Mark Elder transforms “Luisa Miller” into a Verdian event at the Arts | Culture

In the epilogue of his book Verdi, the Italian (2012), Riccardo Muti looks back on the operas of the composer Busseto that he would have liked to include in his repertoire. The most prestigious living performer of Italian opera, now aged 84, then expressed his desire to produce first titles like Aroldo, Alzira, The Battle of Legnano either The corsair. There is, however, one later work which has always resisted him: Luisa Miller. “I find it very uneven; there are extraordinary, wonderful and fantastic moments, but also others quite boring, and it’s the only opera that I don’t know if I will ever direct,” he admitted.

Very different is the perception of another great current Verdi specialist, the Briton Mark Elder, who recognized a few days ago to EL PAÍS that, when he was offered his debut as chief musical director of the Arts with Luisa Miller“I couldn’t believe my luck.” At 78, Elder underlines the challenge posed by this 1849 title, a transition between the bel canto approaches of the first Verdian operas and the modern drama of the popular trilogy –Rigoletto, The seller And The misdeed—, a challenge that has been demonstrated since last December 10 in the theater pit designed by Santiago Calatrava, by stringing together memorable performances like that of last Saturday 20.

Elder plays with Luisa Miller exactly the same operation as in its already repository recording for Opera Rara of the original version of Simon Boccanegra: make the magnificent Verdian orchestration the true dramatic support of the work. This is already apparent from the opening symphony, a masterful monothematic sonata movement, of Germanic ambition and far removed from the usual Italian medley. The British conductor made it emerge from the dense strings of the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana in an authentic pianissimo, with the added coloring of the first violins playing on the fourth string, before emphasizing the contrast with the fortissimo and giving way to the exquisite intervention of the English clarinetist James Gilbert, guest soloist of the Les Arts orchestra.

At the beginning of the opera, with this inimitable Bellinian air, everything flows smoothly: the strings, the woodwind and brass solos, but also the chorus. Elder was an admirable defender of voices, always using simple, precise gestures that translated into precise bursts of an ideally balanced orchestra. It shone especially in the ensembles, as in the climates final of the first act. After the break, he manages to give all its stylistic coherence to the passage from the second act to the third, where Verdi’s evolution towards the dramatic tincture of Trovatore and the privacy of Traviata. And he shot the long final piece – both the duet between Luisa and Rodolfo and the trio with Miller – Father! Ricevi the extreme… addio!— at the most moving moment of the evening.

The opera culminates with this ending in which children from different social strata rebel against their parents and die of poisoning because they cannot experience their love. A plot that Salvatore Cammarano freely adapted from the drama Intrigue and love by Friedrich Schiller, set in Tyrol at the beginning of the 17th century. The peasant Luisa falls in love with Rodolfo, son of Count Walter; Although he reciprocates, he must marry Federica, a widowed duchess. Miller, Luisa’s father, confronts the Count and is imprisoned, forcing his daughter to renounce her love to save him from death. A plot centered around a letter culminates when Rodolfo pours poison into a cup that he shares with Luisa.

For this new production of Luisa Millerwhich Les Arts presents in co-production with Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, director Valentina Carrasco transfers the action to a doll factory at the beginning of the 20th century. The proposition works with notable effectiveness until the third act. Carles Berga’s scenography unifies this bourgeois and industrial environment by placing Count Walter on the upper floor as factory director and Miller on the lower floor as a simple worker. Added to this are Antonio Castro’s lighting and Luciana Gutman’s costumes, which affect the physical model that the dolls represent within an oppressive society dominated by paternal authority.

The direction of the actors stands out, with interesting dramatic developments of certain characters, notably the two protagonists, Luisa and Rodolfo. The dynamism of the factory guarantees effective stage movement, with brilliant bursts like the quartet in the second act. Gift to the Duchessthe final a cappella section of which shows Walter, Wurm and Federica handling Luisa as if she were a doll. However, everything drifts towards symbolism in the final act, with a scene populated by unhappy child dolls, to which is added the feminist gesture according to which Luisa does not die, but her doll.

The vocal cast was remarkable, but without any notable flashes. Soprano Mariangela Sicilia, who replaced Federica Lombardi initially scheduled, offered a solid and coherent Luisa in her vocal evolution towards the dramatic. The Italian singer managed to solve the coloratura of the bel canto cavatina I saw him, the palpito cousinalthough he stood out most in the second act scene, with powerful high notes and exquisite middle vocals in the cabalette A brani, a brani or perfido.

Tenor Freddie De Tommaso showed a greater inclination toward nuance and building dramatic progression in his Rodolfo. The Anglo-Italian stood out for his good legato and for bright high notes in the famous tune When will I be the placidthe most applauded thing of the evening. However, he chose to imitate a verist vocality from the beginning of the 20th century, with slight sobs in the high notes, completely foreign to the Verdian style.

Miller, by Germán Enrique Alcántara, was one of the great successes of the casting. This remarkable Argentine baritone, also protagonist of the aforementioned recording of Elder de Simon Boccanegrapossesses a lyrical voice with the dramatic punch necessary for a great Verdian, as he demonstrates in his cabalette from the first act Ah! Fu giusto il mio suspectto!.

Not far behind were the Italian bass-baritone Alex Esposito, as a solid and intense Walter, nor his compatriot, the bass Gianluca Buratto, who embodied an ideally perverse Wurm thanks to his cavernous tone. Both shone in their dark and tense duet in the second act, The retaggio non ho bramato top.

Among the secondary characters, the mezzo-soprano Russian Maria Barakova brought an aristocratic balance to Federica; The freshness of Lora Grigorieva, from the Improvement Center, in the role of Laura, and the Peasant played by Antonio Lozano, member of the brilliant Cor de la Generalitat Valenciana, was also highlighted.