Rolando Villazón makes his Parisian directorial debut with Bellini”s ‘La Sonnambula’. This spotlight of the Bel Canto repertoire is expertly offered on the Théâtre des Champs Elysees with Fairly Yende enchanting audiences because the dreamy sleepwalker, Amina.
The Story
‘La Sonnambula’ premiered in Milan’s Teatro Carcano in 1831. The opera tells the story of Amina who sleepwalks into one other man’s room inflicting a scandal together with her lover Elvino.
Bellini’s unique opera has a cheerful ending with Elvino ultimately accepting that Amina innocently sleepwalked into the opposite man’s room, however different interpretations together with Villazón’s finish on extra sinister notes.
“When you take a look at her story, you’ll be able to see that it’s extremely laborious for society to just accept purity, goodness and free-spirited beings”, Fairly Yende explains. “characters like Amina, are a reminder of how we as human beings are born to be free and to like and to fly”.
Villazón echoes this understanding of the character saying “when she’s within the somnambulist state, she’s utterly free”.
The brand new manufacturing dropped at life by Villazón is ready in a particularly strict society. He describes it as “a group that has very sturdy guidelines”. To visually symbolize that, he created “a minimalist house”, the place a type of closed village is symbolised by partitions. It has a “chilly ambiance”, he provides.
Bel Canto
Bel Canto is a method of operatic singing originating in Italy within the late sixteenth century. It makes use of a comparatively small dynamic vary and requires exact management of vocal tone depth. It’s characterised by vocal agility, clear notes and a very good enunciation of phrases.
The model nearly fully disappeared by the beginning of the twentieth century attributable to developments. Heavier, dramatic singing was the popular style by then. Nevertheless, by the late 1900s, it reappeared with the revival of operas like Vincenzo Bellini’s whose model significantly captures the method.
The Idea of Sleepwalking
On the interval when Bellini composed ‘La Sonnambula’, the thought of sleepwalking was new and thrilling. Somebody shifting round unconsciously of their sleep was unparalleled and a girl shifting into one other man’s mattress was unimaginable.
These two components mixed made the plot a sensation on the time.
Villazón tells us that what somnambulism on this opera tells us is that “this world of the unconscious and this awakening is chaotic, free, joyous and in addition a harmful world”.
An Enthralling Aria
Tenor, Francesco Demuro, who performs the function of Elvino, describes the aria ‘ah! Perchè non posso odiarti?’ (Ah! Why can’t I despise you?) as “a particularly tough passage as a result of in that very second it’s a must to sing with depth and let the music transport you”.
‘Ah! Perchè non posso odiarti?’, as its identify suggests, is the aria that accompanies Elvino’s continued rejection of Amina regardless of the townspeople backing her story. It describes his interior anguish at nonetheless loving her regardless of his perception that she has been untrue.
It is an interior anguish that can be felt by Amina. Yende tells us that Amina at this level is “so tender-hearted and she or he says: ‘Gran Dio, do not you see my ache? You understand, I forgive him and even when I am not so pleased, I would like him to be pleased’.”
Rolando Villazón’s interpretation of ‘La Sonnambula’ will play on the Théâtre des Champs Elysees in Paris till the twenty sixth of June.
