Dom Sebastien at the Carnegie Hall with Eve Queler (7 Nov 2006)
Nov 09 '06 (Updated Mar 23 '07)
The Bottom Line Dom Sebastien is truly a masterpiece. I'm grateful there are now singers who are able to make it shine again and for Maestro Queler for dusting it up.
Gaetano Donizetti’s DOM SEBASTIEN, roi de Portugal A French grand opera in 5 acts.
This is a review of a live concert performance given on 7 November 2006 at Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, New York, USA.
The opera is set in Lisbon, Portugal, with the exception of Act 2 (which is set in Africa). The story takes place in 1578 and is quite complicated with cross-cultural-religious love triangle in a political setting.
Dom Sebastien (based on the real Sebastien II) is the crusading King of Portugal who leaves his country in the care of his weak uncle Dom Antonio while going off to war with the Moors of Morocco. He is also returning the Moor princess Zayda to her dad, Ben Selim, in order to spare her life (she had converted to Christianity from Islam but is home sick, and her wanting to go back to Morocco despite of religion change had drew a death sentence from Juam de Sylva, the Grand Inquisitor). Dom Sebastien is seriously injured in the ensuing battle and presumed dead, while back home Juam de Sylva had cornered Dom Antonio into submitting Portugal to Spain.
Well, it turns out Dom Sebastien survived and is nursed back to health by Zayda, though they are captured by the Moors. Zayda agrees to marry the chief Abayaldos in return to his sparing Dom Sebastien’s life. They all return to Portugal in time to witness Dom Sebastien’s funeral. When the presumed dead king reveals his true identity, he is arrested as an imposter and tried by Juam de Sylva. Zayda’s attestation of the king’s credentials also lands her an arrest for treason (this girl has the worst political lucks ever!). Juam de Sylva offers to spare Sebastien’s life for Zayda if she could get him to sign over Portugal to Spain, but when he refuses, both the King and the Moor Princess are shot dead in their attempt to escape the prison.
Incidentally, Zayda is also the title character of Mozart's unfinished opera Zaide.
Cast:
Dom Sebastien (King of Portugal) ::: Dmitry Korchak (tenor)
Zayda (Ben Selim’s daughter) ::: Vesselina Kasarova (mezzo-soprano)
Dom Antonio (Regent of Portugal, Sebastien’s uncle) ::: Michael Fabiano (tenor)
Camoens (Poetically inclined soldier) ::: Stephen Powell (baritone)
Juam de Sylva (Grand Inquisitor) ::: Daniel Lewis Willaims (bass)
Abayaldos (Moor chief, Zaida’s fiance) ::: Stephen Gaertner (baritone)
Ben Selim (Governor of Fez) ::: Philip Cokorinos (bass)
Dom Henrique Sandoval (Dom Sebastien’s lieutenant) ::: Mark Risinger (bass)
Conductor: Eve Queler / Opera Orchestra of New York
Chorus master: Italo Marchini / The New York City Gay Men’s Chorus
Chorus master: Elizabeth Scott / The Scott Choral Artists of New York
Well, this should tell me not to pre-judge an opera based on others’ review. I’ve heard lots of unfavorable reviews of this opera before (‘Eugene Scribe’s text is a long winded morbid story’, ‘Donizetti was going mad and the music isn’t up to his standard’, etc) and so wasn’t quite prepared for the melody-fest that it is. Donizetti only wrote a few French opera but they are all masterpieces (my favorite so far is 'La Favorite', though this one is right up there too). From the very first timpani beat, this is truly an operatic masterpiece. It also features some of the most beautiful and virtuosic writing for the French horns and trombones around, I think. But with all that I’m grateful that Maestro Eve Queler had cut all the ballets and much recitative to keep this thing at 3 hours in length. While I think the ballet music is probably good, keeping it would have been too much of a good thing for the attention deficit me. This is a concert performance, no costume or stage props, just the singers in tux/dress singing in front of the orchestra on stage.
Ms Queler performed a different version of this opera at Carnegie Hall 22 yrs ago (there is a recording of it on Legato label). In this latest version she uses the ‘critical edition of the Fondazione Donizetti Bergamo & G. Ricordi’ with Ms Queler's own editing in the restoration of the adagio sextet to its original Act III finale (this is usually altered to a septet and presented in Act IV against the composer’s wish), and the restoration of dynamic markings in bar 71 of Number 2 in the autograph from uniform very loud for all instruments (FF) to original markings of various states of loudness.
I dare say I like both of Ms Queler’s edits. The Act III ending sextet is spectacular, though even with the restoration of Donizetti’s written dynamics I still think the orchestra was too loud at times (though it is admittedly hard to keep that from happening in concert arrangement with the orchestra being on stage with the singers instead of in the pit). Some of the horns were embedded in the left wing of the dress circle and their interplay with the horns on stage was quite effective. The virtuosic passages for the horns and brasses weren’t always well played, but on the whole the orchestra under Maestro Queler's clear and precise baton performed very admirably, I think. The orchestra writing of this last opera by Donizetti is simply gorgeous. And the Act III funeral music is a masterpiece all by itself (it strongly reminded me of Mozart’s Don Giovanni a cena m’invitasi scene from Don Giovanni).
On the singing front, the up and coming young Russian tenor Dmitry Korchak dominated the show in the title role of Dom Sebastien. This is a tenor to keep an eye on. He has a very pleasant clear and agile tenor voice (quite similar in timbre to Juan Diego Florez’s) with wonderful command through out the range and an easy top, bringing the house down with his high D flat to end Act II ending aria Seul sur la terre... not to mention 3 other high C’s in the same aria. This was Mr Korchak’s debut performance at Carnegie Hall, and he definitely made it an occasion and walked away with the well deserved loudest ovation of the night.
As Zayda the Moor princess is the Bulgarian wonder mezzo Vesselina Kasarova, who made a vivid impression from her very slow and graceful entrance (all the other singers were already on stage from the beginning) and tops it off with great singing. Like a stalking panther she walks in from stage left, every inch a beautiful Moor princess (well, except for the Slavic skin tone) with all the elegance and attitudes required. Once the show was over she was back to her shy and modest self, however). I also love that she wears the same beautiful chocolate gown she wore on the Berlin Opera Night DVD from 2003. Nothing like divas who won't be seen in public in the same gown twice let alone many times in 3 years! Frau Kasarova sounds better live than on her recordings (and they are great to begin with). The huskily multi-colored and well focused voice is warmer and rounder (the mic apparently has a tendency to make her sound harsh at times). Beautiful control of the voice and fantastic breath support... and very musical use of forzando (very loud accent immediately followed by very soft singing). Her pianissimo is captivating and her forte very imposing (the ringing held high C, too, is amazing to hear from a deep mezzo!). This artist is quite animated when she sings as I could see her moving with the music from the top of the Dress Circle. It is nice to see a singer who isn’t afraid of expressing herself physically as well as vocally in this concert setting (though some purists might disapprove... I’ve heard arguments that singers should be able to express everything in the voice itself without moving anything thing else, but heck, isn’t that a bit unnatural?).
The rest of the cast was also very strong, especially with the baritone Stephen Powell making great impression from the minor (but not unimportant) role of Camoens. What beautifully smooth legato! The bass Daniel Lewis William has very impressive low notes as Juam de Sylva. The Abalyados of baritone Stephen Gaertner is also very solidly sung. There is just no weak link in the cast! The choruses are well sung (save for being a bit off in Act III) also. This is a very strong cast that really do the extremely rarely perform masterpiece justice. Bravi!
Carnegie Hall is known for its wonderful acoustics. Now that I've heard a concert there I can testify that the reputation is well earned. Though the seats (at leasts those up in dress circle) are small and not very comfortable, and the tiers are very narrow. A well written program with full libretto in French and English and a play bill (full of commercials) are given, but there was no sur-title. That was surprising to me, since they are capable of putting one up (after all there is this request for the patrons to turn off phones and other devices projected onto the backstage wall before each act began). Also the hall only opens 30 minutes before a performance and closes immediately after, and there is no chair in the small lobby. It costs $2 plus tip to check your coat/backpack at the coat room (that closes immediately after the performance! Hurry down to get your stuff or you will find the thing locked). There is also a museum and a shop in the hall, but these are closed except during the short intermissions during an evening performance. I have to say, the facility isn't very patron friendly (though the staff are).
**For non-opera fan, sur-titles are opera lyrics projected above the stage to help the unfamiliar audience understand what is being sung. So if this performance was recorded, there will be some serious sound editing works to do to eliminate the loud noise of people turning the pages of their booklet as they read the libretto along (not to mention a lot of coughing... I contributed 2 during the funeral scene, sorry... tried hard to suppress them, I swear. I prefer to watch the singers as they sing even if it means I don't know exactly what word is being sung all the time (Donizetti's music is revealing enough and I already knew the story from the synopsis). But to each his/her own.
All in all, I’m quite taken by this beautiful French grand opera. It was worth the trial of turbulence fest traveling all the way from San Diego, CA to New York City on the same day to hear it and back 15 hrs later (might write about that later... once /or if my stomach gets back to normal again).
Presently I’m only aware of 3 commercial recordings of the work, the live performance by Eve Queler here 22 years ago on Legato label, and the live 1955 recording from Florence, Italy conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini (in Italian as Don Sebastiano, and available at Berkshire Recordings (www.berkshirerecordoutlet.com/cgi-bin/adam-seek.pl StartRow=1&QueryText=don+sebastiano&Meth=Some&AndOr=AND&RPP=25)
The best recording of the work, in my opinion, is the release by Opera Rara from the ROH 2005 performance conducted by Mark Elder, and featuring Vesselina Kasarova, Giuseppe Filianoti, Alastair Miles, and Simon Keenlyside.
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Member: Smorg
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