G Rossini: La Donna del Lago, Met in HD Encore, Phoenix Picturehouse, Oxford, 17 March 2015
Daniela Barcellona as Malcolm and Joyce DiDonato as Elena in Rossini's "La Donna del Lago."
Photo: Ken Howard/ Metropolitan Opera
La Donna del Lago was last seen in 2013 in a live
transmission from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. This magnificent
production, directed by John Fuljames, as a complex drama of interacting
personalities in a ciné opera more successful in the cinema than in the opera
house. The NY Met’s new co-production with Santa Fe Opera by Paul Curran is a
complete contrast. Here everything was concentrated on projecting the voices of
five of the best of today’s bel canto singers each displaying vocal fireworks
of the highest order. The contrast was highlighted by having three of the
principal singers in the same three roles. Instead of the complex staging,
against the background of Walter Scott’s Edinburgh Club, we had a series of
tableaux in which the singers were framed by their appropriate armed followers,
enabling them to concentrate on their singing.
Elena, sung by Joyce DiDonato, is the daughter of Highlander Douglas (Oren Gradus) who wishes her to marry Rodrigo (John Osborn) in order to cement a highland alliance. She is in love with Malcolm (mezzo Daniela Barcellona) but is also loved by King James who disguised as Umberto (Juan Diego Flórez) has picked her up at the lakeside. In the end Rodrigo is dead, Douglas forgiven, James magnanimous and Elena and Malcolm united. The plot could be seen as an intriguing allegory of current cross-border politics.
The performance, conducted by young Michele Mariotti, already showing himself a master of the style, was electrifying. DiDonato, Flórez and Barcellona reprise their roles at Covent Garden. Barcellona comes over most formidably as the fiercest of the three warriors and in voice matches up to DiDonato’s higher part. Flórez is better than at ROH, the static staging being more suited to his style of singing. John Osborn is a tenor of almost the same calibre. But it is again DiDonato who shines most brightly. Her voice continues to darken and to gain in warmth and depth in the lower contralto range and her conveyance of emotion is uncanny.
In the cinema, it came over very much as a filmed performance with Halverson directing. There were some nerve-racking critical moments when the sound was about to fail. For a second time I was concerned about the quality of the HD sound which seems to have deteriorated. Is it still good at the live transmission?
21 March 2015
Elena, sung by Joyce DiDonato, is the daughter of Highlander Douglas (Oren Gradus) who wishes her to marry Rodrigo (John Osborn) in order to cement a highland alliance. She is in love with Malcolm (mezzo Daniela Barcellona) but is also loved by King James who disguised as Umberto (Juan Diego Flórez) has picked her up at the lakeside. In the end Rodrigo is dead, Douglas forgiven, James magnanimous and Elena and Malcolm united. The plot could be seen as an intriguing allegory of current cross-border politics.
The performance, conducted by young Michele Mariotti, already showing himself a master of the style, was electrifying. DiDonato, Flórez and Barcellona reprise their roles at Covent Garden. Barcellona comes over most formidably as the fiercest of the three warriors and in voice matches up to DiDonato’s higher part. Flórez is better than at ROH, the static staging being more suited to his style of singing. John Osborn is a tenor of almost the same calibre. But it is again DiDonato who shines most brightly. Her voice continues to darken and to gain in warmth and depth in the lower contralto range and her conveyance of emotion is uncanny.
In the cinema, it came over very much as a filmed performance with Halverson directing. There were some nerve-racking critical moments when the sound was about to fail. For a second time I was concerned about the quality of the HD sound which seems to have deteriorated. Is it still good at the live transmission?
21 March 2015