It is exceptional that an opera aria becomes the emotional and dramatic axis of a commercial film. He achieved it in Philadelphia (1993), in , seemed to inhabit—in the famous enveloping movement of the camera—the legendary recording by Maria Callas of The dead motherof . Demme relied on the center of gravity of Umberto Giordano’s opera for .
That same moment, in which a victim of the French revolutionary Terror invokes humanity and love, reached an incandescent temperature again last Saturday in the Euskalduna Palace. closed its 74th season with a production that commemorated the 130th anniversary of the premiere of Giordano’s opera and also marked the Bilbao debut of . The Madrid soprano obtained the biggest ovation of the night with her powerful interpretation of that cry of love and death that is the famous aria of Maddalena di Coigny.
Hernández brings together the experience and the ideal vocal means to become one of the current references for Giordano’s heroine. She debuted the role in Parma in 2019 and has since sung it in London and Vienna, replacing Sondra Radvanovsky and Sonya Yoncheva. He has a true lyrical instrument-pushedwith a homogeneous emission, which showed admirable solidity and color in the mid-low register, without losing precision or intensity in the high register, as demonstrated in the powerful B natural of the climactic “Ah! Io son l’amore.”
Her vocal performance was impressive throughout the performance, although with few concessions to dynamics and nuances. He also performed the two great duets with Chénier: the one in the second frame and, above all, the one in the fourth, which was another of the highlights of the night. What was missing, however, was a true dramatic evolution: from the young aristocrat of the first act to the tragic figure who knows misery and finds redemption in absolute love.
He did not particularly shine on an acting level, but he offered a high-voltage vocal performance, crowned by a loud final ovation. The American tenor of Italian descent, in full transition towards more dramatic roles, debuted the character last season in Vienna with some doubts about his resistance. In Bilbao it started a little cold and he pushed the treble in his famous Sudden from the first frame, One day, to the blue spacealthough even then he showed his ability not to sacrifice musicality in those outbursts. He clearly went further: he showed projection and metal in the following monologues, especially in the powerful Yes, I was a soldierfrom the third painting, and converted the romance from the fourth, Like a beautiful day in Mayin a lesson beautiful song heroic.
The love triangle devised by Luigi Illica, in his libretto based on the life of the poet André Chénier (1762-1794), guillotined during the Terror, is completed with the complex profile of Carlo Gérard, a servant in love with Maddalena, converted into a revolutionary leader and repentant accuser of Chénier. Baritone Juan Jesús Rodríguez offered a convincing and well-calibrated characterization of a character he has encountered several times in the last decade. He started with a powerful voice and an attractive color in his first monologue, It’s sixty years oldand converted Enemy of the country?in the third painting, in another of the flashes of the evening. In the rest, however, the singer from Huelva seemed colder and more contained.
The supporting cast maintained an excellent vocal and acting level. The mezzo-soprano Canarian, in addition to playing La Contessa di Coigny, she moved as old Madelon in the third painting, when she gives her grandson to the revolution. His Russian colleague Veta Pilipenko powerfully resolved Bersi’s dramatic demands in front of an almost Wagnerian orchestra at the beginning of the second frame. In the male section, the Asturian tenor stood out as L’abate, but above all for his sinister and manipulative characterization of Un incredibile. The young Galician baritone Gabriel Alonso composed an attractive Roucher, as did the veteran Fernando Latorre as Il sanculotto Mathieu. And the Bilbao Opera Choir shone again.
The other great vector of this success, which closes the 74th season of ABAO Bilbao Opera, was the pit debut of the Madrid director. Under his hands, the Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa found the sophistication and dramatic continuity that Giordano’s score demands. García Calvo knew how to promote the recited song without drowning out the voices, he intelligently managed the contrast and added a certain Wagnerian perfume, ideal in a title that oscillates between Italian lyricism and German symphonism.
The staging by Alfonso Romero Mora, and later revived in Bilbao, Seville and Oviedo, returned to the Euskalduna nine years later. It is a production respectful of Luigi Illica’s libretto, barely sprinkled with licenses. But also an approach in which the stage space creates an ideal atmosphere for music: Ricardo Sánchez Cuerda’s inclined plane scenography places the action in a court palace that progressively degrades under the rigors of the Terror. The painterly lighting by Félix Garma and, above all, the attractive historicist costumes by Gabriela Salaverri, with notable chromatic balance, contribute to this. Romero Mora’s direction does not shine especially in the acting work of the protagonist trio, but it does shine in the dramatic profile of the supporting cast and, especially, in the fluid management of the ensembles.
It would be difficult to ask for a better prelude to the 75th anniversary season of ABAO Bilbao Opera. Three more performances, on May 26 and 29 and June 1, will complete this Andrea Chénier in the Basque Country Palace.
