Laurent Pelly is the director of this Giulio Cesare from the Paris Opera, and from him one would expect a fast-paced staging with lots of action and entertainment. Not so difficult with Giulio Cesare you would think. Just pick any period of war, plot Cesar and the Egyptians as the adversaries, et voila!
So perhaps someone may care to explain why Laurent Pelly think it is a good idea to stage
Giulio Cesare in the reserves of an Egyptian museum, where the statues
gradually comes to life and museum workers enter and
exit the premises all the time, pusing ancient statues around and by the end of the day (opera) leave with their girlfriends? Though, stylish, the personal relations
between statues equals zero, which admittedly takes away a lot of otherwise inherent
drama in what I find to be Händel´s best opera. And where is the personenregie,
that Laurent Pelly is well capable of and that we have seen in several of his
other productions? Additionally, for inexplicable reasons, the museum reserves fills up with renaissance
paintings in Act 2 and is conversed into some sort of carpet shop for Act 3.
This was Natalie
Dessay´s debut as Cleopatra. Natalie Dessay, as especially the French will know, is a very charming and honest woman, and I
would love to be able to write that she triumphed as Cleopatra. I suspect much
of the French audience at the Opera Garnier felt the same way.
However,
you will have to be a fanatic fan and/or close friend/family member to think
that she is a fine Cleopatra. Yes, she has a few beautiful notes in her middle
register, but essentially it is impossible to hide that the rest of her voice
is in ruins and cannot sustain even the slightest pressure. On top, her
overacting seems hysterical. She is scheduled to sing this at the Metropolitan
Opera in David McVicars production late this spring. To pull this off in the huge Met
auditorium, she will need more than good luck. Frankly speaking, if I were
Natalie Dessay I would consider pursuing the spoken theater career she has
previously spoken about. Now seems to be a good time, as she is still loved by
the public and she will be remembered for the wonderful voice she had 10 years
ago and not for the ruin it has become.
Best of all was probably Isabel Leonard, who really has a wonderfully fluid voice, reminding me of Frederica VonStade. For some strange reason there were a lot of stage activity (workers tumbling with statues etc.) during virtually all of her arias. Varduhi Abrahamya has a beautiful voice as Cornelia, but fails to convey the strength of character. This could well come, however, as she seems very young.
Nathan
Berg, though in
fine voice, scores about 1 on a sexual menace scale from 1-10.
Tolomeo
must be something of a signature role Christophe Dumaux, and as on
previous occasions, he sings it well, but I lack some power and strenght of
characterization. Him being small, very slim man probably does not help either.
Finally, Emmanuelle
Haïm is a real winner. Her style may seem a bit controversial, but it works
and there is an excellent drive in her performance. Apparently she is
responsible for many of the ornamentations heard, which work well as well.
Natalie Dessay, Se pietá:
Natalie
Dessay: 2
Lawrence
Zazzo: 3
Varduhi
Abrahamya: 3-4
Isabel
Leonard: 5
Christophe
Dumaux: 4
Laurent
Pelly´s staging: 3
Emmanuelle
Haïm: 5
