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A Seraglio on the Sea Geneva
Grand Théâtre
10/20/2000 - and 23, 25, 28, 30, Octobre, 2, 5 November 2000
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Nathalie Dessay (Konstanze), Akie Amou (Blondchen), Roberto Saccà (Belmonte), Francesco Piccoli (Pedrillo), Kurt Rydl (Osmin), Christoph Quest (Selim)
Ivor Bolton (Director), Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Choir of the Grand Théâtre, Guillaume Tourniaire (Choir Master), Dieter Kaegi (producer).
There is no doubt that Dieter Kaegi's production, that made such a scandal five years ago in Geneva, has grown up to be quite a success now that it has been reperformed for the same Geneva audience.
In a harbour, a big white liner is waiting to set to sea. Passengers board the ship after being registered by Osmin (Kurt Rydl). The deck with big chimneys, tubes and even a real swimming pool are the setting (William Orlandi) of this production, and the background of all this is the blue sky and sea. This set gave an impression of vastness and boundlessness. Though the result was spectacular, there was a lack of intimacy that some scenes would require.
But everyone was waiting for the event of this production. It is the first time that Nathalie Dessay sings the role of Konstanze. She gave us an ornamented and vertiginous, as usual, coloratura. With its two arias of two different styles, especially the so dreaded "Martern aller Arten" made even more difficult by the fact that she had to play the role in an animated, expressive and tragic way. After the Hamlet of Thomas, and Lacméfrom Delibes, she manages with quite a success one of the most difficult roles of the repertoire. She is already preparing an other big one, Lucia di Lammermoor. Her companion, Roberto Sacca as Belmonte is the perfect Mozartian, gentle and elegant. Pedrillo and Blondchen were less successful. There voices were under the quality of the first couple. Pedrillo's (Francesco Piccoli) voice and his phrasé was not as good due to his strong Italian accent when speaking German, and the buffo spirit wasn't really there . Whereas the Osmin of Kurt Rydl was singing and acting with humour and playing the true buffo role. Finally Selim, the great German actor Christoph Quest, delivered his speeches in a perfect prose, in the tradition of a German Singspiel (a combination of song and discourse). He spoke a magnificent Hochdeutsch, very solemnly and majestically as a pasha should do.
The English conductor Ivor Bolton was up to his task, as well as the orchestra. An orchestra sounding really authentic. You could hear each instrument, each note, each accord. The music was fast and exited, that provoked some contemporaries to say that there were too much notes… Sometimes we forget the role of the choir in this opera. Even if they sing rarely, their part is essential in putting the oriental accent to the piece. Guillaume Tourniaire's choir sung the salute to the Pasha as fast as they could. The orchestral and choral performance gave us a great impression of lightness and clearness.
Zoltan Bécsi
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