L'elisir d'amore, 30th September 1999

 

Hall Opera

 

Suntory Hall, Tokyo

 

Giuseppe Sabbatini (Nemorino), Eva Mei (Adina), Paolo Coni (Belcore), Natale de Carolis (Dulcamara), Kikuko Teshima (Giannetta)

 

The Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Suntory Hall Opera Academy Chorus, Mark Boemi (conductor), Italo Grassi (stage designer), Lorenzo Mariani (stage director), Luisa Salvini (costume designer)

 

 

Suntory Hall is Tokyo's premier concert venue. The management started presenting operas in concert in 1989. However on the advice of Gustav Kuhn, they switched to semi-staged productions in 1993, making the most of the possibilities offered by the hall, the intimacy of 'opera in the round' and the superb acoustics of the hall making up for the lack of a proscenium. (In the case of L'elisir d'amore the orchestra were positioned behind the set, with most of the audience in front, served by four separate surtitling machines).

 

The operas performed are always 19th century Italian classics, with a strong emphasis on Verdi. Most of the leading artists have also been Italian, members of the same 'Renato Bruson & Co' group that perform regularly with the Fujiwara Opera.

 

Italo Grassi's set for L'elisir d'amore was like an inverted orange peel stretched across the concert platform, steeply banked at the sides. The costumes were brightly coloured: men in blue, women in orange and soldiers in turquoise. A large orange sun was hung from a pole to reinforce the idea that it was hot. The time period was non-specific early 20th century, as indicated by the dress and guns carried by the soldiers. Lorenzo Mariani's direction involved a lot of clowning around matching the visual style of the production very well, and was much appreciated by the audience.

 

Sabbatini was the star of the evening. He was in good strong voice and totally into character. Regrettably this is not a voice I can enjoy. I find his basic timbre hard and unappealing. Does he sing sharp? Maybe, but if so the audience didn't seem to care.

 

Eva Mei's Adina promised a lot but was disappointing. Radiating charm in a becoming red dress she gave us the impression of being about to deliver something really beautiful. Unfortunately her singing tended to be either very light and unprojected, or rather loud when she was singing with Sabbatini. The voice was sometimes unfocused and there were some pitch problems. And yet it would be easy to imagine and hope for better things from her.

 

Paolo Coni was well-cast as Belcore: lots of sound and not a great deal of substance (words). He handled the comedy well. This was perhaps his most successful roles here, more so than Germont (La Scala 1995) or Rodrigo (Bologna).

 

Natale de Carolis as Dulcamara generated a lot of excitement. Throwing off black clothes at his entrance, the 'doctor' was revealed as a very slick young man with bright orange hair, wearing a white jacket with a red bow-tie, red gloves, and sunglasses, accompanied by a cute assistant in a nurse's uniform. Proving a fast, sharp comedian with extraordinary energy and agility on stage, de Carolis was blessed with the voice to match: a bass baritone with the delicacy of expression of the 'tenore di grazia'.

 

The orchestral sound was warm but rather hard driven by the conductor Boemi. There was some humour but not much charm in his interpretation.

 

 

Simon Holledge