Parizia Ciofi. Photo Christian Dresse - opera de Marseille.
That Ophelia should end this way was to be discovered in this production which captivated the audience on Saturday night.
It was a warm night which ended after 11pm with a thunder of applause: the cast, orchestra and chorus just were at their best for this Hamlet which had not been played on this stage since 1946 and saw Patrizia Ciofi's Ophelia first rendition. And she really made it! That was a magnificent end of the season for us!
I saw her Lucia's mad scene in Orange and I could not help thinking watching and listening to her Ophelia's mad scene that these extreme high scores matching the psychic and emotional disorders of these roles suited her personality on stage. She looked once more completely lost in her white wedding dress, abandoned by all the men around her, her brother,her father and that lunatic lover of hers who is in his revenge trip. The setting was bare, nothing Shakespearian about it, just panels and a corner entrance of a huge room, the only setting for the whole plot. So the drama was entirely in the hands on the singers and in the rapture of the music. The fourth act, which is Ophelia's act, opened on this bath-tub, an old-fashioned one and she was already in it, then she stepped out, pointing a leg out and a bare foot to reach the soil, while still singing and I felt how fragile she was, not seeing the ground and yet trying to reach it, how brave of her to accept to sing this intense high score in such a hazardous physical posture, a bit similar to Orange when she was walking on the wall-pit, just a narrow path where she could easily have tripped over... Her singing was really angel-like, real coloratura music where I think she is now the best.
She is so thin and frail that she is the Ophelia of our dream, the one we could imagine in Arthur Rimbaud's poem, then she gradually sank down into the bath- tub and coiled up with almost no body, just a white empty dress and her shrill notes of despair, symbolic vision of the young lady she once was, and a loving one too. There were gestures like a dance when she stepped out of the bath-tub, almost like a Japanese danser, she crumbled soft paper to make it look like the flowers of her song, rosemary and periwinkle, and she was so light when hopping about, getting lost in her psychea and music. She had been bare-foot throughout the whole opera, like a fairy, treading on clouds right from the beginning.
Should we re-name this opera Ophelia ?
I did not like Hamlet, he was too much in the sole register of revenge, which is quite normal, but the quality of his baritone voice did not match up to my expectancies; probably because I focused too much on Simon Keenlyside' s voice for this role. I admit Frank Pomponi's acting was intense and violent when necessary, the scene with his mother and Claudius showed his talents as an actor but his type of voice, very abrupt and harsh did not suit my taste.
Here are some of my photos at the curtain calls showing Patrizia taking her applause: with the same type of gestures she sang her part with.
Another favorite artist of mine is the mezzo Marie-Ange Todorovitch, who was also taking this Gertrude role for the first time. And it suited her completely as well, vocally and physically. She really looked the sensual mature woman who married her husband's brother; her red velvety queen's dress enhanced her looks. After a violent confrontation with her son when he literally undid her dress while nearly strangling her with her long necklace, even pulling her hair and then her dress opened up and fell to leave her in black rather hot lace panties and corset... quite a sight... meanwhile terrific music and singing were fusing of course.
Here she is : Christian Dresse 's photos-opera de Marseille
The unique setting was a change from the castle and ornamented sceneries and costumes of the past. It was set in the composer's time: the 19th century. The costumes were greyish for the chorus and all the men, only the main characters were wearing colour, white for ophelia, crimson red for Gertrude, Hamlet had a selection of different shades of black, dark blue and a beautiful long coat with a yellow silk lining quite striking when he rolled it up to make a cushion and lay on the floor to sing one of the well-known aria 'ô vin dissipe la tristesss!'
The best scene was Ophelia 's drowning in the bath-tub with her ecstatic musicality and poetry. Patrizia Ciofi gave a stunning rendition of this high pitched coloratura aria, the lightness of her voice took me in a hazy musical dream transcending the actual prosaïc setting; she was herself in her role, with her frail appearance, sinking gradually to be only a miserable white stain. A friend of mine sitting at the orchestra told me there was at that moment a blue light at the bottom of the bath-tub. I couldn't see it from where I was sitting. The musicality of her rendition was beyond even Natalie Dessay's extremely sweet one.
During the week the opera can be followed broadcast from This Sat 29th performance.
http://sites.radiofrance.fr/francemusique/em/soirees_lyriques/emission.php?e_id=26
More photos of this evening:
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Splendid photos in the press: "La marseillaise "
A real deserved special award to this hand which shaped the music and gave a superb rendition of this opera: Conductor Nader Abbassi.
