Screwball opera
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- June
- 26
You don’t have to love opera to revel in Laurent Pelly’s production of “La Fille du Régiment,” which was simulcast in theaters in April and is airing on PBS’ “Great Performances at the Met” at 8 tonight. Being a fan of ‘30s screwball comedies or ‘40s musicals will do.
Take one plucky heroine (French soprano Natalie Dessay). Add a lovesick hero (Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez). Throw in a case of mistaken identity; a crazy-quilt stage design that resembles a mountainous map; and some loopy props (lederhosen for him, a Pippi Longstocking wig for her, not to mention laundry and washtubs filled with potatoes). Garnish generously with vocal fireworks and romantic and comic hijinks, and you have a Donizetti opera by way of a Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movie.
Of course, Fred and Ginger never had to sing nine high Cs as Flórez (pictured here with Dessay, courtesy of Ken Howard at The Metropolitan Opera) does in the Act 1 show-stopper “Ah! Mes amis.”
A word about coloratura here. Both Dessay and Flórez, who are often paired, have stratospheric ranges and great vocal agility. (Flórez even adds a D-flat to his second-act aria, which he says in the backstage interview is slower and more sustained than “Ah! Mes amis,” and thus, more of a challenge.)
So singing high notes or running passages isn’t that arduous if you have that type of voice. (It would be like saying shooting baskets is physically difficult for someone who’s 7 feet tall.) No, the test is to find the dramatic plausibility in coloratura. Both Dessay and Flórez are masters at using their vocal dexterity to express agitation (hers) and ardor (his). And they know how to milk a high note or a run for a laugh. After one of Flórez’s particularly dashing flourishes, Dessay swoons in rapture. Forget sex in the city. It can’t hold a candle to warbling in the Alps.
Temperamentally, the two are well-suited, with his easygoing charm steadying her febrile intensity. I hope PBS includes the backstage interview seen in movie theaters, which offers such a contrast with Angela Gheorghiu and Ramón Vargas’ interview during the recent telecast of “La Bohème.” Gheorghiu and Vargas were pumped. Dessay, on the other hand, is heard fussing over something in Act 1, which seems perfect, with Flórez in soothing mode. (It’s also interesting to hear her describe him as a natural, for whom the music comes easily, while opera is hard for her — an observation that leads him to demur.)
These little tidbits are the chocolate sprinkles on the sundae that is opera — at The Met and the movies and on PBS.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 3:09 pm by Georgette Gouveia.
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