Gearing up for Matilde di Shabran

pic pinched from Decca

While some lucky ones have already seen the opening night of Matilde (see review from Intermezzo :-)) I still have to wait one more week for mine.

But I did get a sneak peek at it last week in one of those clever Insight evenings that the ROH spoils its “friends” with. And I am glad I did, even after an 14 hours long day, it was still as interesting and fun as expected.

The program surprisingly announced Juandi ( Juan Diego Florez) to be attending, which in the end he was not. Called in indisposed, oh well :-) Guess better to be fit for the opening night than do too many extracurricular activities and I sincerely wasn’t even expecting him to be there before I read the program ;-) So I wasn’t too disappointed. But I was kind of in minority in the room as most were obviously passionate Rossini and Juandi fans and the gasp was audible.

Since I am not one to know the trains, planes and footpaths to Pesaro forwards and backwards, I found the change in participants in the insight evening rather interesting. We did in change have the pleasure of the company of his wonderful replacement, Luciano Botelho a young Brazilian tenor. When big names such as Juandi head the cast one always worries what happens if… oh my, they have to call off sick! In this particular case I also very much look forward to hearing Juandi live, since it will be my first :-) But it was good to know that the whole cast, not only Juandi have permanent replacements, just in case, since it is not an opera which is in everyone’s repertoire. Reassuring to know, but I didn’t expect any less from the ROH.

After a most entertaining lecture from Sarah Lenton we got some time with Carlo Rizzi, the conductor and Mario Martone, the director as well as with Matilde herself, Aleksandra Kurzak. SL gave us some useful insight into the plot ( so we can plough through the weeds and basically keep it to a ruined castle, a macho tyrant, an enemy’s kid in his cellar and a cliff everyone is threatened to be thrown off, oh and a fair and very determined maiden ;-))

Then we moved on to the music: To this curiously entertaining opera, which Rossini wrote almost over night and which was actually called Isolde di Shabran when he finally found a plot to the tune, but adapted the name to the originally announced one of Matilde. Carlo Rizzi usefully explained why the opera is almost 4 hours long ( that is a loooot of coloraturas ;-))) :
- basically there are only 3 arias, an no, none are sung by Juandi – one is sung by Matilde herself, the other 2 by the kid in the cellar;
- there are tonnes of recitative, and yes, they will be doing them all, why? Well as Martone very elegantly put it because otherwise we wouldn’t have a clue about what the hell is going on as it is the recitativi which make the plot progress.
- The most beautiful and challenging parts are the ensambles and Aleksandra spoke very highly of Carlo Rizi here, expaining all the work that goes into these bits, and how carefully everyone’s rhythm and style is adjusted and combined to form the most elegant and exciting combinations. Rizzi definitely said these are the highlights of the opera, so watch/hear out for them :-)
- Carlo Rizzi also share his view about the said recitative in that he does not believe they were written by Rossini , as they are musically much to bland for his pen …. ( but remember, it is where stuff happens, so bear with them ;-))
- Mario Martone stressed how important it is in his view for music and theatre to work together; his direction is there to highlight the music, not to shock us, not to beem the singers into space or take them back to the stone age. No, this is all for Rossini and his music, as it should be I think, Rossini put enough on our plate to deal with as it is. Interesting tid bit shared by Martone was on the fact that in contrast to the recitativi, the arias/ensembles are much more difficult to direct, because this is where Rossini went inside the character to share his thoughts and feelings.
- And they all agreed on the ambiguity of comedy/drama within the piece. Rossini does not tell us what to think, he puts it out there for each to make uo their mind. And by the way, the libretto according to everyone is an intricate one, but beautifully so and doing justice to a most imaginative and delightful Italian ( yes, we did make fun of the oh so famously straightforward Trovatore in comparison, where much less is said and much more confusion is created )

And finally came the musical treat of the evening, a down and dirty (or rather high and sweet) insight into the score itself , courtesy of Luciano Botelho and conductor Paul Wynne Griffiths. And yes we got all the fireworks we expected and more! There are dizzying drops and climbs across a single phrase, there are more words into a line than can be spoken, never mind sung and there are sooo many things that Corradino has to put across by a single instrument: his voice. Luciano was very well prepared, very generous with his time and voice and definitely rose to the challenge! He is someone to watch out for!

Not that I wish Juandi a bug or anything, but I do hope Luciano gets an opportunity to shine himself, he is ready for it and if it happens on the one performance I have tickets for, I will be happy for him and would just as much look forward to it as I am now.
pic of LB at Cardiff

That’s how far my preparation goes thanks to the ROH insight, the excitement is much bigger and hopefully the joy even grander once I come back to tell you all about the live event :-)

For now I will leave you in good company:

Here is Luciano Botelho singing Cujus Animam from Rossini's Stabat Mater:



thanks for the video to lucianobotelho

Matilde at ROH:

Director Mario Martone

Performers :

Conductor Carlo Rizzi

Matilde di Shabran Aleksandra Kurzak

Corradino Juan Diego Flórez

Raimondo Mark Beesley

Edoardo Vesselina Kasarova

Aliprando Marco Vinco

IsidoroAlfonso Antoniozzi

Contessa d'Arco Enkelejda Shkosa

GinardoCarlo Lepore

EgoldoRobert Anthony Gardiner*

RodrigoBryan Secombe