New Look for Marseille Opera House!

The white plastic covering is gone for ever!
Today, in bright sunshine, the neoclassic front was smashing. The sandy frieze contrasted with the whiteness of the pseudo ionic columns. Now it is possible to see the dedication to the Greek gods, Aphrodite, Apollo, Pallas, and Dionysos.("L'Art reçoit la Beauté d'Aphrodite, le Rythme d'Apollon, l'Equilibre de Pallas. Il doit à Dionysos le Mouvement et la Vie") The sculptures are illuminating the facade.
This is one good point, first reward!


But a huge building yard is spreading all over the Old Port. Marseille is getting ready for the big cultural event:'Marseille, Capitale Européenne de la Culture en 2013'.
I was there for 'Il Trovatore'LINK
It was challenging and most enjoyable.
Apart for Azucena,ELENA MANISTINA, who was a discovery, I was happy to see Adina Aaron in Leonora. I enjoyed so much her Treemonisha and her Aïda! She was very efficient and moving. Nicolas Testé is also familiar to Marseille audience. He proves to be a fine baritone whatever he sings, Handel or Verdi. Carlos Almaguer sang also here a beautiful Rigoletto, Cavalliera Rusticana and Pagliacci. In Conte di Luna, he was fierce, violent, all in revenge and strength. His voice is huge and with Adina Aaron, they were well paired! She also has a strong medium voice and so refined tops, like pearls, she sang most beautifully in her last parts. Azucena was a revelation to me, with an outstanding low range and lots of guts and moving shades. She was fantastic. The tenor, Guiseppe Gipali, also familiar to us, had a beautiful musical verdian style, very romantic phrasing, sometimes lost in the ensemble,( he was not in top form, was ill for one performance and replaced) but so good on his own!
It was a fine bel canto afternoon, one of my favourite Verdi piece, because it has the charms of the cabalettas and so many smashing arias for all the characters. It is of course very depressing but the music and arias save the show! The setting had enough smart details to set the imagination on fire, elegant colours and costumes too, on the dark side of course. I enjoyed the 'Misere' from the choir as always. I had a flash - back from childhood suddenly, with a parade of coffins at the end...
I felt like thanking the artists, some of them, the ones who were already chatting with the regular fans who like to thank them at the stage door. Somehow, it is my favourite stage door, the only one where I feel at ease to wait for the artists who deserve my entire admiration: the more I go and listen to them the more I feel how difficult their art of singing is.

Such a nice smile from Adina Aaron: she will participate in a free concert this summer in Orange with fantastic singers. (I will not be able to join).


Mercredi 20 juin, 20 h 30, théâtre antique

Musiques en fêtes en direct des Chorégies d’Orange

Concert gratuit

Présentation de la soirée : Alain Duault

Direction musicale : Luciano Acocella

Avec la participation de : Adina Aaron, Marc Barrard, Julien Behr, Joseph Calleja, Raquet Camarinha, Patrizia Ciofi, Karine Deshayes, Philippe Do, Julie Fuchs, George Gagnidze, Laurent Gerra, Patricia Kaas, Florian Laconi, Nolwenn Leroy, Inva Mula, Olga Peretyatke, Pierre-Yves Plat, Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Le Quatuor, Nemanja Radulovic, Ruggero Raimondi

Orchestre philharmonique de Monte-Carlo

Chœurs des opéras d’Avignon, Marseille, Nice et Toulon

Ballet de l’opéra théâtre d’Avignon

For the end: a smashing photo of Guiseppe Gipali and Carlos Almaguer, kind enough to give me this minute of pleasure! Gosh! those red trousers, they are killing...

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