lunes, junio 27, 2011

Varied operatic tales: pearl-fishers, Diana the chaste

            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

miércoles, junio 22, 2011

Necessary renovation in symphonic concert life

            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.

martes, junio 14, 2011

Puccini´s problematic “Trittico” gets a wet production

            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".

lunes, junio 13, 2011

A rich harvest of interesting concerts

            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

            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

            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

viernes, mayo 27, 2011

A Russian ballet and the Budapest Festival Orchestra

     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.

domingo, mayo 01, 2011

A contrast of Verdian and Handelian opera


            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

sábado, abril 23, 2011

The Colón Ballet is back

            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.

viernes, abril 22, 2011

The world of three orchestras

            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).

martes, abril 12, 2011

The Colón: light at the end of the tunnel

            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.

martes, abril 05, 2011

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

            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.