LYRIQUE - Les Opéras d'Europe tentent de séduire le grand public

Samedi, de nombreux opéras en Europe ouvrent leurs portes avec l'espoir de capter une nouvelle clientèle.

AFP

L'opéra Garnier à Paris© Etienne Poupinet/zefa/Corbis

Cher et élitiste, l'art lyrique ? Une cinquantaine de maisons d'opéra en Europe, dont près de la moitié en France sous le parrainage du ténor Rolando Villazon, ouvriront en grand leurs portes samedi pour sensibiliser de nouveaux publics et lutter contre les idées reçues.

Organisée en 2007 et 2008 au mois de février, l'opération française "Tous à l'Opéra !" reprend sa place, pour sa troisième édition, au sein des Journées européennes de l'opéra. Avec une nouvelle date, commune aux deux initiatives: le 9 mai, "journée de l'Europe". Ateliers créatifs, représentations interactives ou projections seront proposés dans 30 maisons d'Europe -- de Londres à Brno (République tchèque) et de Barcelone à Tallinn -- et une en Israël (Opéra de Tel Aviv).

Dans l'Hexagone, 24 institutions (liste sur www.tous-a-lopera.fr) participeront à l'opération, organisée par la Réunion des Opéras de France (ROF) et parrainée par Rolando Villazon. Soutenue par Natalie Dessay (2007) puis Roberto Alagna (2008), "Tous à l'Opéra !" pariait cette année sur le charme et l'enthousiasme du ténor franco-mexicain pour assurer sa promotion. Mais l'artiste a malheureusement annulé tous ses engagements jusqu'à la fin de l'année 2009 pour être opéré d'un kyste sur une corde vocale.

En mars, devant la presse, Rolando Villazon a cependant eu l'occasion de vanter les mérites d'une manifestation "qui permet de réunir et de créer du lien"."Je souhaite faire partager ma passion pour l'opéra, un art qui a changé ma vie et dont les racines sont historiquement européennes", a dit l'artiste, allusion à la naissance du genre en Italie, il y a quatre siècles.

Comme chaque année, les théâtres lyriques de France ont prévu une large gamme de propositions gratuites (répétitions publiques, expositions, visites des coulisses...) pour faire découvrir l'opéra autrement. Ainsi, le Grand-Théâtre de Bordeaux braquera ses projecteurs sur les "métiers de l'ombre de l'opéra" (costumiers, perruquiers, peintres, etc.). L'Opéra du Rhin mettra "la voix dans tous ses états" avec ses choristes et les jeunes solistes de son Opéra Studio.

Après avoir comptabilisé 75.000 visiteurs en 2007 puis 90.000 en 2008, la ROF vise les 100.000 entrées. Les maisons d'opéra françaises espèrent ainsi confirmer leur attractivité, alors qu'elles affichent déjà un taux de fréquentation payante de 91%, selon une enquête menée par la ROF en 2006 et 2007.Les tarifs des billets d'opéra sont-ils un frein à l'accroissement de la fréquentation ? Non, répond la ROF, qui met en avant un prix moyen de place de 30 euros chez ses adhérents. Mais sauf à pousser les murs de théâtres étroits (jauge moyenne de 1.251 places) ou à multiplier le nombre de représentations (difficile car l'opéra, même massivement subventionné, est un art cher à produire, qui perd de l'argent chaque soir), le public lyrique ne peut pas être étendu à l'infini. Il peut cependant être diversifié et rajeuni. Dans ce but, les expériences se multiplient pour présenter des spectacles hors des théâtres.

Ainsi l'Opéra de Rennes diffusera sur grand écran en 3D, le 2 juin, "Don Giovanni". L'Opéra-Comique, lui, proposera le 25 juin sa "Carmen" dans une cinquantaine de salles de cinéma en France, Suisse et Belgique, comme le fait régulièrement le Metropolitan Opera de New York. Quant à l'Opéra de Lyon, il montrera "La Traviata" le 3 juillet en plein air dans la ville, mais aussi à Chambéry, Grenoble, Saint-Etienne et Valence.

La Sonnambula - Vicenzo Bellini - 05/Abril nos Cinemas

Título original:	La Sonnambula - Vicenzo Bellini - 05/Abril nos Cinemas
Dirigido por:	Mary Zimmerman
Gênero:	Ópera
Status:	Digital High Definition

Mary Zimmerman, que dirigiu Natalie Dessay na última temporada de Lucia di Lammermoor, assina a dualidade dos elementos de sonho e despertar de La Sonnambula, numa intrigante adaptação para os dias de hoje. A perturbadora música lírica de Bellini ganha amplitude na performance de Dessay e Juan Diego Flórez, juntos novamente após a parceria em La Fille du Régiment nas grandes casas de ópera pelo mundo.

• Natalie Dessay
• Juan Diego Flórez

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Sleep Disorder

Nobody ever said La Sonnambula was an opera of great dramatic substance. How does a director get under the work's romantic surface? As the Met prepares to unveil its eagerly-awaited new production, STEVEN BLIER reflects on the difficulties involved in staging Bellini's masterpiece.

Scotto in La Sonnambula, 1972 © Beth Bergman 2009

	Joan Sutherland, as Amina in the Met's 1963 production of La Sonnambula, directed by Henry Butler and designed by Rolf Gérard Louis Melançon/OPERA NEWS Archives Henry Fuseli's The Nightmare, a late-eighteenth-century image of Gothic romance's dark side

I first saw La Sonnambula at the Met in 1964 during the World's Fair season, a special two-week bonanza in May when the company gathered some of its biggest stars to dazzle the tourists who were flooding into the city. I spent a weekend crammed into the Family Circle hearing Aida, Manon and La Sonnambula. At that age I didn't have a particularly developed visual sense — I was all ears — but I remember wincing a bit on Sunday night when the curtain went up on Bellini's opera. The stage had the look of a high-school musical in a very wealthy suburb. This Sonnambula was clearly tailored to show off Joan Sutherland. All of Amina's music was included, but everyone else's arias were cut to just one verse, and the secondary soprano role of Lisa lost her second aria altogether.

This truncated version of the opera was pretty standard at that time. It was the way Callas performed and recorded the piece, and it made Sonnambula into a true prima donna vehicle. At the Met, Sutherland's extraordinary vocalism was unforgettable; the sound of her high E-flat sailing over the chorus and orchestra at the end of the inn scene still pulsates in my autonomic nervous system. But it was clear that we were gathered together to hear one special woman sing. There was no pretense of making the story relevant or believable, and no one expected it. After all, La Sonnambula is pretty silly, isn't it? That's what all the critics said.

Director Mary Zimmerman, third from left, and Natalie Dessay, far right, colleagues for the Met's 2007 Lucia di Lammermoor (in rehearsal), will be reunited this season for the company's new La Sonnambula.

The 20 best classical divas

Who will be the new Maria Callas? Here we rate the leading ladies. Plus watch clips and listen to an exclusive Spotify playlist

Angela Gheorghiu

Neil Fisher

Then click here to play our Times Classical Divas playlist

20. Katherine Jenkins

Well, what were you expecting? Neath's favourite blonde continues her stranglehold on the UK's classical charts, but Jenkins struggles even for name recognition around the rest of the world. She claims to idolise Callas, but her treacly mezzo (always miked) is a world away from the Greek diva's quintessentially operatic grandeur and immaculate colouring of the words. (Have you ever tried listening to Jenkins in Italian?) And though she gives good face, it's all in the service of Jenkins rather than any characters she might want to bring to life. She will, she says, sing opera when she's ready; our reaction is - don't hold your breath.

Voice: 2
Visuals: 6
Roles: 0
Back story: 5
Celeb factor: 5
18/50

Watch Katherine Jenkins sing Calon Lan with the Welsh National Symphony Orchestra

19. Veronique Gens

Big in France, Gens is the ice to Dessay's fire: cool, aristocratic, poised. It's made her the natural choice for period conductors like Rene Jacobs, but that association has also limited her profile and reputation. It also means that she generally sticks to Handel and Mozart - small-scale stuff for a prima donna.

Voice: 7
Visuals: 6
Roles: 4
Back story: 0
Celeb factor: 2
19/50

Watch Véronique Gens sing Ogni vento from Handel's Agrippina

18. Elina Garanca

The mezzo to watch in the coming years, though still a mezzo, and therefore battling the difficulties of rivalling Cabell, Royal et al for big gigs and high profile recordings. But the Latvian made a huge splash in Bellini's I Capuleti at Covent Garden last month, and has the great benefit of her frequent colleague Anna Netrebko's record label, who have signed her up and are busy trying to raise her profile.

Voice: 8
Visuals: 6
Roles: 3
Back story: 2
Celeb factor: 1
20/50

Watch Elina Garanca singing from Rossini's La Cenerentola

17. Waltraud Meier

Legendary In Germany, elusive elsewhere, Waltraud Meier is a powerhouse mezzo who on a good day will blow your socks off as Isolde or Kundry. Trouble is, it's a small body of roles that her potent dramatic prescence can do justice to, and she is already moving into the character parts that signal a great singer's twilight years. Still a force to be reckoned with, mind - but Meier has no truck with celebrity.

Voice 7
Visuals 9
Roles 4
Back story 1
Celeb factor 1
22/50

Watch Waltraud Meier sing Beethoven's Fidelio

16. Maesha Bruggergosman

How many opera singers look like disco divas? This wonderfully sassy Canadian soprano is a real one-off, so let’s hope she makes the most of it in the years to come. She could start by getting seen further afield than North America, and dipping more of a toe into opera than she’s hitherto managed.

Voice: 6
Visuals: 7
Roles: 1
Back story: 6
Celeb factor: 2
22/50

Watch Maesha Brueggergosman sing D'Oreste, d'Ajace from Idomeneo

15. Nicole Cabell

Another voice from the new generation that is already capturing attention: Cabell has exotic roots (including both African-American and South Korean elements) which have produced a smooth, rich soprano of class and sophistication. Now we’re waiting for a breakout performance on stage and something on record that shows that her A&R people know what to do with her.

Voice: 6
Visuals: 6
Roles: 5
Back story: 3
Celeb factor: 34
23/50

Watch Nicole Cabell talk about her critically lauded debut recitals in Cardiff

14 Amanda Roocroft

Hugely promoted in the 1990s classical music boom, eventually the bubble burst on Amanda Roocroft - a lyric soprano who never quite delivered the goods on her own spin. But over the last few years she's dusted herself off and come back fighting, winning an Olivier award for her searing Jenufa at English National Opera and impressing with her newfound dramatic skills. A born-again Christian, she's not interested in the big hype of diva-dom, but ENO are lucky to have a house diva as skilled as she is.

Voice: 6
Visuals: 5
Roles: 5
Back story: 5
Celeb factor: 3
24/50

Watch Amanda Roocroft sing Come Scoglio from Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte

13 Barbara Frittoli

Fading badly since she first came to prominence - not because the silky Italian soprano hasn’t got the vocal goods, but because there’s something frustatingly passive about her career path and demeanour. That Frittoli's favourite part seems to be the frightened soprano soloist in Verdi’s Requiem tells you everything you need to know: she’ll never be a tigress in the Italian repertoire that should be her birthright.

Voice: 7
Visuals: 5
Roles: 7
Back story: 3
Celeb factor: 3
25/50

Watch Barbara Frittoli as Desdemona sing the Willow song from Verdi's Otello

12. Kate Royal

Enter said shiny moppet - though that may be a slighty unfair verdict on one of Britain’s big hopes for the future. Armed with a big EMI contract, Royal is getting plenty of moody photoshoots and lush recordings - the continuing question is whether she has the star power to make the clothes fit. In the meantime, nice English girl done good will have to suffice as her USP, though it shouldn’t be the final word.

Voice: 7
Visuals: 7
Roles: 4
Back story: 3
Celeb factor: 4
25/50

Watch Kate Royal sing Delibes's Les filles de Cadix

11. Eva-Maria Westbroek

Even Maria Callas sang Wagner (early on in her career she produced a blinding Isolde), so just because this powerful Dutch soprano is on the road to the big Wagner roles - and already sings an astonishing Sieglinde - doesn’t put her out of the running in the big diva stakes. Still, it’s a handicap: the big German or Russian roles don’t lend themselves to glamour, and Westbroek is already well into the mid-part of her career after many years of setbacks and auditions that went nowhere. She also lacks any support from the record industry, always after the next shiny moppet rather than a survivor like her.

Voice: 9
Visuals: 4
Roles: 4
Back story: 6
Celeb factor: 3
26/50

Watch Eva-Maria Westbroek in Shostakovitch's Lady Macbeth de Mzensk

10. Joyce DiDonato

A fabulous mezzo who should be better known, Joyce DiDonato really is a complete package. She made something really special out of Covent Garden’s tedious new production of “The Barber of Seville”, producing a Rosina of teasing charm and fabulous vocal assurance. But can a professional, affable mezzo like her really break into the diva big-time? Up against Netrebko and her baby or Gheorghiu and her temper, what she badly needs is a gimmick. Her mildly gossipy blog might be it - if she can be persuaded to be more indiscreet.

Voice: 8
Visuals: 7
Roles: 5
Back story: 2
Celeb factor: 5
27/50

Watch Joyce DiDonato sing and discuss Handel Arias

9. Magdalena Kozena

Mrs Simon Rattle has many things going for her - not least the headline-friendly story of how she lured the frizzy haired maestro away from his second wife. On her own merits, she was already a star before she met him, artfully promoted as a sultry Slav by her record label, DG, on her first album of Czech love songs.

And since? The song recitals have impressed much more than opera, where the mezzo can be gawky and mannered. That's a quandary she hasn't yet resolved - although she's a great vocal actress, it doesn't seem like she's fully harnessed those skills to a great staged production.

Voice: 6
Visuals: 5
Roles: 4
Back story: 7
Celeb factor: 6
28/50

Watch Magdalena Kozena sing Bach's Cantata for the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

8. Anna Caterina Antonacci

The Italian sphinx has that all-important Callas flavour: the spice of the unclassifiable. Mezzo? Soprano? She’s never been totally sure, which has kept Antonacci’s voice flitting dangerously (but excitingly) all around the operatic shop. Riveting on stage, the drawback of Antonacci’s odd career is that no-one has ever been able to pin her down. She’s barely known in America, and, pushing 50, time is running out for her to redress the balance. Admittedly remaining aloof in Paris (as Antonacci now mostly does) was Callas’s last trick, but one born more of necessity than artistic achievement.

Voice: 8
Visuals: 9
Roles: 5
Back story: 4
Celeb Factor: 3
29/50

Watch Anna Caterina Antonacci sing Habanera from Bizet's Carmen

7. Cecilia Bartoli

If the world were as obsessed with obscure Baroque operas and bel-canto chansons as Cecilia Bartoli is, the bubbly Italian mezzo would face few rivals for the top slot. But we are aiming for Callas levels of vocal allure, world domination and legendary fame in this chart, and Bartoli’s obscurantism is a hurdle that’s tricky to overcome. So, too, is the slight tendency she’s picked up in recent years to overplay her hand, pouring her powers of vocal expression into the occasional mannerism. She’s still ridiculously picky about performing proper opera on proper world stages, too. That leaves her a glorious one-off: still sellable and charismatic, but arguably reaching something of a mid-career plateau.

Voice: 9
Visuals: 7
Roles: 4
Back story: 4
Celeb factor: 8
32/50

Watch Cecilia Bartoli sing the final section of Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate

6. Danielle de Niese

The youngest kid on the block, and they don’t come more fully-formed than de Niese. Aussie born (of Dutch-Sri Lankan extraction), but Californa-raised, de Niese has been performing for most her life, whether at stage school or on the opera stage. As a result, she’s got the theatrical panache that many of her contemporaries lack - highlighted most obviously by her stellar turn as a scantily-clad Cleopatra in David McVicar’s “Giulio Cesare” at Glyndebourne.

She’s really one to track for the future, though: having a catalogue of characters that’s mostly Handel and Mozart doesn’t really give her much opportunity for red-blooded fervour. Also she’s just announced that she’s marrying the man who owns the Glyndebourne estate and (ultimately) runs the festival. Whiffs of nepotism may grow as the nuptials approach - not necessarily to her disadvantage.

Voice: 7
Visuals: 9
Roles: 5
Back story: 2
Celeb Factor: 6
33-50

Watch Danielle de Niese sing Handel Arias

5. Renee Fleming

Waving the flag for America, Renee Fleming has arguably never been more a more polished performer than she is now. New York’s prima donna assoluta for at least a decade, she sells out nearly everything she sings there, and her first stab at a London Traviata this summer is hugely anticipated.

It’s not that we need a huge strop to improve Fleming’s diva rating. It’s just that her slim pickings on the scandal front are indicative of a wider problem: the curse of the bland. She lacks that Callas-like fire and fury that truly sets a diva apart from the pack. And it’s a problem that doesn’t just afflict her public image, but also her glossy, rather generalised vocal and dramatic style.

Voice: 8
Visuals: 7
Roles: 8
Back story: 4
Celeb factor: 7
34/50

Watch Renee Fleming sing Ave Maria from Verdi's Otello

4. Karita Mattila

The great maverick of diva-dom, the Finnish soprano has the X factor on stage - but has she always used it right? Like Cecilia Bartoli, Mattila has always done things her way, choosing offbeat projects (new works by fellow Finn Kaija Saariaho) and hugely disparate stage roles (try Janacek, Wagner, Verdi, Puccini, Tchaikovsky for range) instead of the obvious. She is still a must-see and a must-hear, whatever she does. And stripping off in Strauss’s Salome (albeit briefly) in the New York Met production added some background juice. But at 49 years old her lustre may now never reach megawatt brilliance, and she lacks a big champion in her (niche) record label, Ondine.

Voice: 9
Visuals: 9
Roles: 6
Back story: 5
Celeb factor: 5
34/50

Watch Karita Mattila sing Rusalka's Song to the Moon with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales

3. Natalie Dessay

Unquestionably the finest actress on the list, a blazing Dessay performance makes Netrebko look like a clockwork doll. She idolises Callas and arguably comes closer than any other opera singer to realising her fusion of drama and music into one gesture, one thought.

She’s edgy, too, though not necessarily to her own benefit. She has spats with directors and in the past has been less than kind about the histrionic flair of some of her colleagues. The difficulty is that this gives her less of a populist touch than some of her rivals - take her as you find her, but don’t expect her to make nice for the PR benefits. And, although her light lyric voice has grown weightier over the years, she’ll never sing the meat and potatoes Italian roles that Netrebko has already set her eyes on.

Voice: 8
Visuals: 10
Roles: 6
Back story: 6
Celeb factor: 5
35/50

Watch Natalie Dessay sing Où va la jeune hindoue from Delibes's Lakmé

2. Angela Gheorghiu

The obvious choice pre-Netrebko, but the Romanian continues to lose ground. The main difficulty now is choosing the right rep: Gheorghiu is so picky, and her voice still on the light side - leaving limited opportunities beyond those delicate flowers such as Mimi in La Boheme, Magda in La rondine and Violetta in La traviata. Trouble is, all those women are supposed to be considerably younger than Gheorghiu now is. The scandal-o-meter, meanwhile, is ticking over nicely (she was recently fired from Chicago Lyric Opera for another no-show at rehearsals) but eventually she may have to realise that there are younger models out there who are considerably more willing to please.

Voice: 7
Visuals: 8
Roles: 6
Back story: 10
Celeb factor: 6
37/50

Watch Angela Gheorghiu sing Habanera from Bizet's Carmen

1. Anna Netrebko

The Russian soprano continues her domination of the operatic globe - even though it’s less than a year since the birth of her first child. But why would that stop her? Even the new baby son (whose father is the hunky Uruguayan baritone Erwin Schrott) added to her star quotient. Netrebko sings a higher concentration of “Callas parts” than any other singer on our list. She cancels just enough performances to add the all-important notes of controversy (a recent no-show at Covent Garden was another smart move). And, most importantly, any vocal deficiences - some bumpiness in the bel-canto rep, diffident diction - are neatly overcome by her theatrical daring and film-star looks. Currently untouchable on all counts, and doesn’t her record label know it.

Voice: 8
Visuals: 10
Roles: 9
Back story: 9
Celeb factor: 9
45/50

Watch Anna Netrebko sing Puccini's O soave fanciulla with Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon

Prêmio Opera News anuncia vencedores nos EUA.

Opera's highest awards announced

August 4, 2008

general news and entertainment services.

NEW YORK (AP) _ This year's prestigious Opera News Awards are going to sopranos Natalie Dessay and Renee Fleming, mezzo Marilyn Horne, baritone Sherrill Milnes and composer John Adams.

Adams' compositions include "Nixon in China" and "The Death of Klinghoffer." Another of his works, "Doctor Atomic," will be performed at the Metropolitan Opera in October.

Dessay, who appeared in two Met productions last season, was hailed for her "electrifying style of coloratura."

The publication cites Horne for her "dazzling" mezzo-soprano voice.

Milnes was honored for his artistic integrity. Fleming, a two-time Grammy winner, was hailed for her "vocal intelligence" and "musical grace."

The awards will be presented on Nov. 16 in a ceremony at the Plaza Hotel.

NATALIE DESSAY

A different class of diva

By Norman Lebrecht / July 9, 2008

---

There are moments when an artist, seduced by the nuzzle of a radio mike, utters something so astonishing that the interviewer holds his breath and hopes to heaven that he has not misheard. ‘I got rid of my high notes,’ confides Natalie Dessay, in a backroom of the Theatre des Champs Elysees. ‘They were getting in the way.’

Dessay, 43, is an international operatic sensation. The first French singer to open a season at the Metropolitan Opera, saving a rickety production from director blight, she is by far the most versatile, surprising actress to be seen on an opera stage.

As blood-smeared tragedienne in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lamermoor in New York, or as light comedienne in Fille du Regiment at Covent Garden, Dessay’s madcap energy and gamine magnetism catch the eye even as Juan Diego Florez lets off nine top C’s in Fille and the audience roars to its feet. Dessay and Florez have erased Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti from Fille memory. Natalie’s pixie features wink out at you from Manhattan bus-stops. She, more than any current soprano, can give an opera a different twist.

So why drop the top notes? Every singer I have ever known works like crazy to get as high as they can and, once there, to polish the notes like brass knockers and use them as a juggernaut. That, however, is not what Natalie Dessay is about.

‘It is very easy for someone with high notes to impress,’ she shrugs, ‘even if the rest is not very interesting. High notes are something that people seem to like - I never understood why. It’s like being able to fly. OK, you can fly, so what?’ ‘It’s rather unusual,’ I interject. ‘Yes, it’s rather good but it’s not enough. I want to give something else. When I had these high notes, I couldn’t pay attention to the text. I’m interested in the humanity of the characters and the interpretation.’ ‘So when you’re standing opposite Juan Diego and he is doing nine high C’s…’ ‘I’m not impressed,’ exclaims Natalie Dessay with absolute conviction. ‘Either you have the top or not. If you have it, it’s not that difficult.’

This, I suspect, is about as close as you can get to heresy in opera without calling Verdi second-rate and saying Wagner was composed by committee. Dissing the upper altitudes of the human voice undermines opera’s unique selling point and the careers of its leading celebrities. Not that Dessay seems bothered.

This is a singer who gets rid of bankable roles before they start to bore her – ‘after four or five productions, what can you add?’ – or if a bigger challenge turns up. She has just turned down Lucia the Royal Opera House because she wants to act in a Paris stage play, her first spoken role. Looking for a candidate to kick off the new Lebrecht Interview series on BBC Radio 3, Dessay was first choice. Few singers so readily challenge conventional wisdom, and are so eager to be honest with themselves.

Who is Natalie Dessay? The name is not the one she was born with, and she is quick to admit that she uses it as an alter ego, to protect her real self from the one that goes on stage. She was born Nathalie Dessaix and changed it because the ‘h’ in her forename looked phoney and she was taunted in school as ‘deux-Sexe’, or two sexes. She wanted to be a ballerina at five, then an actor at 13. She found her singing voice at 20 while rehearsing a play. She won a Mozart competition in Austria and learned all she needed to know about the repertoire system during a season at the Vienna State Opera. ‘They are not interested much in theatre, only in music,’ she sniffs.

Lucky breaks launched her in Paris and New York in the mid-1990s but raging ambition – ‘I need so much to be on stage’ - was marred by weak confidence. ‘Can’t they hear I’m not that good?’ she kept asking herself.

Marrying the baritone Laurent Naouri gave her two children and a confidence boost. ‘It was not a coup de foudre,’ she giggles when I ask if she fell in love, ‘but that’s why I married my husband. I knew it could last. I believe we can grow old together.’

She converted to Naouri’s faith, Judaism, despite insisting that she did not believe in God. ‘And now, somehow, I feel Jewish. I like this culture, I like the humour, I like the way of seeing the world, the importance of family. I used to be egocentric. Through this, I learned the importance of being with others, of sharing.’

She is happiest working with her best friends, the conductor Emmanuelle Haim and the director Laurent Pelli, whom she describes as her sister and brother, and the opera she is most looking forward to is a Handel Giulio Cesare that they will do together in Paris at the end of next year. ‘On stage, in rehearsal,’ she explains, ‘my job is to help the conductor and the director to build a team with people from different backgrounds. I am the go-between.’

Come again? Is this a diva speaking? Could you imagine Maria Callas describing herself as a facilitator, rather than a star? ‘It’s in my interest,’ says Dessay matter-of-factly. ‘If everybody works together, maybe there’s a chance we can achieve something. If we work alone, there’s no chance.’ She often clashes with conductors who demand musical purity at the expense of dramatic effect. Her fantasy is to play Lady Macbeth – Shakespeare’s, not Verdi’s. Every time she steps on stage she reminds herself that art is long, and life short.

Seven years ago, while rehearsing in Toulouse, she went to see a throat specialist with a minor discomfort and was told she had polyps on the vocal cords and might never sing again. ‘I was desperate. I started to cry. I thought it was over. The date was September 11, 2001. I turned on the radio and heard this terrible news from New York. I stopped crying completely. I thought: what I have is nothing compared to this. I was alive, I am alive.’

Two operations, with eight months of rehab after each one, brought her slowly back to the international stage, and on to greater things. She knows the voice is finite and torments herself about what she will do when she gives up singing and has half a life left ahead. She drops another casual bombshell into our conversation. ‘I have given up solo recitals. I don’t like to be alone on stage.’

What she craves is to leave a lasting impact on the way that opera is presented. ‘I want to make people forget we are singing,’ says Natalie Dessay, ‘I don’t want to them to come to hear beautiful voices, but to see a whole performance, of theatre with music.’ There has never been a diva quite like her, for putting vanity in the shade.

+ The Lebrecht Interview starts on July 21 at 9.45pm, after the Monday Prom on BBC Radio 3 and will be streamed at www.bbc.co.uk/radio3

La Fille du Régiment

Approximate running time 2 hrs. 45 min.

Experience the “exceedingly yummy operatic cake” that was called “the operatic show of the season” by The Times of London when it opened at Covent Garden this past winter. Audiences were dazzled by Natalie Dessay’s fearless coloratura and impeccable comic timing and by Juan Diego Flórez’s remarkable musicality—complete with the famous high Cs. Dessay and Flórez are an “operatic coupling made in heaven” raved the Financial Times. Directed by Laurent Pelly, the production also boasts stage legend and Tony Award® winner Marian Seldes as the Duchess of Krakenthorp.

La Fille du Régiment is a co-production with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, and the Wiener Staatsoper, Vienna.

Três sopranos

A grande estrela de hoje em dia é provavelmente a russa Anna Netrebko, mas o mundo das sopranos não deixa de estar dominado por três nomes franceses: Natalie Dessay, Véronique Gens e Sandrine Piau.

Comprei uns discos recentes das três. Véronique Gens canta, para o selo Naxos, uma seleção dos “Chants d’ Auvergne” de Joseph Canteloube (1879-1957), que são uma delícia para quem associa imediatamente qualidade melódica ao poder de envolvimento da cantora que interpreta a música. Vale dizer que, à parte o refinamento e a opulência do arranjo orquestral, esses “Chants d’Auvergne” são menos eruditos do que certas coisas feitas na música popular. Mas não há como resistir aos trulilululus do dialeto regional francês que Véronique Gens gorjeia com todas as cores de um arco-íris sobre a paisagem algo pálida e medíocre, mas sempre feliz, de Canteloube.



Natalie Dessay é uma soprano mais potente, pronta a qualquer desafio técnico: basta ver, no youtube, sua interpretação da famosa “Ária dos Sininhos” da ópera Lakmé, de Delibes. Se você não tiver paciência, adiante o vídeo perto do final, para ver a qualidade sonora, a afinação, daquelas notinhas infernais que ela expele do corpo como pérolas.

Dois lindos CDs de Natalie Dessay estão à disposição do consumidor paulistano. Um reúne árias de Richard Strauss, extremamente difíceis e agudas, mas que valem a pena uma tentativa. As partes mais sublimes das óperas de Strauss foram escritas para duetos e trios femininos, e o ápice do CD está no terceiro ato de Der Rosenkavalier, reunindo num berreiro sinuoso e sensual as vozes de Natalie Dessay, Felicity Lott e Angelika Kirshlagert. É como se um caldeirão de geléia de amora gerasse, sem querer, toneladas de gordura de porco, até o momento em que a intervenção da orquestra põe um pouco as coisas no lugar. Segue-se um trio reconciliado em vozes puríssimas.

O segundo CD de Natalie Dessay se chama “Vocalises”, e é bem mais acessível. Esqueça a faixa 1, com a famosa e muito brega vocalise de Rachmaninov. As coisas melhoram na mais brega ainda “Les Filles de Cadix”, de Delibes, em que Natalie Dessay apresenta ligações surpreendentes de uma frase a outra, deixando a voz “cair” em lugares que nunca seria de esperar. Esplêndida a “Vocalise en forme de Habanera” de Ravel, e o concerto, tão brasileiro, para coloratura e orquestra do russo Glière, cujas formas de modinha podem ser conferidas aqui, com uma linda Anna Netrebko.


Mas nada disso, a meu ver, se compara ao CD de Sandrine Piau intitulado “Évocation”, que reúne canções de autores tão distantes no tempo como Chausson e Schoenberg. Véronique Gens tem pureza, Natalie Dessay tem uma técnica formidável, mas só Sandrine Piau, nos CDs que ouvi, é capaz de transcender em pura beleza vocal a partitura que tem para cantar. Desde a primeira canção de Chausson, sente-se que a voz de Sandrine Piau não é apenas “cristalina”, como se espera de qualquer soprano. No meio de uma nota, como se fosse um diamante que reflete inesperadamente um reflexo de cor, Sandrine Piau cintila.

O repertório desse CD é, além disso, de especial interesse. Debussy faz aqui uma má figura, com “Nuit d’ Étoiles”, talvez sua pior composição. Mas o relativamente desconhecido Charles Koechlin, que merecerá um post qualquer dia, surge fascinante em suas “Sept chansons pour Gladys”, que são uma espécie de ponte entre Fauré (de quem Koechlin foi aluno) e Messiaen (de quem não sei se foi professor). Não sei quem é “Gladys”, mas o compositor tinha uma enorme atração pelas atrizes de Hollywood, apaixonando-se por Lilian Harvey, a quem dedicou algumas peças sem obter resposta.
Mas Koechlin é assunto para outro post. Fico por aqui, com as fotos dele e de sua musa.


Escrito por Marcelo Coelho

Metropolitan de NY celebra 125 anos com novas produções

Verdi’s Il Trovatore opens on February 16, 2009, with Salvatore Licitra in the title role.

Photo by Brigitte Lacombe

Renée Fleming stars in the title role of Massenet’s Thaïs, opening December 8, 2008.

Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust opens on November 7, 2008, with Marcello Giordani in the title role. Robert Lepage directs the new production, and James Levine conducts.

Photo by Nicholas Samartis

Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez star in Mary Zimmerman’s new production of Bellini’s La Sonnambula, opening on March 2, 2009.












O Metropolitan Opera de Nova York anunciou nesta quarta-feira sua próxima temporada 2008-2009, que começa em 18 de setembro.

Além das novas produções, incluirá um "réquiem" de Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) em homenagem a Luciano Pavarotti e uma noite de gala para festejar os 125 anos da companhia.

Entre as outras novidades do Metropolitan figuram "Doctor Atomic", uma ópera do compositor pós-minimalista John Adams, e "A Condenação de Fausto", de Robert Lepage.

THE MET

Le Nozze di Figaro

(The Marriage of Figaro)

Approximate running time 3 hrs. 25 min.

Mozart’s eternal masterpiece features two superb ensemble casts, including Hei-Kyung Hong and Anja Harteros sharing the role of the Countess, Lisette Oropesa and Ekaterina Siurina as Susanna, Michele Pertusi and Simon Keenlys

ide as the Count, and Erwin Schrott and Bryn Terfel mining the inexhaustible riches of the title role.

The production of Le Nozze di Figaro

has been trimmed by one intermission. There is a brief pause between acts one and two.

Lucia di Lammermoor

Approximate running time 3 hrs. 25 min.

In this new production by acclaimed theater artist Mary Zimmerman and conducted by Maestro James Levine, Donizetti’s famous tragic heroine is portrayed by one of her greatest recent interpreters: Natalie Dessay. She brings vocal virtuosity and dramatic commitment to the role of the young woman who is cornered by forces that break her heart and mind. Marcello Giordani and Giuseppe Filianoti share the role of her lover Edgardo, while Mariusz Kwiecien is her scheming brother Enrico, and John Relyea is the compassionate Raimondo.

Music Review

A Grand Opening at the Opera

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

"Lucia di Lammermoor": The Metropolitan Opera opened the 2007-8 season with this production, which stars the soprano Natalie Dessay in the title role of the tragic, maddened heroine.

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI

Published: September 26, 2007

The soprano Natalie Dessay must thrive under pressure. Singing the touchstone title role of Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” in a new production to open the Metropolitan Opera’s season on Monday night would have been enough to contend with. But Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, believes in presenting opera as a total theatrical package, which includes, when he has the right star in the right show, a promotional campaign that a Broadway mogul like Rocco Landesman would envy. For weeks Ms. Dessay’s picture has been posted, it has seemed, on half the subway stops and buses in New York.

Read more

Estréia - LUCIA no MET - HOJE !!!!

Lucia di Lammermoor

Monday, September 24, 2007, 6:30 pm - 9:55 pm
More information and other dates

For tickets at gala pricing for the Cocktail Reception, Cast Dinner and/or Program Listing, please call 212-362-6000 for further information and to place your order.

Approximate running time 3 hrs. 25 min.

In this new production by acclaimed theater artist Mary Zimmerman and conducted by Maestro James Levine, Donizetti’s famous tragic heroine is portrayed by one of her greatest recent interpreters: Natalie Dessay. She brings vocal virtuosity and dramatic commitment to the role of the young woman who is cornered by forces that break her heart and mind. Marcello Giordani and Giuseppe Filianoti share the role of her lover Edgardo, while Mariusz Kwiecien is her scheming brother Enrico, and John Relyea is the compassionate Raimondo.

Lucia no Met com Dessay - NEWS

Setting The Stage

Posted by Philipp Brieler on 9/13/2007

11 days until the Lucia di Lammermoor premiere!

With the final dress rehearsal only a week away, Lucia is rapidly taking shape on the Met stage. On Wednesday, director Mary Zimmerman rehearsed the second and third acts with soprano Natalie Dessay, who sings the title role, Marcello Giordani, who plays her lover Edgardo, Mariusz Kwiecien (Enrico), John Relyea (Raimondo) and Stephen Costello (Arturo). Following the emotional finale of the second act, choreographer Daniel Pelzig took the chorus through their polka steps for the wedding celebration before Dessay launched into her Mad Scene.

Marcello Giordani and Natalie Dessay

John Relyea, Natalie Dessay and Mariusz Kwiecien

Mary Zimmerman discussing a scene with Mariusz Kwiecien and Natalie Dessay

Marcello Giordani

Daniel Pelzig (right) with Stephen Costello

Stephen Costello, Natalie Dessay and Mariusz Kwiecien

Mary Zimmerman conferring with prompter Carrie-Ann Matheson

This entry was posted by Philipp Brieler on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 11:16 am and is filed under New Production Countdown, Lucia di Lammermoor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.