Pieter Bijlsma's Letter from Aix-en-Provence 2004 Hercules: Toby Spence as Hyllus and Joyce DiDonato as Dejanira (lying on the stage) Photo: Elisabeth Carecchio The small alleys in the medieval section of the inner city of Aix-en-Provence make a perfect setting for Mozart’s Don Giovanni. On a warm summer night, you can almost expect to see Massetto’s men around the next corner, on the prowl for the Don. If the town itself is not the staging for an opera film, then the courtyard of the Théâtre de l’Archevêché is a good alternative, and the old courtyard of the other stage used during the festival, Le Grand Saint Jean just 12 kilometres outside of Aix, is also a picturesque setting for an opera. Financial reasons notwithstanding, it is unfortunate that all the operas shown in Aix are co-produced with other European theatres. Almost all the sets are limited to regular, box-like shapes for conventional theatre stages, mitigating against the directors and designers being inspired by their historic surroundings, and making use of the staging opportunities they offer. For someone who travels internationally to see important opera productions, there is another downside to the increasing globalization of the international opera business. Not only will the sets be identical for this year’s new productions of Händel’s Hercules in the Palais Garnier in Paris and Hosokowa’s new opera Hanjo at La Monnaie in Brussels, but even the same casts and conductors will be performing. The Aix-en-Provence Festival is caught in two minds at present: should they go for the best they can Salzburg-style, or should they concentrate on nurturing young singers and giving them the opportunity to debut in mainstream repertoire? They haven't decided yet. Love for the Three Oranges: Pavel Schmulevich as Tchelio the magician and Ekaterina Shimanovitch as Fata Morgana Photo: Elisabeth Carecchio No complaints however were directed towards this year’s new production of Prokofiev’s The Love of the Three Oranges, performed in the theatre of Grand Saint-Jean. The cast list suggested Larissa Gergieva’s Mariinsky Theatre young singers academy had set up their summer camp in Aix to give the audience a taste of Russia’s youngest singing talents. Indeed there was talent aplenty, making it an impressive line-up of gifted and attractive looking singers who all knew how to communicate and act. The acoustics of the open-air, smallish-sized theatre might not have been ideal to judge the carrying power of individual voices. To generalize, most of them had typical Russian vocal characteristics. Volume was not a problem for any of them. The lower male voices had a tendency to widen their vibrato from the middle register downwards, while the female voices suffered from a slightly hard edge to their top notes. From the long list of singers, some deserve special mention. Alto Nadezhda Serdjuk, in the role of Princess Clarissa, was one of the most flamboyant figures on stage. As the cruel vixen to whom the Prince is to lose his kingdom, she delivered vocal fireworks, while she also had a commanding stage presence. Next to her, tenor Andrey Ilyushnikov in the role of the Prince appeared a bit bland, but he certainly is a vocal promise. There were a few mistakes on some higher notes, but he did have a nice, open, beautifully resonating voice, and his technique seemed to be fundamentally right. Tenor Kirill Dushechkin’s voice was somewhat smaller in size, but in the clownesque role of Trouffaldino he was in the right role because of his infectious acting. The shining soprano of Julia Smorodina, whose name could have been invented by Prokofiev for her own opera, was worth remembering. She was Ninetta, one of the three princesses to emerge out of the oranges. Love for the Three Oranges: Kirill Dushechkin as Trouffaldino (left) and Andrey Ilyushnikov as the prince Photo: Elisabeth Carecchio Only last year, Philippe Calvario made his debut as a theatre director. Since 1995 he has been an actor at the Comédie Française. His direction of The Love of the Three Oranges was his first opera staging, but he has also already been given the prestigious task of directing the world première of Peter Eötvös’ Angels in America this autumn in the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. His debut didn’t reveal any inexperience. He knew how to make the best use of all the possibilities the theatre offered. With an admirable dash and panache, he placed the chorus groups around, very often to hilarious effect. The cheap stage constructions and the candy-coloured costumes fitted perfectly with his slapstick approach. The sometimes sharp, sometimes burlesque music of Prokofiev invites an over-the-top approach. Conductor Tugan Sokhiev, only 26 years old, made a favourable impression. He recently received a bad press for his sudden resignation as chief conductor of the Welsh National Opera, just one year after he signed a five-year contract. In his conducting of the Prokofiev score, it was easy to hear that he was a pupil of Valery Gergiev. Sokhiev has the same hard-edged drive as his master, pushing for large dynamic contrasts. With the young, enthusiastic cast, this worked wonderfully well. The contrast with Händel’s oratorium Hercules could not have been greater. The genre 'oratorium’ in this case is a bit confusing, because the work is not based on a biblical text, but on Ovid's Metamorphoses and Sophocles's The Trachiniae. This is hardly relevant for the listener, because Hercules has many choral parts and a lavish orchestration with timpani and brass, which makes the work far more varied than many of his other works that are officially labeled as operas. Since the year 2000, conductor Marc Minkowski and his ensemble Les Musicien du Louvre have been enthusiastic promoters of the work. He has taken the opera to many places in concert performances and recorded it in 2002 with Anne Sofie von Otter and David Daniels. On this occasion William Christie and his ensemble Les Arts Florissants were the performers. Compared to Minkowski, they are more refined. With Christie you seem to hear a trace of elegance from the French baroque, whereas Minkowski’s conducting is brusquer and more theatrical. Then again the sound of the chorus under Christie was both strikingly homogeneous and capable of achieving maximum dynamic expression. The American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato was definitely the star of the opera. She has an impressive vocal range, very powerful top notes and sings the coloraturas with a natural ease. She delighted the audience in the role of Dejanira, the wife of Hercules, whose all-encompassing jealousy drives her into insanity. DiDonato made a tremendous impression with her strong physical acting. The varying stages of her personality, from a mourning widow, a wounded wife and finally a psychological wreck, were vocally expressed through languishing arias, contrasted with furious, almost yelled phrases. Hercules : Toby Spence as Hyllus and Joyce DiDonato as Dejanira Photo: Elisabeth Carecchio Amazing to see how long tenor Toby Spence is able to maintain his boyish looks. They fitted perfectly in the role of Hyllus, the son of Hercules. His young, fresh appearance made his hesitating, shy attempts to attract the attention of Iole very realistic. Iole was the daughter of the king slain by Hercules in his last conquest. He brought her back with him as his captive and the special care he takes with her is the source of the unfolding tragedy. The clear, flexible soprano of Camilla Tilling embodied the virginal innocence of Iole’s character. She was also able to demonstrate enough character to make her mourning over the loss of her father and standing steadfast by her beliefs convincing. Hearing the first notes of Lichas, one wondered if it was sung by a countertenor, so dark the low notes sounded. The Swedish mezzo Malena Ernman emphasized the masculinity of the role easily through her dark bottom register, but her top notes seemed to stand somehow apart from the rest, because of her difficulty with the middle register. Compared with the ease with which Joyce DiDonato sang the vocal fireworks embedded in her part, Ernman’s difficult passagio was almost painful. Anglo-Saxon directors nowadays seem to have almost monopolised the staging of Händel operas in Europe, and it was interesting to see how the Swiss-born, but mainly French in background, Luc Bondy would approach his first attempt to direct one. Bondy referred to the original Greek sources in his setting. Everything was played on a sand-covered floor in what looked like an amphitheatre. This was the arena of the matrimonial battle between Hercules and Dejanira, but also for the push-and-pull game between Hyllus and Iole. The shattered statue of Hercules was the symbol of the declining trust of Dejanira in her husband. The chorus was used in the classical tradition, as the commentator on the events, but also played a vital role in depicting the crowds. Bondy managed to find a balance between lively storytelling and avoiding over-busy movements, on which Anglo-Saxon directors seem to have taken a patent. But sometimes even Bondy could not avoid illustrating every word in the text, as if assuming the da-capo arias were too boring for the audience. This production will be shown in the Palais Garnier in Paris in December. Hanjo: (left to right) Inga Böhlin as Hanako, Frederika Brillembourg as Jitsuko Honda and William Dazeley as Yoshio Photo: Elisabeth Carecchio Aix-en-Provence also saw the world première of Hanjo composed by Toshio Hosokowa. This new opera is based on a story by the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima. The central theme in Mishima’s work is the clash between the traditional values of old Japan and the spiritual emptiness of modern society. Hanjo is no exception. Jitsuko Honda is a painter in love with another woman called Hanako (Hanjo). Hanako is forever waiting for a man, Yoshio, with whom she exchanged fans in her earlier life as a geisha. (Exchanging fans symbolizes marriage vows.) A newspaper publishes Hanako's story. Jitsuko fears Yoshio will come and that Hanako will leave her. She tries to take Hanako away with her on a journey. Eventually Yoshio does arrive at their house and clashes with Jitsuko. However Hanako doesn’t recognise Yoshio, having idealized him too much in her imagination. Yoshio leaves the house with the two women in the same situation as when the story began. Mishima’s original text was derived from a text of a 16th century No play. The austerity of the No theatre is mirrored in the directing of Anna Teresa De Keersmaecker. She is the founder and choreographer of the La Monnaie’s ballet company-in-residence, Rosas. She has directed Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Verdi’s I due Foscari, the latter being her first co-operation with Japanese conductor Kazushi Ono, now principal conductor of La Monnaie. Ono brought Hosokawa and De Keersmaecker together. The Japanese influence shows itself mainly in the slow movements of Hanako, the fluent movements of the hands, and the sudden, snapped, squatted positions, based on traditional Japanese theatre tradition. The intense, emotional tensions between the different characters are highlighted, giving it a claustrophobic atmosphere. De Keersmaecker herself noticed psychological parallels between Blanche DuBois from Tennessee William’s A Streetcar named Desire and Hanako. Hanjo: Inga Böhlin as Hanako Photo: Elisabeth Carecchio De Keersmaecker didn’t really achieve a thorough-going 'Personenregie', leaving the singers too much to themselves with most of the movements. For soprano Ingela Böhlin as Hanako this didn’t matter too much, as she has to move very slowly over the stage, dazed and secluded from things around her. However she was not always convincing, the problem being that when this Japanese theatre technique is executed with the slightest hint of sloppiness or loss of concentration, the magic disappears. Mezzosoprano Frederika Brillembourg and bariton William Dazeley, as Jitsuko and Yoshio, mainly circled around each other like two sumo wrestlers. Both women were vocally perfectly fitted for the role, but William Dazeley was frequently too loud, losing some of the effect. It was difficult to judge how Japanese the music sounded. Maybe that was a good thing, because Japanese music tends to sound kitschy when incorporated in Western classical music. Like most modern Japanese composers Toshio Hosokawa got his education in Germany and France. His music is said to be like sighs and breaths, reflecting the soundworld of traditional Japanese instruments, but it is hard to know if this is true. One could just as well call the (Italian) Salvatore Sciarrino a Japanese composer, as he also works with eerie sound ‘clouds’, notes starting from nothing and intensifying like an intake of breath. Hosokawa mixes it with sudden eruptions, breakouts with a strong emphasis on percussion. There was a Mahler-quotation as well, when on the word ‘death’ a muted blow on the bass drum sounded. The singing is less complex than the orchestral score. It seems to float polyphonically above the orchestra, with most of the words sung in a yearning, declamatory style, or 'sprechgesang'. Single syllables or phrases then are suddenly sung in a tonal way. Because of the declamatory way of singing, the text could be followed word by word. Conductor Kazushi Ono encouraged the musicians from his ensemble from the La Monnaie opera orchestra to give all they had in terms of accuracy and effort. Their efforts were rightly lauded at the end of the performance. This will be the opening production of the new season at La Monnaie in Brussels in September. Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail was a contrast to Hanjo. This was given a traditional setting under the direction of Jérôme Deschamps and Macha Makeïeff. The musicians of Marc Minkowski’s ensemble Les Musiciens du Louvre all wore turbans, and the whole performance seemed to be a celebration of the coming together of different European cultures. There were several nationalities among the singers and if that was the purpose of the concept, it was also the main problem of the whole performance. Die Entführung is a 'Singspiel', in which the Spiel is equally important as the singing, with the dialogues an integral part of the whole work. At first it seemed witty, sometimes hilarious, when Wojteck Smilek in the role of Osmin spoke German with a heavy Eastern European accent, like the sometimes clumsy sentences coming out of Loïc Felix as a black Pedrillo. However it was difficult to take the authority of the Bassa Selim very serious when he had such problematic diction as Shahrokh Moshkin-Ghalam. He might have looked mysterious enough and moved withgrace around on the stage, but typecasting stretched this far somehow missed the point of what the work was about. The singing in general was adequate, with special praise for Malin Hartelius for her cleanly executed coloraturas and brightly coloured timbre. Matthias Klink as Belmonte and Magali Léger completed the young cast, all playing and singing with heartfelt enthusiasm, often sending waves of laughter through the public. The controversial production of Verdi’s La traviata by Peter Mussbach was repeated from last year. The main attraction this time was the Alfredo Germont of Rollando Villazon. He certainly didn’t disappoint with his dark, baritonal timbre and secure, ringing top notes which easily filled the back of the theatre. Less impressive was the light baritone of Zeljko Lucic as Giorgio Germont, lacking a feeling of urgency during the second act. Mireille Delunsch might technically be adequately equipped for the role, but she is something of an acquired taste as Violetta. The voice portrays very well her fragility, but a fuller sounding voice could perhaps bring more differentiation to the role's varying emotions. © Pieter Bijlsma, 3 September 2004 Pieter Bijlsma studied business and monetary economics in Leeuwarden and Amsterdam, and musicology at the University of Utrecht. As a student he worked for several years in the Muziektheater in Amsterdam, where he became fascinated with opera. After graduating, he programmed for a commercial classical radio station and was responsible for the PR of a regional symphony orchestra, before switching his career to work for a multinational oil company. He is now an analyst for a financial newspaper in Belgium, which gives him the opportunity to cover the international opera scene at the same time as writing about finance and economics.