France, AIX-EN-PROVENCE — Few opera institutions are as new and powerful as the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Two of the most important works of the 21st century were born here. 2012 “Written on Skin” and “Innocence” premiered last year.
But the lesson of the festival is that you can’t just jump out of a masterpiece in 10 years. You have to give up your commissions year after year, big or small. The majority know that it is far from perfect, if not unexploded.
A small portion of the new opera will continue to be important, which is the number game Aix is playing. The huge amount is important as the Metropolitan Opera has recently promised to announce at least two contemporary titles in the season.
Aix will also be hosting two premierees in this year’s edition, which will run until July 23rd. Neither is completely satisfying, but I would like to pay tribute to the festival’s commitment to contemporary as a pillar of programming.
The larger of the two is “Il Viaggio, Dante”, which dares to condense the poet’s early “new life” into a two-hour intermittent time, as well as all three of the “Divine Comedy.” So Dante remembers his past during the midlife crisis and is taken by the crowd through hell and purgatory to paradise: Virgil, his poetic model, and Beatrice, his eternal love. .. Santa Lucia spurs the journey. And his young self.
Frederick Boyer’s script spans a vast amount of material, but the text doesn’t feel like it’s in a hurry, but it’s calm, solemn, prayerful, formal, and choral, like the Gregorian chant ritual. Spell is inserted all over. And the famous French composer Pascal Dusapin responded with exaggerated music that was barely relaxed.
His healthy world is gloomy, with a terrifying hovering drone, enhanced by electronic effects, under a fervent statement. The orchestra moans — these climaxes are more subdued than raw — they tend to break suddenly, leaving behind a hazy resonance of the bell and a shimmering percussion instrument before the next slow accumulation.
There are clever works here. For example, when the drone passage is gently sandwiched by the chorus writing style. The bottom is moist and mossy complaining, and the top is a female voice. The young Dante-here the trouser role sung by Christel Rotsch of the mezzo-soprano-has a monologue of medieval reserve purity in mourning the loss of love. And near the end, Beatrice and Lucia’s vocal lines quiver and plunge like birds around a low, calm, reverberating choral.
The mythical and dreamy pace is reminiscent of Debussy’s “Pelléas et Melisand” and Bartok’s “Bluebeard’s Castle”, but Dusapin’s approach is less diverse and tense. The range of sinners in hell offers a clear opportunity for Bartok’s strategy — an exciting exhibit when various doors are opened — but the score for “Il Viaggio, Dante” is resolute and very homogeneous. It remains as it is.
But whatever the flaws in the opera are, it’s hard to imagine that they are better represented than they were here. At its premiere at the Provence Grand Theater on Friday, Kent Nagano led the Lyon Opera Orchestra and Choir in a rigorously elegant performance. The baritone Jean-Sébastien Bou was a steady yet intense and ardent Dante.
Most importantly, with a video prologue and a cool, stylish set, veteran director Klaus Goose shaped an oratorio-like piece into a coherent narrative. Set in our time, his staging changes between the interior of a country house, the forbidden forest, and the hellish world of “Inferno”. Lynch (the sinister wall of the curtain and the eerie howl).
Performed at the Black Box Pavilion Noir on Sunday, “Women with Zero Points” is shorter — just an hour, just a handful of performers. Based on Egyptian writer and activist Nawal El Saadawi’s 1975 novel on pressure and restrictions on women in patriarchal society, this film interviews a sex worker imprisoned for killing an abusive pimp. I’m drawing the creator.
With minimal staging focused on Laila Soliman, both Dima Orsho (Prisoner Fatma) and Carla Nahadi Babelegoto (Interviewer Sama) have their lines from speaking to light recitative-style songs, and complete. I didn’t overestimate when I moved to keening.
It was unusual and encouraging to see a woman directing, conducting, composing, scripting and starring an opera. Kanako Abe includes cello, accordion, duduk (Armenian cousin of the British horn), Daegeum (Korean bamboo flute) and bowed string instrument Kamanche. However, Bushler El Turk’s score spawned some new and intriguing colors from these unusual combinations, and Stacy Hardy’s script slammed the interaction between the two women. I made it.
The freshest character at this year’s Exfest will be featured in the vibrant rendition of Monteverdi’s “Poppea’s Crown Ceremony” by Ted Huffman. With a history of about 400 years, “Poppea” is surprisingly modern in the gray zone of morality it occupies. Few people are completely positive or unfavorable. Desire and ambition are revealed and condemned at the same time.
The ideal intimacy for baroque operas, the Théatre du Jeude Paume, a jewelry box with less than 500 seats, has few sets. Almost the only element is a huge pipe, half white and half black, hanging over the action.
Sex on the sexy stage may be even rarer than writing sexy sex, but Huffman led his cast in a hot, truly captivating scene with Monteverdi’s exquisite sensual music. rice field. secret? Opened on Saturday, this modern dress (and undressed) piece is not only a drag on lovers, but also from afar because of its all-naked body and physical contact. I am aware of that. Similarly, when a performer spends time next to the stage between scenes and watching fellow singers, somehow the character’s depth and reality increase.
It was a pleasure to hear the voice of a young and fresh artist in this work at this theater. Fleur Barron was an injured Otavia, Paul-Antoine Benos-Dijan was a suffering Ottone, Alex Rosen was an angry Seneca, and Maya Kerani was a delicate Dorsila. Miles Mykkanen was as noisy as the two old women in the opera, but not grotesque. Julie Rosette was wary of Amore. And there were subtle support activities from Laurence Kilsby, Janis Francois and Ricardo Romeo.
Their tones were burning and sharp, Jacqueline Stacker and Jake Arditti were Poppaea, and Nerone was driven madly by desire. The chorus before their aching final duet “Purtimiro” has been cut, and this coronation keeps the private fantasy we spy on.
Leonardo Garcia Alarcon led a small but powerful group from his ensemble Capella Mediterranea. (When playing with great force on Monday, Eurydice of Mariana Flores produced a gentle final mourning, but the concert version of Monteverdi’s “Orfeo” by Alarcon and Capella Mediterranea felt a bit more diffuse. .)
At this level, “poppea” is acidic and refreshing. You laugh at what these characters can do and what you can empathize with.
This year’s festival is of great quality, but with few comedies. In addition to two dark premierees, there is a large excavation stage of Mahler’s “Resurrection” symphony, the rarity of modern refugee Rossini, the icy “Salome” and “Idomeneo” Romeo Castelucci. To evoke a nuclear disaster. At that moody company, you’ll have to laugh at Monteverdi’s bitterness.