Petibon

Nous ne sommes pas certains que les spectateurs de l’Opéra de Zurich aient éprouvé tout à fait le même plaisir que nous à la vue de cette production de Jonathan Miller. Car la réussite de cette captation doit beaucoup au travail de la réalisatrice vidéo Chloé Perlemuter qui, avec un dispositif volontairement réduit, a décidé d’épouser le regard du spectateur, furtif, parfois inquisiteur et parfois distrait. Quelques regards sur les chanteurs en coulisses, des cadrages audacieux, rompent la monotonie d’un spectacle assez statique où l’investissement se lit presque exclusivement sur les visages, ce que soulignent parfaitement de pertinents gros plans. La captation offre donc au travail minimaliste et pudique de Jonathan Miller une profondeur supplémentaire, comme elle offre d’autres perspectives au décor d’une sobriété monacale d’Isabella Bywater, également signataires de costumes chatoyants qui nous renvoient directement au siècle des Lumières.

Mehul was the most famous French composer in the time of the Revolution, Consulate and Empire, praised by Mendelssohn, Schumann, Weber and Berlioz, and lauded to the skies by Cherubini, who called Stratonice (the fifth of his 35 operas) “a work of genius, Mehul’s masterpiece”. Nor was he alone in this opinion, since in Paris alone it was performed over 200 times during the next quarter of a century, though withdrawn during the Reign of Terror because of the finale praising royal compassion. The opera – comique only in the sense of including spoken dialogue – is serious in tone (as the grave and dramatic overture presages): based on a classical subject, it tells how Seleucus, King of Syria, engages a doctor (Erasistrate) to cure his son Antiochus’s suicidal depression, which is in fact caused by his love for his father’s fiancee, the Princess Stratonice.

For all its exotically tinged, trademark Orientalism, so fashionable in late-19th-century France, Delibe's opera Lakmé is at heart a simple story of tragically misplaced love. This marvelous and sensitively wrought interpretation renders the intensity of that love story with a surprising emotional credibility. Conductor Michel Plasson allows the music's arching melodies to breathe and unfold leisurely, like a lovingly cultivated floral display; he even discovers hidden nuances within the formulaic fluff that pads Delibe's score. And his vision is shared by the outstanding principals here. As the titular Hindu princess, Natalie Dessay gives a jewel-like performance, full of stunningly shaped phrases and tapered notes that sound like spun silk (and one that can favorably compare with Joan Sutherland's account on London).

Enjoy some really wonderful Purcell, including two beautifully sung duets with soprano Patricia Petibon and tenor Jean-François Novelli, and a lovely performance of Francesco Mancini's solo soprano cantata Quanto dolce è quell'ardore.

A fun disc and nearly – but not quite – a terrific one. The Philharmonics are an instrumental ensemble (not the African American vocal quintet of the 1950s and ’60s) – a string quintet with clarinet and piano. Four members are from the Vienna Philharmonic, one from the Berlin Philharmonic…

A fun disc and nearly – but not quite – a terrific one. The Philharmonics are an instrumental ensemble (not the African American vocal quintet of the 1950s and ’60s) – a string quintet with clarinet and piano. Four members are from the Vienna Philharmonic, one from the Berlin Philharmonic…