notizie da Vienna: ROMÉO ET JULIETTE 23.2.2016

Marina Rebeka | Juliette, Tochter Capulets
Juan Diego Flórez | Roméo
Gabriel Bermúdez | Mercutio
Alexandru Moisiuc | Frère Laurent
Rachel Frenkel | Stéphano
Carole Wilson | Gertrude
Carlos Osuna | Tybalt
Martin Müller | Benvolio
Mihail Dogotari | Paris
Marcus Pelz | Grégorio
Il Hong | Capulet
Viktor Shevchenko | Le Duc

Marco Armiliato | Dirigent

This evening saw the debut of Juan Diego Florez as Roméo. – Not counting the time he sang the role at the Lima Festival in 2014. Already this seemed a rather difficult task for him, but after Duke/Rigoletto I went there with even more mixed feelings. But „Ange adorable“ was charming and sung with grace and good taste. He started the aria in a nice, a bit slower than usual, tempo, sounding very romantic and imploring and making it an invocation. Of course, he takes every possible advantage to sneak up to the stage ramp to show of his high notes and hold on to them as long as he can. The size of his voice is ok for the first half of the opera. Even then, he has to always sing at least one nuance louder than he should have to, since the voice has no real squillo, no metal at all in order to carry better. The lyric passages he does really well. „Va! Répose en paix!“ was really beautiful and well done with great control. Most of what came after the killing of Tybalt was more than a size large for him. „Jour de deuil“ and the tomb scene were inaudible in some passages and much too lightweight. In „Nuit d´hymenée“ Rebeka covers him without the intention of doing so and without any effort as does the orchestra even when not in full sound. Although he sings hell out of the tomb scene, this seems like a giant-like task for such a smallish voice. „Console-toi“, again, was one of the most beautiful passages.
But Florez tackles this role with courage and brains. He sounds perfectly well prepared and aware of all the pitfalls and crucial moments. He takes no unnecessary risks, but does not sound over-cautious either. He perfectly knows where his limits are and oversteps them deliberately, but only where he really has to and only so far as the voice does not take (permanent) harm. All in all, I felt, he sounds more at ease and remains more within his possibilities than in Rigoletto, where he pushed much more. He always maintains control over the voice and within what he has to offer as a singer, he really brings out the best of what he can do in this role. That cannot be said of another Roméo, who is returning to the role (debut 2003) these days in Chicago: Joseph Calleja. While he has the much more expansive sound and more „beefy“ voice, his phrasing and shaping of the role is virtually inexistant, not to speak of allarming vocal trouble in the higher middle range. – But more of that on another occasion… What Florez´s voice lacks in vocal plush, shimmer, volume and incisiveness, he tries to make up for with inspired phrasing and diction. His French diction and his feeling for the style of the music is much better than that of most other tenors. In certain passages it works well, in others it just cannot compensate sufficiently for vocal „beef“. Listen to Muratore and hear how this needs to be done. Muratore´s voice is not a big one, but very compact and excellently focussed in the high range, thus having the shimmer and effortless ring, which a Roméo absolutely needs. Listen to the marvel of Muratore´s last two phrases „vien, parais! Vien, parais!“ PERFECTLY BALANCED. All in all, Roméo is a role which could basically suit Florez well – with some restrictions: one wishes most of all for a smaller house, better ring of the voice, a Juliette with more vocal flexibility and a vocal size to match his and a conductor who is more going for French style…

Marina Rebeka as Juliette brought a good-sized, well rounded voice with a nicely coloured timbre. A full lyric, more on the heavy side for Juliette, but less heavy than Netrebko when she sang it. „Je veux vivre“ had good youthful vigour, though it lacked girslish innocence, fragrance and vocal finish – the coloratura was a bit heavy handed. Though her voice is not big, it´s full and double the size of Florez´. The voice is right for Juliette (though I cannot see how on earth she possibly sang Norma recently…..). But when she adds vocal weight in the high range, a tiny beat is intruding and the high notes, which are not really effortless, but full and secure, tend to become shrill and harsh under too much pressure. Her most annoying bad habits are imprecise attacks and most of all the smearing of notes, a way of dragging and sliding over legato phrases. The poison-aria was her low-point – though she said in an interview that this was her favourite part of the role. She has to force and sounds squeezed and strained and under pressure, her lower range is full of Callas-like „bottle“ notes. All that pushing is unnecessary, the voice is round and would be big enough – she would just have to follow the line and concentrate more on phrasing, structuring and shading. People will probably come to the conclusion that she is starting to grow out of roles like Juliette…. But that is wrong. – Like in so many other cases, too. This is a lyric voice, which has developoed a certain heaviness by oversinging in roles she would be right in and venturing into a repertory she has no business of going into. This would be the right kind of voice for this role – and it´s not so much that the voice has grown so much heavier, rather it´s the singer, who is losing vocal flexibility, clean attack and the required effortlessness (by singing Norma…) for this kind of music.

I would have liked to hear Margaret Plummer who was originally cast and had sung a fine Giovanna in the recent Rigoletto, but Rachel Frenkel stepped in for her and sang an adequate, yet a bit unsettled, Stéphano. The male roles were all dreadfull really. Alexandru Moisiuc´s Frère Laurent and the worst of all. Viktor Shevchenko´s Duc comes close second and Gabriel Bermudez´ Mercutio sounded dreadfully tight and stuck. Marco Armiliato provided a nice and plushy support from the pit, the choir could provide more exactness and responsiveness.
And – has there ever been a less inspiring and impressive stage setting for the finale of this opera than the one here by Jürgen Flimm….??