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Finest Voices

Madrid
Teatro Real
01/13/2005 -  & 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22*, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 January 2005
Gioacchino Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Juan Diego Flórez (Conte d’Almaviva), Bruno Praticò (Dottor Bartolo), María Bayo (Rosina), Pietro Spagnoli (Figaro), Ruggero Raimondi (Don Basilio), Marco Moncloa (Fiorello), Susana Cordón (Berta), Enrique Sánchez Ramos (Un ufficiale), Juan Carlos Robles (Ambrogio)
Comunidad de Madrid Chorus, Teatro Real Orchestra, Gianluigi Gelmetti (Conductor)
Emilio Sagi (Stage Director)


The Teatro Real put together one of the most celebrated tenors nowadays, the Peruvian Juan Diego Florez, one of the finest Spaniard voices, Maria Bayo, a rossinian expert like Ruggero Raimondi and other succulent ingredients, obtaining one of the best recipes offered at the Madrid scene not just in the present season but in the last ones.


The scene designed by Llorenç Corbella was simple but effective with moveable walls those were conforming with imagination the different panoramas. The stage direction by Emilio Sagi was not always loyal to the plot, something that can be not just excusable but thankful when the stage improvement is innovative but not under an essentially classical conception. Too much movement in the fittings meanwhile the actors were singing – with the consequent noises – and too few movement of the characters when it was necessary, as happened in the insipid arrival of the “forza” at the end of the first Act. Excessive flamenco topics too, unbearable with the costumes, always full of spots. But the worse, without any doubt, came with the Almaviva´s pink dress in the last scene.


The voices were the strength of the performance. Maria Bayo, in the role of Rosina, demonstrated her best in most of the interventions, magnificent in the well-known “Una voce poco fa”. Just was reprehensible singing the mezzo part, making clear in the highs that she is a soprano. Irregular was Pietro Spagnoli as Figaro. He has a wide and potent voice, but was cold during the first Act and disappointed the expectations in the “Largo al factotum”. In the second Act, instead, was impeccable, with a not too much amusing Figaro but with a superb singing. Bruno Praticò was a tolerable Dottor Bartolo, even when he had not a remarkable timbre, was not agile in the phases and, at some moments, was limited in the volume. Extraordinary in his two interventions Ruggero Raimondi as Don Basilio, who demonstrated that a good acting can make up the voice light deficits, achieving a prolonged applause from the audience. Susana Cordon made a fantastic Berta. But the luminary in this Barbiere was the extraordinary Juan Diego Florez. Good in the acting, revealed a wonderful timbre, a gorgeous tone, an agile easiness in the highs and, as usually, was just weak in the volume. He showed a brilliant voice in the “Ecco, ridente in cielo” serenade but made his best in the astonishing “Cessa di più resistere” collecting with it the biggest ovation in the night.


The music accompanied the voices in a correct way but without any shine under the conduction of Gianluigi Gelmetti. As an anecdote, Gelmetti played the guitar in the first Act Almaviva’s serenade.



Mar Sancho

 

 

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