Peter Tchaikovsky: Iolanta; Béla
Bartŏk: Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, The
Met in HD Encore, Phoenix Picturehouse, Oxford, 17 February 2015.
Tchaikovsky’s
last opera Iolanta written in 1892 is
rarely performed outside Russia so this co-production with Teatr Wielki Polish
National Opera was a new experience for most of the audiences at the NY
Metropolitan and in cinemas worldwide. Directed by Mariusz Treliński, the
performance was conducted by Valery Gergiev under whose baton it achieved a
true Russian sound.
In the cold light of day it may have seemed a piece of self-indulgent sentimentality but at the time and in retrospect it was totally engrossing with luscious orchestral and vocal sound particularly for Iolanta’s singing. The plot is a blend of the fairy-tale La Belle au Bois Dormant and André Gide’s 1919 novella La Symphonie Pastorale best known for its 1946 film version starring Michelle Morgan. Both deal with the psychological repercussions of a girl blind from birth regaining her sight and literally falling in love at first sight with a man mistaken for another. In Gide, a Pastor brings up a girl rescued from the wild who mistakes his son as the one lovingly brought her up, with tragic consequences. In Iolanta, based on the Danish play Kong Renés Datter (King René's Daughter) by Henrik Hertz, the heroine, kept secluded in a forest dwelling unaware of her disability, can be cured by a famous physician but only if made aware of it. She is discovered by Robert, intended as her husband, and his friend Vaudémont. The latter discovers her blindness when she fails to distinguish between red and white roses. She is cured and is united with Vaudrémont.
There is some fine singing from Ilya Bannik as King René, Aleksei Markov as Robert and especially Piotr Beczala as Vaudrémont and Elchin Azizov as the physician but the performance belonged to Anna Netrebko and the orchestra. I have reviewed many appearances of Netrebko in HD transmissions and admired the quality of her voice. But, as I wrote of her appearance as Anna Bolena, ‘All emotion was contained in her singing – her acting was monochrome, with unchanging facial expression, failing to convey the contrast in her moods and states of mind’. All this has now changed. With her Lady Macbeth and now Iolanta she has assumed a place with Renée Fleming and Joyce DiDonato as one of the supreme acting-singers in front of the camera.
***
Bartók’s version of the Bluebeard story has Duke Bluebeard bringing his new wife Judit to his gloomy castle where behind seven locked doors are seven aspects of his life. With his increasing reluctance Judit is allowed to open the doors until the last which contains the bodies of three previous wives. Judit joins them in death.
The production which formed the second half of the double bill was musically tremendous, the acting and singing of Nadja Michael as Judit and Mikhail Petrenko as Bluebeard superb. However the staging was so unimaginative and drab that the only thing was to sit back and enjoy the wonderful sound as a symphonic poem. Bartok’s lighting directions were totally ignored – the only colour was Judit’s green dress. Instead of seven shades of grey, each room should have its own colour, tinged with red.
In the cold light of day it may have seemed a piece of self-indulgent sentimentality but at the time and in retrospect it was totally engrossing with luscious orchestral and vocal sound particularly for Iolanta’s singing. The plot is a blend of the fairy-tale La Belle au Bois Dormant and André Gide’s 1919 novella La Symphonie Pastorale best known for its 1946 film version starring Michelle Morgan. Both deal with the psychological repercussions of a girl blind from birth regaining her sight and literally falling in love at first sight with a man mistaken for another. In Gide, a Pastor brings up a girl rescued from the wild who mistakes his son as the one lovingly brought her up, with tragic consequences. In Iolanta, based on the Danish play Kong Renés Datter (King René's Daughter) by Henrik Hertz, the heroine, kept secluded in a forest dwelling unaware of her disability, can be cured by a famous physician but only if made aware of it. She is discovered by Robert, intended as her husband, and his friend Vaudémont. The latter discovers her blindness when she fails to distinguish between red and white roses. She is cured and is united with Vaudrémont.
There is some fine singing from Ilya Bannik as King René, Aleksei Markov as Robert and especially Piotr Beczala as Vaudrémont and Elchin Azizov as the physician but the performance belonged to Anna Netrebko and the orchestra. I have reviewed many appearances of Netrebko in HD transmissions and admired the quality of her voice. But, as I wrote of her appearance as Anna Bolena, ‘All emotion was contained in her singing – her acting was monochrome, with unchanging facial expression, failing to convey the contrast in her moods and states of mind’. All this has now changed. With her Lady Macbeth and now Iolanta she has assumed a place with Renée Fleming and Joyce DiDonato as one of the supreme acting-singers in front of the camera.
***
Bartók’s version of the Bluebeard story has Duke Bluebeard bringing his new wife Judit to his gloomy castle where behind seven locked doors are seven aspects of his life. With his increasing reluctance Judit is allowed to open the doors until the last which contains the bodies of three previous wives. Judit joins them in death.
The production which formed the second half of the double bill was musically tremendous, the acting and singing of Nadja Michael as Judit and Mikhail Petrenko as Bluebeard superb. However the staging was so unimaginative and drab that the only thing was to sit back and enjoy the wonderful sound as a symphonic poem. Bartok’s lighting directions were totally ignored – the only colour was Judit’s green dress. Instead of seven shades of grey, each room should have its own colour, tinged with red.