critics of the lyrical art brocardent often its booklets, which can confine them to destitution. It will have to wait for the second half of the Nineteenth century – and especially the next century, for as the words climb up to the pitch of the notes. On the other hand, the array of operas and romantic, who saw the apotheosis of what became known as the «bel canto», offers a joyful string of inconsistencies, tunnels playwriting and aberrations narrative. But in the years 1830, the voice is queen, and it is ready to do anything to sacrifice her. Thus the divine cantilènes of Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835), whose melodic inspiration would draw tears to a cinderblock. If we look more closely at the books of The Sleepwalker and even Norma , it blushes in the face of emptiness ; but the power of music conquers all. The inspiration troubadour of these plots médiévo-kitsch, heirs of the crenellated towers of Walter Scott, is only the pretext for the wonderful aria, where we close our eyes to let herself get drunk.
With Puritans the drunk is there, that is undeniable. The ultimate masterpiece of Bellini, who was to die a few days after its creation, the triumph of a tumor of the intestines, this opera is a sort of climax of the belcantisme, which it illustrates the enchantment and the ridiculous. Ridiculous a story imbitable, with a vengeance, rivalry, and impossible loves in the heart of the England of Cromwell. Enchantment of a partition-river but semillante, where the great tunes are enquillent with an exquisite fluidity, including the famous «A te, o cara», who made the beautiful night of Luciano Pavarotti.
shadows tutelary
Say Puritans is an opera that does not forgive. At any vertex, it should be mountaineers first wad, otherwise it is falling. The work being reduced to its pure music, it is not possible to entrust it to the throats of massive gold. The distribution met this school year on the stage of the Opera Bastille will she be at the height of the vocal challenge? Hopefully. There will be a tenor of the mexican Javier Camarena any valour to face the acute of the role of Arturo. Similarly, the very launched soprano French Elsa Dreisig is required to assume the shadows guardianship of Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland (among others) to wear the costume of Elvira.
The production of Laurent Pelly, in November 2013, has left a memory of elegant simplicity and chaste greyness. It is difficult to give energy to a work that is only music, but hopefully Pelly will réinsuffler to his show tone more than it had six years ago. We can suppose, finally, that Riccardo Frizza, broken in this directory, will exalt the poetry diaphanous of these melodies, without renouncing its torments, nor its force martial. In short: a challenge.
Puritans, Opera Bastille. Place de la Bastille (XIIe). Tel.: 08 92 89 90 90. Dates: of the 7 seven. the 5 oct. at 19: 30. Places: 15 to 145€.
