Two productions of Troyens,
Berlioz, at the same time, in two national houses, the Opera of Paris
and the Opera du Rhin, are rare. And it is necessary to greet, with the
passage, the completion of the complete edition of works of Berlioz, by
the German publisher Bärenreiter, started in 1969, celebrated in
Strasbourg in front of the whole crowd and of the musicologic
celebrities berlioziennes. Hugh Macdonald, director of this
edition, dared statement that Berlioz would have been happy of this
evening. But it was during the first interval of this long opera in two
parts. The scenography of Andreas Baesler, who transposed Troy around
Verdun, between 1914 and 1918, had not shown yet to which point the
incomprehension of the poetry of a work can lead. The second
part, “Troyens à Carthage”, was going to appear of a vulgarity,
a silly thing and an ugliness rare, with insinuations, shifted
readings, diversions and parodies. The director of the Opera du Rhin,
Nicholas Snowman, who offered the cheap grinding of what one sees on
the large international scenes evil directed, did not find his marks in
Strasbourg yet, contrary to Serge Dorny in Lyon, for example. Michel
Plasson directed Troyens for the first time in pit. Its Berlioz is a
chambrist, full with fine colors and beautiful intentions. This old
veteran of the French repertory is an inventory of delicacies in spite
of very disappointing philharmonic Orchestre of Strasbourg. The
Alsacian formation is in bad condition, the cords defeats, defective
coppers, the winds without body nor heart. Will it manage to go back on
level with its new musical director, Marc Albrecht? The task will be
hard. One will have noted little vocal beauty at the men, with an
horrible Enée, singing dreadful French. Let us announce the
young person Sebastien Droy who sings with a light tenor voice most
beautiful French who is, in the sublime air of Hylas, the act V, as
poetically upsetting as the air of Barberine to the last act of the
Weddings of Figaro, of Mozart. The three female roles were perfectly
held: Sylvie Brunet is Cassandre with the song which is unaware of the
beauty for touching by the truth, like A so quite illustrated large
Rita Gorr. Marie-Nicole Lemieux, the rising star of the French-speaking
song,has an ideal for Anna, long tessiture, equalizes, rich, creamy -
and a diction of dream. Béatrice Uria-Monzon found in Didon the
role of her life. She is upsetting there and splendid, irradiant.
R e n a u d M a c h a r t
