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Switzerland Cavalli, Eliogabalo: Soloists, Orchestra La Scintilla / Dmitry Sinkovsky (conductor). Zurich Opera, 4.12.2022. (MF)
Production:
Director – Calixto Bieto
Set – Anna-Sofia Kirsch, Calixto Bieito
Costumes – Ingo Krügler
Lighting – Franck Evin
Video – Adria Bieito Camì
Dramaturgy – Beate Breidenbach
Cast:
Eliogabalo – Yuriy Mynenko
Anicia Eritea – Siobhan Stagg
Giuliano Gordio – Beth Taylor
Flavia Gemmira – Anna El-Khashem
Alessandro Cesare – David Hansen
Atilia Macrina – Sophie Junker
Zotico – Joel Williams
Lenia – Mark Milhofer
Nerbulone – Daniel Giulianini
Tiferne – Benjamin Molonfalean
Un console –Aksel Daveyan
Altro console – Saveliy Andreev
Zurich Opera Statistenverein (Extras Association)
Eliogabalo was a dynamite stick blazing at each ends. He grew to become Emperor at 14 and was brutally murdered at 18 in 222AD. Politics didn’t curiosity him within the slightest. Instead, he confirmed an insatiable urge for food for sexual adventures in all shapes and types and a fascination with weird non secular rites. The teenage ruler went down in historical past as a logo of historical Rome’s decadence. His quick lifetime of extra proved becoming for the libretto of Francesco Cavalli’s baroque opera. The storyline consists of genderfluidity at a number of ranges, hetero- and homosexuality, polygamy, assault and battery, fraud, rape, desecration, homicide and self-mutilation. Eliogabalo guarantees nuptials left, proper and centre, plots murders and ultimately perishes miserably.
Calixto Bieito (who in 2018 thrilled Zurich audiences with Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea) tackles this topical work in regards to the egomaniac energy addict head-on. Less interested by logic or linear narration, he goes for the creation of sturdy emotional pictures – and he will get his level throughout. Although fluid in lots of respects, Eliogabalo’s world is resolutely set in black and white. All colors are left to the ladies. The set (Anna-Sofia Kirsch) and costumes (Ingo Krügler) are fashionable with out figuring out a particular interval and supply stable floor for Bieito’s associative manufacturing.
This director is attracted by the stress between Eliogabalo’s free spirit – pushed to extremes, thoughts you – and his utter ferocity. The determine fluctuates between cruelty, seduction, hedonism and insecure self-perception. A personality torn by contradictions and trying to disrupt societal conventions. He is a precursor to Don Giovanni, each nihilists in Bieito’s view. Video imagery (by Bieito’s son Adria Bieito Cami) alternates with underground Fight Club boxing scenes, crass, although not specific, depictions of sexual violence and a life-size bull. The director even features a reference to Chekhov’s gun: if a motorbike is hanging from the ceiling, be ready to see it ridden by the top of the act. The pictures could not all be equally convincing, however they’re definitely brimming with emotional and inventive energy.
Francesco Cavalli wrote the opera in 1668. The authorities cancelled the piece earlier than it even premiered, because it was thought {that a} villain of Eliogabalo’s calibre couldn’t be saved by demise however needed to repent throughout lifetime. The world needed to wait till 1999 for the premiere. Cavalli didn’t go away a full rating, however somewhat mere vocal traces and a basso continuo with numbers indicating the pitch. For each rendering the rating will should be rebuilt, a process which Russian conductor Dmitry Sinkovsky carried out brilliantly. Sinkovsky not solely conducts but in addition performs the violin and – spoiler alert! – sings a solo half. The music, as spelt out by Sinkovsky, is probably much less catchy than that by Cavalli’s instructor, Monteverdi, however nonetheless affords moments of melodic magnificence, in addition to loads of suspense and edginess. Zurich opera’s interval orchestra La Scintilla has sparks flying on its historic devices.
The forged displays the work’s multi-faceted complexity. The fundamental character is a soprano position sung by a person – the rousingly versatile Ukrainian countertenor Yuriy Mynenko – who clothes up as a lady. He is accompanied by the something however selfless moist nurse Lenia (tenor Mark Milhofer: a cross between Devil wears Prada Meryl Streep and La Cage aux Folles) and ultimately loses out to his cousin Alessandro, one other soprano position interpreted by second countertenor David Hansen. To full the gender jumble, Giuliano Gordio is sung by mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor with spectacular vocal dynamics. Siobhan Stagg as Anicia Eritea and Anna El-Khashem as Atilia Macrina acquired clamorous applause.
On opening night time the viewers was considerably decreased after the interval. But the overwhelming majority who stayed celebrated the forged, orchestra and the whole manufacturing workforce rapturously. Overall, this was not your pre-Christmas simple listening feelgood night, however it’s unquestionably a must-see manufacturing. Eight extra performances are on in December and two in early January 2023 (final probability on January seventh).
Michael Fischer
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