Pretty Yende (Amina), Javier Camarena (Elvino) © Michael Pöhn/ Wiener Staatsoper
Lisa (Maria Nazarova), huddled-up, everyone’s celebrating, but her, Elvino’s former fiancee. Now she puts up with her admirer Alessio (Jack Lee), sings Nazarova’s feisty soprano; gorgeous coloratura is what we’re in for.
The white bridal gown on a plinth, (just hidden from my view), the waiters in traditional Tyrolean costumes; and running the bar, Nazarova’s jealous Lisa, in an emerald green tight skirt.
‘She is shy and beautiful, an innocent dove, pure and chaste’, sing the Chorus, lauding the bride. Such were the unrealistically high expectations; the demand for unimpeachable chastity, then early 19th century. Amina (Pretty Yende), her effortlessly powerful soprano launched in a cascade of trills, celebrating her joy. But why is she dressed as one of the waitresses? (This is like a ‘sanitorium’, early 20th century; reminiscent of Thomas Mann’s ‘Magic Mountain’, treating ‘consumption, then incurable; the killer of glamorous socialites, (La Traviata’s Violetta), artists, composers, from Chopin to Bellini, (who died at 37).
Yende’s in a white-hooped gown, but where’s that seductively lithe figure; matronly, barely recognisable after her recent Violetta? Enough speculation. Mother, what joy! In her aria, What bliss for me, her soprano is thrilling, embellishing Bellini’s gloriously melodic coloratura. She stands holding her white bouquet, now fitted into her bosom. She hits a high note, ‘How my heart throbs’ This is just stunning: both as virtuoso singing, and enacted performance. She stands before the wedding table, declaiming, effusive wih joy. Lisa, by contrast, Nazarova diminutive, in skin-tight, glitzy heliotrope skirt- a little tarty.
Elvino (Javier Camarena), Forgive me for keeping you waiting. Camarena, slight build, bearded- a pious man, prayed at his mother’s tomb- Sincere, his good intent affirmed in his moving aria. After seeing the notary, he’s giving her everything, he sings. And she, Amina? Only her heart. Take this ring from his mother, Camarena’s wonderfully expressive tenor, blessing their love. (Now that we are married, what a sweet world.) God has unified us, and we will stay together. (Lisa in the corner is sneakily smoking a cigarette.) Amina can’t find words to thank for her happiness. Camarena, enraptured, feels the flame burning, singing on a terrific, sustained long note. The Chorus, magnificently sung by Vienna forces, prevails against dissenting voices.
A mysterious, dark figure, back of stage. Count Rodolfo, imposing in a mink coat, has returned to his birthplace.
Roberto Tagliavini, tall, dark-timbered baritone, is revealed in a flattering designer DB suit. Lisa hangs on his every word. As he approaches, he sings of Amina. She, very beautiful, reminds him of another, ‘just as young as you are now.’ Elvino, propped up by the bar, is seething with jealousy.
Rodolfo sings, sceptical of ‘the hour of the phantom’, ‘a shadowy figure come-down from the hills’. (Bellini, librettist Felice Romani, as their early-19th century contemporaries, was preoccupied with the gothic mystery genre.) Rodolfo would like to see Amina, ‘heaven save him from foolhardiness.’ Elvino’s jealousy is unabaited; he accuses Rodolfo of looking into her eyes.’ But in their duet (Son geloso), Elvino and Amina, promise ‘no more doubts’. Prophetically, ‘even in my sleep, my heart will see you’, they sing, again stunning high notes.
Scene 2, Lisa’s handling Rodolfo’s fur coat. When she compliments the bride, we know something’s afoot. How many eyes has she beguiled? But Amina is self-effacing,’ my only virtue is a sore heart’. In the eerie first sleepwalking scene, Amina floats through the guests; ‘The wedding candles are burning’. They’re embarrassed, astonished. Rodolfo, the beautiful girl he met before, is sleeping. No, he isn’t going to seduce her! Rather he covers her in his fur coat to protect her. (She’s asleep like a child.)
The chorus, anachronistically carrying torches, do a night watch. ‘Should we wake her?’ seeing the Count’s fur coat. When Amina turns round, wakes bemused, it looks damning. Elvino, em>Go perjured love! Everything’s dissolved. (Tutto e sciolto,) Camarena sings soulfully, maybe she’ll never feel the pain he’s suffering. Yende’s collapsed in a heap- tainted, unfaithful, the transgressive woman. The wedding table is in disarray, it’s snowing into the banqueting room: ‘only painful memories will I have of you’, Elvino sings.
Act 2, Amina appeals to Teresa, her ‘mother’, distinguished mezzo Sylvia Voros, for support; her heart and feet are failing her. In her aria, ‘the air still echoes our vows of love’. But for Elvino ‘everything is over’, love died forever, he sings. She pleads, she’s blameless. But Elvino, Camarena now in a black smoking jacket,’fill your senses with my pain’, because of you, on a terrific high note. He embraces her, the scene immensely moving.
Chorus sing, ‘the Count affirms she is noble and innocent.’ But Amina- Yende lying on the wedding table, distraught- protests ‘he took my ring, has broken off the engagement.’ (That will kill her, murmur the Chorus.)
The orchestral accompaniment, inspired, propels the music along with irresistible rhythmic verve. In The orchestral detail, Vienna’s soloists excel, high on the Bellini elixir.
Meanwhile, Lisa, seeing her chance, adroitly unpacks the white wedding dress she’s been hiding. Now Nazarova holds the stage, radiant in white. They’re all speechless._The wicked opportunist picks up the wedding accoutrements left by Amina. Fabulous performance!
She regards Elvino as her new fiance: ‘Time he found one worthy of his love’. Their rush to the ‘Cathedral’ is blocked by Count Rodolfo, who insists he can vouch for Amina. Elvino ‘knows what he’s seen’; he’s mistaken. Tagliavini’s Rodolfo, impeccably elegant, black-suited, that sonorous baritone exudes authority. He and Elvino are locked in an argument over honour. Teresa bids silence: poor Amina has finally fallen asleep (after so much weeping.)
This would be rather melodramatic, but for Bellin’s music. The Chorus is so gloriously affirmative, we have to believe in it! Elvino realises Lisa too has betrayed him. (No fidelity, honour anymore.) Lisa’s guilt’s ‘written all over he face.’ My rivals will enjoy my disgrace she sings. Nazarova standing centre-stage, removes her white wedding gown, revealing her cerise, tight-fitting, rather tawdry outfit beneath.
Meanwhile, Amina’s lying front-of-stage, as Rodolfo’s fur covers her again. Distraught, she bursts out, My ring, he’s taken it from me! Also the flowers, symbolising their love! In Amina’s ‘flower aria’, Ah! non credea mirarti, I didn’t think, poor flower, you’d die so soon. Yende, hearfelt, if only my tears could wake you, revive our love.
Her second sleepwalk’s observed by Elvino- who sees how the previous night was misinterpreted. ‘I’m still yours’, he proclaims on a powerful high note. She, ‘Where am I’, (they didn’t wake her). Chorus, she’s become even more beautiful through her suffering.
Yende reappears in a gloriously sexy ruby-red velvet gown, pressing to her bosom a bouquet of red roses. And with breathtaking technique, proclaims we’ll be united forever. Yende so warm, heart-rending, but life-affirming. She stands resplendent, clutching the bouquet.
Amidst the jubilation for Yende, a roar of applause for Nazarova, of a uniformly good cast; and not least for Sagripanti’s Vienna Orchestra and Chorus. © PR 9.9.23
Photos: Pretty Yende (Amina); Roberto Tagliavini (Count Rodolfo)
© Michael Pöhn/ Wiener Staatsoper