carlos Kaspar was quite funny in the spoken part of Frosch, the jailer, and Claudia Montagna was a charming Ida.
The 34-strong Choir sang agreeably under Miguel Pesce and made their moves with enthusiasm. D´Anna had as stage designer Daniel Feijóo, whose structures were less attractive than expected, lacking airiness and sheer beauty, though functional enough. María Jaunarena´s costumes were mostly handsome and varied. The lighting by D´Anna and Fernando Micucci was especially good in the jail scene.
D´Anna followed tradition by adding an ad-hoc Divertissement in the Second Act. It started with a Johann Strauss Junior polca in a rather charmless choreography by Igor Gopkalo with a protagonist girl and four men escorting her. Then, three singers accompanied by Susana Cardonnet on the piano: octogenarian Gui Gallardo sang Gounod´s Mephisto´s Serenade from “Faust” with little voice and lots of style; tenor Darío Schmunck made a wise choice, the lovely “Ach so fromm” from Flotow´s “Martha”, done with nice lyricism; and soprano Soledad de la Rosa opted curiously for an old tango, “Nostalgia” by Cobián and Cadícamo, done with musicality as a “tango-canción”.
Calleja conducted his Orquesta Académica de Buenos Aires and the result was less good than last year´s “The Merry Widow”; Viennese character was lacking, as well as some technical polish, though acceptable in the whole.
July 1922. The famous puppet company of Vittorio Podrecca presented here Respighi´s opera “La bella addormentata nel bosco”. In 1933 the composer revised it and called the new score “La bella dormente nel bosco”. The 1922 version is lost, so there´s no way to compare it. Written for a chamber orchestra (in this case, 21 players) and intended for children, the Ensamble Lírico Orquestal premiered the 1933 work, on a libretto by Gian Bistolfi, in a trial performance last year at the Roma (Avellaneda). This year the ELO gave a whole run of performances at the Teatro del Globo of our Capital; only the first performance was in Italian, all others (including the one I saw) in an uncredited Spanish translation. Gustavo Codina was the conductor, and the stage production was done by his wife, Cecilia Layseca (who also sang beautifully as the Blue Fairy), with colourful scenery by Atilio de Laforé, Eliana Aramando and Adriana Torossián, lighting by Ernesto Bechara, charming costumes by Mariela Daga and simple choreography by Mariel Weselowski.
The piece is very worth knowing, done by an eclectic master composer with the right touch to communicate with children. The music follows the modified Perrault tale and I was particularly interested by one of the characters, the wicked Spindle that pricks the Princess and sends her into the long sleep. The libretto spans the centuries and thus we meet a “Mr. Dollar”.
Layseca´s production was fluid and reasonably professional, keeping the natural touch that attracts children. Codina got good playing from his orchestra and acceptable results from an amateur choir. Of the singers I liked (apart Layseca), Christian Casaccio as the Prince, María José Valerio (Spindle), Alicia Alduncín (Old Woman), Leonardo Menna (Woodcutter), Elena Deanna (Nightingale and Lilac Fairy), Enrique Borlenghi( the sad King), Sebastián Russo (Buffoon) and found poor Rocío Cereceda (The Princess) and Milagros Seijó (Cuckoo, Rose Fairy). Others were in the picture: Andrea González Cortiana (Duchess), Ariel Suárez (Mr. Dollar), Alfredo González Reig (Ambassador), Karen Paz (Queen). The dancing was very basic.

From Vivaldi to Shostakovich: a world of organised sound

2011-11-16T00:02:00.000-03:00

Recent concerts have proved once again the immense variety of music, the noun for organised sound. We are at a moment when the concert season is coming to an end, although I´m still overwhelmed; so straight to the point.

The Mozarteum Argentino closed its year with a substitute concert: the Liège Philharmonic rescinded due to a cut on Belgian subsidy. But a specialist Baroque group that had visited us before made a welcome comeback with a programme called "Le donne di Vivaldi", concentrating on opera and oratorio interspersed with some purely instrumental music. They are called Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca and they consist of 16 strings (more than the habitual number in this sort of ensemble) plus on this tour Dorothee Oberlinger in flute and piccolo, Manuel Tomadin in harpsichord and chamber organ and Ivano Zanenghi in lute and mandolin. "Marca Gioiosa" is a Veneto region whose capital is Treviso. As to the "donne", they were Gemma Bertagnolli (soprano, debut), Manuela Custer (mezzosoprano, debut) and Susanna Moncayo Von Hase (the well-known Argentine mezzosoprano).

Vivaldi operas are still a big question mark for most music lovers, although they are many and were successful in their time. But except for a very interesting version of "Il Giustino" about three decades ago, Vivaldi has been ignored here. a pity, for the music is very attractive. The chosen pieces were from "Ottone in Villa"; "Arsilda, regina di Ponto"; "Orlando finto pazzo"; "Griselda"; "Andromeda liberata"; and "Orlando furioso". And also from the oratorio "Juditha Triumphans" (it has been done here) and from the "Beatus Vir" (a trio). The best singing came from soprano Bertagnolli, a rather soft voice but very well used in the difficult florid passages. Custer started badly but later found her best form and was an interesting interpreter. I disliked Moncayo´s style, too gusty and lacking line. Most of the music may have been a local premiere.

On the instrumental side, the Sonatori started with the Concerto for strings RV 127, nicely played though rather too serenely. Of course the conductor, Francesco Fanna, is a specialist, but I prefer a sharper Vivaldi. Oberlinger had a wild success in the Concerto for piccolo RV 443, applauded unfortunately between movements; she is very good though not quite perfect, and she added tasteful ornaments in the middle movement. Starting the Second Part we heard the Concerto for lute RV 93, where Zanenghi showed fine technique, although the instrument sounds very small at the Colón. The players, both in the Concerti and the vocal pieces, responded quite professionally to Fanna´s tasteful though mild phrasing.

I found the connecting texts by Myriam Zerbi an unnecessary addendum, worsened by unexpected explosions of the amplification process, and an exaggerated narrator (Filippo Plancher).

On paper, the idea of giving us Händel´s oratorio "Samson" was excellent; the Colón last saw it in 1962 conducted by Richter. So, as I have long admired the complete recording conducted by Leppard, I was happy with the prospect. Alas, what Mario Videla gave us at the Colón for Festivales Musicales wasn´t even a condensed version: to call it highlights is more accurate. Consider: we heard 85 minutes; the Leppard lasts 214! I accept some pruning but not such wholesale elimination of important passages, which e.g. deprived Virginia Correa Dupuy (Micah) of all her arias (and she was the best singer). At least one hour more of music should have been heard. For "Samson" is one of Händel´s greatest oratorios, and to be given the bare bones after half a century just won´t do. There´s also a double standard, for Videla wouldn´t dream of giving Bach a similar treatment.

However, what we had was well done, although in a very contained mood. Richter and Leppard showed that this music is more dramatic than the clean, cultured and manicured view of Videla the conductor, notwithstanding the good ensemble and plausible tempi we heard throughout. An augmented (26-strong) Camerata Bariloche and the Orfeón de Buenos Aires (Néstor Andrenacci and Pablo Piccinni; 52 voices) played and sang very properly, though not in a historicist mold. The solid team of singers gave us Carlos Ullán as Samson (prematurely white-haired), Soledad de la Rosa as Delilah, Hernán Iturralde as Harapha (excellent), the mentioned Correa Dupuy, Sergio Carlevaris (Manoah) and Matías Tomasetto (Messenger).

The two final offerings of Nuova Harmonia were the Trio Modigliani (debut) at the Coliseo and the Saint Petersburg Symphony at the Colón. The Trio is made up of two brothers: Francesco (cello) and Angelo Pepicelli (piano) and violinist Mauro Loguercio. I liked a lot the chamber music sense of the brothers and their impeccable technique; I found Loguercio too emphatic even gestually, playing in a different style that affected the total balance and with some off-color notes. But the final result was enjoyable in the rarely played "Phantasiestücke" Op.88 by Schumann and two standards: Beethoven´s Trio Nº 4, "Ghost"; and Shostakovich´s Trio Nº 2. The encore was a humoristic movement from Bernstein´s Trio.

We had a return visit from the St. Petersburg Symphony, less famous than their Philharmonic but almost as good, with a typically Russian sound: brash but exact brass, characterful winds, brilliant strings. Under their capable conductor Vladimir Lande (debut) they gave us an exciting but rather heavy version of Bernstein´s Overture to "Candide" prior to a good accompaniment in Tchaikovsky´s First Concerto of an unacceptable pianist, Maxim Mogilevsky (debut), a bad mixture of arbitrariness and wrong notes. Absurdly he gave us three encores (the audience applauded far too much). But the splendid performance of Shostakovich´s Fifth Symphony saved the day: great music played with total authenticity. The best encores: more Shostakovich (the fascinating Tango from "The Bolt"), and Glinka´s Overture to "Ruslan and Ludmilla".

Two Verdian masterpieces in awkward stagings

2011-11-15T23:24:00.002-03:00

La Plata´s Teatro Argentino ended its season with an important first: the South-American premiere of the French original version of Verdi´s “Don Carlos”. And Buenos Aires Lírica closed their year with the composer´s “Macbeth”. In both cases there was considerable pleasure to be had from the musical point of view but not from the stagings, quite inadequate and wrongly conceived.

“Don Carlos” started life in Paris, 1867, on a Schiller-based libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille Du Locle. It is a complex, long opera in five acts following the precepts of the “grand´opéra” as imposed by Meyerbeer; with enormous talent Verdi manages to synthesize that emblematic style with his own deep, complex dramatic-musical ideas. The result is a fascinating blend of romance, political and ecclesiastical turmoil. All in eight variegated tableaux originally including a 15-minute ballet, “La Peregrina”.

Verdi later made a four-Act version in Italian (1883-4) and this has been the standard in the Twentieth Century; however, in 1886 Verdi added the First Act in an Italian translation, and this has been sporadically offered (also at the Colón). I only got to know the French version in the Abbado recording of 1985 and by then the Italian version was in my bones, but I came to like the original a lot, and some dramaturgical points are clearer in the French libretto (although it still has some faults). Of course, the non-historical liberties are already in Schiller.

Even before the first performance, Verdi had to cut about 25 minutes of the gigantic score to allow suburban patrons to catch the last train before night closure! Well, in La Plata´s version the ballet and a good deal of that extra music is cut, but fortunately not the expressive initial Chorus sung by a famined populace in a winter-time wood near Fontainebleau. We still heard close to four hours of music and it was a long evening adding two 15-minute intervals and a 17-minute delay before the opening bars.

The Italian Francesco Esposito (debut) was the producer and costume designer; the Argentine Enrique Bordolini did the stage designs and the lighting plot. I was amazed by the lack of common sense and gross mistakes. Just a few essential ones (for space is a tyrant): the producer converted the opera into a festival of voyeurism at the most inappropriate scenes; the stage designer gave us a heavy unit set of fake wood with several stories of lateral stalls and we were supposed to accept that as a proper setting for a garden with a fountain or for an immense open space for the auto-da-fe, grotesquely done with a huge fan that blocked the view and where at the very end some poor devils were supposed to broil. Unbecoming costumes and makeup and a shaky sense of historical ambience plus very weak dramaturgy completed a sorry panorama, worsened by technical snafus.

The hero was Alejo Pérez conducting a very convincing and strong performance with an orchestra that responded quite well, save for some doubtful intonation of the offstage band at one point. The Choir was good under Fabián Martínez. The best voice was soprano Carla Filipcic Holm, who did lovely things in soft high attacks and very musical phrasing. Spanish bass Rubén Amoretti (debut) sang with a light though well-focused voice and a sense of drama, but was strangely dressed and had to tolerate unbecoming long hair. Bulgarian baritone Krum Galabov (debut) has little volume in the center and low range and for long stretches his voice was a distant murmur, but he had isolated good moments. Tenor Luca Lombardo dealt with good technique and firm high notes with his difficult part (Don Carlos), even if neither his timbre nor presence are alluring. Presence on the other hand is the strong point of Siberian mezzo Elena Sommer (debut), who had some doubtful phrasings and a couple of dicey high notes but was a real character as Eboli. José Antonio García (Grand Inquisitor; debut), a bass from the Canary Islands, though rather woolly, gave dramatic sense to his terrible priest. Mario de Salvo was acceptable as the Monk (Charles V) and the young fresh voice of Victoria Gaeta offered a beautiful moment as the Voice from Heaven. Fabiola Masino was rather strained as the page Thibault.

There was no need for a “Macbeth” from BAL for they had presented it in 2004. Two points in this revival: it eliminates the ballet of the witches (I agree) but it cogently adds the arioso of Macbeth´s death from the 1847 version. I was disappointed by producer Fabian Von Matt´s profusion of added alter egos and ghosts (especially the irritating King Duncan). And by his bad judgment at several key points: the reading of the letter, the death of Macbeth, Banquo´s death, etc. His colors are right: black and red. The witches are passable, though why only three in the first scene, and why many small cauldrons instead of a huge one as specified in their second scene? Bad makeup for Macbeth, uneven costumes vaguely Medieval by Daniela Taiana, mediocre lighting by Alejandro Le Roux.

Firm, rather fast conducting by Javier Logioia Orbe and good choral work prepared by Juan Casasbellas. Strong dramatic characterisation and skillful singing from veteran baritone Luis Gaeta, and stunning looks as well as reliable high-range singing from Mónica Ferracani, a bit weak in her lows and much too soft in the letter reading, but still an important achievement. Too much vibrato although stark projection from bass Christian Pellegrino, and open, emotional singing from Arnaldo Quiroga (Macduff).

Two Phaedras bridge the centuries

2011-11-03T16:44:00.000-03:00

Greek tragedy is an inexhaustible reservoir of great human stories; in fact it´s hard to think of any meaningful basic situation that hasn´t been imprinted in our lives by those fantastic tragedians Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles. In the case of Phaedra, wife of Theseus and stepmother to Hippolytus, the reference is Euripides´ "Hippolytus". The other great classical play is Racine´s "Phaedra", which completes the quartet of principals with Aricia, in love with Hippolytus. Modern visions of the conflict come from Gabriele D´Annunzio and Miguel de Unamuno.

By rare coincidence, two operatic versions of the story have been premiered here within two weeks: Jean-Philippe Rameau´s "Hippolyte et Aricie" by the Compañía de las Luces at the Museo de Arte Decorativo, and Mario Perusso´s "Fedra" at the Colón.

Jean-Philippe Rameau came late to opera; after a brilliant career and recognised as a major figure of his time, he wrote his "tragédie lyrique" at 50 in 1733. It was a great success and he was launched into an operatic career that he would crown at 80 in 1764 with "Les Boréades". Here most of his production is unknown, but at least we saw "Castor et Pollux" and a semistaged condensed "Les Indes galantes". We still owe him a full-scale complete staged version of one of his major operas at the Colón and with a specialist team able to give full due to the dance.

I am sorry that Simon-Joseph Pellegrin´s libretto, based on Racine, changes and softens the end, depriving Rameau and us of a suitably tragic ending. Nevertheless, what magnificent music we hear during two hours, with the composer´s flights of orchestral imagination very apparent, as well as his highly dramatic continuous seesaw in his vocal writing between heightened recitative and arioso, almost never seeking vocal display but instead psychological truth.

The Gods in Racine intervene less than in Euripides and what matters most is Phaedra´s irresistible passion, but the Furies, especially Tisiphone, are part of that drive. There are also parts for Pluto, Diana and Mercury. In Daniel Birman´s version (he is the founder and leader of the Compañía de las Luces) there are some cuts. It is a pity that he cut the first scene of the Fifth Act, a dialogue between Theseus and his father Neptune after Phaedra´s death. Other cuts: the final two scenes of Act One; in Act Three, a short scene, a duo, and some scenes in different order from the recording of reference conducted by Anthony Lewis.

Birman and his Compañía de las Luces have done yeomen work for the French Baroque with several premieres by Lully, Rameau, Charpentier, Gluck and Salieri, several of them at that very special venue, the Museo de Arte Decorativo. It has a unique beauty and splendid acoustics, but of course it lacks a stage and productions must perforce be minimal. I don´t agree with producer Pablo Maritano´s ideas, few and unconvincing, especially the continuous carrying in and out of seats. And some absurd movements for the chorus were negative. The costumes by Emilia Tambutti were reasonably good, especially Phaedra´s. The few dances were played but not danced.

Four singers were really good: Marisa Pavón as a dramatic Phaedra in singing and demeanor; Sergio Carlevaris as an anguished Theseus showed a splendid bass; Pluto was sung forthrightly by Norberto Marcos; and Nadia Szachniuk was a charming Shepherdess. Aricie was done rather pallidly by Ana Moraitis; Pablo Pollitzer had his slim vocal means in better shape than in recent years and sang his Hippolytus with style. I found Beatriz Moruja miscast as Diana and I disliked the wild exaggeration and timbre of Esteban Manzano as Tisiphone. Apart from poor singing from Soledad Molina, the others were in the picture: Damián Ramírez, Cecilia Arroyo, Luciana Milione, Martín Benítez and Juan Feico. The Chorus was correctly prepared by Marcelo Dutto and participated with much good will. The 24-piece Orchestra was simply splendid under the knowledgeable conducting of Birman, they all played with fine style and professionalism.

"Fedra" is Mario Perusso´s fifth opera and maybe his best. He is now septuagenarian but his composing powers seem at their zenith. The orchestration is resourceful and there are strong melodies of real persuasive power; alas, they are mostly in the orchestra and a lot of the singing is too arid, but the end result is communicative. His language oscillates between tonality and free atonality.

His son Marcelo is the librettist, producer and stage designer. I find some faults in his work in the first capacity, for the text is at times too rhetoric and even ungrammatical. But some scenes have a raw power that seem influenced more by D´Annunzio and Unamuno than by Racine . As producer he got excellent perfomances out of a picked cast. His massive blocks evoke Mycenean times and his costumes were quite adequate. The intelligent lighting by Rubén Conde always heightens dramatic impact. And the expressionist choreography by Guillarmina Tarsi blended easily with the action in the proper places.

Of course, no one could conduct better this music than the author, and the Colón Orchestra responded admirably. There is no choir. The lead roles were taken with uniform high vocal and dramatic quality by Alejandra Malvino (Phaedra), Marcelo Puente (Hippolytus), Daniela Tabernig (Aricia), Emilio Estévez (Theseus) and Haydée Dabusti (the Wet Nurse). Other roles were well taken by Florencia Machado, Alicia Alduncín and Gustavo Feulien.

A dance panorama: the Colón Ballet and visitors from abroad

2011-10-24T23:21:00.000-03:00

This writer, stunned by the passage of time, had quite a shock at the recent gala at the Colón commemorating the “40 years of the tragic disappearance of the members of the Colón resident Ballet on October 10, 1971”. For such dancers as Norma Fontenla, José Neglia and the other seven who died had been an essential part of my experience in the Fifties and Sixties. As so often in our country, the responsibility for this disaster was diluted and the culprits never had their deserved chastisement. And a long period of reconstruction followed for our main ballet company. The current authorities mounted an international gala in homage to these artists. It had its good points as well as some mistakes.

I won´t write about the Second Part, for it was merely Act III from the production of Tchaikovsky´s “The Sleeping Beauty” I reviewed some weeks ago. It allowed the public to see most of the best dancers we have and verify that things have picked up after the severe 2010 crisis the Ballet went through.

One bad thing was that in a theatre with two orchestras the public had to put up with recorded music. At least the recordings were good and sounded reasonably well.

I suppose that “Chopin Nº 1”, the ballet by Mauricio Wainrot on the Polish composer´s First Concerto, originally covers the whole score, but we only heard (no enlightenment from the hand programme) the slow Second Movement. It is an agreeable Neoclassic piece of choreography, and was brilliantly danced by two soloists of the Ballet Contemporáneo del Teatro General San Martín (Wainrot´s home company): Sol Rourich andn Leonardo Otárola.

“Diane and Acteon” is a hoary old pas de deux of the best Russian tradition, in famous dance steps designed by Agripina Vaganova on Cesare Pugni´s music. It needs virtuoso dancing and it got exactly that from a pair of Argentine siblings who work in the USA and were making their belated debut at the Colón: Erica Cornejo (Principal Dancer Boston Ballet) and Herman Cornejo (Principal Dancer of the American Ballet Theatre). She has charm and refined moves; he shows a powerful physique and the sort of aggressive positiveness one expects from Acteon the hunter.

“Adagietto”, from Mahler´s Fifth Symphony´s, is one of the best pas de deux of Oscar Araiz, an excellent example of intertwined, earthy movement. It was beautifully performed by members of the Ballet Nacional del SODRE (Uruguay): Lara Delfino and Sebastián Arias.

Then came a piece identified with José Neglia: “El niño brujo” (“The Witch-boy”), by Jack Carter on Leonardo Salzedo´s music. Again the programme didn´t specify that we were only to see the pas de deux: I do feel that the whole ballet (lasting a half hour) should have been staged, for it is in the Colón´s repertoire. But there was a special point of interest: José´s son Sergio, Director of the Buffalo Ballet, danced the part identified with his father and thus made his Colón debut at 46. He did very well and his age was nowhere in evidence, although the special charisma of José is still sharp in my memory after more than four decades. Sergio was abetted by Silvina Vaccarelli in what used to be Fontenla´s role, and she was very good; both she and Ricardo Ale as the Sorcerer are members of the Colón Ballet.

Again without acknowledgment in the programme, which merely said “Nutcracker”, we saw the big pas de deux with the splendid Tchaikovsky music in an orthodox choreography by Toer Van Schayk and Wayne Eagling (never seen here) with two dancers of great quality: Maia Makhateli (from Het Ballet of Amsterdam) and Marijn Rademaker (Stuttgart Ballet).

For me the end of the First Part was an anticlimax: we had a male swan instead of a female one in what is one of the best short solos of the repertoire: the marvelous Fokin choreography to Saint-Saëns´ cello melody “The Swan” (from “The Carnival of the Animals”), called by the choreographer “The Death of the Swan”, is associated with many of the great female dancers, but here particularly with Maia Plissetskaya of the immaterial fluttering arms. The rough, angular paces imagined by Mauro di Candia are a poor substitute, and Vladimir Malakhov (absurdly clad), Director of the Berlin State Ballet, was ill-advised to make his local debut in this travesty.

I have only one negative observation about the Sao Paulo Companhia de Dança led by Iracity Cardoso and Inês Bogéa: their programme at the Avenida for the FIBA (Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires) was too short. It is a chamber company of high level, with flexible, versatile dancers, and the chosen ballets were very interesting. “Gnawa”, “by Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato, is inspired by the world of the mystical Islamic fellowship, the Gnawas, who employ songs and movement ro reach a state of trance”. An exact description of strong, characterful dance.

A curiosity followed: the version of Marie Chouinard of Vaslav Nijinsky´s choreography of Debussy´s “Prelude to the afternoon of a faun”, a sensual solo with simulated phallus and with strictly lateral, angular movements, danced by a woman! (I. Sarmiento).

Finally, “Six dances” by Mozart as seen humoristically in a parodied bellic context by Jiri Kylian, brilliantly done by artists who have a sense of theatre married to their natural language of movement.

Another round of concert life

2011-10-16T23:19:00.001-03:00

Still trying to catch up…Another round of an intense and often interesting concert life. I´ll start with the Colón Resident (Estable) Orchestra. Ira Levin led a curious concert in which all three scores either included organ or were organ-derived. It featured the new Colón instrument, which of course isn´t the noble kind of tube organs but an electronic one, rather good of its kind but always artificial. I dislike them as a family, but that´s all we can have at the Colón. If the new auditorium of the ex central Post Office (Correo) as rumored includes a tube organ, it will be the first time in BA that we will be able to hear orchestral works that include organ in their proper setting.

Levin as orchestrator presented his very professional view of Liszt´s organ original “Fantasy and fuge on the name of BACH”, a splendid 12-minute contrapuntal tour-de-force (premiere). Then, the world premiere of Mario Perusso´s “Drama sin palabras” for organ and orchestra. Prelude, Interlude and Postlude, 20 minutes, an ample orchestra and important participacion of organist Ezequiel Menéndez, an Argentine who is Musical Director of the Archdiocese of Hartford, Conn. In a freely atonal style, this is theatrical music without a plot, well-written, with a tendency to exaggerated effects (what we call “tremendista”). It was apparently well-played.

The splendid Saint-Saëns Symphony Nº3 is along with Franck´s Symphony the best of the French School. Unorthodox in form, incorporating an organ in some key passages, with imaginative orchestral features such as a four-hand piano, this is a winner. Ira Levin showed here his impressive command and obtained a very good result from the Colón Orchestra, who after five “Lohengrins” knows him well; Menéndez collaborated as a real pro.

During September the National Symphony had some uneven offerings. The concert led by Mario Perusso wasn´t a success. The Concerto for tuba (world premiere) by Roberto Pintos is very light, crossover, but it allowed Patricio Cosentino (the Orchestra´s tuba soloist) to demostrate that this instrument has a right to center stage if the player knows how to obtain a smooth cantabile in the higher reaches; Cosentino certainly does, and it was a pleasure to appreciate his easy command. However, Richard Strauss´ Suite from “Der Rosenkavalier” (in itself quite inferior to the marvelous opera) showed a disinterested and unstylish conductor and a tacky orchestra.

Emilio Peroni, an Argentine working in Germany (Rostock) chose a tough nut to crack for his rentrée: Brahms´ enormous First Concerto. Although here Perusso was in much firmer ground, it proved too much for the pianist, who certainly has a good technique, but not the personality nor the huge sound for this massive work.

As usual when the National Symphony is led by its principal conductor Pedro Calderón, matters picked up substantially in their execution of the vast Bruckner Symphony Nº 5, certainly his toughest. Specialists also think it one of his very best, and I tend to agree, but there´s no gainsaying that it needs a lot of concentration as well as affinity on the part of the listener. With Calderón´s proverbial sense of form much in evidence (he is a master builder) the orchestra was in a good night, apart from incidental fluffs, and I was happy that we finally heard the Fifth after two cancellations (last year and this season). A complaint: I wrote the programme notes and by mistake they didn´t print it.

An all-Beethoven programme (again without programme notes) was conducted by Carlos Vieu with great acumen. It featured the Mass op.86, 50 minutes against the almost 80 of the Solemnis, and certainly less important, but nevertheless a valuable work. As it is rarely performed, it was my reason to go to this concert. Very good work from the orchestra and the Coro Nacional de Jóvenes (Néstor Zadoff). The soloists were paradoxically best from the lowest-voiced: very good Norberto Marcos (bass baritone), good Maico Chia-I Hsiao (tenor), passable Laura Domínguez (mezzo) and shrill Fabiola Masino (soprano).

Very recently heard from the B.A. Phil, I´d have preferred another symphony than the Fourth, but it was quite well-played and conducted. There was also a good “Egmont” Overture, always trotted out to fill up an orchestral night (it happens again this week at the Phil).

As I intimated, the Solemnis is a masterpiece; in fact, the greatest Mass we have along with Bach´s. Terribly challenging especially for the sopranos, rarely done, it was another demonstration that nothing scares conductor Alejo Pérez. With the forces of the Teatro Argentino (choir and orchestra) trying to give their very best, Pérez led with clarity and fortitude, although without that special aura that we get from the great performances. One soloist seemed to me world-class: soprano Daniela Tabernig, the register sweet and true up to high C. Correct work from the others: mezzo Gabriela Cipriani Zec, tenor Arnaldo Quiroga and bass Hernán Iturralde.

It´s been years since I last heard the Sinfónica Juvenil Libertador San Martín, founded and led for 17 years by Mario Benzecry. I found them in good form at the Midday Concerts of the Mozarteum at the Gran Rex, with agreeable performances of Mussorgsky´s “A Night in the Bald Mountain” as orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov and of the First Suite from Grieg´s “Peer Gynt”. The teenager from Tucumán Maximiliano Zelaya Cardoso showed promising possibilities in Bruch´s Concerto Nº 1, though still rather green.

A feast of orchestral and chamber music

2011-10-16T15:06:00.000-03:00

The musical season is offering numerous oportunities for good and varied music. This is a survey of the Colón orchestras plus a small chamber addendum.

The Buenos Aires Philharmonic (the Phil) in the Concert Nº 13 of its series was under Pavel Kogan (son of the great violinist Leonid Kogan), who made his debut in a programme featuring the admirable Lithuanian pianist Muza Rubackyte in her third visit. In the pompous five-minute "Solemn Coronation March" by Tchaikovsky he unleashed tremendous power and precision. Then he accompanied very well the soloist, who gave a magisterial, memorable lesson in two Liszt works: a rarity (the pleasant 11-minute "Fantasy on Beethoven´s ´The Ruins of Athens´") and a standard (Concerto Nº 1). In both she showed not only stunning virtuosity but extremely musical phrasing and self-assurance. Her encore was splendid: of the same composer, "Liebestraum Nº 3".

In the Second Part came the "pièce de résistance" for the conductor: Mussorgsky´s "Pictures from an Exhibition" in the hallowed Ravel orchestration. Although I differ with some details and the playing wasn´t quite impeccable, the version was strong and colorful, showing the mettle of the currently Principal Conductor of the Moscow State Symphony. By the way, I disagree with the policy of bringing over conductors for just one concert, they touch and go just when they´ve had their first contact with the orchestra and the public.

Maximiano Valdés, Chilean, has had a long career though he looks young; for long conductor of the Buffalo Symphony, he is now at the helm of the Asturias Principate Symphony. In Valdés I saw a good baton technique but an excessive soberness, and it showed in such a difficult and long score as Liszt´s important "Faust Symphony", an intricate characterological essay in its three parts (Faust, Margaret, Mephistopheles). Joins were weak and climaxes petered out. And the decision to play only the orchestral movements without the last part for tenor and chorus was surely wrong. I don´t know if this was imposed on the conductor by the lack of a choir. Valdés also did one debut concert and went away.

The session had started with the intense Shostakovich Cello Concerto Nº 1 with the debut of Tatiana Vassilieva, Siberian, born in 1977 and beautiful. The girl can certainly play and gradually warmed up to round off a very professional rendering. A certain lack of tone apparently was due to the acoustics of the fourth row of the stalls completely to the right, for people posted centrally and around row 15 heard her very well. Valdés accompanied well, although there´s more punch in the work than delivered.

One of our best conductors is Carlos Vieu. He led a rather strange programme which contained two concerted pieces for piano plus two symphonies; certainly too long. It started with the charming "Eight Russian folk songs" by Liadov, very well done. Then, a "Concierto breve" by the Argentine Máximo Flügelman, who lives in New York, with the debut of a talented pianist from a country that generally doesn´t provide them: Morocco. He is Marouan Benabdallah and he played with fine technique the 13-minute, three-movement continuous Concerto by Flügelman, in a tonal idiom, hardly individual but well-written. And then, the splendid "Burlesque" by Richard Strauss, the first score in which he displayed his inimitable style; although there were minor smudges, Benabdallah mostly played finely and with the right instincts. His encore: three miniatures by Bartók,very motoric.

The two symphonies were standard: the Nº 38, "Prague", by Mozart, where a bit more transparence wouldn´t have come amiss; and the Nº 8, "Unfinished", by Schubert, sensitively done.

In what seems to me a good idea, some of the conductors of the opera season have also done concerts with the Resident Colón Orchestra ("Estable"). Stefano Ranzani opted for a traditional German-Austrian programme: Mozart´s Overture to "The Marriage of Figaro" and Symphony Nº 40; and Brahms´ Nº 4. Masterpieces, of which Ranzani has orthodox and musical views. Abetted by an Estable on its toes, the concert was enjoyable if uneventful.

Violinist Shlomo Mintz is a respected artist in our midst; he has visited us often. In his recital this year for Nuova Harmonia at the Coliseo he brought along a very talented young Swiss pianist, Béatrice Berrut. As it happened, she was a revelation: professional and firm, her impressive mechanism is complemented by a particular sense of phrasing and trained taste. And in true chamber fashion, she interacted with her partner at all times. They tackled that towering Sonata, Beethoven´s Nº 9, "Kreutzer", with a cohesive, integrated concept that gave us the true spirit of the music as well as the letter. Alas, timbre is an essential quality in a violinist, and in each successive visit Mintz seems to be losing a bit more of what used to be a very beautiful sound; yes, the articulation, the intonation are still there, but the timbre is now sometimes harsh. A pity, for he is a major artist. They also played the expressive Romance by Dvorák (though I prefer it with orchestral robing) and two Saint-Saëns pieces: the agreeable and rarely played Sonata Nº2, and that old warhouse, "Introduction and Rondó capriccioso". Both in this last piece and in the encore, a fabulously difficult potpourri on Rimsky-Korsakov´s "The Golden Cockerel", Mintz was at his best, thus crowning the celebration of his half-century career.

Private organisations offer fine concerts

2011-10-10T18:02:00.001-03:00

The Mozarteum, always at the Colón, offered the visit (their third) of the Vienna Piano Trio. I still feel as I did in the previous instance, that pianist Stefan Mendl dominates the proceedings. Both he and violinist Wolfgang Redik were founding members back in 1988, so they obviously agree with each other, but I feel that it is a negative factor. Redik is self-effacing to a fault, with a thin though true sound that can´t compete with Mendl´s firm pulsation. Cellist Matthias Gredler, incorporated in 2001, is halfway between Redik´s tenuousness and Mendl´s affirmation. So we have a dynamically unbalanced trio, which is a pity for otherwise they are fully professional: impeccable intonation and articulation from the strings, exact ensemble and fine style. So, even with that fault, I derived considerable pleasure from their traversal of a well-contrasted and unhackneyed programme.

They started with early Beethoven, the Trio op.1 Nº2, played with crystalline clarity. Then, curiously enough (for it had been premiered a week earlier by another group), Mauricio Kagel´s Trio Nº 2 (2001), a rather accessible mosaic of partially tonal contrasting fragments lasting 21 minutes in only one movement. Finally, the very attractive Dvorák Trio Nº 3, op. 65, vast, 38-minute score of Brahmsian influence but still unmistakeable, full of melody and sweeping inspirations. As an encore, the lovely slow movement from Schubert´s First Trio.

It was really interesting to meet an all-French ensemble in Gallic music, even if I have one reservation about the programme: it was too short and to my mind wrongly combined. But the interpretations of the Accentus Choir (debut) and the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris under a talented lady, Laurence Équilbey (debut) couldn´t be faulted. In fact, she founded the Choir in 1991 (34 singers in their visit to BA); choir conductors that have originated their group tend to have long tenures, thus developing a personal style identified with their singers, even if these change over the years. As to the instrumental orchestra, it is a full-blown chamber concern of no less than fifty players (in this tour).

The idea of a First Part dedicated to Berlioz and a second to Fauré´s Requiem was certainly good, but the total duration was of only 61 minutes. Even adding two encores, it amounted to 70 minutes. There were three solo singers. Soprano Mireille Delunsch (debut) is quite well-known in France, and I have seen her doing very accomplished jobs as Mélisande in Opéra Bastille and as Charpentier´s Louise in a DVD. However, she had a cold and couldn´t give her full measure in "La mort de Cléopâtre", an intense youthful work by that great Romantic, Hector Berlioz; anyway, her professionalism was always evident. Then, the Choir sang admirably a brief piece by the same composer, the "Méditation religieuse" on a text by the Irish poet Thomas Moore translated to French, this brooding music is the first part of "Tristia", completed by two scores based on "Hamlet".

The serene Fauré Requiem was beautifully done by all concerned, including the two soloists: a very good baritone, Matthew Brook (debut), and a surprise, Tobías Campos (child soprano of the Colón), who displayed a beautiful voice and sang with taste and accuracy. The encores: the young Fauré´s charming "Cantique de Jean Racine", and the welcome adrenaline in an evening with little fast music of Bizet´s "Farandole" from "L´Arlésienne" in what may be the premiere of this particular version which includes a few choral measures. It gave the orchestra a chance to shine. Throughout Équilbey showed a remarkable grasp of style and clear command.

The perspective of yet another interpretation of Vivaldi´s "The Four Seasons" wasn´t enticing in principle. But Interpreti Veneziani (debut) stunned me with their immense energy when they played at the Auditorio de Belgrano for Festivales Musicales. They are only nine: five violins (all first-rate soloists), an extremely vehement cellist (Davide Amadio), plus viol, bass and harpsichord. On their showing in the whole programme, they must be one of the best Italian ensembles. They play with fine intonation at extreme speeds and phrase with great expression in the slow bits. They are also audacious: they invent rich ornamentation on the slow melodic lines; and apply "rubati" (flexible rhythms) with astonishing profusion and a sense of imagery according to each movement´s story line. The Venetians play with modern instruments and bows but manage to sound Baroque through their free imagination and unbridled dynamism. Four violinists for four seasons: in order, we heard the exciting playing of Federico Braga, Sebastiano Maria Vianello, Paolo Ciociola and Guglielmo De Stasio. They were arguably too fast at times, but frankly I´ve never been so impacted by "The Four Seasons".

Marin Marais wrote a fine set of variations on the famous tune of "Folies d´Espagne"; originally for viola da gamba, they were played by cellist Amadio as if possessed. Then, a finely balanced and beautifully played version of Händel´s Concerto grosso op.6 Nº 10, with soloists Ciociola, Di Stasio and Amadio. Finally, "La Campanella" by Paganini, the third movement of his Second Vioilin Concerto arranged for violin, strings and triangle (the little bell), in brilliant and humoristic pyrotechnical playing by Nicola Granillo. Encores: the Händel Halvorsen "Passacaglia" in an arrangement for violin, cello and strings (the original is for violin and viola); and the third movement of a Vivaldi Concerto for two violins and strings.

For Buenos Aires Herald

A trio of contrasting operas

2011-10-03T23:17:00.000-03:00

Opera is a difficult genre and few of those which get to be premiered show staying power. Argentine operas of which such a thing can be claimed don´t number over a dozen. As the recent reprise of Gerardo Gandini´s “La ciudad ausente” at the Teatro Argentino of La Plata proved, this work is among that happy dozen. Based on a novel by one of our most interesting writers, Ricardo Piglia, who also concocted the libretto, Sergio Renán programmed it at the Colón in October 1995 and again in 1997, with great success.

This creation is highly complex and develops in several levels. As put by Luciano Marra de la Fuente in his useful programme notes: “Macedonio (Fernández) gets into a Faustian pact with an inventor to give eternal life to his wife Elena, not realizing that he will die and she, forgotten and becoming a Machine, will sing/tell stories/microoperas during all the centuries to come”. The three microoperas of the First Act have reference to the “birdwoman” (on Classicist molds based on Mozart), to Romanticism, and the third, “Lucía Joyce” (daughter of James Joyce), has an Expressionist air based on Schönberg´s “Pierrot Lunaire”. As you can see, Postmodernism to the full. In the Second Act, a journalist investigating this strange case will try to disconnect the Machine, to no avail. She is left alone forever…

Lyricism doesn´t come easily to modern composers, and Gandini achieves it only intermittently; some bits are arid. But most of the music is quite beautiful, with fascinating orchestration and great subtlety, following Piglia´s difficult but always intriguing text.

This mosaic of eighteen scenes in ninety minutes is quite a challenge for the producer. Pablo Maritano´s approach differs markedly from David Amitín´s (who had done the premiere) but it was almost equally convincing, which shows the dramatic richness implied in this work. Maritano´s collaborators were of a piece with his ideas: the resourceful stage designs of María José Besozzi, the costumes by Sofía Di Nunzio and the imaginative lighting by Horacio Pantano, plus the video and multimedia design by Federico Bongiorno, all added up to telling the story intelligently. I differed in some details but I was impressed by the resourcefulness and the feeling of a unified team.

Erik Oña, an Argentine living in Switzerland, was the first-rate conductor, obtaining a very precise reading from the orchestra and perfect communication with the singers. The cast was outstanding, with specially high praise for Marisú Pavón (Elena), Sebastián Sorarrain (Macedonio), Hernán Iturralde (Russo) and Eugenia Fuente (Lucía Joyce); good work from Luciano Garay (Junior, the journalist), Eleonora Sancho (Birdwoman), Leonardo Estévez (Old man), Santiago Bürgi (Student), Alejandra Malvino (Ana), Patricio Oliveira (Fuyita) and Darío Leoncini (Helper/Male nurse). Rather too characteristic the Dr. Jung of Sergio Spina and the Female Nurse of Matilde Isnardi, and fine ensemble from six sopranos that sang as voices that Lucia Joyce hears, sirens and female nurses.

Buenos Aires Lírica presented a double bill made up of “Suor Angelica” (Puccini) and “I Pagliacci” (Leoncavallo). Good tradition holds that the natural companion of “Pag” is “Cav” (Mascagni´s “Cavalleria Rusticana”), as the two archetypes of “verismo”. As I wrote recently when the complete “Trittico” was given at the Colón, I´m not a fan of “Suor Angelica”, to my mind the weakest link of the trio. It was offered by BAL because years ago they gave a double bill with “Il Tabarro” and “Gianni Schicchi”, the other parts of the “Trittico”, and they wanted to complete it. But it was a pat companion to the powerful “Pag”, whose authenticity in the main drama and skillful “commedia dell´arte” play-within-a-play in the final stretches remain a masterpiece of “truthfulness” in opera.

Suor Angelica was well sung by Florencia Fabris, a healthy voice plus adequate dramatic instincts. Elisabeth Canis, who started her career thirty years ago, isn´t a contralto, and even in the mezzo range her high notes have a lot of vibrato, but she gave presence to the hard Aunt Princess (the best scene of the opera is her duet with Angelica). All the other parts are minor; I found several singers particularly satisfactory: Alicia Alduncín, Vanina Guilledo, Rocío Arbizu, Florencia Machado and Patricia Deleo. The accurate conducting by Carlos Vieu was complemented by a sober production signed Marcelo Perusso that respected the indications of the libretto and included the scene with the Sister Nurse cut at the Colón (he did as well the stage and costume designs).

I may be in the minority but I wasn´t happy with Luis Lima´s Canio in “I Pagliacci”. The 63-year-old still has a big voice and in some bits a fine timbre, but his very exaggerated dramatic impersonation, although intense, leads him to sing with no line, no continuity. Fabris also sang Nedda, freshly and nicely, but with little punch. Omar Carrión lacks heft for a verismo essential role such as Tonio (doubling as the Prologue). Fermín Prieto was mediocre as Beppe (he should learn from Schipa), but Ernesto Bauer was a forthright and pleasant Silvio. The orchestra was well led by Vieu. It must be noted that both scores were adapted to the small pit: Juan Casasbellas in “I Pagliacci” and Héctor Panizza in “Suor Angelica”, good jobs both.

Perusso did some unnecessary transgressions to the original ambience of the libretto and some situations weren´t well handled, but other points were in the picture.

After twenty years a wounded “Lohengrin”

2011-09-29T13:05:00.001-03:00

Richard Wagner is a fundamental composer in any opera season. But we´ve had no performances from this great creator´s works in our city since 2005 ("Die Walküre"). There was an absurd announcement back in 2008 about a "Lohengrin" in 2009, but the only possible venue (the Coliseo) wasn´t accepted by Horacio Sanguinetti. Now Pedro Pablo García Caffi has programmed it and we finally have Wagner after six long years.

Alas, we had a "Lohengrin" without a Lohengrin. Three tenors came this year to Buenos Aires and went back without singing their assigned roles: Patrick Henckens in "The Magic Flute", Andrew Richards in "Simone Boccanegra" and Michael Hendrick in "Lohengrin". Ill health or incapacity were the apparent reasons; ¿bad luck or bad choices? And if the latter, shouldn´t García Caffi be better informed? As it happens, the replacement for Hendrick, John Horton Murray, was a disaster in the first performance. Still another tenor, reportedly better though small-voiced, Richard Crawley, took over in the second and third performances (the fourth and fifth are still to come).

Good casts are generally hired three years ahead, but here they do it only months before, so we have what is available. But even so, good advising could surely avoid so many mistakes.

Our last "Lohengrin" was in 1991, and the others in my Colón experience were in 1979, 1964 and in 1951, when I was twelve. Even in that first experience, I was vividly impressed by this wonderful work; I also saw performances in Vienna (twice) and DVDs from the Met, as well as heard several recordings. I am struck by two main qualities: its intense lyricism, so melodic that during many decades it attracted Italian singers who did the main part in Italian (both Caruso and Gigli sang it in BA though not at the Colón); and its marvelous use of rhetoric: the ample concerted pieces or the heightened recitatives are very exciting. There is also the authentic aura of mysticism of the shimmering Prelude to Act One, as well as the famous Wedding March.

But the darker side is very strong too: for "Lohengrin" concerns basically the battle between Christianity and paganism, as shown by the invocation of Ortrud to Wotan and Freia (a fantastic outburst). We are deep in the Middle Ages (Brabant –a region of modern Belgium- around 960), an age where religion mixed freely with magic. Ortrud manipulates her husband Telramund to claim the Duchy of Brabant by a false accusation which will be solved by a joust (the Judgment of God) between Elsa´s knight Lohengrin and Telramund.

Two members of the cast were outstanding: Ann Petersen (debut) as Elsa and James Johnson as Telramund. A tall beautiful Dane, Petersen looked and sounded the part, with a luminous voice of the right type, a nice line and convincing acting. James Johnson, who sang last year in Zemlinsky´s "A Florentine tragedy", is one of the best character baritones; with adequate makeup and black costume, he sang with dramatic impulse and technical skill a high, anguished role. Twenty years ago Kurt Rydl was a distinguished bass; now his enormous vibrato ruins any attempt of line, but he is still an imposing presence. Janina Baechle (debut), exceeded in weight, was a relatively good Ortrud, for she can act, but had trouble with the frequent very high "tessitura" for a mezzo. Gustavo Feulien was a nondescript Herald, a part that needs better color and projection. As to Horton Murray, after two desultory acts where neither vocally nor in demeanor was he a Lohengrin, calamity struck with a croak as he sang "Grail" (¡) and from then on he coasted singing an octave lower.

Conductor Ira Levin (debut), an American with a varied and long career, gave a mixed impression. The Orchestra, which had played very well recently in the "Trittico", was uneven, shockingly so in the glassy beginning of the opera. But things gradually jelled and by the time of the huge "concertante" near the end of the First Act Levin seemed fully in command. From then on, there were imbalances here and there but also some very good moments. No less than 33 players made up the offstage band (led by Guillermo Brizzio) that included 12 trumpets. With an augmented Choir (led by Peter Burian) who sang with lusty vigor (at times rather shouty), there was excitement aplenty though not always subtlety where needed.

Roberto Oswald is our most seasoned Wagnerian. He had been responsible for the production of 1979 and for the stage designs of 1964 (with Pöttgen). Now, with the collaboration of Christian Prego, he did the production, stage designs and lighting, and Aníbal Lápiz created the costumes. The results were often beautiful, with symbolist aspects acknowledged by Oswald in a statement in the hand programme. Influenced by the Art Nouveau with some rather kitschy colors and details now and then, the proceedings went smoothly, with Oswald´s hallowed symmetry, blessedly free from the ridiculous concepts of recent Germanic stagings (a chorus of mice in Bayreuth or of birds in Vienna). I disliked the small helmets worn by the soldiers and Lohengrin, as well as his costume, but others were fine, especially Elsa´s gowns. The swan appeared hazily as a projection. I liked the cathedral´s tympan, inspired by Autun´s, though not the mixture of styles inside the church. There was a very pleasant blue curtain drop.

Another round of stunning virtuosi

2011-09-15T10:44:00.001-03:00

We are having quite a year for instrumental virtuosi; in fact, I´m having a hard time to cover the activity.

Two very different pianists were heard on the same day at the Colón. Last year the then 9-year-old Natasha Binder played Beethoven in the first subscription concert of the Philharmonic, and I was astonished by her attainments at such a tender age. Now the daughter of Karin Lechner is a year older but still a child, and already she showed signs of increasing musical and technical maturity in Grieg´s Concerto. Of course at this stage her outstanding natural talent depends on proper guidance; for that she has her mother and her grandmother Lyl De Raco de Tiempo. Natasha´s fingers are able to encompass the difficult writing, but she also gave it musical sense and shape; minor smudges meant little in the overall accomplishment. Pity that the encore was a very rushed Chopin Waltz (Nº9). She was accompanied by the Orquesta Académica del Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón, better than it was in 2010 but still far from perfection. The conductor was Francisco Noya, who works in New England and showed himself a correct professional in such varied fare as Ives ("The Unanswered Question"), Stravinsky (Suite Nº 2 for chamber orchestra) and Ravel (Suite from "Ma mère l´oye"), though coordination with Natasha was often dicey.

That very night there was an important soloist with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic: Cyprien Katsaris. Born in Marseilles in 1951, he has had an outstanding career and it was good to have him among us. His interpretation of Beethoven´s Concerto Nº 3 was magisterial in the best sense, clean as a whistle in execution but giving its due to all matters of style. Paradoxically, for his concept was closer to Classicism than to Romanticism, he played (I believe it was a local premiere), the very interesting Liszt cadenzas, which of course inhabit a contrasting sound world. The encore was a surprise: his own improvisations as a homage to Liszt on famous fragments from ballets and operas, flowery, light and virtuosic indeed.

Enrique Diemecke had a brilliant night. He accompanied Katsaris with utmost care and he offered a cross-over Osvaldo Golijov piece ("Last Round", very tango-ish). However, what really mattered was the command and acumen with which he obtained admirable performances from the Phil of two masterpieces: Richard Strauss´ "Death and Transfiguration", and Scriabin´s "Poem of Extasis", with its enormous orchestration (nine horns!), where the trumpet player played with distinction.

One of my candidates for Concert of the Year will surely be the debut at the Colón for the Mozarteum of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen led by violinist Christian Tetzlaff. Not only was the playing of soloist and orchestra of the highest standard, but the programme was marvelous and their comprehension of the idioms involved ideal. Mozart´s Concerto Nº 3 for violin, Schönberg´s "Transfigured Night" in the 1943 string orchestra version, Haydn´s seldom played but very beautiful Symphony Nº80 in D minor and Mendelssohn´s perennial Violin Concerto were a succession of wonders. If the 36-piece orchestra is a perfect chamber outfit, both when Tetzlaff led them or when they were on their own in Haydn, the soloist proved wholly admirable in technique and refined taste. The encore was a sparkling final movement of Beethoven´s First Symphony.

American violinist Joshua Bell is by now a staple of our seasons and always welcome. The flexibility, ease and communicative phrasing he showed in Bruch´s First Concerto are those of a master. His encore was fun: Vieuxtemps´ Variations on "Yankee Doodle". It goes without saying that the executions as such were of the highest rank. Well accompanied by Diemecke and the Phil, the night also offered a strong and convincing reading of Sibelius´ First Symphony, who established him as a great symphonist, and a valuable premiere by an Argentine composer: "Rituales amerindios" by Esteban Benzecry, a triptych successively Aztec, Maya and Inca. Ginastera showed the way, but the imaginative orchestration and the great variety of systems and procedures used show a valuable personality; this score is being promoted by Gustavo Dudamel. Diemecke again astonished by conducting from memory a very complex new score.

A paragraph for the courageous denouncing by a member of the orchestra just before the beginning of the sad situation provoked by Colón Director Pedro Pablo García Caffi, who is bent on firing eight employees of the theatre, seven of them delegates from ATE. Attempted booing by a few was roundly rebuked by full applause.

Sergio Tiempo is Natasha Binder´s uncle. Ravel´s Concerto suits him like a glove; with absolutely stunning ease and nonchalance, he negotiated the fearful hurdles of this fascinating divertimento with a jazzy swing, but he was equally admirable in the dreamy and refined passages, even managing to hold his own when accompanying the English horn melody in the second movement. Accompanied with care by Guillermo Scarabino and the Phil (apart from an awkward high-lying horn bit), it was an interpretation to treasure. The third movement was repeated as an encore.

Scarabino had a good night. He presented with taste and equilibrium one of Gerardo Gandini´s best postmodern scores, "E sarà", in which the composer transformed fragments from the Baroque and the Middle Ages with true refinement and invention. And Beethoven´s Fourth Symphony, even if the first desks weren´t available (and it showed), had a very good and orthodox traversal.

For Buenos Aires Herald

Onieguin and Lucy are back

2011-09-03T23:15:00.000-03:00

Early in the year, Tchaikovsky´s opera on Pushkin´s Romantic antihero, “Eugen Onieguin”, was offered by the Argentino of La Plata. Now a different “Onieguin” was presented at the Colón, and it was a pleasure to have the John Cranko ballet back. Walter Scott´s “The Bride of Lammermoor”, transformed into an opera by librettist Salvatore Cammarano and composer Gaetano Donizetti, was presented by Juventus Lyrica; dear Lucy is in the hands of the Italians “Lucia di Lammermoor”, maybe the most famous bel canto drama.

John Cranko, who died at only 46-years-old of a strange allergy, was the very soul of the Stuttgart Ballet, and his narrative ballets were a great contribution to the repertoire. Both “Eugene Onieguin” and “The Taming of the Shrew” were conceived for his group and seen here when they visited us. “Onieguin” isn´t, as might be thought, the Tchaikovsky opera in a danced version, which would have been a difficult hybrid to pull off, but a collation and orchestration by Kurt-Heinz Stolze of fragments from Tchaikovsky´s other music: pieces for piano from “The Seasons”, his opera “Cherevichki” and the last part of the fantasy overture “Francesca da Rimini”, all well chosen for their adaptation to the contrasting dramatic sequences. The story follows the Pushkin original closely.

First presented at Stuttgart in 1965 and revised in 1967, it was premiered here in 1979 with those extraordinary dancers, Marcia Haydée and Richard Cragun; they repeated it in 1985. In 1994 the Colón Ballet prepared it for the farewell performances of Raúl Candal and Silvia Bazilis, and there was another splendid pair, Maximiliano Guerra and Alessandra Ferri. I am happy to say that the current revival was fully worthy of the splendid Cranko imagination and represents a remarkable step forward for our principal Ballet.

Cranko intersperses the pas de deux por the two main couples (Onieguin and Tatiana, Lensky and Olga) with Russian-folklore-influenced group dances as well as a Polonaise. His language is Neoclassic, elegant and tasteful, but always akin to the psychology of his characters and at times quite Romantic. And the productions, both the beautiful original stage designs of Stuttgart with their emphasis on ochre hues and the 1994 designs by Pier Luigi Samaritani (now used again) so evocative and attractive in a contrasting range of blues, were gorgeous. Subtle lighting by Alfredo and Carlos Morelli and lovely costumes by Roberta Guidi Di Bagno completed an atmosphere of enchantment.

Two stars of the 2011 Stuttgart Ballet were invited for the first cast (there were three casts and I write on the first): I was very impressed by the charm and ethereal quality of Alicia Amatriain, a long-legged Basque blonde which seemed to float most of the time in aerial ease, her accomplished technique always at the service of a Tatiana that goes from adolescent infatuation to dignified early maturity. The American Jason Reilly has the right looks for the blasé Onieguin and is a good foil with his strong movements to this Tatiana; he is an excellent partenaire. The poet Lenski was nicely danced by Juan Pablo Ledo. Carla Vincelli contrasted with this Tatiana, for her Olga was petite, coquettish and perhaps too trivial. Prince Gremin was danced dignifiedly by Vagram Ambartsoumian. Virginia Licitra and Norma Molina fulfilled with professionalism their character roles. The Corps de Ballet was generally good, with special interest in some beautiful girls that dance with refinement. The work of Agneta and Victor Valcu as revival curators of Cranko´s choreography was outstanding in every sense. The Colón Orchestra played reasonably well under Javier Logioia Orbe.

Donizetti´s “Lucia di Lammermoor” is by now a hoary warhorse flogged to death, for it is staged almost every year; it´s time to give it a rest and remember the Donizettian British queens. The point of interest in Juventus Lyrica´s offering was actress Leonor Manso´s first operatic production. Although she transposes the action from the early eighteenth-century to the time of Donizetti, her concept was generally respectful of the music and the libretto, at times even too traditional. Two interesting things: she emphasized Lucy´s brother´s brutality, and in the Mad Scene she correctly makes Lucy smile as she remembers the happy moments spent with Edgardo. The minimalist stage designs were based on a huge disk which could be a fountain, a moon or a sun. Nothing in the stage indicated Scotland, and the Tower scene especially was quite unevocative. Stage designs and lighting were the work of Gonzalo Córdova, and the costumes by Mini Zuccheri were attractive if you accept the transposition in time.

There were two casts although only one Lucy (I report on the first). Laura Polverini was an increasingly convincing Lucia, with adequate florid singing, although her timbre isn´t particularly ingratiating. Leonardo Pastore replaced the announced Nazareth Aufe; he sang with some strain and a rather bland lyric tenor, though the end result was correct. Sebastián Angulegui as Enrico looked appropriately nasty, but his voice is too dry for bel canto. Roman Modzelewski was an adequate Raimondo (his aria was included). Iván Maier sounded rather green as Lord Arthur, Santiago Sirur gave an edge to Normanno (Enrico´s confidence man) and Verónica Canaves was a positive Alisa. With acceptable choral singing prepared by Miguel Pesce and pretty good orchestral playing under the young maestro Hernán Sánchez Arteaga, this was hardly a memorable “Lucia” but neither is it to be dismissed.

“Tristan and Isolde” at La Plata: the magic still works

2011-08-31T12:22:00.001-03:00

The prowess has finally become true: Richard Wagner´s "Tristan and Isolde" has been premiered at La Plata´s Argentino, the first time that city hears and sees a wagnerian production in German. The only antecedent was a "Lohengrin" in Italian in the old theatre, as far back as 1952. Of course, the vast facilities of the new Argentino were ready for the challenge, although with one limitation: even with recent improvements, the badly designed pit still hold only 85 players, and Wagner sounds best with over a hundred. It is a paradox that the big Argentino´s Orchestra numbers 127, but this total can never be in the pit. Also, the acoustics aren´t particularly good, especially as it affects voice projection.

The last time the City of Buenos Aires heard "Tristan…" was in 2000, and the vocal results were poor as far as the protagonists went. Unfortunately this is also the case for the two pairs of lovers (with one partial exception) heard recently at the Argentino. If the Colón, as a great international theatre, has the obligation to provide the very best in the world, the fees of the top artists are beyond the possibilities of a provincial theatre, as the Argentino is, even with its hugeness (over 2000 capacity). Whether better choices could have been available or not, I´m in no position to answer.

However, the magic of "Tristan und Isolde" still works, even when the full import of the words and the music doesn´t come over. Premiered in 1865 (though finished years earlier) it had a huge impact which kept on growing. As stated in Luciano Marra de la Fuente´s excellent programme notes, the innovations "are the subversion of harmony, melody and rhythm through the use of open and amplified processes…He employs a highly chromatic harmony, with suspensions and unresolved dissonances…creating a sensation of instability, tension and ambiguity, according to the never quenched desire and impossibility of earthly union of the protagonists".

It needs a medieval ambience for its text: a boat sailing through the Sea of Ireland and arriving to the Cornish coast; a woody refuge near King Marke´s castle; and the coastal ruins of Kareol at the Bretagne. Celtic places, a world of magic and filters, the same as King Arthur´s. I am at times saturated by the constant mix of Eros and Thanatos and the recurring exaltation of the Night and demonization of the Day, but the immense conviction and dramatic power of the music carries all before it.

Marcelo Lombardero, the producer (and the current Artistic Director of the Argentino), didn´t improvise: he did "Tristan" twice for Santiago de Chile, and he brought that conception to Prague. With certain changes in respect to Santiago´s production, his use of cunning and beautiful projections allied to some well-designed sceneries by Diego Siliano gave us a "Tristan" worth looking at, devoid of the ridiculous "concepts" that nowadays so often ruin opera (also at the Argentino). In fact, if I have a criticism it concerns that old error of traditional stagings, the lack of enough interaction between the singers and the singing "to the public" rather than to each other. But his solutions were attractive, especially in crucial points of all three acts, when a small platform in the middle of the stage rose with the lovers, isolating them from the rest of the world, absorbed by the magnitude of their attachment. I liked the costumes of Luciana Gutman with the exception of Tristan´s (whose makeup furthermore was unattractive). The lighting of Horacio Efrón was irregular and sometimes left in the dark important bits of the action.

The Argentino´s Orchestra keeps improving. Even if the first minutes were a bit tentative, they soon found their feet under the concentrated and intelligent impulse of conductor Alejo Pérez, who chose generally fast but coherent tempi and also phrased intelligently and in full collaboration with the singers. I felt his reading more in the Böhm tradition than in Knappertsbusch´s.

Of the Isoldes I preferred the second, Eiko Senda; her unmistakably Oriental appearance (she´s Japanese) isn´t that of an Irish princess, but her vocal resources generally coped with the music and her interpretation became gradually deeper. The first Isolde, Anja Beer, has the right looks, but the voice is strident in the high reaches and poor in resonance and projection in the center and the low range. The Russian Leonid Zakhozhaev has some of the power required; however, he often sounded harsh and unlovely; he sang the last part of his huge Third Act monologue with a naked torso appearing to be tattooed (it was painted), looking like a rocker rather than a Medieval knight. The other Tristan, the American John Pierce, looks the part and has an agreeable timbre, but his musical control was faltering (whole phrases sung under the tone) and the volume certainly didn´t rise to the big moments.

The Brangäne of Adriana Mastrangelo was quite good; she felt the anguish of the character (she changes the filter of death by the one of love) and sang with free high register. Eugenia Fuente lacked that firmness and was rather too bland. I enjoyed the Kurwenal of Fabián Veloz far more than that of Douglas Hahn, and found Hernán Iturralde a notable King Marke, better than Christian Peregrino. The smaller parts were good, except Sergio Spina´s Young sailor.

For Buenos Aires Herald

Artistry from singers and players

2011-08-22T23:00:00.000-03:00

In recent weeks we´ve had some interesting visitors: singers and players have given us their artistry and our medium has been enriched by their presence. Austrian mezzosoprano Angelika Kirchschlager is having an important European career; she recently made her BA debut at the Colón in the misnamed “Abono del Bicentenario”, where she was accompanied by an accomplished group, the Camerata Bern. The innovative program gave us a contemporary premiere by a Swiss composer, a group of Händel arias divided by a Vivaldi concerto, and a dense Schubert Second Part.

Martin Wettstein, born 1970, offers in “Verdis Traum” (“Verdi´s dream”) an oniric traversal of themes from the Italian composer´s “Macbeth”, cleverly done with writing that suggests nightmarish views. The Camerata Bern visited us long ago with the great oboist Heinz Holliger; it is a string ensemble, now led by a lady concertino, Antje Weithaas, that combines technical proficiency with communicative energy.

The Händel arias came from “Giulio Cesare” (the fast “Svegliatevi nel core” and the slow “Cara speme”), “Berenice” (the virtuoso “Sì, trai i ceppi”) and the oratorio “Theodora” (the contemplative “Lord to Thee each night and day”). Kirchschlager showed a good timbre and a sense of line, as well as awareness of different psychologies; she is an extrovert singer with well-honed professionalism. Between the operatic fragments we heard a short Concerto grosso in C major by Vivaldi, with the unacceptable absence of catalog number.

The Camerata Bern was very concentrated and intense in Schubert´s Quartet Nº 14, “Death and the Maiden”, in the Mahler version (mostly the adding of basses). Schubert Lieder are normally heard with piano; if the idea of orchestrating them isn´t absurd, it must be done with much more imagination than demonstrated by Gregor Huber in the seven sung by Kirchschlager. She was pleasant in “Ganymed”, showed a nice legato in “Geheimes” and “Du bist die Ruh” and was charming in “Heidenröslein”. However, the tremendous “Der Erlkönig” is surely a man´s song. She ended with “Ellens Gesang”, which is none other than the famous “Ave Maria”; this piece, wrongly believed to be sacred, is one of the three songs from Walter Scott´s “The Lady of the Lake”. The artist sang it appealingly. Her encore was nice, the expressive Romance from “Rosamunde”.

The Britten Sinfonia paid us a first visit in 2008 with the eccentric pianist-conductor Joanna MacGregor; now they are back, again for the Mozarteum and this time at the Colón. They were led by the Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto (debut). The First Part was given over to British composers and had a very high spot: the magnificent performance of Britten´s “Les Illuminations” by an English tenor of admirable subtlety, taste and musicianship: Allan Clayton. He was pretty well accompanied in this score which shows the composer at his best in the setting of Rimbaud´s fascinating poetry. I didn´t relish the two Purcell Fantasies, for to my mind they need the sound of a viol consort. A somber vocal piece by Purcell, “Let the night perish”, is an adaptation by Jeremy Taylor of the Book of Job; Clayton showed his command of the style. Michael Tippett was represented by “A lament” from a Divertimento on an old tune, “Sellinger´s Round”, written with other composers; it sounds like Purcell with wrong notes.

I dislike American minimalism, maybe you disagree: the playing in the Second Part was very good, but I was bored by the repetitions of Steve Reich´s “Duet” (which at least was blessedly brief) and by a rather famous score by John Adams, “Shaker Loops”. The encores were a fragment from Sibelius´ “Rakastava” and what might be called a variety number: Kuusisto alone whistled (very well) and played on the violin as a mandolin what he called (in good Spanish) a Finnish tango. Hardly the usual Colón fare, but fun.

The Buenos Aires Philharmonic gave a splendid concert where he met for the first time the Polish conductor Antoni Wit and we welcomed back after a long absence one of the best French pianists: Pascal Rogé. Wit has recorded about a hundred CDs and proved to be a vehement and concentrated artist well worth knowing. Liszt´s “Mazeppa” was the rousing start of the First Part; a fine and powerful tone poem rarely heard. Then, the Fifth and last of Saint´Saëns´Piano Concertos, the so-called “Egyptian”. This is charming though rather diffuse music, with some modernist touches as well as Orientalisms. It was a useful choice by Rogé, who bowled over the audience with his crystalline playing in the best French tradition.

I believe Karol Szymanowski´s impressive Second Symphony was a local premiere. Its 35 minutes are a testimony to the Polish composer´s German training, important and complex music that ends with a monumental Fugue. In the skilled hands of Wit the music communicated strongly and was quite well received by the audience.

Finally, a reference to Schubert´s tough but transcendent cycle “Die Winterreise” as interpreted by two Argentine artists of high rank: baritone Víctor Torres and pianist Fernando Pérez. It was at the Avenida for Festivales Musicales. Although I prefer a bass-baritone rather than a lyric baritone such as Torres for this dark music, the singer fully understands the meanings of the text and gives us fine diction and dramatic acumen. He wasn´t in his best voice and seemed nervous, however. Pérez played with marvelous adaptation to every mood and was technically perfect.

Verdi, Rossini and Haydn: Three concepts in opera

2011-08-18T15:23:00.000-03:00

Fortunately the axe Buenos Aires- La Plata is providing plenty of opera. In just one week there were three widely different offerings: Verdi´s "Simone Boccanegra" at the Colón, Rossini´s "Il viaggio a Reims" at the Argentino (La Plata) and Haydn´s "Il Mondo della Luna" at the Avenida (Buenos Aires Lírica-BAL). Due to lack of space I will deal with Rossini in another article.

"Simone Boccanegra" is for me in its revised version one of Verdi´s masterpieces, where the blend of politics and love attains some high peaks, even if everything isn´t perfect . As in "Il Trovatore", it comes from a drama by Antonio García Gutiérrez, a Romantic view of Medieval times. It matters little that historical truth isn´t respected in this story about a Genoese corsair that becames Dux. The first libretto was by Francesco Piave for the 1857 original; it was modified -and with an added tableau- by Arrigo Boito for the definitive version of 1882. Some of Verdi´s most sublime music was imagined for the father-daughter duets.

The Colón has presented this opera handsomely in 1942 and 1946 with Leonard Warren, in 1961 with Giuseppe Taddei, in 1964 and 1967 with Cornell MacNeil (recently deceased) and in 1995 with Jose Van Dam. Last offered in 2003, it was hardly a necessary revival, especially with a rather weak cast. Roberto Frontali (debut) certainly can´t compete with such illustrious predecessors; after a tentative start he settled into a professional but uncommunicative traversal of the role. Chilean soprano Ángela Marambio (debut) replaced the originally announced Svetla Vassileva; the voice is big and she sings with aplomb, but she becomes strident in high notes and lacks delicacy.

It was a pity that the debut of tenor Keith Richards didn´t come about due to last-minute illness, but our tenor Gustavo López Manzitti (who had sung Gabriel Adorno in 2003) rose valiantly to the occasion, singing with intensity and fortitude. Russian bass Konstantin Gorny (debut) was a correct Fiesco, though too Slavic in timbre and with a voice that was far from the rotund tones of Ferruccio Furlanetto in 1995. Fabián Veloz sang very well as the traitor Paolo, but dramatically he was uninteresting. Mario De Salvo was a good Pietro, and in bit parts Fernando Chalabe and Cintia Velázquez did well. There was also a second all-Argentine cast that I didn´t see, with the Colón debut of conductor Carlos Vieu.

Conductor Stefano Ranzani was very convincing; he believes in this score and knows how to transmit its theatrical and musical values with well-chosen tempi, dark hues and fine phrasing; the Orchestra played well. The Choir was also satisfactory under Peter Burian.

Bearing in mind the parlous state of opera production in the world and lately here, the Colón debut of José María Condemi (Argentine, he works in the USA) had its points even if I wasn´t convinced. He is a "concept" producer; his big idea: as Simone is a sailor, the sea dominates, although all scenes happen to be on land! So the Prologue, a street in front of Fiesco´s Palace in Genoa, is acted in a restricted area before a beautiful painting by Cameron Anderson (debut) of boats in heavy seas. And the following acts are variations of the inside of a boat making do for a garden and several chambers, including the Dux´s Council. Some beauty of design doesn´t compensate the basic inadequacy and discomfort (the negotiation of huge steps surely wasn´t easy for the singers). At least the period costumes of Eduardo Caldirola (from an earlier Colón production) helped to create the right ambience (although rather than Medieval they looked Renaissance). Some skilled lighting by Roberto Traferri was also positive.

I like Haydn´s operas and I have a fervent wish that some of them will be premiered in the near future, particularly "Armida", "Orlando Paladino" and "Orfeo ed Euridice", all of them really important and in the realm of dramatic rather than buffo operas. But Buenos Aires has seen several buffo operas by Haydn: in the far past, "La canterina"; just last year, "L´isola disabitata"; three years ago, "L´incontro improvviso"; and in 197l and 2006, "Il mondo della luna", by the Colón Chamber Opera. I would certainly have preferred some of the aforementioned dramatic titles to a premature revival (2006 isn´t far away) of this latter opus; anyway, it is a charming piece.

The Carlo Goldoni libretto (used previously by Galuppi, Piccinni and Paisiello) is no science fiction; rather, a mixture of ingeniousness and ingenuity concerning the well-named Bonafede and the false astrologer Ecclitico, plus two couples and two servants. So-called "dramma giocoso", it is in fact a farce where Bonafede lands on a false moon concocted by Ecclitico; after several light vicissitudes he eventually understands that he has been duped and he allows her daughters to wed their respective candidates. The music is beautiful and refined, not very theatrical, adapted to the exquisite tastes of Count Esterhazy, Haydn´s patron.

The cast was dominated by Hernán Iturralde, an admirable Bonafede. Osvaldo Peroni was miscast as Ecclitico, both in "physique du rôle" and in vocality. The girls were nice: Jeanette Vecchione (debut) and Maria Savastano (she used to be called Virginia) managed to cope reasonably well with the very high tessitura and difficult florid writing. Vanina Guilledo (mezzo) and Rocío Arbizu (a "soubrette" in the Despina model) were agreeable enough. Sergio Spina was rough and wildly exaggerated as Cecco. The eight-member choir was good and the 29-piece orchestra attempted successfully to conform to eighteenth-century style under the very able conducting of Rodolfo Fischer.

As so many nowadays, producer Pablo Maritano gives us grotesque when comedy is called for. His wild Moon includes the March Hare from Carroll, men-trees, tasteless fat men in tutus,etc. Constant references to trysts in bed make a travesty of the libretto. Naturally the costumes of Sofia Di Nunzio were made according to Maritano´s bizarre ideas. I yearned for the tasteful 1971 production by Sara Ventura (which moreover had a wonderful cast). What a pity that no videos are left of the admirable work of the Colón Chamber Opera during Valenti Ferro´s directorship.

For Buenos Aires Herald

An explosion of virtuoso violinists and pianists

2011-08-18T14:53:00.001-03:00

VIOLINISTS

The Buenos Aires Philharmonic has provided the opportunity of appraising the talents of two artists: our Xavier Inchausti and the Ukrainian Vadim Gluzman (debut). The

former is still very young but already can show a substantial trajectory and an impressive repertoire. On this occasion he played Paganini´s Concerto Nº l both for Festivales Musicales and for the Phil´s cycle. I attended Festivales´ subscription night.

Of course, Paganini´s writing is fiendish, for they were vehicles for himself and he had particular facility for some configurations that are physically hard for most violinists. Well, Inchausti wasn´t absolutely perfect (who can be?) but he did dazzling things with poise and musical sense. I have a better opinion than some colleagues about Paganini´s music (e.g., I think he was a good melodist) and I don´t mind saying I enjoyed myself. Enrique Diemecke showed again that he is an efficient accompanist. Inchausti´s encore was more of the same, which seemed to me too much: Paganini´s Variations on Paisiello´s "Nel cor più non mi sento".

The concert included an agreeable performance of Mozart´s Overture to "La clemenza di Tito" and Mahler´s Fourth Symphony, in a fluid, well-phrased performance, although I found the concertino´s solos (Alfija Gubaidulina) rather too impersonal and the ritornello of the first and fourth movement should have been wilder. Carla Filipcic Holm was the "Angel" singing the funny text from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" in the concluding movement, and although she sang well I found her too reticent.

Another Diemecke program was enticing, for it combined Bernstein´s "Serenade" (rarely played) with Bruckner´s marvelous Seventh Symphony. The Serenade is a very original piece, based on the composer´s particular impressions on Plato´s "Symposium". Its five contrasting movements are written for solo violin, strings and percussion, in an engaging tonal idiom, fresh and imaginative. Written in 1954 and lasting half an hour, it´s certainly one of his best works.

Gluzman proved to be a magnificent player, with a deep, burnished sound, a total intellectual comprehension (the score was premiered and recorded by no less than Isaac Stern) and complete technical equipment. It was worth hearing him in an interesting encore, the Prelude from Ysaÿe´s Sonata op.27 Nº2, quoting the "Dies Irae". The Orchestra wasn´t always as accurate as Bernstein´s music demands and there were lapses of intonation, but it was conceptually well integrated by the conductor.

Bruckner´s Seventh is his best known, along with the Fourth; inspired melodic contours are bathed in post Romantic harmonies and chamber passages alternate with massive blocks of sound. This creation attains sublime moments in the slow movement and is never less than beautiful in its 70 minutes. I admired yet again Diemecke´s portentous memory and command, but I must say I found him far from the inspiration of Eugen Jochum or Franz Paul Decker: this music needs phrasing with mystery and metaphysics and it didn´t get it. Nor was the orchestra fully adequate to the demands, especially in some raucous brass interventions.

Jinjoo Cho (Korean) and Nigel Armstrong (USA) won last year First and Second Prize in the Buenos Aires First International Violin Competition promoted by Shlomo Mintz and sponsored by YPF. They are now back playing a series of concerts as a result of the mentioned event, and in their AMIJAI concert they acquitted themselves admirably. The Orquesta Académica de Buenos Aires under Carlos Calleja accompanied with reasonably good results (on their own thay did Elgar´s "Nimrod" from the "Enigma Variations").

Armstrong played with panache and terse sound Chausson´s heated "Poem" and Saint-Saëns´ display piece "Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso" and gave us a nice encore, Kreisler´s "Scherzo". Cho was admirable in Tchaikovsky´s Concerto, playing with concentration, attention to detail and fine mechanism, as well as juicy and well-tuned sound. Both artists offered other concerts: Cho with pianist Paula Peluso and with the National Symphony under Pedro Calderón (Vaughan Williams and Sarasate), and Armstrong in a mixed programme where he played classical, jazz and tango.

PIANISTS

Our great pianist Nelson Goerner was back for a recital at the Colón in the series incongruously called "Abono del Bicentenario". Prices that were too high had their correlation in a half-empty theatre. The artist started with one of Mozart´s simpler Sonatas, K. 282; nicely played, of course, but not quite as Mozartean as I hoped (too much pedal, an overslow first movement). Then he tackled Schumann´s enormously difficult "Kreisleriana" , which the composer thought with reason one of his best works. The work of a master pianist, Goerner nevertheless seemed labored in some passages. But all reservations disappeared in a fantastic performance of Liszt´s mighty Sonata: the technical perfection of a true virtuoso blended here with unerring phrasing and the breadth the music calls for. The encores were contrasting: a rather strange performance of Chopin´s Prelude Nº 6 (all chords were splayed) was followed with a dizzying traversal of Schulz-Evler´s "Concert arabesques on Johann Strauss´ ´The Blue Danube´".

To finish, Bruno Gelber was in great, astonishing form in Rachmaninov´s Third Concerto with the National Symphony under Pedro Calderón at the Auditorio de Belgrano. The transcendental mechanical requirements were solved with massive, beautiful sound and deep, personal phrasing, in the manner of the great Romantic virtuosi. He was accompanied with great skill by Calderón, who also got excellent results from the orchestra in Mahler´s adaptation for orchestra of Schubert´s Quartet Nº 14, "Death and the Maiden".

For Buenos Aires Herald

A dance apotheosis: brilliant and needed

2011-08-18T14:50:00.000-03:00

The art of dance has had its abundant fans since many decades ago. We used to receive illustrious companies of all types : from the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev to the Alwin Nikolais, from the Moscow Bolshoi to the Ballet du Vingtième Siècle (Béjart), from the Paris Opera Ballet or the American Ballet Theatre to the José Limón or Martha Graham companies, the "porteño" saw the very best of dancing. It´s been a long while now since a big company has come whole, although smaller and less illustrious groups have visited in recent years.

But there is another category that we need: that of great international galas combining artists in pas de deux or seeing them in solo numbers. We´ve had such visits in the past; e.g., in Iron Curtain times I remember the regular visits of Stars of the Russian Ballet. Although nothing replaces the satisfaction of seeing a full-length ballet by a great company, there´s a lot to be said for a judiciously assembled group of dancers from all over doing their favorite duets or solos. Galas by local dancers have been done in recent seasons (and there will be one at AMIJAI in a few days) but we should get to know outstanding dancers from other places.

So the recent initiative of having two nights at the Coliseo combining a brilliant dancing roster is certainly to be welcome, and it was a huge success at the box office. The organizers called it "1º Gala de Ballet de Buenos Aires", so they intend eventually to do a second and perhaps many others. If they are as good as this one, it will be worth waiting. The Grupo Ars is led by Martín Boschet and Diego Radivoy, and they have the support of

Liana Vinocur as Executive Producer, of an old hand such as Miguel Levy as Artistic Coordinator and of the knowledegable Tatiana Fesenko as rehearsal teacher. Pablo Cabrera supervised the costumes, generally adequate. And the Colón´s José Luis Fiorrucio did the technical coordination (especially the lighting). Boschet was the controversial Executive Director of the Colón during the Sanguinetti period; I believe this new calling is far more his thing.

It was a pity that in the second night (the one I saw) there were changes in the program and that they were announced by microphone, for such a procedure is much less clear than a flyer. I won´t analyze the show chronologically, instead I will write about the artists and their choices. The music was recorded and the sound was acceptable. As is the abusive custom, we never get to know what orchestras and conductors intervene.

I was stunned by the duet from the Bolshoi, Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev. There was a major change: instead of an old Soviet standard, "Paris in flames" (1932, Asafiev-Vainonen, revised by Ratmansky), they danced an aggressively sensual modernist "Serenade" with choreography by Amerigo Ciervo, music by ? (I couldn´t catch the name).

If you think of Bolshoi dancers as epitomes of classical perfection, you certainly got that from these dancers in the Pas de Deux from Minkus´ "Don Quichotte" as choreographed by Petipa and Gorsky (it closed the evening) but I could hardly believe they were the same dancers that had been so wild in "Serenade" (surely an ironic title); certainly new winds are blowing in Russia.

My other favorite was Daniil Simkin of the American Ballet Theatre. In the classical side, he was an unbelievably acrobatic "Corsair" in the old Drigo-Petipa ballet, with some steps that defied gravity and were surely perilous; there he was admirably partnered by Iana Salenko, from the Staats Ballett Barlin. But he also did a charming solo, "Les bourgeois", a humoristic and resourceful choreography by Ben Van Cauwenbergh on a typically satirical song by Jacques Brel; Simkin couldn´t have been more nonchalant as he danced with ease the funny steps imagined by the choreographer.

Two partners from competing ballets gave much pleasure: the Argentine Ana Sophia Scheller from the New York City Ballet and Joseph Phillips from the American Ballet Theatre. They kept to the classics: "Esmeralda" by Pugni, Perrot and Petipa (naturally derived from Hugo´s "Notre Dame de Paris") and the "Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux" by the master Balanchine. Phillips was always very correct, but it was Scheller that shone, with a spontaneity coupled with high technique that was quite attractive.

The duo from the Opéra National de Paris had charm and distinction, without trascending to a higher plane: Mathilde Froustey and Mathias Heymann did a "Delibes Suite" choreographed by José Martínez (very agreeable) and "Who cares?", by Balanchine on Gershwin, where Froustey gave us some delicately funny moments.

A young Argentine duo from the Colón did fine work: Natalia Pelayo and Federico Fernández danced Tchaikovsky´s "Sleeping Beauty" (Petipa) and the Macmillan choreography "Manon" on Massenet´s music (not from the opera); they showed first-rate technique and pleasant personalities. Another Argentine couple was very adequate in Khachaturian´s "Spartacus" as choreographed by Gastyan; Agustina Verde and Bautista Parada have the "physique du rôle" and do honor to La Plata Argentino´s Ballet.

I am of two minds about the other solos: they were danced with precision and character but I disliked the choreographies and the "sounds" (rather than music). Daniel Proietto from Eastman did "Two" by Andy Cowton, and Pablo Fermani (from CNDC) offered "Lay still" by Gustavo Lesgart.

For Buenos Aires Herald

The subtle mysteries of Debussy´s “Pelléas et Mélisande”

2011-08-18T14:49:00.001-03:00

Maurice Maeterlick´s symbolist drama "Pelléas et Mélisande" has had singular repercussion on the musicians of its time. It was the inspiration for Claude Debussy´s only completed opera, whose unique style has no precedent (unless you go back to Monteverdian times) as a case of syllabic projection of the text in a continuous recitative-arioso, with just one exception (Mélisande´s very Medieval song). And the music reflects the feelings of the words with uncanny sensibility. It is amazing that the seamless interludes between tableaux were added later, for they form an absolute unity with the sung music that follows them.

Some years ago a wonderful BA Philharmonic concert conducted by Franz Paul Decker contained three scores derived from the play: the incidental music imagined by Fauré and Sibelius, and the immense symphonic poem by Arnold Schoenberg, a masterpiece of late Postromanticism showing the way to atonalism. The great German master has a point of contact with Debussy: they both understood that Maeterlinck´s text needs both Impressionism and Expressionism. They also realized that Golaud is a terrifying psychopath. In Debussy both styles intermingle, and some scenes have a blend of both styles, such as the grotto´s.

Finally premiered in 1902 after long years of preparation, "Pelléas…" has been gradually recognized as a very important opera, but it was never popular and it never will be. It is too exquisite, too rare, the melodies are in the orchestra, feelings are always contained (except for Golaud), there are no arias. The mysteries are many: you never get to know whence Mélisande comes from, who hurt her and it what manner. And is her feeling for Pelléas quite so innocent? Pelléas seems right in wanting to leave, he presages that their love will soon become physical. He is a hesitant, strange young man, with subtle mysteries of his own.

"Pelléas…" had an almost perfect version in 1999, with Jorge Lavelli doing an admirable producing job, and Frederica Von Stade and François Le Roux (as Golaud) references in their roles; Armin Jordan was the very stylish conductor. This year the level at the Colón was a good deal lower. This opera needs intelligent, professional and very sensitive artists; it doesn´t require singers with great vocal virtuosity for the music doesn´t demand it. They also must have good French, for prosodic truth is of the essence.

Two were French: Mélisande was Anne Sophie Duprels, last year´s Manon; Golaud was Marc Barrard (debut, I believe). They both have healthy, pleasant voices, but Duprels remained superficial in her comprehension of the character, never suggesting a shy, complex creature. Golaud was probably marked wrongly by producer Olivia Fuchs (debut) for he shows his violence well before what the text warrants, but otherwise he was convincing, although far from Le Roux´s subtlety. Although I didn´t see Markus Werba as Papageno, I know that he had a success when he sang that role earlier this season. But Pelléas is something else: the singer was extrovert, agile and boyish when he should be introspective and self-doubting. His voice is a pleasant high lyric baritone quite well-used and his French is very good for a Viennese, but he was very far from Pelléas´character.

Kurt Rydl has sung at the Vienna State Opera for more than thirty years and he has been a redoubtable Wagner and R. Strauss singer, but he is now in the declining phase of his career: the voice remains big, but it has lost focus to an alarming degree, and the wide vibrato obliterated the phrases´ contours. He still has a commanding dramatic presence, however. Vera Cirkovic as Geneviève was properly contained and statuary in her reading of Pelléas´ letter. Fabiola Masino, being petite, has the right "physique du rôle" for the boy Yniold (I know that Debussy prefers a child singing it, but I acknowledge the difficulties and accept an adult female soprano) and sang the role well as she did in 1999. Mario De Salvo was a good Physician in the last act.

I was very happy with the playing of the Colón Orchestra and the conducting debut of Emmanuel Villaume: he was exemplary in his respect for the lights and shadows of the score and he showed great perception about both the evanescent impressionist moments and the expressionist outbursts.

I found Olivia Fuchs controversial in several points. I wondered whether the superficiality of both Duprels and Werba wasn´t the producer´s responsibility as well. I found the presence of dancers (doubling as stage helpers) unwarranted, for Debussy asks for no choreography. The evolutions, however, weren´t unpleasant (they were the work of Claire Whistler). And of course the producer leads a team, so the geometric stage elements of designer Yannis Tavoris are part of Fuchs´ views, as are Tavoris´ incongruous (although not ugly) costumes. I have always felt that Maeterlinck´s text evokes the Middle Ages, but the characters were dressed rather as in Debussy´s time. Many important things weren´t suggested by this staging (e.g., the perils of the grotto), and the lighting by Bruno Poet often ran counter to the sense of the words (luminous when it should be shadowy or viceversa). In all, the production fell short of being truthful to this opera.

Indeed, "Pelléas et Mélisande" is an elusive challenge for any producer. Fuchs avoided tastelessness and wasn´t outrageous (as so many of her colleagues are nowadays) but her vision remains incomplete.

For Buenos Aires Herald

From crossover to the Sixties´ avantgarde

2011-08-06T17:49:00.001-03:00

Crossover has a long history, although the word has become trendy only in recent decades. It goes both ways: from Classical to Popular and viceversa. And it has been going on for centuries. When Mozart wrote reams of contradances for the Viennese people´s balls he was doing the same that Johann Strauss Senior and Junior would do with the waltz during the Nineteenth century. As time went by, however, their waltzes became classical.

There are two sorts of crossover: composers that cross either way, or interpreters that mix genres. The best Twentieth-Century example of a great crossover composer could be heard in a recent National Symphony concert: Gershwin´s "Rhapsody in blue" in Grofé´s orchestration ( of "Grand Canyon" fame) played by an admirable pianist, Ralph Votapek, long associated with the best classics but also a Gershwin specialist. And in a year where our city also welcomed Andrea Bocelli, we heard Katherine Jenkins in her local debut (at the Coliseo).

She has a good deal going for her: truly beautiful even at close range, the Welsh mezzo has a voice of ample register and fine timbre, and she sings in tune, very professionally. Her charm is partly manufactured, but I liked the way she assumed a memory lapse with total spontaneity. And she wears her tasteful and splendid wardrobe with grace.

But…Why an artist blessed with looks and vocal means that could have led to an important operatic career has chosen a path of bland, sappy arrangements of mostly mediocre songs, sung with microphone in a theatre and accompanied with an also wired symphony orchestra, in a theatre where music can be heard without intermediaries that soup up the sounds bathetically? Well, because she´s a howling success and earns a lot of money and seems happy with her well-planned destiny. She sings with full, operatically placed voice; alas, all seems alike, in a level of total superficiality, always going from pianissimo to fortissimo, in interpretations that never go beyond a standardized traversal of music and text. Of course, the unnamed arrangements are also to blame (the extremely poor hand programme didn´t mention the repertoire, the arrangers, not even the conductor, the efficient Anthony Inglis).

There were of course some fine tunes in this bland Muzak, for we heard authors like Bacharach, Morricone or Lloyd-Webber ( a song from "Love never dies", the sequel to "The Phantom of the Opera"), or the Traditional "Amazing Grace". And she sang plausibly two fragments from "Carmen", only presentation of opera that night. For many, the musical cocktail was what they wanted, and in its own terms it was well done. The local ad-hoc orchestra was alright.

Back to Gershwin, the most amazing transculturation example imaginable: the son of Odessa jews became the greatest creator of jazz-influenced songs, of symphonic jazz and of Negro opera, "Porgy and Bess". His "Rhapsody in blue", abetted by the skills of Grofè, remains a marvel of inspiration, as are the Concerto in F or "An American in Paris" (by that time he was a fine orchestrator as well). And played straight (as it should be) by Votapek and by the National Symphony under Alejo Pérez, we could again rejoice in its fresh innovation. Gershwin has remained one of a kind, all imitators have disappeared. It was a pleasure to welcome back Votapek, still splendid and young after four decades of visits; what a pity that this was his only appearance.

The concert was completed with an interesting reading of Debussy´s "La Mer", and a premiere: "Continuar esperando…" by Dante Grela on a disenchanted text by Oliverio Girondo. Its 27 minutes combine a soprano with the orchestra and electroacoustic sounds in a complex and unrewarding net of contemporary techniques. Susana Caligaris did what she could with this tough material, apparently well conducted.

Which leads me to the recent celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales (CLAEM): "International Festival Music at the Di Tella – Resonances of Modernity". Doubtless that was a very important experience for Latinamerican scholarship holders; during several years, the Alberto Ginastera-led experiment allowed them to be in touch with some of the greatest names in composition at that time: Olivier Messiaen, Yannis Xenakis, Luigi Nono, Luigi Dallapiccola, Roger Sessions and others. Now Eduardo Kusnir and Gerardo Gandini have concocted a total of two symphonic concerts with the National Symphony at the Auditorio de Belgrano, and six chamber concerts at the Centro Cultural Borges. They attempted a vast panorama of scores written by those that at the time studied with such illustrious creators. I heard the initial symphony concert and the fifth chamber concert, so my view is partial. But I have to be sincere, I enjoyed very little of what I heard.

I will single out as interesting the "Concierto ornamental" by Alejandro Núñez Allauca, and of some quality "Tartinia MCMLXX" by Jorge Antunes. And in the chamber concert, "Divertimento" by Antonio Mastrogiovanni and "Playas rítmicas Nos. 1 y 2" for piano by Jorge Arandia Navarro. I disliked and won´t mention the rest. So I have to record that the results were less than what Ginastera had envisaged, but that adventure remains valid in its aims and shouldn´t be forgotten. The sad conclusion: after the Fifties musical creation (exceptions apart) has fallen into a trough; why should the young Di Tella composers be any better?

For Buenos Aires Herald

Rossinian trip, French animal parody

2011-08-06T17:47:00.000-03:00

The Argentino of La Plata has offered recently the South American premiere of a special opera by Gioacchino Rossini: "Il viaggio a Reims". Or rather, unique: for it is a long "bel canto divertimento" with practically no plot. I certainly welcome it, though I can´t help thinking that both Buenos Aires and La Plata are sorely in debt with the "serious" Rossini: we need well-cast stage versions of "Semiramide" (though it had a condensed concert performance at La Plata some years ago), "Mosè", "La donna del lago" and "Il sitio di Corinto".

"Il viaggio a Reims" is indeed a "rara avis": although written in Italian, it was Rossini´s first opera written for Paris. Specifically, the libretto by Luigi Balocchi (based partly on Madame de Staël´s "Corinne, ou l´Italie") is what might be called an "occasional piece", for it is unabashedly a tribute to Charles X´s coronation at Reims (May 29, 1825). Balocchi was the official librettist of the Théâtre des Italiens in Paris, and the opera is subtitled ("ossia") "L´albergo del Giglio d´Oro", this being a hotel at the small spa of Plombières en route to Reims.

In just one very long act (divided by an interval at the Argentino) a group of aristocrats stop for the night at the spa, and then can´t go on to Reims because of a shortage of horses, but they console themselves with the thought that in Paris they will participate in the celebrations for the King. A minimal episode concerning a love triangle is all that can be mentioned as plot; otherwise you have minimal incidents as pretexts for displays of bel canto.

Consider: three sopranos, a contralto, two tenors and five baritones have principal parts, and there are seven flank roles. A total of eighteen singers! And at the Argentino everyone is double-casted except three of the smaller parts. I heard the first cast.

The music is prime Rossini, scintillating, difficult and charming. Curiously there is no overture (a non-authentic adaptation of a dance from "Le siège de Corinthe" is wrongly circulated as the overture to "Il viaggio a Reims") The premiere wasn´t successful, and a good deal of what is in "Il viaggio…" ended up adapted and in French in "Le Comte Ory", a delicious " opéra bouffe". The Rossini Festival at Pesaro resurrected "Il viaggio a Reims" in 1984. Then came the two splendid recordings with different casts conducted by Claudio Abbado.

The current staging at the Argentino is Emilo Sagi´s for a later Pesaro occasion as revived by Elisabetta Courir, with stage designs by Daniel Blanco (an Argentine resident in Spain) and by the Spanish costume designer Pepa Ojanguren. As so often nowadays, Sagi brings the action up to date, with cellular phones, no matter ihat it makes complete nonsense of the tribute to Charles X. The only stage design is a huge white elevated verandah quite close to the orchestral pit; all concerned act in that area, except for a slow aria from Corinne sung from a loge. And up to almost the end, they all sport white spa bath robes, which doesn´t make it easier to distinguish the characters. Nevertheless, the moves of the actors are sprightly and there´s a lot of give and play.

The large cast was dominated by the baritones. The Chilean Ricardo Seguel did a brilliant job in Don Profondo´s patter aria where he impersonates people of various countries. Luciano Miotto showed his buffo "savoir faire" as Lord Sydney. Luis Gaeta was his usual authoritative self as Trombonok (curiously a German aristocrat , the name sounds Slavic). Leonardo Estévez was correct as Don Álvaro. Granted that the tenor parts are very high-lying, the debutants Alessandro Luciano and Francisco Brito weren´t quite up to par, especially the former. Of the ladies Paula Almerares (Corinne) started weakly but then found her form and had some exquisite moments. Neither Marisú Pavón nor Victoria Gaeta were exempted from some acidity in high notes but otherwise were good. Not so Nidia Palacios (contralto) whose florid singing was quite disagreeable. Of the many other parts, I single out as pleasant the work of Santiago Ballerini, Francisco Bugallo, Ricardo Crampton and María del Rocío Giordano.

I was surprised by the very Rossinian phrasing and good command of the conductor, the Italian Sergio Monterisi (debut) who got a quite satisfactory stylistic result from the orchestra.

The Colón, as usual for the winter holidays, put on a show for the kids. It was a revival of a choreography by Oscar Araiz on Saint-Saëns´ "The carnival of the animals", a charming parody well known through recordings but not often heard in public, and then generally as a concert piece. It incorporates texts by María Elena Walsh said by an emcee, in this case Karina K, well-routined and agile. As the show is very short (just 35´), she filled up 15 extra minutes with jokes and riddles. The Colón Ballet (23 dancers) did very nicely the well-wrought steps imagined by Araiz.

However, I found that the show was too abstract for kids: the animals were suggested by gestures, but the very simple costumes of Renata Schussheim gave no inkling of particular animals, there was no stage design, no special makeup helped the dancers. And a sore point, the music was recorded. Even the Walsh texts were too full of social criticism, touching on themes that were more for adults.

For Buenos Aires Herald

Gratifying concert life in BA

2011-07-21T17:58:00.001-03:00

Fortunately our city is still offering a varied and gratifying concert life, both with our best artists and with welcome and necessary visitors. A good place to start is the season of Festivales Musicales. The concert by the Orquesta de Cámara de Chile at the Colón was dedicated to Beethoven. Nothing new in the programme: Overture to "The Creatures of Prometheus", the Fifth Piano Concerto ("Emperor") and the Third Symphony ("Heroic"). The conductor was the veteran Chilean Maestro Juan Pablo Izquierdo, well-known here through the decades. The pianist, our Horacio Lavandera.

One point of interest was that although this repertoire is habitually presented with a rather full symphony orchestra, in this case there were only 36 players, so that such a big piece as the "Heroic" was seen from a chamber perspective. Be it said that the artists played with concentration and adrenaline, so every member accounted for himself, and as they are technically proficient and respond well to the rather strange gestuality of Izquierdo, the results were good. The conductor´s tempi were a bit fast but coherent and his phrasing was precise and clipped.

As to Lavandera, of course his mechanism is admirable and his easy command is always a pleasure to watch and hear. However, his tone lacks weight and his articulation wasn´t always as expressive as the music dictates (especially in the piano accompaniment to the orchestral melody in the slow movement).

Café Zimmermann is a Baroque ensemble currently based in Aix-en-Provence (it used to be in Lyon) and it is made up of Argentine and European players, as well as the French mezzosoprano Claire Brua. It takes its name from a famous Leipzig eighteenth-century establishment. Their roster is flexible according to the needs, and it goes from five to twenty-five members. The venue was the Avenida, perfect for this repertoire.

They chose a very enlightening programme of French Baroque, with surely several local premieres. As textures varied, this was an additional valuable element. They started with the splendid "Troisième Concert Royal" by François Couperin, nicely played by the whole instrumental group: Pablo Valetti, violin and direction; Emmanuel Laporte, oboe; Diana Baroni, flute; Étienne Mangot, viola da gamba; Eduardo Egüez, theorbo; and Céline Frisch, harpsichord. Then, a lovely cantata, "Pan et Syrinx", by Michel Pignolet de Montéclair, where the singer did her part with good style but a slightly harsh timbre.

The Second Part started with a concise and pleasant "Suite III en Trio (Premier oeuvre)" by composer and chess player Pierre Danican Philidor. Then followed a very original piece by Marin Marais, "Sonnerie de Sainte-Geneviève du Mont", quite well done. The programme ended with another cantata, André Campra´s "Didon" (1708), intense and dramatic as it recounts the sad story of the Queen of Carthage. Here Brua sang with involvement and knowledge of the right inflexions; the voice isn´t beautiful but she handles it with skill. The players were well up to the requirements of all three scores, especially Mangot.

One of the best concerts of the season was the one offered by La Barroca del Suquía and soprano Soledad de la Rosa for the Academia Bach at the Museo de Arte Decorativo, with its warm ambience. The group from our Córdoba is simply superb and can compete with the best in Europe, and you will have to look hard to find a European soprano with the beautiful timbre and consumate ability of De la Rosa.

The programming idea was engrossing: pieces from Johann Sebastian Bach´s musical library, all in local premieres. Although an Overture in G minor was attributed to Johann Sebastian and bears the BWV 1070, it seems to be by his son Wilhelm Friedemann; it is certainly a worthy and original score, but it certainly doesn´t sound like Johann Sebastian. The virtuoso players were Manfredo Kraemer and Pablo López, violins; Alberto Lepage, viola; Nina Diehl, cello; Hernán Cuadrado, bass; and Manuel de Olaso, harpsichord, with Kraemer leading with Dionysiac verve.

Handel´s "Armida abbandonata" is a magnificent cantata from his Italian period, and here De la Rosa was marvelous, one of the very best things I´ve heard from her. Then Kraemer showed his astounding expertise in the imaginative and special Sonata VI (1681) by Heinrich Biber, one of the great composers of the Early Baroque. And finally, a motet wrongly attributed to Johann Sebastian (BWV deest 1.006), "Languet anima mea", who turns out to be by the rarely heard Francesco Conti (1682-1732) and proved the high level of Baroque composers, even the second rank ones. Another top job by De la Rosa, finely accompanied. Their encore was welcome: a fragment of the J.S.Bach arrangement of Pergolesi´s Stabat Mater.

I was stunned by the all-Liszt recital presented by Bruno Campanella at the Coliseo for Nuova Harmonia. The artist, who looks nearing sixty, has come before, leaving a good image, but this time he showed himself a specialist in the diabolically intricate writing of Franz Liszt. With an astonishing mechanism that only faltered in some almost impossible passages of the Dante Sonata, plus an intelligent and scrupulous phrasing, he gave us authentic readings. In the First Part, the whole of "Years of Peregrination, Italy" (without the appendix). In the second, the magnificent Mephisto Waltz Nº 1, the paraphrase on the quartet from Verdi´s "Rigoletto" and two Hungarian Rhapsodies, Nos. 12 and 15. All with robust, dramatic sound alternating with delicate traceries.

For Buenos Aires Herald

Two “Sleeping Beauties” worth awakening

2011-07-12T18:11:00.001-03:00

Tchaikovsky´s "The Sleeping Beauty" as choreographed by Marius Petipa is surely the finest large-scale ballet of the so-called Classical Era. This adaptation of Charles Perrault´s tale is the epitome of a "féérie", as were called the fairy tales combined with abundant divertimenti for the display of solo dancers. The marvelous symphonic music stands even above the admittedly much more dramatic "Swan Lake" or the charm of "The Nutcracker". Written in 1890, late in his life, it is a resplendent example of the composer´s inexhaustible imagination and fine orchestration. And Petipa, the old master, gives us the acme of his blend of French and Russian school in this court ballet .

This is an expensive ballet that can only make its full effect with a big company in a majestic building. And indeed both the Teatro Argentino of La Plata and the Colón demonstrated that they are able to cope with this major challenge. The former showed the well-known version of Mario Galizzi, currently the Ballet Director of the "platense" theatre. The Colón presented a new interpretation of the original by Karl Burnett. In both cases, apart from some minor misadjustments and some arguable changes, they did this ballet proud: indeed this "sleeping beauty" deserved to be reawakened. And although I generally don´t like duplications, in this case it provided an interesting comparison of both major companies.

This ballet is long ( 2 hours 20 minutes in its complete version) and the temptation to lighten it is understandable, although we lose some valuable music. In both cases, Teatro Argentino (TA) and Colón (TC), the pruning was discreet and acceptable. In "Sleeping Beauty" not only is there plenty of virtuosic dancing, but also a great deal of miming. I confess that I find it rather tiring and undramatic.

Another matter to be considered is the spectacularity of stage and costume design. I was astounded by the refinement that met my eyes in these shows. At the TA the stage designs by Andrés Tatavitto were quite royal, very handsome and adequate in greating the right ambience; but Christian Prego´s at the TC though very different were gorgeous and fully in accord with the plot, enhanced by the lovely projections provided by Roberto Oswald. The costumes were wonderful in both cases: Mariana Cappelli chose very well from the vast array at her disposal at the TA and Aníbal Lápiz gave us one of his best jobs at the TA. Lighting was cunning and intelligent in either theatre: by Oswald at the TC and by Alberto Lemme at the TA.

There were differences in certain matters: the fairies of the Prologue were named differently from the Petipa original by both Galizzi and Burnett; and the Jewels of the Third Act also change their names. Some fairy tale guests in the same act were suppressed by Galizzi (I was especially sorry that he omitted the "pas de caractère" of Puss-in-boots and the White Kitten, included by Burnett), but he included Tom Thumb in his humoristic "pas berrichon".

A special paragraph on the Colón: for the first time in nine months we saw the complete ballet dancing in the new floor, finally bought by Director Pedro Pablo García Caffi after his absurd and defeatist tug-and-pull with the Ballet last year, which resulted in the cancellation of most of the season. Now they are apparently happy with the new floor and they all gave of their best, raring to go after such a frustrating delay.

In the big ensembles in both theatres the ladies showed better discipline and physique than the men, but they had obviously worked hard in both instances and their work was generally up to standard.

At the TA I was stunned by the debut of the Argentine dancer of the Paris Opera Ludmila Pagliero as Aurora; she has everything going for her: a consummate technique, beauty, charisma, star quality. At the TC the debut of Karina González, a Venezuelan from the Houston Ballet, was certainly accomplished, but with less charm and personality. Their Princes were in both cases pleasant and well-routined, without leaving that extra imprint of the great dancers: Yann Chailloux from Paris (TA) and Connor Walsh from Houston (TC), both debuts.

I was quite happy with the dancers of that marvelous "pas de deux" of the Blue Prince and the Princess Florisse, certainly a high point of the Third Act. Both Paula Elizondo and Lisandro Casco (TA) and Karina Olmedo and Juan Pablo Ledo (TC) executed the airy steps with fine technique and physical charm. Carabosse, the "bad fairy", was played within traditional parameters by Virginia Licitra (TC) but Larisa Hominal (TA), a stunning blonde, gave another appearance to this character. The Lilac Fairy (the "good one"that counteracts Carabosse´s evilness) was nicely done by Cecilia Mattioli (TA) and Marta Desperés (TC). I especially liked for agility and sense of fun Edgardo Trabalón and Silvia Grün as the cats. The Jewels were good in both cases, but the Prologue Fairies seemed better rehearsed at the TC than at the TA.

The music is difficult to play, and neither orchestra (the TA´s and the Buenos Aires Philharmonic) was all that one could ask, but there were some fine solos, a promising debut by Diego Censabella (TA) and a proficient one (though with little regard to the finer points) by Javier Logioia Orbe (TC).

For Buenos Aires Herald

Dazzling symphonism from Caracas and Rotterdam

2011-07-07T21:06:00.001-03:00

Within ten days our city heard two admirable orchestras from two different cultures, offering superb performances of European music. As a symbol of the universality of music, the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar de Venezuela, under Gustavo Dudamel, offered a fantastic performance of Mahler´s Seventh Symphony. And the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, a Dutch orchestra under an American conductor, Leonard Slatkin, gave us a splendid Russian symphony, Rachmaninov´s Second. The former, at the Colón, for the Mozarteum Argentino; the latter, at the Coliseo, for Nuova Harmonia.

The Simón Bolívar is the triumph of José Antonio Abreu, the originator about 40 years ago of the wonderful net of children´s and youth orchestras of all Venezuela, certainly the most important and successful social/musical experiment in the world. In fact, no longer an experiment but a blazing success that is here to stay. And this orchestra is the top of the pyramid, the sublimated ultra-selection of all the best teenagers and young adults that come from lower rungs of the same organisation. We met it at the Colón about eight years ago, with the very young Gustavo Dudamel showing a fresh young talent, and I was mightily impressed. Now Dudamel is the most feted young lion of conducting in the world, with a post at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Simón Bolívar remains a prodigy. Both Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado have pronounced Venezuela as the place where symphonic renovation is occurring, and they are right. For the combination is unbeatable: tremendous Latin adrenaline in perfect blend with German ultra-discipline.

They offered two different programmes and I had to chose the first, for the second collided with an offering by Festivales Musicales, Café Zimmermann, which I didn´t want to miss. So, I resigned myself to lose the experience of Ravel´s "Daphnis et Chloë" (Suite Nº 2) and of Stravinsky´s Suite from "The Firebird", plus pieces by the Mexican Carlos Chávez and by a Venezuelan composer. I was told that it was a brilliant occasion, though at the end they did a similar show as eight years ago, playing and dancing a Bernstein Mambo (from "West Side Story") among other things, the same show they do all over the world and by now seems more a pose and an artifice than a sincere manifestation of exuberant "Venezuelanismo". The day before, though, everything was austere, boys and girls in black, and at the end no encores.

The Mahler Seventh is certainly one of his most complex and uneven. It starts with an almost chaotic first movement that alternates wildly betwen a funeral march and wild outbursts. There follow three fascinating movements: two "Night Musics" of unending imagination and an eerie, scurrilous Scherzo; the feats of orchestration are a continuous source of wonder. But…the last movement is a grotesque Rondo where the main theme is repeated seven times, and it sounds like a Bierfest turned into a nightmare, a Bavarian hangover in a huge scale.

Dudamel showed his undoubted maturity in this risky score: a marvelous memory (he conducted without a score); precise, energetic movements that conveyed visually the music without exaggeration; a strong sense of pulse and continuity; the ability to make sense out of the weaker passages; a total command and concentration. But he had an almost miraculous orchestra, where one didn´t know what to admire the most: e.g., the perfect intonation and articulation of the massed violins, or the excellent solos in such instruments as the tenor horn. One could cavil at the extreme brightness of the trumpets but not at their exactitude. B.A. has heard one great performance of this symphony years ago: Chicago/Barenboim; now it can add another. Just one observation: the orchestra is unjustifiably enormous; no other organism in the world lists so many players; they don´t all play in the same concert, of course.

I first met the Rotterdam Philharmonic in some pioneering vinyl records of the fifties with Mahler symphonies conducted by Eduard Flipse, their principal conductor at the time; they were quite good. Later the orchestra had such chiefs as Jean Fournet (so well-known here), Edo De Waart, Valery Gergiev, and now the much promoted young Canadian, Yannick Nézet-Séguin. But on this first tour, they came with a distinguished guest conductor who made his BA debut after a long and great career: Leonard Slatkin. I heard him (and wrote about it) in October 2009 with the Vienna Symphony. He chose a programme of Viennese classics in the First Part (Mozart´s Overture to "Le Nozze di Figaro" and Schubert´s Symphony Nº 8, "Unfinished"), and the highly complex Rachmaninov Second to finish. The encore: Brahms´ Hungarian Dance Nº 1.

The quality was uniformly high in these quite disparate styles. All sections of the orchestra are highly professional and hear each other with chamberlike intensity; intonation is admirable, the string sections play like one and with fine concentrated energy; when soloists have their chance, they take it with personality and subtlety (the clarinet in Rachmaninov!). Textures remain comprehensible even when they are very dense, thanks to Slatkin´s masterful technique, and the music always coheres for this conductor with a perfect sense of form. The whole concert was a pleasure and shows the Rotterdam to be close to the Concertgebouw, just a notch below; quite a praise considering that the Amsterdam orchestra was voted last year the best of the world.

For Buenos Aires Herald

CD Review: ROSAS DE PULPA ROSAS DE CAL

2011-07-03T18:31:00.000-03:00

The Music of Valdo Sciammarella. Songs and chamber music from Argentina. Diane McNaron, soprano; Heather Coltman, piano. Karen Bentley Pollick, violin; Melanie Richardson Rogers, viola; Craig Hultgren, cello; Adam Bowles, piano. Hoot/Wisdom Recordings, Florida Atlantic University. 2008.

This CD was sent to me by soprano Diana McNaron and it is a precious document of a very good cross-section of Valdo Sciammarella´s chamber production. It is also an act of homage from USA musicians to a valuable Argentine composer.

There are a few good records of Argentine vocal music that have had international distribution, such as those of tenor Raúl Giménez and baritone Víctor Torres. And local Argentine labels such as IRCO and Tradition, as well as Miami-based but Argentine-run Testigo, have given us an interesting discographical repertoire. But in this case it is the welcome and meritorious production of a Florida university and American interpreters that have obviously done a labor of love on behalf of a South American creator.

Valdo Sciammarella was born in 1924, so he is now in his late eighties. Both as teacher, pianist, choir conductor and composer, he has done an immense job over the decades, especially at the Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires.

The pieces selected in the CD come from the Fifties ("Dos canciones" –"Two songs"- 1952 revised 1975; "Piezas breves para piano" -"Small piano pieces"- 1956; and "Cantigas de amigo" –"Songs of my friend"- 1951), the Seventies ("Credo Quartet" for piano and strings, 1972 rev. 1979) and the Eighties ("Cuatro canciones" – "Four songs"- 1988 rev. 1997), so they provide an ample panorama of his sensibility and artisanship. A very well-filled CD, it lasts 75 minutes.

Although "Sciammarella" is an Italian family name, he has always shown much interest in Argentina´s Spanish roots. This is clearly visible in the deliberate archaism of the "Romancillo del niño perdido" ("Ballad of a lost child"). But the second of the "Dos canciones" is based on a poem by the great Chilean Pablo Neruda, beautiful but harsh; in it is the phrase that gives title to this CD, "rosas de pulpa con rosas de cal" ("soft, fleshy roses mixed with roses of limestone dust", according to Kelly Jensen´s translation in the booklet that accompanies the CD).

The "Cantigas de amigo" are quite well-known in Argentina, certainly one of the scores that established the composer´s reputation. With charming texts by Francisco Javier, poet but also a distinguished man of the theatre, it evokes the Medieval "Cantigas" (remember the great compilation "Cantigas de Alfonso el Sabio"). This is again music of subtle charm and Spanish perfume, the only score previously recorded.

The much later "Cuatro canciones" reveals a deeper, metaphysical strain in the composer´s art. An Argentine poet, Francisco Luis Bernárdez, "offers a metaphysical speculation on the permanency of Art", according to Jensen and McNaron, and I quite agree. And then, three of the famous "Rhymes" by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, a true Spanish Romantic."Si al mecer las azules campanillas de tu balcón" ("If when the blue bellflowers on your balcony sway") is traversed by the musical evocation of the wind. Then, his most often quoted rhyme, "Volverán las oscuras golondrinas" ("Once again, the dark swallows will appear"), where the swallows and then the honeysuckle are metaphors of good times past, as the poet laments the end of a love affair. Finally, "Hoy como ayer" ("Today like yesterday"), a disenchanted, bitter poem, set by the composer with tango inflexions, another deep influence on a man that has lived most of his long life in Buenos Aires.

The ten "Piezas breves" are graceful vignettes in the good tradition of the better salon music. Finally, the "Credo quartet" comes curiously enough from a ballet, written in 1972/9 but only premiered in 1990. There´s a tango flavor in the middle movement, "Allegro spiritoso"; the slow movements that begin and end the quartet are meditative, beautiful chamber music.

Sciammarella was never a revolutionary, even in his most dramatic works. In Argentina he is particularly appreciated for his enchanting opera "Marianita limeña", a comedy in colonial Lima on Palma´s "Tradiciones peruanas", with music of vernal freshness and tinged with a natural comprehension of nostalgic times.

The whole record is the work of conscientious, valuable artists. Ms McNaron comes across as a vivid soprano of splendid intonation and beautiful timbre, surely interesting to watch on stage for she has a strong dramatic sense. Only her diction could be improved, though it is clear. She is quite well accompanied by Heather Coltman. There´s also good ensemble work in the quartet.

The CD is nicely recorded, with just enough immediacy, and the booklet is well presented, with good notes on scores and poets and bilingual versions of the poems.

Varied operatic tales: pearl-fishers, Diana the chaste

2011-06-27T22:52:00.001-03:00

            One of the things I love about opera is its endless variety. Of course some basic ideas come again and again: e.g., love triangles. Or simply love and sex in a myriad of different locales and combinations. And yet, how different they can be. Two premieres are vivid proof: believe it or not, the first time the Capital hears Georges Bizet´s "Les pêcheurs de perles" ("The pearl-fishers") in French, an initiative of Juventus Lírica at the Avenida; and the premiere of Martín y Soler´s "L´arbore di Diana" at the Teatro del Cubo by Lírica Lado B, first time an opera of this author is seen here.
            I have an understandable soft spot of "Les pêcheurs de perles", for I proposed its Argentine premiere in French to conductor Antonio Russo back in 1992; I was Director General of the Teatro Argentino of La Plata, in those uncomfortable days when its house was the Teatro Rocha, a converted cinema, and Russo was my Artistic Director. He accepted and we premiered it with Mónica Philibert and Eduardo Ayas with remarkable success. Then and now, I can´t understand why this beautiful music has been heard only once at the Colón, back in 1913 but in Italian. Among those that saw it in 1992 was Boris, and last year he presented it at the Roma. Russo has wanted for years to premiere it in our city, he finally got his way and I´m very glad.
            Mind you, the libretto is weak, a rather insubstantial triangle told by Michel Carré and Eugène Cormon. The same authors had written for Maillart "The fishers of Catania", a similar plot. When they did the libretto for Bizet, the first locale was Mexico and the opera was called "Léila"; they changed afterwards to Ceylon (present Sri Lanka) and the current title. The melodramatic tale is told with too many conventions and lacks backbone, except in a strong choral scene. But the music is often so beautiful that it matters little. The arias for the protagonists, the wonderful duets, certainly stay in the memory and are the very gist of Romantic French opera. Local Orientalist color adds some charm.
            The main parts are quite difficult to sing and the cast I saw was no more than reasonably good. Two of them had already been in the Roma cast: tenor Carlos Ullán (Nadir) and lyric baritone Sebastián Sorarrain. Both should better their French. Ullán looked well but sang with audible strain in the high-lying bits, and Sorarrain needs more body in his tone, though he phrased well; he wasn´t helped by unbecoming makeup. Virginia Wagner isn´t the lyrical soprano with agility that Leila needs, her voice is certainly sustantial but sounds better in dramatic parts (as her recent Suor Angelica); the intense fragments were the best, although she was taxed by the high notes; she acted with conviction. Nourabad was quite well sung by Maximiliano Michailovsky.
            The work of the Chorus was brilliant, for it had been prepared by Russo himself, our best choral conductor. The Orchestra played correctly but didn´t respond with as much enthusiasm as the flexible gestures of the conductor indicated. The production was mostly by a father-daughter team: Florentino Sanguinetti did the stage designs, pleasant but a bit kitschy; María Jaunarena as costume designer had partial success, for Zurga should have looked much more primitive; Florencia Sanguinetti did a traditional production (I mean it positively) at times a little too static; the only surprise was a violent choreographic episode by Julián Ignacio Garcés.
            Most opera lovers know a tiny bit of the music of Vicente Martín y Soler: in the dinner scene of Mozart´s "Don Giovanni", a small band plays for the amusement of the Don; a sprightly tune is heard, and Leporello says: "Bravi! ´Cosa rara´!", mentioning "Una cosa rara", an opera by the Spanish composer that was at the time very famous in Vienna. Now Lírica Lado B, an enterprising young alternative group whose aim is to present eighteenth-century premieres, has brought to us for the first time a complete opera by Martín y Soler: "L´arbore di Diana", libretto by the great Mozart collaborator, Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered in Vienna in 1787. It is a picaresque comedy that opposes the chaste Diana, the Roman goddess of the Hunt, to Amor. The music is light and slight, charming enough and agreeable to know. The text of Da Ponte is witty and full of funny situations.
            The musical side was decently presented though with ups and downs. The 24-piece orchestra, big enough for this music, was conducted with good style by Camilo Santostefano. Of the singers Alejandro Spies stood out as Doristo; a voice of fine timbre used with skill, a good acting presence, the ability to sing recitative at breakneck speed. Diana is terribly difficult to sing, and Patricia Villanova couldn´t quite overcome all hurdles in her big aria, but elsewhere was good enough. Tenor Christian Casaccio was professional, Esteban Manzano couldn´t cope with his high notes, Selene Lara was a pleasant Amor and Milagros Burga a nice Britomarte. The rest were enthusiastic.

Alas, the production was a disaster. We had a campy grotesque instead of tasteful comedy. Horrible clothing, lewd gestures, absurd stage fixtures, an intolerable non-singing part (Matías Pérez), all went against late eighteenth-century Vienna. Producer Diego Rodríguez and his collaborators were wide off the mark.

For Buenos Aires Herald

Necessary renovation in symphonic concert life

2011-06-22T16:09:00.002-03:00

From time to time I have touched upon an essential problem of symphonic concert life: the renovation of the repertoire. I even wrote an article specifically about this during the summer of 2010. The programming of these recent days has been quite positive in this sense.

The Munich Chamber Orchestra has visited us before but rather long ago (I first met her in the times when it was led by Christoph Stepp in 1955, and then by Hans Stadlmair in 1960 and 1965; he kept the post until 1990); this time around, it wasn´t conducted from the podium but led by concertino Daniel Giglberger for this tour; its Principal and Artistic Director is Alexander Liebreich. Mind you, Giglberger has a strong, electric personality, and he communicated that feeling to the whole orchestra. In BA the orchestra was a straight string ensemble plus a harpsichordist, 20-strong; but it has 25 permanent members, so it surely includes oboes and horns at least. Though I prefer that fuller ensemble (it has more variety), their programme was cunningly chosen and very interesting.

It featured pieces by great composers without avantgarde experiments, but managed to give us two premieres: the cantata "Orfeo" ("Nel chiuso centro") by Pergolesi, one of the few authenticated pieces by this short-lived creator famous for two diametrically opposed works: the intermezzo buffo "La serva padrona" and the sad "Stabat Mater". And the string ensemble version of Schönberg´s unusual Second Quartet, which features a soprano voice. In both sang Christiane Oelze in her local debut. But the other pieces included aren´t hackneyed: the arrangement by Rudolf Barshai (as Chamber Symphony in C minor op.110ª) of Shostakovich´s powerful autobiographical Quartet Nº 8, and one of the so-called "Hamburg symphonies" (Nº 1 in G, Wq. 182/1, H 657) by the most talented son of Johann Sebastian Bach: Carl Philipp Emanuel. The concert was offered by the Mozarteum Argentino as part of its two subscription series at the Colón.

I have to state that Oelze, a very well-considered singer in Europe, disappointed me in Pergolesi: the angular, uncomfortable Baroque lines of the very personal writing seem to have nonplussed her, for there were many unclean moments in her singing. But she came into her own in the two movements of the Schönberg quartet that are written on symbolist poet Stefan George´s texts: "Litany" and "Rapture"; in the second, considered the first step to atonalism in the composer´s production, she sings: "I feel the atmosphere of other planets", and indeed it is so aesthetically in this astonishing 1908 score, innovative both in its harmony and in its inclusion of a soprano voice. And here Oelze was very musical and intelligent, giving its full due to the meaning of words and to the intricacies of the vocality.

The orchestra was so homogeneous in its playing that I can only praise them in general lines, admiring their capacity to give us equally superb renderings of a Baroque (Pergolesi), a Classicist of very advanced ideas (C.P.E.Bach) and two very different Twentieth-century composers (Schönberg and Shostakovich). If my personal taste runs to the original quartet versions, I also enjoy these amplifications of texture. And the Munich Chamber Orchestra responded with quicksilver rapidity to the inflexions marked by its concertino, never missing a step.

The encore gave us in Oelze a poised soprano singing a famous Baroque slow piece: "Ombra mai fu" from Handel´s "Serse". It may be useful to remind veterans that this aria, so often bowdlerized as sacred, is in fact a serene ode to to a plantain with a sarcastic twist.

Due to a trip I couldn´t hear two concerts by the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, and I was sorry to miss Reinhold Glière´s imaginative and colorful Symphony Nº 3, "Ilya Murometz". On June 9 young Brazilian Carlos Prazeres took over with the same programme the concert assigned originally to Carlos Dourthe. The comparative rarity was Ginastera´s Concerto for harp (1964-5), a rather strange opposition between beautiful lyric passages quite apposite for the soloist and savage explosions in malambo style. Lucrecia Jancsa was the exquisite player, always musical and sensitive.

Prazeres proved to be a powerhouse of intensity and precision. This worked very well in Ginastera and in the wonderful "Dances from Galantha" by Zoltan Kodály, but admitting that it was very exciting, I do feel that Mendelssohn´s Symphony Nº 3, "Scottish", needs to be more expansive at times. The Phil was in fine fettle.

The following concert had been originally programmed to be the first of a subscription series, but this was cancelled due to the conflict between the orchestras and the Government. Now an uneasy truce prevails, and the Phil is playing, so that programme was offered on June 16. It featured the premiere of Michael Torke´s "Rapture", for percussion and orchestra. The composer (American, born 1961) is supposed to be a "post-minimalist", but I would take out the "post". The three parts, called "Drums and woods", "Mallets" (marimba) and "Metals", were brilliantly played by Ángel Frette, and the monotonous, relentless orchestral music, vaguely Caribbean, was "danced" by Arturo Diemecke on the podium.

But the substance was elsewhere, in the toughest Mahler Symphony, Nº 6, "Tragic". Diemecke again showed his amazing memory and command, though some liberties in rhythm seemed excessive (especially the "ritenutos"). The orchestra responded with concentration and accomplishment. No small feat in this gigantic score.

Puccini´s problematic “Trittico” gets a wet production

2011-06-14T09:52:00.003-03:00

Giacomo Puccini´s "Trittico" is made up of three completely contrasting pieces each lasting 55 minutes: the fully "verista" "Il Tabarro" ("The Tabard"), a sordid social drama; "Suor Angelica", the melodramatic account of a suicide and a miracle; and "Gianni Schicchi", a sparkling medieval comedy about greed. They were written between 1915 and 1918 (war years). The latter has been very successful on its own, as the only and accomplished comedy by Puccini. The others have always been less praised and with reason, especially in the case of the weak "Suor Angelica", although in recent years (and I agree) "Il Tabarro" has gained some currency.

The Colón and other opera companies have programmed the separate pieces with some assiduity but only the Colón has offered the complete "Trittico" and it figures, for it is expensive to put on with its three very different settings and the vast amount of artists it needs: 38 characters, and double the number if you include members of the second cast and covers. The last time was in 1997 with Sherrill Milnes and the vastly superior production by Fabrizio Melano and David Reppa as compared with the one inflicted upon the current audience by Stefano Poda (debut).

"Wet production", says the title of this article. Indeed it was: in one of those incongruous "concept ideas" that pass for production in Europe nowadays, Poda asked of his stage designer to provide an ample pond smack across the stage, and if it makes a bit of sense in "Il Tabarro" (the action is supposed to happen in or near a barge on the Seine in Paris), it is completely nonsensical in "Gianni Schicchi" and even more so in "Suor Angelica": to see Buoso Donati´s relatives carousing and splashing each other, or the poor nuns wading through water, is certainly nonsense.

Given the special character of this Puccini opus, it is relevant to analyze each opera in turn. Matters were aggravated by the equally absurd contradiction of Puccini´s intentions, ending with "Suor Angelica" instead of with "Gianni Schicchi": we go morosely home instead of laughing.

"IL TABARRO"
Social opera isn´t at all common: the somber tale traced by Giuseppe Adami´s libretto gives a stark picture of life in the docks of Paris at the start of the Twentieth-Century: the adultery that ends in crime is powerful and the atmosphere, believable, although diluted by such things as the singer of ditties and the duo of young lovers, charming episodes peppered on the main drama, as are the character ariettas of the ragpicker Frugola. Michele, the owner of the barge; his young wife, Giorgetta; and her lover, the stevedore Luigi, are true to life and sing powerful music.

There was a double cast. Giorgetta was sung by Amarilli Nizza, an interesting Italian soprano (debut) whose timbre is rather too incisive but with true verista instincts, and by our Haydée Dabusti, making an unfairly delayed first appearance at the Colón and singing with beautiful timbre, fine line and convincing acting. Both Micheles were admirable: the distinguished Catalan Juan Pons in his third visit to BA, still keeping his quality after a career of more than three decades, and Luis Gaeta in a perfectly delineated and sung impersonation, full of contained anger. Luigi needs a full dramatic voice and Carl Tanner certainly delivered powerful high notes with his burly frame; he looks Nordic, though, and his singing wasn´t Italianate (the hand programme biography didn´t reveal his nationality). Fernando Chalabe, in the all-Argentine cast, acted woodenly but gave out clean Medieterranean sounds and fine diction. Polish contralto Agnes Zwierko´s deep tones weren´t always accompanied with enough characterisation in her Frugola, although she was much better than Alicia Cecotti. Her husband, Talpa, was well taken by Mario De Salvo and Christian Peregrino, and the other stevedore, Tinca, was similarly convincing as sung by Gabriel Renaud and Gabriel Centeno, the latter with fresher voice. The young voices of Duilio Smiriglia, Marina Silva, Oriana Favaro and Santiago Bürgi gave pleasure in episodic parts.

Richard Buckley is a seventyish American conductor with vast experience; he made a distinguished debut, always in command and in style, extracting fine and blended sound from the orchestra. But the end result was compromised by the vagaries of the production, where we were asked to believe that somewhow the distant barge and the proscenium acting area were the same thing, and the constant darkness as well as the morose movements of vast quantities of extras were excessive.

"GIANNI SCHICCHI"

The libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, inspired by a couple of lines in Dante´s "Inferno" about the protagonist (only reference to the "Divina Commedia" in the whole "Trittico"), is funny, witty and savage in its satire of greedy relatives; we certainly agree with Schicchi´s ruse, for after all he gives a good many lands and florins to the unworthy family, and if he keeps the best for himself (house, mule and mills) he also gives his support to Rinuccio´s and Lauretta´s marriage. And the music shows that Puccini could do comedy wonderfully (much as "Falstaff" proves in the case of Verdi).

I never thought I could be almost bored by "Schicchi", but producer and lighting designer Poda accomplished this "feat". Apart from the infantile jokes and the silly water effects, we weren´t given the merest inklings of Florence in a work that celebrates the city explicitly, there was constant darkness where there should be light, and (as in the other two works) the costumes were relentlessly black, as well as completely neutral. I found myself sorely missing the charm and appositeness of the production by Jorge de Lassaletta in a production at the Colón about six years ago for the theatre´s Institute, with its scrupulous evocation of Medieval times and infectious sense of fun. Here Medieval times were inexistent, the charm and quaintness of episodes such as the Notary´s and the Doctor´s went for nothing, even when sung by talented artists (Sebastiano De Filippi, Fernando Grassi). Poda didn´t age Simone, who is "the oldest", as the relatives keep repeating, and didn´t try to give Schicchi´s appearance some similitude with Rinuccio´s description of him. Only in the scene where, up in a gigantic bed, Schicchi dictates his testament, was there any approximation to the fun of the piece, although the collaboration of the group of artists playing the relatives was impeccable, they really worked as a team.

Pons sang well as Schicchi, but his acting had less point than expected; he was bettered by Gaeta, an excellent actor, though even he was subdued as compared with his splendid job a couple of years back for Buenos Aires Lírica. Both the petite Beatriz Díaz (Spanish, debut) and Eliana Bayón sang sweetly "O mio babbino caro", that plum of an aria. Darío Schmunck was his reliable self as Rinuccio. Of the relatives Zwierko (Zita) and De Salvo (Simone) have the only parts that go beyond ensemble work; most of the artists did well, although I disagree with Osvaldo Peroni´s exaggeration. Buckley again showed his acumen.

SUOR ANGELICA

I dislike this piece with its mediocre libretto, for it gives us bathos rather than pathos, and a full half of it is dramatically irrelevant. The opera properly starts when already twenty minutes have gone by, in the crucial scene between the Aunt-Princess and Angelica, sent in typical seventeenth-century fashion to a convent and a life of penitence due to illicit love. But after that things deteriorate with Angelica´s suicide and particularly the kitschy miracle in which she is pardoned and sent to Paradise to join her dead infant son. There are some good Puccinian moments but not enough, and we frankly don´t care about the little incidents between nuns and their authorities. For some reason there was a cut in the score, eliminating the part of the nurse-nun.

But an intense artist in the lead part can´t fail to impress, and both Nizza and the Argentine Virginia Wagner (who lives in Europe) acted and sung the arduous part with fierce emotion and fine top register. Zwierko (debut) was a vocal rather than a dramatic presence as the Princess. I would single out in the smaller parts the fine voices of Bayón, María Luján Miravbelli, Favaro, Victoria Gaeta , Laura Polverini and Florencia Machado. I was disappointed with Cecotti, Lucila Ramos Mañé and Fabiola Masino.

Again Buckley was a tower of strength and again Poda and his collaborators (Daniel Feijoo, stage designer, and Cristina Pineda, costumes) failed to meet the needs of the work. "Suor Angelica" is static by itself and certainly needs all the help it can have to become alive; you need white costumes (they are specified), not black, a stage area that agrees with Forzano´s specifications (it didn´t), as fast a motion as allowed by the libretto, and some commonsensical regard to the few moments of action provided by the text. So I went out crushed and unhappy by such sad misconceptions. Better luck next "Trittico".

A rich harvest of interesting concerts

2011-06-13T12:42:00.002-03:00

Before and after a trip to Canada and China, I witnessed numerous worthwhile concerts in our city. I thank my colleagues for filling in and keeping readers informed during the three weeks of my absence.

I will start by commending a splendid concert by the National Symphony under Pedro Calderón last Friday, and paradoxically condemning it as well. On the plus side: both orchestra and conductor were at their best in two masterpieces, Alberto Ginastera´s "Variaciones Concertantes" (to my mind his best score) and Anton Bruckner´s Fourth Symphony, "Romantic". What a pleasure to hear such assured playing in solid, wise readings, impeccably built. But there was a down side: for the original programme was wholly devoted to Bruckner´s Fifth Symphony, his most complex work, and for the second consecutive year it was scratched, due to the continuing disagreement between the providers of the orchestral materials (Melos ex Ricordi) and the Nation´s Culture Secretariat (I referred to the problem in an earlier article). It is ruining the year´s programming and I think it is a major problem. (And by the way, I dislike writing programme notes –as I did- that don´t get published).

The Midday Concerts of the Mozarteum Argentino at the Gran Rex are an established institution that offers quality free music to thousands of people. The concert by the Cuarteto Petrus offered two French scores: the marvelous and well-known Ravel Quartet, and a true rarity, Édouard Lalo´s Quartet in E flat major, Op. 19, an Argentine premiere in its original version (he would revise it later as Op.45). The Petrus is made up of four players of equal high level: violinists Pablo Saraví and Hernán Briático, violist Silvina Álvarez and cellist Gloria Pankaeva . They are also fine stylists and understand the hues and inflexions of French music. Lalo´s Quartet is no masterpiece but it has its attractive points and was worth making its acquaintance.

Readers know I am an enthusiast of the Academia Bach de Buenos Aires, and again I enthuse about their first concert of the season, in which the artists under Mario Videla gave us two premieres: Sonata à 4 in F major by Johann Friedrich Fasch, for the rare combination of oboe, violin, horn and thorough-bass, and Johann Sebastian Bach´s Cantata Nº 88, "Siehe, ich will viel Fischer aussenden" ("See, I will send many fishermen"), for soloists (no choir), 2 oboes (oboe and oboe d´amore), 2 horns, strings and thorough-bass. The Fasch is concise, pleasant Baroque; the Cantata is in two parts and seven pieces, with especially valuable arias for baritone and for tenor and a lovely duet for soprano and countertenor featuring the oboe d´amore. The best soloists were Alejandro Meerapfel (baritone) and Mónica Capra (soprano), countertenor Damián Ramírez was correct and tenor Matías Tomasetto, a bit green. The players were excellent, particularly Andrés Spiller (oboes) and Fernando Chiappero (horn), and Videla was as usual a first-rate Bach connoisseur. Just one objection: too little music (32 minutes), too much talk by Videla (over an hour), even if most of it was useful.

A curious cultural initiative called Tandem has brought us French artists and sent Argentine ones to Paris, but the "modus operandi" seems to me quite incorrect: a major French pianist made his debut at the Colón but it was a closed performance by invitation, and the theatre was only half full. Theoretically the City Government was in "tandem" with the French Embassy for the presentation of Bertrand Chamayou, replacing the octogenarian and famous Aldo Ciccolini. Well, the 30-year-old Chamayou proved a first-class talent, with a dazzling technique coupled with great sensitivity. The First Part was given over to Franz Liszt: the arrangement of Mendelssohn´s "In the wings of song", and fragments from "Years of peregrination": three from Switzerland (the charming lightness of "At the edge of a fountain", the terrifying difficulty of "Storm", the brooding ultra-Romantic "Valley of Obermann") and the three pieces called "Venezia e Napoli" (from Italy, of course) ending on a scintillating "Tarantella", played with disarming ease. In the Second Part the artist gave us a deeply considered "Prelude, Chorale and Fugue" by Franck, and two works by Saint-Saëns: the rarely done "Bells of Las Palmas" and the wonderful "Etude in the form of a waltz", a "tour de force" in Chamayou´s hands. Two Liszt arrangements were the encores: "Widmung" by Schumann and "The Maiden´s Wish" by Chopin.

It is a rare thing to hear cello duets: such was the treat offered at the Hungarian Embassy for an invited audience by a father-son team: Csaba and Zoltan Onczay (the father played Dvorák´s Concerto at the recent Ushuaia Festival). They also played for the general public and with a different programme for Ars Hungarica. Both are accomplished, though with a plus of firmness and style in the case of the father. A very interesting Sonata by the unknown Jean Barrière (1707-47) was followed by a Vivaldi Sonata, in this case with harpsichordist Sylvia Leidemann, who then played a piece from the Chiquitos (Bolivia) repertoire. A rather quirky Suite Op.l6 by David Popper preceded an arrangement by Csaba Onczay of Paganini´s Variations on a theme by Rossini (from "Mosè"), very difficult.

There are each week in Buenos Aires a myriad of small concerts in extremely varied venues and most aren´t reviewed, but whenever I visit some of them, I often get much pleasure.

For Buenos Aires Herald

A sadly absurd condensed “Ring” at the Colón in 2012

2011-06-13T12:38:00.001-03:00

Richard Wagner´s epical Tetralogy "The Ring of the Nibelungs" is the most ambitious and trascendent work in the history of opera, a marvelous and complex, long dramatic musical narration made up of a prologue ("The Rhine Gold") and three so-called "journeys" ("The Walkyrie", "Siegfried" and "The Twilight of the Gods"). Uncut it lasts about 16 hours in four days, and is offered that way not only in Bayreuth but in several big theatres of the world, although the Colón, for reasons of singers´ stamina limitations, indeed cuts at least an hour, which leaves gaping holes in the narrative. To put on the complete "Ring" in a season marks the strength and organization of a theatre; the Colón could do it in the Sixties, in recent decades it has been reduced to two at a time, or even one at a time, and the last one was interrupted after "The Walkyrie".

The "Ring" is an instant bestseller worldwide, one of the hottest tickets, a sure sign that even in these twitter days there´s still lots of people that appreciate huge sagas; the Tolkien craze is another. But the current Colón sees fit to hitch on to an absurd and sad parody, the "compacted Ring". I can´t believe that Cord Garben, producer for Deutsche Grammophon of New York´s Metropolitan Opera´s "Ring", should team with the outrageous great-granddaughter of Richard, Katharina, who will be the producer (current Co-Director of the Bayreuth Festival, where she is insulting the composer´s memory with each new production), but those are the facts. Garben made the condensation to seven hours that is supposed to celebrate the bicentenary of the composer´s birth in 2013.

There have been in recent years several projects of another type: the telescoping of the best symphonic fragments of the "Ring" and of other Wagnerian operas, even taking some vocal fragments and eliminating the voices, so as to make from the original operatic materials huge symphonic poems; it certainly doesn´t replace the operas, but the desire to wallow in the magnificent melodies and harmonies imagined by Wagner without having to follow the text is comprehensible in symphonic fans. And in fact, several were played by our National Symphony. I don´t mind, as long as I can have the operas done as they should. But the "compacted Ring" is nothing of the kind, even admitting Garben´s expertise in this repertoire. Of course I haven´t heard it, nobody has, but the idea is in itself a terrible one. For Wagner´s huge canvas has to have breadth, detail and density to produce its full effect, and the music is a fantastically intricate maze of Leitmotiven (leading motives) which hold together the tremendous edifice. Any cut diminishes it, but cuts of the gigantic length proposed (nine hours less) will give us a barebones Wagner.

The idea is obnoxious anywhere, but particularly here. It will be presented in Berlin, a city that often sees the complete "Ring", so at least there they have a choice: those that are appalled by the idea will simply not go. But here… It means that the "compacted Ring" is all we are going to have for quite a few years, for in typical fashion I can see some ignoramuses saying that we´ve already had the "Ring", let´s leave a complete "Ring" for the far future. But the last time we had an almost complete "Ring" was in the lapse 1995-98! The great disruptions of the Colón´s productivity and current news about off-Colón production certainly aren´t good signs for Wagnerites, and they should strongly oppose this disastrous project. Because it´s wrong and because we have been neglecting Wagner for too long.

If the Colón wants to do something worthwhile next year, let it put on "The Mastersingers", an absolute masterpiece absent since 1980. "Parsifal" in 2013 (last, 1986!), and start in 2014 a new Ring, two a year. And in 2016, "Tannhäuser" (last, 1994). This would be a decent rehabilitation plan.

Pedro Pablo García Caffi, by the time this article is published, will have signed in Berlin the right to have the world premiere of the "compact Ring" on November 27 at the Colón. Cecilia Scalisi is the coordinator. From there the project will go out on world tour during 2013, the year of Wagner´s bicentenary. The bright marketing idea is supposed to put the Colón in the news. Of course the project is another sign of the degradation of Europe but there´s no reason for us imitate the worst of Europe if we have some artistic sense. And some talent for long-term planning. Can this be stopped yet? or cancelled? I hope it is.

For Buenos Aires Herald

A bevy of symphonic and chamber music

2011-06-13T12:36:00.002-03:00

The Colón´s Resident Orchestra (Orquesta Estable) was supposed to play under Frédéric Chaslin (debut) the first of five subscription concerts on May 21; the decision of the theatre´s Director Pedro Pablo García Caffi was to eliminate the subscription due to the conflict with the orchestras, but the concert was offered, albeit with its date changed to April 30; the change was due to a rearrangement of the dates for "The Magic Flute". And it presented Chaslin, a fortyish French artist, in the triple quality of conductor, pianist and composer.

The result was no more than correct. The Orchestra played dutifully but dully, especially in Beethoven´s Concerto Nº 5, "Emperor", where Chaslin conducted from the piano, his back to the public. He showed a good orthodox technique, apart from a few slips, and a reasonable sense of style. As composer, he gave the world premiere of his "Gypsy Dance", to be added to his opera "Wuthering Heights". In 7 minutes he goes, according to the author´s own description, from a Hungarian style to Romanian, Yiddish and jazzy; the piece seems written in 1930 for a Hollywood movie such as Rozsa or Korngold used to compose, but it´s quite pleasant and professional. We´ve certainly heard much better versions of the Fantastic Symphony by Berlioz, but also much worse ones; it was a decent traversal lacking the electricity and controlled wildness the marvelous piece needs.

Unfortunately, the National Symphony (Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional) is suffering from a different sort of conflict: the Nation´s Culture Secretariat fell many months behind in their payment of rentals of orchestral score materials and Melos (ex Ricordi) put its foot down: or full payment or no scores; the Administration paid almost all ($ 130.000) but about $ 10.000 are still going therough the bureaucracy. But Melos is adamant and still refuses renting until all is paid, which seems to me an extreme position. The result: a cataract of cancellations that is ruining the season. I hope both sides will come to their senses and fast.

The concert conducted by Pedro Calderón at the Auditorio de Belgrano on April 29 started with a splendid performance of Beethoven´s "Coriolan" at just the right tempo, not too slow. Alas, this replaced Gilardi´s "Obertura tritemática", due to the above situation. But we have already lost such important things as the premiere of Ives´ Fourth Symphony or the revival of Janácek´s "Taras Bulba". The sombre, beautiful Brahms Rhapsody for contralto, male choir and orchestra, based on Goethe´s "Winter trip to the Harz Mountains", was very well handled by the conductor and the male section of the Coro Polifónico Nacional (Darío Marchese) but Mónica Sardi is more a mezzo than a contralto and lacked deepness for the music.

The 55-minute "Manfred Symphony" by Tchaikovsky is one of his most impressive scores, even if too prolix; but so much of the music is deeply moving and tremendously dramatic that it´s certainly a fine companion to another Byron score, "Harold in Italy" by Berlioz. I found Calderón at his very best, not only a master builder but also a deeply involved interpreter that got admirable results from a communicative and fully professional orchestra. I only cavil at the weakness of the organ in the final minutes.

Nuova Harmonia gave us a successful chamber music concert for the start of its season on April 26 at the Coliseo. Two of the four best works of the combination of string quartet and piano (piano quintet) were offered: Franck´s and Brahms´ . The other two are Schumann´s and Dvorák´s, and of the latter we had as encore the lovely Scherzo from his quintet. Wonderful music with a master pianist, Paolo Restani, and a fairly good quartet, that of the Milan Scala, where I found the first violin a bit below par and the cello as the one with the most beautiful tone. The tempi and phrasing were throughout very musical, with Restani a tower of strength.

In recent years I wasn´t in BA for Easter Week, and so I missed the first three seasons of the meritorious Festival at San Isidro; this time I was available, and happy to encounter their "Camino del Santo". The Artistic Director is pianist José Luis Juri under the auspices of the Cultural Directress of the San Isidro Municipality, Eleonora Jaureguiberry. All concerts are free. A total of eight events, of which I selected three. Among those not selected (basically because the whole Festival happened between April 20 and 24) the Mozart Requiem, the Camerata Bariloche, pianist Tomás Alegre and soprano Soledad de la Rosa, all of them valuable. But the three I heard showed the seriousness of the endeavor.

At the ample hall of good acoustics of the School San Juan el Precursor, fronting one of the laterals of the Cathedral, the unusual Quartet "La Cofradía del Santo" gave us on April 21 two Brahms masterpieces: his late Trio for clarinet, cello and piano and his First Piano Quartet. Unfortunately Juri, one of our best professionals, was running a high fever and surmounting the recent death of his brother; but the Festival is his creation and he staunchly stood up to the challenge. His touch is normally stronger, but the sense of chamber phrasing and the fine technique were there, as well as the camaraderie with Belgian clarinettist Geert Baeckelandt and our notable Argentine cellist Claudio Baraviera (who lives in Spain) in the Trio, and with Baraviera, Elías Gurevich, violin, and the invited violist Gabriel Falconi in the Quartet. Some too incisive playing from violin and viola and overhard forte high notes on the clarinet were drawbacks, but the result was greater than the sum of the parts.

On the following day and at the same venue, the "pièce de résistance" was the arduous Bartók Sonata for two pianos and percussion, where Juri and Fernanda Morello did fine work accompanied by three good players from the Colón Orchestra. I didn´t like the arrangement by Gustavo Alfieri of Ginastera´s Suite from "Estancia" for piano and percussion , though it was well played by Morello and Alfieri. There were also pieces by Debussy and Scelsi.

I have nothing but high praise for the all-Bach recital of French violinist Virginie Robilliard at that very special venue, the Cathedral. Sonata Nº 1 and the first two Partitas were beautifully played, with fine articulation at all speeds and firm solid sound, as well as fierce intellectual concentration. She played the monumental Chaconne of Partita Nº 2 with the bow of her amateur violinist uncle, who had received it from a French luthier; an anecdote, but a warm one (the uncle was present) in a recital that showed the power of Bachian communication.

For Buenos Aires Herald

A Russian ballet and the Budapest Festival Orchestra

2011-05-27T23:14:00.000-03:00

I wrote about the Colón Ballet recently and promised a review of a Russian ballet offered at the Teatro Argentino of La Plata. Here it is: Aram Khachaturian´s "Spartacus" in the choreography of Vilen Galstyan. It was a revival, for the premiere had taken place in late last December. A big epic piece, it was originally a typical product of the Grigorovich years at the Moscow Bolshoi, and we saw it in BA when that great company visited us more than two decades ago. Later in 1996 there was another very good version by the Novossibirsk Ballet featuring our Maximiliano Guerra in one of his best roles. And earlier, in 1978, there was another choreography for the Colón Ballet by Attilio Labis.

The Argentino´s version by Galstyan was revived by José Luis Lozano, who last year was the Director of this theatre´s ballet; he is now replaced by Mario Galizzi, an artist of vast reputation. I am sorry that in the reprogramming a very important ballet was discarded, the first time in more than sixty years that Delibes´"Sylvia" would have been seen; it is urgent that either the Colón or the Argentino should offer it, because it is of the best ballet music of the Nineteenth-Century.

You will probably remember if you are a veteran the "Spartacus" movie with Kirk Douglas, and now a new TV series is announced: the story of the Thracian leader of the slaves against the Roman Empire´s oppression is a strong and attractive one and was the subject of an excellent novel by Howard Fast; the ballet´s plot was concocted by Nicolai Volkov and has a quartet of principals: Spartacus, his beloved Phrygia, the Roman centurion Crassus and his lover Aegina. And immense groups of dancers: slaves, shepherds, Gaditans (from Gades, now Cádiz), participants in an orgy, gladiators, soldiers. It is a huge show of love and death, of the fight for freedom, with the grandiloquent, "Soviet Hollywood" music of Khachaturian (the love duet of Spartacus and Phrygia is famous), sometimes kitschy but always effective.

Galstyan´s revision follows the general lines of Grigorovich´s original, with athletic, vital dancing, big symmetrical groups, exalted love duets and a sense of show. The local designers understood the spirit of the piece and followed the Bolshoi´s aesthetics: María José Besozzi in the stage designs, Mariano Toffi in the costumes and the lighting of Roberto Traferri gave evidence of solid professionalism and of the resources of the Argentino.

There were two and sometimes three casts; I comment on the one of April 17. Both principal male roles need powerful physiques and virile dancing. Whilst not in the same league of the Guerra of 1996 or especially Vasiliev, Bautista Parada gave a good, solid account of Spartacus, and his foil as Crassus, Nahuel Prozzi, was appropriately visceral and impetuous. The fragile, sensitive Phrygia and the energetic Aegina were well-taken by Agustina Verde and Stefania Vallone, dancers of good looks and fine technique. Not all the members of the vast Corps de Ballet are quite up to par, but most are, and the numerous group scenes had vitality and reasonable mutual adjustment.

The young conductor Darío Domínguez Xodo showed visible progress in this often loud and strongly rhythmic music, difficult to play with real virtuosity; the Orchestra did pretty well. Musically I certainly find Khachaturian´s "Gayaneh" (done here decades ago by the Armenian Ballet) vastly better than "Spartacus".

In this article I also want to deal with a valuable concert. The Mozarteum Argentino gave much pleasure at the Colón in the first of its season presenting the return visit of the Budapest Festival Orchestra led by its founder Ivan Fischer. I could only hear the second of two different programmes, but it was enough to appreciate again the high qualities of this organism, already met in 2003 and 2007. Fischer is still relatively young (in his late fifties) and adheres to the same principles as he did when he founded the Orchestra (with Zoltan Kocsis) in 1983: a fresh, communicative approach, a palpable joy of making music live in the players and himself, a very high technical standard.

The unusual physical layout was interesting and functions beautifully: basses behind the woodwinds, first violins in front of the seconds, cellos and violas in the middle, trumpets, trombones and tympani to the right of the woodwinds, and horns to the left. The result was rich, deep and clear. All sectors are splendid but I particularly admired the vital, burnished sound of the violins. As I expected, the artists were wonderful in Dvorák: the rarely played and charming "Prague Waltzes" and three of his marvelous Slavonic Dances: op.46 Nº 2, and op.72 Nos. l and 8 (the hand programme had the op.72 items wrong, the other way around, 8 and 1).

Pianist Dejan Lazic dazzled the public in the 16-minute "Konzertstück" by Weber, a quicksilver score leading directly to Mendelssohn: wonderfully dexterous but also extremely sensitive and musical, Lazic is certainly outstanding (he had been here with another orchestra back in 2002 –or was it 2003?). His encore was a Scriabinesque Fantastic Dance by Shostakovich.

I do find Schumann´s Third Symphony ("Rhenish") too heavy and blocky in texture, but Fischer´s straightforward reading presented it in the best possible light. Two charming encores: Brahms´ Hungarian Dance Nº 10, and Leroy Anderson´s Blue Tango.

A contrast of Verdian and Handelian opera

2011-05-01T23:28:00.001-03:00

Recent weeks have given us a sample of contrasting styles in opera. Two operas by Verdi were offered: "Il Trovatore" at the Avenida (Juventus Lyrica), and a concert version of "I due Foscari" at the Roma of Avellaneda. And a student outfit called Arcana tackled quite a challenge: the Argentine premiere of Handel´s "Alcina" at the Teatro Empire.

It has often been said that "Il Trovatore" needs the four best Verdians of the world to really dazzle. Also –and it´s true- that the complications of its plot are almost unfathomable. But it remains an inextinguishable river of marvelous melody.

We almost had the best possible cast in the world at the Colón in 1969: L.Price, Cossotto, Bergonzi and Cappuccilli. Of course, Juventus Lyrica´s purpose is very different than the international Colón of the Sixties: a good local young cast. Is this quite enough for this opera? There were two casts, and I certainly don´t think the Leonora of Sabrina Cirera up to par: the heavy vibrato and at times uncertain intonation puts her out of court, even if she had incidental good moments. On the other hand, I have long hoped that Laura Cáceres were given a plum role, and she finally got it with Azucena: the voice is quite adequate for the old gypsy, she has a sense of line and acted with intensity both in gesture and vocal inflexion.

Fabián Veloz, whose physical proportions are assuming alas a Falstaffian girth, sang with true and beautiful tone his Conte di Luna. Manrico is one of the toughest tenor leads, although people put too much emphasis on the famous high Cs of "Di quella pira". I commend Darío Sayegh´s courage and firmness, but his voice in the higher reaches becomes shrill. Maximiliano Michailovsky´s arid voice barely coped with Ferrando´s intervention in the Prologue. Good work in the bit roles from Claudia Montagna, Ulises Hanchen and Juan Feico.

I found Ana D´Anna´s staging very pallid, with a boring unit set that didn´t adapt to the different situations and undramatic, stock gestures; I was happy, however, that she didn´t change the Medieval ambience into a frigid twentieth-centur. A partial compensation to the conventionalities were the costumes of Ponchi Morpurgo, not quite as good as I expected but still better than what we generally see.

An interesting and unusual point was that the Chorus was prepared by the orchestral conductor, Antonio M. Russo, and it certainly showed: the famous choruses sounded out accurate and Verdian. But the orchestra was too contained and pat, lacking electricity and with exaggerated pauses.

Two years ago the Colón presented at the Coliseo "I due Foscari", but that version, decent enough musically, was ruined by the staging of Louis Désiré. The Roma interpretation showed that a concert presentation can work if the artists are involved dramatically and have the right vocal means. And both factors were present. The piece, based on Lord Byron, lacks variety but is certainly strong and intense recounting the tragedy of the two Foscari, father and son, in the Venice of the Council of Ten.

A welcome switch of dates allowed me to hear a talented young Greek baritone with the looks of a Don Giovanni, arguably too young for the Dux Foscari but certainly musical and interesting: Aris Argiris. He grew into the part and was impressive in the final scene. Leonardo Pastore presented an anguished and well-sung Jacopo Foscari. And Haydée Dabusti showed again that in this sort of dramatic Verdi part she has the right style, the no-holds-barred attack and the technical ability such as the part of Lucrezia Contarini needs. Good supporting work from Guadalupe Larzabal, Luciano Straguzzi and Cristian Mella. The sum of four different choirs paradoxically wasn´t enough, for the singing was tentative and backward. But the Avellaneda Municipal Symphony responded passably well to the convinced enthusiasm of conductor César Tello.

"Alcina" is one of the very best Handel operas and one I eagerly awaited for decades, knowing as I do the splendid recordings of Boult with Sutherland (1960) and Hickox with Auger (1985). It is paradoxical that the Argentine premiere came from a student group, Arcana, of the IUNA (Conservatorio López Buchardo), for it deserves the honors of a full scale staging with a picked specialist cast. "Alcina" is one of three Handelian operas based on Ludovico Ariosto´s "Orlando Paladino". It is based on a sort of Circe, a beautiful witch that is highly erotic but also changes men into beasts.

The complete version lasts 3 hours 20 minutes; the one I saw, 2 hours 10 minutes: the cuts were recitatives, ballets and arias. The staging by Laura Gutman was very poor, but the small orchestra (eleven members) sounded well under Andrés Gerszenzon. Of the seven singers the best was Juan Pablo Pacchasochi as Melisso (bass). Tenor Emmanuel Faraldo sounded tentative and countertenor Damián Ramírez (Ruggiero), wildly exaggerated. The best of the women was María Cristina Zuccala as Bradamante. Marina Brengi was nice as Oberto. The two witches, Alcina and Morgana, were charming to see but not always to hear: Ayelén Mose (Morgana) was very shrill at the beginning, later improving, and María Clara Maiztegui made a brave but not always convincing effort to master the long and difficult leading part. But the initiative was valid and I was glad to have the chance to hear "Alcina" live.

For Buenos Aires Herald

The Colón Ballet is back

2011-04-23T22:42:00.002-03:00

We have two big state-run ballet companies within a 70-km. range: the Colón and the Argentino. The first had been in sore trouble during 2010; the second had a normal season. Now auspiciously both are active. ( I will write about the Argentino in another article).

As readers are probably aware, the Colón Ballet had a horrid year, with cancellations all over the place and open conflict. The main problem was the quality of both floors: those of the stage and of the rehearsal space. The dancers insisted that they were too hard and inflexible and that they produced lesions, and a big group refused to dance under such conditions. Colón Director Pedro Pablo García Caffi didn´t accept the claim and cancelled the remaining season after the second title of the year. But later (too late) he had second thoughts and said that although the dancers were not right, he would import two state-of-the-art Harlequin floors. Well, one of them arrived and was installed; the other languishes in our customs in one of those recurring and maddening episodes of administrative silliness through the decades.

This year the orchestras are in conflict, although they are now finally playing, but as I told in a recent article, matters aren´t solved and could become unhinged again any moment. And the "light at the end of the tunnel" is getting dimmer, as weeks go by without a solution and frustration grows. In early March García Caffi said in a press conference that there would be no subscription series for opera, ballet or the Buenos Aires Philharmonic. But he did say that there would be ballet performances, if necessary with recorded music. As it happens, the precarious arrangement with the orchestras provided the ballet with the Resident Orchestra (Orquesta Estable) for the first title of the year, the Triple Bill called "Neoclassical Trilogy".

Meanwhile, the fact of having just one new floor complicated matters; it seems the floor is adequate for there have been no complaints from the dancers, but the same Harlequin has had to be used for both the rehearsal room and the stage; blessedly, it can be transported, otherwise we were in trouble. However, and showing again what arbitrariness prevails at the Colón, dancers did complain of insufficient rehearsal because apparently the authorities were waiting for the conflict with the orchestras to arrive at the present arrangement. What is the credibility, then, of the Colón´s Director saying that rehearsals and performances would take place anyway, with or without the orchestra? And as the programme was quite interesting but difficult, some leniency is in order in this review.

Once all this is said and taken into account, however, I must say I enjoyed the show and that it was moving to see with what enthusiasm the whole Ballet intervened. The concept was right: three Neoclassical pieces (one of them a premiere) by valuable choreographers, all of them dead, put on by reliable specialists in their styles. I have pleasant memories of the distant Colón premiere of "Nuestros valses" by the Venezuelan Vicente Nebrada, on charming waltzes by his compatriot Teresa Carreño. Five pas de deux interlaced by transitions led by a couple in red (there´s a different color for each couple) give us a tasteful and charming succession of refined salon dancing. And they were very nicely done, especially by Silvina Perillo and Federico Fernández (red) and by Natalia Pelayo and Alejandro Parente (I saw the cast of April 19). Leonardo Marconi was the good piano player, and the revival was in the hands of Zane Wilson and Yanis Pikieris.

"Marguerite and Armand", the premiere, was Sir Frederick Ashton´s tribute to the art of Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev, and it tells of course the story of "The lady of the camelias", taking as musical basis the Liszt Sonata in an arrangement for piano and orchestra by Dudley Simpson where the orchestra has little to do. The problem is that (as often with music thought for another use) the dramatic action and the music don´t always correspond. The second problem is that the Neoclassical style is too cool for such a Romantic story. But Ashton was a resourceful choreographer and the piece is worth knowing. The lovers were interpreted with intensity and fine technique by Sofía Menteguiaga and Fernández; it is futile to imagine what Fonteyn and Nureyev might have done with this material. The excellent pianist was Iván Rutkauskas, and the Orquesta Estable was conducted by Carlos Bertazza. Grant Coyle was the transmitter of Ashton´s ideas.

George Balanchine is my favorite choreographer of all time, so I´m partial. I find "Symphony in C" (on Bizet´s symphony), either with this later title or the original ("Crystal Palace" for the Paris Ballet de l´Opéra, with lovely stage designs by Leonor Fini) –I´ve seen them both- one of his best works, the epitome of a choreographer´s musicality, meaning that every single trait of the music is faithfully reproduced by the dance steps, and also of his inexhaustible ingenuity. The principal dancers were Karina Olmedo and Juan Pablo Ledo in the first movement; Gabriela Alberti and Parente in the second; Carla Vincelli and Edgardo Trabalón in the third; and Maricel De Mitri and Gerardo Wyss in the fourth. But the Corps de Ballet has enormous work to do, and when all these fine soloists and members of the corps danced together in the final stretches of the work, the result was astonishing and exhilarating. Victoria Simon was the faithful heir of the choreographer´s imagination. More rehearsal would have avoided small hesitancies, and the Colón Ballet isn´t Balanchine´s New York outfit, but the result was very honorable. The Estable played no more than correctly under Javier Logioia Orbe; however, the dance was the thing, and I´m happy to welcome the Colón Ballet back.

The world of three orchestras

2011-04-22T16:00:00.001-03:00

An orchestra is a small world. About a hundred people live a communal life led by a Principal Conductor, and they depend on a complex public and/or private administration and sponsorship. Theirs is a busy, sometimes hectic life, in which they are in close contact with the transforming marvels of music but also with the miserabilities of practical problems, psychological tugs-of-war both internal and external and the communicative give-and-take with their audiences.

Three orchestras with different characteristics were heard in our city during recent weeks: the Moscow Symphony under Jorge Uliarte at the Coliseo, the Buenos Aires Philharmonic conducted by Jorge Bertazza at the Colón, and the National Symphony led by its Principal Conductor Pedro Calderón at the Auditorio de Belgrano. I will start with the Muscovites.

Moscow has almost always been a city with plentiful professional orchestras, at least half a dozen and sometimes more. They were strongly impacted by the implosion of the USSR; some survived, others went under and still others were born, to a new world where state funds had dwindled precipitously; but gradually private sponsors appeared and state support augmented.

The Moscow Symphony was founded in 1989 and is, according to its "biography" included in the hand programme, "the first Russian independent orchestra developed exclusively with private resources". Their main sponsor isn´t a Russian concern but Nestle (!). The MS has made more than a hundred recordings and has often been abroad.

Their visit to BA is the result of the vast organizational and persuasive powers of Argentine conductor Jorge Uliarte, founder of the astonishing Ushuaia Festival, and their concerts (two with different programmes) were an anticipation of their six evenings in Ushuaia, where they played among other things the complete Tchaikovsky symphonies. The MS is an accomplished outfit, as shown in their second night, an all-Russian combination of standards: the Overture to Glinka´s "Ruslan and Ludmilla", the Rachmaninov Second Piano Concerto with Vitaly Pisarenko and Tchaikovsky´s Fourth.

I feel that Uliarte (who also brought here the Berlin Symphony in recent years) is a well-grounded, correct maestro, lacking the vital spark that separates the average from the upper level. The MS is very Russian in its sound, rather brash and with a touch of stridency in trumpets and trombones, but it also has communicative, well-tuned strings. The very clipped phrasing of Uliarte and some slow tempi robbed the Fourth of some dramatic values.

I was well impressed by the young Pisarenko (no biography in the programme), who did Rachmaninov with very adequate command and good taste, although some bits could have sounded more exciting; the rather disheveled accompanying didn´t help him much. The encore was the First Act Waltz from Tchaikovsky´s "Swan Lake" and it was a very pleasant ending. Their other concert was comprised of three orchestral pieces: the Polovtsian Dances from Borodin´s "Prince Igor", Liszt´s "The Preludes" and Tchaikovsky´s lovely and seldom played First Symphony ("Winter Dreams").

The vicissitudes of the two Colón orchestras are well-known to Herald readers. As I said in my latest article, althought the conflict persists they are now rehearsing. However, the first session of the B.A.Philharmonic, dubbed as "Aperture Concert", was utterly changed compared with the original planning: Arturo Diemecke, its Principal Conductor, didn´t come, and the Assistant Conductor, Carlos Bertazza, was in charge. Moreover, the very interesting programme was wholly scrapped: Mahler´s Sixth Symphony ("Tragic") and Michael Torke´s "Rapture" with Ángel Frette as percussion soloist. And it was replaced by a hackneyed and shortish late-Nineteenth Century French programme: three pieces from Bizet´s "L´Arlésienne", the Overture to Offenbach´s "Orphée aux Enfers" (as concocted by Carl Binder; it includes the famous Can-Can), and the Franck Symphony (included in last year´s subscription series).

The only enticing fact was that finally the Phil was playing, but as time went on, I began to feel rather happy, for personable young Bertazza, certainly anxious to please the players and the audience, proved to have the preparation and the conviction to give us a very well-wrought interpretation of the dense, powerful Franck symphony, as well as the brio for Bizet´s "Farandole" (in the Prelude there were misadjustments in tricky places). It was a nice night, after all. Who knows what will happen next, however.

After a pre-season concert at the Bolsa de Comercio, the National Symphony (Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional) started in earnest at their recovered (in 2010) home, the Auditorio de Belgrano, with its fine acoustics. Always with Calderón at the helm (still reasonably fit in his late seventies), the programming for the year has had minimal publicity, and already there have been changes in the first three concerts, one of them as the result of an odious practice which I ingenuously thought had been abolished: the accumulation of debt with the main provider of scores, Melos (exRicordi). Concerts are still free, simply because they have no structure to build a subscription series.

But the orchestra remains good, sometimes very good. After the rather too prolix Second Overture (1892) by Alberto Williams, there was a beautiful performance of Schumann´s Piano Concerto by the sensitive Agustina Herrera, notwithstanding a minor accident in the treacherous last movement. And the concert ended with a Calderón specialty, Mahler´s First Symphony, masterfully built and detailed by the conductor. Apart from some horn fluffs and the lack of true "pianissimi", it was a powerful performance in this Mahler year (centenary of his death).

The Colón: light at the end of the tunnel

2011-04-12T10:41:00.002-03:00

My last report on the Colón situation was published three weeks ago and it was called "Is the Colón´s sad decline deliberate?". Since then, though matters aren´t solved and there are major points to be cleared up, there have been some advances that allow me to mention in the title of this article that there´s light at the end of the tunnel. This has come about among gross contradictions between what the City Government´s "actors" have expressed, Mauricio Macri on TV calling "vandals" some employees and attacking judges that emitted unfavorable sentences, Colón Director Pedro Pablo García Caffi keeping adamantly to his confrontation line; but Minister of Culture Hernán Lombardi made some conciliatory statements, and Secretary of Human Resources Andrés Ibarra agreed to talk with Roberto Arrechea (labor union ATE´s Buenos Aires Secretary General) with the condition that rehearsals would be resumed; and they were.

As we go to press this much is confirmed: the Buenos Aires Philharmonic starts its season next Thursday and the ballet will offer next week a triple bill accompanied by the Colón Orchestra and two pianists. True, the Phil´s concert is a mere stopgap conducted by the Orchestra´s assistant conductor, Carlos Bertazza, replacing the originally announced Principal Conductor Arturo Diemecke, and with an utterly changed programme from an innovative and difficult combination of Mahler´s Sixth Symphony and a premiere by Michael Torke ("Rapture", with percussionist Ángel Frette) to a run-of-the-mill French late-Nineteenth Century mixture. But at least they are playing. And the ballet won´t have recorded tracks as accompaniment.

Previous to all that, however, the Government emitted still more ominous signs, perhaps as a strategy to demoralize the orchestras and force them to accept rehearsals. And the City´s functionaries again showed a disconcerting behavior. In February (this wasn´t publicly known at the time) they called a competition to cover vacant posts in the orchestras, a good thing in normal times but absurd in the middle of a conflict; at the very end of March they called the competition off. Also, they threatened to apply 50% discounts on the salaries of dissidents.

Coupled with this, also at the end of March they proceeded to advise 4l players that had been under contract last year both at the Phil and at the Colón Orchestra that their contracts wouldn´t be renovated, because the orchestras weren´t playing. However, after the first talk between Ibarra and Arrechea it transpired that they would be re-hired.

The Attorney General recommended the exoneration of the eight employees delegates of the labor union ATE that are the target of the $ 55 million trial, now pending appeal. This certainly makes negotiations more difficult, for Arrechea represents the opinion of the Colón Assembly, and they demand the following points: a) the suspension of any sanctions; b) the renovation of contracts; c) a salary raise of 40% compared to December; d) elimination of the discounts on salaries; e) reimbursement of salary days suspended because of strikes.

Some repercussions are worth mentioning: a) Sadem (Argentine Music Syndicate) considers García Caffi "persona no grata". b) The orchestras played the National Anthem at Vélez Sarsfield in the interval of a soccer game to dramatize their plight. c) The Phil sent a letter to García Caffi complaining that a security guard had been hostile and menacing to a member of the orchestra, and considering that they now feel watched as if they were delinquents. They write of "patovicas" and "police state" behavior. d) Various provincial orchestras have expressed their solidarity with the Colón orchestras. e) A Télam agency dispatch states that Lombardi wants García Caffi´s resignation. And also says that Ibarra promised "not to advance with sanctions"; but Ibarra can do nothing about the judicial and adminstrative instances against "the eight" or "the twenty-five" (for lesser sanctions have been asked against a larger group that includes those eight).

Tomorrow a new encounter between Arrechea and Ibarra will include the above points; it remains to be seen if they are resolved. The results of the talks will be analyzed in a new assembly. The main problem is Macri´s lapidary statements; Ibarra or Lombardi may be amenable to a settlement, García Caffi may be replaced or overruled, but if their chief puts his thumb down, the Colón will remain in trouble. And even if the Executive seems in the last instance conciliatory, there are still judicial and administrative rounds to be dealt with, and their timing may be too slow for comfort.

A brilliant “Grand Macabre” and a break-dance “Carmen”

2011-04-05T16:46:00.002-03:00

György Ligeti´s "Le Grand Macabre" is weird in itself, but the conditions of its local premiere have been weirder. As a result of the unsolved conflict between the Colón orchestras and the authorities, there was no orchestra, an essential matter for a composer whose sense of color was enormous. Of course it was a foregone conclusion, for the City Government has shown no signs of a favorable disposition to arrive at a solution. But the Colón´s Director Pedro Pablo García Caffi went full speed ahead and sent the airplane tickets to the technical staff of La Fura del Baus, the numerous foreign singers and the conductor. Thus the forced compromise of presenting it in an arrangement based on two pianos and percussion and the decision to offer four free performances called "rehearsals with public"; pride of place for the tickets went to the opera subscribers of 2010.

This first opera of the season may well be the last. Anyway, "rehearsal" was an improper name, for the performances were fully adjusted and professional. Of course, the famous avantgarde Catalan company has done the piece elsewhere with great success, and all the singers have interpreted their parts before. The only "new" factor was that the accompaniment was different; however, I found it didn´t come out so badly in comparison with the Salonen-conducted CDs, for in fact there were six players producing a vaster sound than originally announced: two pianos and percussion, but also celesta, organ and especially synthesizer, which can imitate brass sounds. Nowhere in the programme was a basic fact cleared up: was this version concocted by Ligeti? And if not, by whom? Conductor Baldur Brönnimann?

It is very seldom that I can write this statement: the production was better than the opera. But it so happens that the extravagance of the libretto found its match in a display of visual imagination never seen before at the Colón. You can dislike some ideas of La Fura, but the technical accomplishment is astonishing: a gigantic doll in prone position opens its orifices or whole parts of its anatomy, changing color and expression with hyperrealist verisimilitude. In fact, it is so fascinating that it makes less visible the dramatic grossness of the libretto concocted by Ligeti and Michael Meschke on the original 1934 play by the Belgian surrealist Michel de Ghelderode. It is always dangerous to treat profound subjects as a grotesque, and the end of the world announced by Nekrotzar, an "angel of Death", has to be much scarier than in the pat and unwitty scenes concerning sadomasochism or politics. I find the final "happy end" scenes particularly disappointing. A change to cataclysm might have made the piece more relevant, although it wouldn´t save its irremediable weakness. Only the charming duets of lovers are a relief in this silly world.

Of course, Ligeti could be a great composer, but I find him here only intermittently so: in those duets, so fluent and iridiscent; in some interludes that attain terrible repercussions on the listener´s psyche; in the richness of the offstage choirs. But by and large, I don´t accept "Le Grand Macabre" as a great opera.The original version was premiered in 1978; the revision, in 1997.

La Fura´s people must be mentioned: the co-producers Alex Ollé and Valentina Carrasco (she is Argentinian); the marvelous design of the doll by Alfons Flores; the costumes by Lluc Castells, sometimes too grotesque; the marvelous lighting by Peter Van Praet; and the strong video images of Frank Aleu, redolent both of concentration camps and the vivid world of Pieter Brueghel (well, supposedly everything happens in "Brueghelland").

The musical side went very well, the six players responding professionally to Brönnimann´s conducting, and the singers versatile and in full accord with the staging. Splendidly ringing tenor Chris Merritt, still in full form; Roderick Earle as the baritone Nekrotzar, giving his best to a nondescript character; Brian Asawa in full sweet voice as the countertenor Prince Go-Go; and the stratospheric soprano Susana Andersson dealing handsomely with the awesome fireworks of the Chief of the Secret Police. Nice work from soprano Ilse Eerens and mezzo Frances Bourne as Amanda/Amando, and from Gustavo De Gennaro (The White Minister) and Javier Galán (The Black Minister). The ungrateful parts of Astradamors and Mescalina were well taken by Wilbur Pauley and Ning Liang.

It was a great success with the very mixed public of subscribers, "Fureros" and general audience attracted by being able to watch a Colón show for free.

I will be brief concerning "Carmen", which opened Buenos Aires Lírica´s season at the Avenida. They interestingly chose the rarely done original version as an "opéra-comique": with spoken dialogue instead of the recitatives added by Ernest Guiraud. The artists managed to sing in tolerable French.

I liked the conducting of Alejo Pérez, always alert and well-contrasted, although I found the "Danse bohème" too slow. The choirs were less polished than their usual standard under Juan Casasbellas, but acceptable, whilst the Teatro Argentino´s Children Choir under Mónica Dagorret was spontaneous and in tune. The find was Brazilian tenor Martin Muehle (debut), a Don Jose of firm timbre and convincing projection. Mezzo Adriana Mastrángelo, whom I usually like a lot, seemed less involved as Carmen, though she sang well. Oriana Favaro was a refined and sensitive Micaela. Leonardo Estévez was unconvincing as Escamillo, with a disagreeable top. Of the rest I would only single out the clearly sung Zúñiga of Walter Schwarz.

Unfortunately, I found Marcelo Lombardero and his team at their worst in a "Carmen" that seemed out of time and place: break-dance in something like Villa Soldati isn´t my idea of "Carmen"; or innkeeper and smugglers openly gay; or a badly conceived stage picture for Act I, with a graffiti-laden wall officiating as a police quarter with an absurd incident at the very beginning, and then the chorus "Sur la place" went for nothing, for obviously the officers couldn´t see the alluded square. The Third Act was terrible, with a crummy urban depot substituting for the required mountain pass. And the projections in the Fourth just a way to spend less in actors. Diego Siliano did the stage designs, Luciana Gutman the costumes, Horacio Efron the lighting. A couple of well-observed dramatic touches by Lombardero didn´t save the night.

A watery “Onegin” starts the Argentino´s season

2011-03-30T11:05:00.002-03:00

Decidedly, the world of opera in Argentina is falling prey to the dominating trend of recent decades in Europe: the utter tergiversation of the true contents of the chosen work, "justified" by a desire to be original and "creative". As the great producers of yore demonstrated –people like Wieland Wagner, Rennert, Pöttgen, Visconti, the early Zeffirelli, Colin Graham- it is possible to be innovative and fresh without attacking the essentials.

La Plata´s Teatro Argentino has begun a very ambitious season with the local premiere of Tchaikovsky´s "Eugen Onegin", only the second Russian opera the city has seen (the first, last year´s "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" by Shostakovich). An excellent idea, no doubt, but thoroughly ruined by Polish producer Michal Znaniecki (also costume designer). Other members of the production team: Swiss stage designer Luigi Scoglio, Polish lighting designer Bogumil Palewicz and Argentine choreographer Diana Theocharidis. Following another trend than is being carried too far, it was a co-production with the Polish Cracow and Poznan Wielki Operas and the Bilbao Opera (Abao Olbe).

I have been unhappy in recent years about the productions of "Onegin" I saw in Vienna and Paris, and I have shared my views with Herald readers. The La Plata one I would rank less negative than Vienna´s but worse than the Paris Bastille´s. Superficially some of it is aesthetically beautiful, but basic conceptual errors promptly pile up. As you may remember, we are in the ultra-Romantic Russian world of Pushkin as faithfully translated into immensely sensitive music by Tchaikovsky. The writer created "Onegin" as a novel written in verse between 1823 and 1831. We are in the ambience of rural aristocracy, made of sentimental nuances. In this version incongruity soon takes over, and grossness replaces subtlety.

Act I, First Tableau: bare birch trunks (the quintessential Russian tree) dominate and are surrounded by three big mirrors and other reflecting surfaces; clever lighting dapples the stage (it looks like the Venetian producer Beni Montresor´s effects). Nice to see, but it´s a wood, not a garden as required. However, the real problems start with the Second Tableau, Tatyana´s room, where her bed is surrounded by the birch trees and she writes in her bed in the time of inkwells…But disaster strikes in the Third Tableau, when Onegin visits Tatyana in her bed, and not in the garden: if the content were a seduction, it might work, but it´s a refusal! And who gave him access in those severe times?

Act II, First Tableau: The angular, contemporary choreography is completely alien to Tchaikovsky´s dances; the billiard table, uncalled-for and a silly barrier; the handling of the part of Monsieur Triquet, tremendously tasteless (a gallant old fop of the Ancien Régime converted into a very public libidinous dirty old man pawing Tatyana, and no one reacts). All conspires against creating the right climate of Madame Larina´s salon. Second Tableau: after a Lensky aria in front of a neuter drop, we see the habitual snowy landscape; an interesting and valid point: Lensky doesn´t even aim at Onegin, he wants to die.

Act III, First Tableau: the water in this article´s title comes from the ridiculous metaphor: Onegin´s icy demeanor melts down due to his new-found love for Tatyana, so the great salon in Prince Gremin´s St. Petersburg Palace has a palm of water and everyone splashes around. Furthermore, Gremin is made a cripple in a wheelchair, undermining the verisimilitude of his marriage to Tatyana. The Polonaise is again angular and charmless; it is danced behind a veil giving a phantasmagoric feeling which in a sense is adequate for the troubled feelings of the protagonist. Final scene: Tatyana strips down to a petticoat and receives thus the desperate Onegin, both still splashing.

The costumes were quite uneven, some of them attractive and others looking coarse and Las Vegas-ish. The final impression was that of a failed "Onegin" stagewise, despite occasional felicities. As an exercise in nostalgia, I remembered the beautiful production by Oscar Figueroa and Hugo De Ana presented at the Colón in 1977 and that of the Moscow Bolshoi I saw in 1967.

The musical side was rather good. Both principal singers are Polish and made their local debut. Baritone Marcin Bronikowski looks right for the part and has a strong, steady voice which he uses well, though without the plangency needed for the last act. Magdalena Nowacka looks attractive and has a sweet lyric timbre; she sings with musicality but lacks the intensity for the crucial Letter Scene. Our tenor Darío Schmunck was an involved and tender Lensky, particularly good in his aria, though with his habitual shortness of volume. Mezzo Mónica Sardi has the beauty of face and figure for the frivolous Olga, and she sang clearly, more assertively than I have heard her in other parts. There are two older women among the characters, Madame Larina and Filipyeva the nanny; they were well taken by Susanna Moncayo and Elsabeth Canis, the former very sonorous and the latter more restrained. Ariel Cazes did a correct Gremin, with little expansion however. I suppose Carlos Bengolea isn´t to blame for the grotesque characterisation of Triquet; the current condition of his voice is right for the part. Oreste Chlopecki and Sergio Spina completed the cast adequately.

Stefan Lano conducted with his great professionalism, although Tchaikovsky´s world isn´t particularly congenial to him; the orchestra and chorus (Miguel Martínez) responded well.

For Buenos Aires Herald

¿Es deliberada la triste declinación del Colón?

2011-03-30T11:03:00.003-03:00

Hace algunas semanas escribí un informe sobre la asombrosa situación del Colón.

Noticias recientes son todavía peores, según lo anunciado en conferencia de prensa: no habrá abonos de ópera, de la Filarmónica ni de la Orquesta estable. Éste es el resultado de las teóricamente entabladas pero en la práctica paralizadas paritarias, en las que cada lado se mantiene rígidamente en sus opiniones.

Me refiero a mi anterior artículo para una puesta al día. Sanciones: como la apelación con respecto a la sentencia del juez Otheguy aún no está resuelta, falta una decisión judicial definitiva. García Caffi meramente dijo que la cuestión está en manos judiciales por un lado y en las paritarias por otro. Expresa públicamente optimismo de que habrá solución, pero sus acciones dicen lo contrario: obviamente la eliminación de los abonos no es un signo positivo. Y el Jefe de Gobierno der París lanzó palabras terribles confirmando que cualquier colución está lejana.

Dos cuestiones avanzaron en el sentido correcto: finalmente la Ciudad tiene presupuesto, y la oposición forzó al PRO a aceptar un fuerte aumento salarial para todos los empleados del Gobierno. Según información publicada en Infobae.com, comparado con Diciembre equivale a una suba de 38% (muy cercana al supuestamente absurdo 40% demandado por ATE); dan dos casos: un miembro de la Filarmónica cobró $ 6483 y ahora cobrará $ 8444, y un escenotécnico , $ 7285 y ahora 9287. ¿Es la suba puramente "blanca" (remunerativa)?

No he visto publicado el presupuesto del Colón aceptado por la Legislatura, pero en este momento su relevancia es dudosa ya que ni siquiera se sabe si se va a dar la segunda ópera de la temporada, "La flauta mágica".

Dí sólo los lineamientos de la temporada en mi anterior artículo. Ahora, según el anuncio de García Caffi, tres cosas son completamente inciertas: ópera, Filarmónica, Estable. Habrá ballet con música grabada. Otros proyectos continuarán según lo programado: Abono del Bicentenario, Intérpretes argentinos y Centro de Experimentación. E instituciones como el Mozarteum Argentino, Festivales musicales y Nuova Harmonia podrán usar el Colón según anunciado en sus respectivos planes. De modo que el Colón no estará cerrado pero sí drásticamente disminuido y sujeto a innumerables problemas.

Dos renuncias están diciendo claramente que internamente el Colón está que arde: Reinaldo Censabella "por razones personales" a la Dirección Musical; y Susana Frangi a la Dirección de Estudios (esto no fue oficialmente anunciado).

Se decidió dar "Le Grand Macabre" de Ligeti (estreno sudamericano) en una reducción para dos pianos y percusión, ya que no se pudo armar una orquesta sustituta para tocar la muy difícil partitura. En la conferencia varios miembros de La Fura del Baus defendieron la decisión, pero colegas y yo mismo creemos que será una ejecución fatalmente fallada, ya que el color orquestal es la esencia de esta obra, aunque haya curiosidad por conocer la producción de la afamada compañía catalana vanguardista. Las cuatro funciones serán consideradas ensayos con público, serán gratis y los abonados tendrán precedencia. Hubo estricto y amplio control de seguridad y no se permitió la presencia de miembros de ATE; SUTECBA sí, porque están colaborando.

El otro dilema concierne a Plácido Domingo y sus conciertos. (Este párrafo lo omito ya que se sabe qué pasó después).

En la conferencia, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta dio su pleno aval a García Caffi. Desde París Macri lanzó estas lapidarias palabras: "Si es necesario, no habrá temporada este año, pero si continuamos en este camino aseguraremos cien excelentes temporadas a partir de 2012. No cederemos ante quienes quieren un Colón cerrado… No puede haber revolución cultural si no se respeta la ley. Los que violan la ley no tendrán ningún lugar. El Dr. Scheibler hizo mucho mal. Nos forzó a reincorporar empleados transferidos… No toleraremos mafias en el Colón".

Algunas conclusiones: a) Va mucho más allá que García Caffi, que dijo que la temporada no estaba cancelada pero que las condiciones no permitían vender un abono. b) El Juez Scheibler es atacado porque él, con pensamiento independiente, no admitió la monstruos transferencia de 400 personas, obviamente una orden directa de Macri a García Caffi. c) ATE no quiere un teatro cerrado; además, sólo unos pocos miembros de ambas orquestas son miembros de ATE y el conflicto es con el total de las orquestas, llamados mafiosos por Macri. Lo que quieren es la eliminación de las sanciones. Si la apelación fracasa, ¿qué hará Macri? ¿Considerar nociva a la corte de apelación? El verdadero centro del asunto está en los límites del derecho de huelga. d) Macri viola la ley: nombró como Directores a personas que no cumplen los requisitos de la Ley de Autarquía, que exige que tengan "trayectoria cultural reconocida". Y constantemente trata de no cumplir sentencias judiciales.

SUTECBA sacó un comunicado expresando que representan a 800 empleados del Colón, lo cual es seguramente falso; sólo tienen 18% del personal. Quieren un teatro abierto pero no apoyan los métodos de ATE.

El teatro está profundamente dividido entre SUTECBA, ATE y los independientes; Y muchos empleados no están de acuerdo con las orquestas en conflicto; otras orquestas, como la Sinfónica Nacional y la del SODRE de Montevideo, han en cambio declarado su solidaridad. Dicen las orquestas: "Queremos trabajar, pero con respeto y dignidad. Queremos un Colón de producción integrada, trabajando a pleno para el beneficio de los ciudadanos".

¿Qué pasará con la próxima ópera, "La flauta mágica"? ¿Nuevamente ensayos gratis con público? ¿La Estable reemplazada por otra orquesta? Si usted fuera García Caffi, ¿enviaría los pasajes a los artistas contratados? ¿Daría luz verde a la realización de ensayos de escena y preparación de escenografías y trajes? ¿O lo cancelaría totalmente? Hay mucho para pensar en todo esto.

¿Es deliberada la declinación del Colón? Me temo que sí.

For Buenos Aires Herald

Plácido at 70, still marvelous

2011-03-30T11:01:00.001-03:00

Plácido Domingo is in many senses a marvel. At 70 he accumulates the fruits of five decades of relentless work: one of the longest careers in history, the absolute record of twenty season-opening nights at New York´s Met, an immense quantity of LPs, CDs and DVDs, 134 rôles, and the amazing conservation of timbre and stamina that allows him to continue with no end in sight. Of course, age takes its toll even for him, and he has abandoned some high-lying tenor parts, but in recent years he has controversially added baritone characters. Additionally he has been conducting for 25 years, and leading opera houses since 15 in Washington and Los Angeles. He sings in Italian, Spanish, French, German, Russian and English.

He has great love for Buenos Aires, where he made his debut in 1972, and apart from concerts he has sung here in complete operas in several seasons: 1979, 1981, 1982, 1997 and 1998. He has always spoken with great admiration about the Colón as an integrated institution of high quality, and he wanted to do a special thing for the celebration of his seventieth year: in the same day, an operatic concert at the Colón and a more popular one in the open air. But somehow the right information didn´t come to him: the conflict of the two Colón orchestras with the City Government. After postponed press conferences and direct mediation by Domingo, a compromise solution was arrived at: only one concert but with an extensive programme in front of the Obelisk, with an orchestra made up of musicians from the Colón Orchestra ("Estable"), the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, the National Symphony and La Plata´s Argentino.

One of the largest crowds ever assembled (estimated at about 120.000) gave its enthusiastic support. Domingo´s frequent partners in international concerts, Argentine soprano Virginia Tola, and American conductor Eugene Kohn, were there as well. And the whole thing went with a bang in a beautiful night (the concert had been postponed from Wednesday to Thursday due to bad weather, but paradoxically that gave them some valuable rehearsal time, otherwise extremely tight).

THE CONCERT

Starting at 8,15 p.m., it lasted until 11 p.m., with an interval of 15 minutes. The amplified sound was acceptably good for open air conditions, and it certainly helped that there was little wind. The free concert had a VIP section of invitations and the general public sprawled over several blocks of 9 de Julio. The event was organized by the Fundación Beethoven led by the admired pianist Pía Sebastiani and it had the sponsorship of the City Government and several enterprises. Apart from minor mishaps (a small interruption of the transmission affected the big screens that mirrored the concert for those that were far away, and during a couple of minutes there was an insistent sound of multiple sirens) the concert went smoothly.

The First Part started with Choirs of Gypsies and Matadors from Verdi´s "La Traviata" with the Colón Choir prepared by Peter Burian. There were 73 choristers and 76 players. The first choice of Plácido Domingo (PD) was quite interesting, the splendid "Ô Souverain" from Massenet´s "Le Cid", never done at the Colón, where PD´s stirring tones showed unequivocally that the voice was still there, practically untouched, and so was his imposing dramatic presence. Virginia Tola (VT) chose the lovely "Depuis le jour" from Charpentier´s "Louise", deplorably absent from our city since 1945; she sang well but not with the ideal plangency and softness. Finally we heard PD in Wagner, a composer he has often sung elsewhere with great distinction, but not here: it was the melodic "Winterstürme" sung by Siegmund in "Die Walküre", and he did it beautifully, even if his diction is open to misgivings.

Some "verismo" with French plots followed: VT in good form in "Io son l´umile ancella" from Cilea´s "Adriana Lecouvreur", and PD stunning as Gérard in "Nemico della patria" from Giordano´s "Andrea Chenier": the first time he sings here as a baritone. "La vergine degli angeli" from Verdi´s "La forza del destino" didn´t quite jell: VT wasn´t ethereal enough and the Choir sounded too receded.

There was talk last year that Verdi´s "Simone Boccanegra" would be offered in the Colón´s season with PD in the title part, but as he clarified in a press conference, the available dates didn´t coincide; the Colón plans to offer it this year but with Roberto Frontali. However, PD manifested his wish to sing it here in 2012; if that is so, perhaps they should change "Simone" this year, "Un Ballo in Maschera" in its place would be adequate. But PD sang the wonderful duet of Simone with his daughter (VD) in this concert and they both did some very attractive singing and interpreting. To put in a nutshell the polemics about PD as baritone, they are reduced to one point: he has all the notes but his timbre remains that of a "spinto" (robust and colorful) tenor. His powers of dramatic characterisation are all there.

There followed another "first" , when PD made his debut here as a conductor in the Overture from Verdi´s "La forza del destino": hardly as polished as other versions heard here, it gave a partial account of his abilities in that field (who knows how much rehearsal he had).

The Second Part started with the Act 2 duet of Verdi´s "Rigoletto", minus the chorus (why?) and Monterone´s appearance. I wasn´t quite convinced, especially in the "Vendetta" conclusion; some smudged phrasing from PD, instances of hard voice from VT; PD´s performance in DVD of the complete opera is much better. Things went quite well in the final operatic selection: the Triumphal March from Verdi´s "Aida" (minus the dances) had a very resolute PD as conductor, this time getting much better performances from the orchestra, and with an enthusiastic choral intervention.

I´ll be briefer about the remaining blocks. Five zarzuela fragments were incongruously combined with "I could have danced all night" from Loewe´s "My fair lady", well sung by VT in good English. VT was excellent in the charming "Canción de Paloma" from Barbieri´s "El barberillo de Lavapiés", the chorus rather weak in the "Coro de románticos" from Vives´ "Doña Francisquita", PD a bit tired in a piece from Moreno Torroba´s "Maravilla" but fully rallying for two Sorozábal pieces, especially a PD specialty, "No puede ser!" from "La tabernera del puerto".

The final blocks were songs and tangos in overwrought orchestrations. I could have done without a Spanish rendition of a duet from Lehár´s "Die lustige Witwe" and a poor song by César De La Luz, but I liked Grever´s "Júrame" (PD) and Lecuona´s "Bésame" (PD). Lara´s "Granada" could have been more brilliant (PD). As to the tangos, only "El día que me quieras" (duet) was played by the orchestra; the others (well-chosen) were idiomatically accompanied by four proficient bandoneon players: "El día que me quieras" (duet), "Volver (PD), "A media luz" (VT) and "Mi Buenos Aires querido" (duet). If your idea of the tango is circumscribed to Goyeneche, Merello or Rivero, you won´t like PD or VT; but if you accept that the "tango-canción" is a subgenre that goes well with the same voices that can sing "Granada", you will. I did, and the public certainly responded.

Throughout Eugene Kohn conducting was experienced and supportive, and chorus and orchestra responded with visible pleasure; no great refinements can be expected with little rehearsal and in the open air, but it worked. All´s well that ends well, and it was so as far as this concert goes. Now the conflict goes on, fueled by intemperate declarations by Mauricio Macri and Pedro Pablo García Caffi. It remains to be told that prior to the Obelisk concert, PD sang a miniconcert for the Colón employees in the stage, and reportedly kissed the floor. He is a great artist but also a communicative human being with a great rapport with the Colón´s singers, players and technicians. May he come back under better auspices and with less tensions.

For Buenos Aires Herald

The Big Three present their seasons

2011-03-09T11:04:00.001-03:00

The Big Three of concert-giving are of course the Mozarteum Argentino, Nuova Harmonia and Festivales Musicales de Buenos Aires. Two of them bet heavily on the pull of the Colón over sponsors and subscribers and find themselves in the unpleasant possibility that a prolonged impasse in the conflict between the workers and the Government might affect the disponibility of the Theatre. There are variants: the Coliseo for the Mozarteum (whose programming is wholly at the Colón) and naturally for Nuova Harmonia, whose home it is (they have only one concert at our great symbol of classical music). Or the Auditorio de Belgrano for Festivales, who plan about half of their season at the great hall. Let´s hope for the best and imagine that somehow the conundrum will be resolved.

This year the Mozarteum and Nuova Harmonia present seasons of equal quality. On June 26 and 27 the Mozarteum will boast a surefire number: the Orquesta Simón Bolívar de Venezuela under Gustavo Dudamel in Mahler´s Seventh Symphony and a mixed bag: Ravel, Evencio Castellanos (Venezuelan), Carlos Chávez (Mexican) and Stravinsky (the Mozarteum as usual offers two subscriber series). Their season starts on May 2 and 3 with the famous Budapest Festival Orchestra under Ivan Fischer, with two programmes, featuring respectively József Lendvay in Paganini´s Violin Concerto Nº 1 and pianist Dejan Lazcic in Weber´s "Konzerstück", with two standard symphonies (Tchaikovsky´s Fifth and Schumann´s Third), plus some Dvorák and Bartók.

The wonderful Emerson Quartet will show their outstanding level in Mendelssohn, Bartók and Beethoven (May 23 and 24). The Munich Chamber Orchestra under Alexander Liebreich will offer a stimulating combination of works, with the talented soprano Christiane Oelze giving us Schönberg´s Quartet Nº 2 (which has an added soprano part) and Pergolesi´s cantata "Orfeo" (probably a premiere), along with a C.P.E.Bach symphony and Shostakovich´s Chamber Symphony op.110ª (an orchestration of his Eighth Quartet). June 13 and 14. After the Venezuelans, the Britten Sinfonia with Pekka Kuusisto (violin and conductor) and tenor Allan Clayton will show their versatility in three Britishers (Purcell, Tippett and Britten´s "Les Illuminations") , and –minus the tenor- in two USA minimalists, Steve Reich and John Adams (his "Shaker loops"). August 8 and 10.

The two programmes of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen both present Christian Tetzlaff (also conductor) in Mendelssohn´s Violin Concerto op.64, but the other scores are different: on August 29, Haydn´s Symphony Nº 80 and Mozart´s towering "Jupiter" Symphony, plus Schönberg´s "Transfigured Night"; on August 30, the scheme of Haydn (Nº 7, "Midday") and Mozart (Nº 40) is repeated, but adding Mozart´s rarely heard Violin Fantasia op. 131. Our admirable pianist Ingrid Fliter comes back after several years, playing Beethoven and Chopin (September 5 and 6). Return visit of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, this time under Domingo Hindoyan, featuring pianist Jonathan Gilad in Grieg and Gershwin; along with repertoire pieces, two probable premieres: "Harmonies du soir" by Ysaÿe and Jean-Luc Fafchamps´"Lettre soufie: L (ÂM)". October 24 and 25. Thus ends a season that this time avoids ballet (I personally agree).

We still don´t have the programmes, but Nuova Harmonia does announce artists and dates, all at the Coliseo except one. The Quartet of Milan´s La Scala will collaborate with pianist Paolo Restani on April 26. Then, a welcome back to the Bamberg Symphony under Jonathan Nott with pianist Till Fellner (May 9). Later, the 20-member Orchester die Kölner Akademie under Michael Alexander Willens (June 2). One of the outstanding presentations of the year will surely be the Rotterdam Philharmonic under an important conductor, Leonard Slatkin, on the first of July (debut of both orchestra and conductor). Pianist Michele Campanella will play Liszt on July 14. High quality is guaranteed with the Berlin Philharmonic Octet (August 18). A hearty welcome back to that splendid Baroque ensemble, Europa Galante under Fabio Biondi (September 14). Those old friends, violinist Shlomo Mintz and pianist Peter Jirikovsky, are here again on September 21. The Trio Modigliani makes its debut on October 18. And the season comes to an end at the Colón on October 29 with the St Petersburg Symphony under Vladimir Lande with pianist Maxim Mogilevsky.

Festivales Musicales calls its season "Art and Virtuosism". Pianist Roger Muraro will premiere the Liszt transcription of the "Symphonie Fantastique" by Berlioz (May 11, Colón). The Orquesta de Cámara de Chile conducted by Juan Pablo Izquierdo offers well-trodden Beethoven (Leonore Nº 3, Third Symphony) and the "Emperor Concerto" with pianist Horacio Lavandera (June 8, Colón). Quite unknown, instead, are the pieces that will be played by the talented Verdehr Trio at the Auditorio de Belgrano, by Werner, Madsen, Rorem, Sierra, Dvorak and Sheng (June 21).

The Lyon-based Café Zimmermann gives us French Baroque (several premieres) with soprano Claire Brua; the players are French and Argentine. June 27, Avenida. The Estudio Coral de Buenos Aires under Carlos López Puccio will celebrate its 30th anniversary on July 11 (Colón). Then follows a collaboration with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic repeating a programme that will be included in the orchestra´s subscription series, with violinist Xavier Inchausti in Paganini and Mahler´s Fourth. Colón, July 20. Certainly it will be quite an occasion to hear Víctor Torres and Fernando Pérez in Schubert´s mighty cycle "Die Winterreise" (Avenida, August 8). A 9-member group called Interpreti Veneziani will present that apparently inevitable Vivaldi cycle "The Four Seasons". Auditorio de Belgrano, October 5. It will be interesting to get to know a brilliant pianist, Valentina Lisitsa, who will tackle nothing less than Chopin´s Etudes and Liszt´s "Totentanz" (Colón, October 19).

And finally, Handel´s fascinating oratorio "Samson" (Colón, October 31), conducted by Mario Videla, with the Camerata Bariloche and the Orfeón de Buenos Aires (Néstor Andrenacci and Pablo Piccinni).