The Summer gap :my Aix Festival 2015 (2)

I had booked for Alcina (opening night),  and A Midsummer Night's dream ( on the night I arrived from my first Munich trip to BSO starring Edita in Roberto Devereux followed by Arabella- Anja Harteros, two amazing nights at the BSO!), then a concert evening with Theodor Currentzis and his Musicaeterna.
Not to be forgotten: the three contemporary productions seen with my grandchldren.(Summer gap 1).
The Haendel productions started last year with Andrea Marcon and the Freiburger barockorchestra starring Patricia Petitbon in Ariodante. This year the same team was doing Alcina.
There will be a third Haendel production at Aix Festval 2016 :
 TRIONFO DEL TEMPO E DEL DISINGANNO
Direction musicale Emmanuelle Haim
Mise en scene Krysztof Warlikowski

Belleza Sabine Devieilhe
Il Disinganno Sarah Mingardo
Piacere Franco Fagioli
Tempo Michael Spyres
Le Concert d’Astree
Nouvelle Production du Festival d’Aix THEATRE DE L’ARCHEVECHE).
For me, Alcina  was a real success.
 Katty Mitchell's production  was a complete revival of the story with her special 'little boxes' device where it is possible to follow the characters in another time perspective( here the two malevollent sisters  are transformed in old witches when they leave the central part to the two small side cabinets it is real magic,  perhaps not quite as  intended by Haendel in this opera).
    I read it is disturbing from the plot to see so many things at the same time on stage,  but having seen  two productions  from her so far,  (El Gran Sole Carico d'Amore in Berlin, then Written on skin Aix festival) I know somehow how to 'navigate' in this maze where time and places intermingle  and it is quite exciting now because I take it as a challenge to my imagination. What was marvellous was the complete adequacy between what was to be seen and  heard on stage and  from the pit.
It was highly visual and flattering to the eyes as all singers were young or else young looking (Madame Petibon keeps a flamboyant figure, hair, and above all voice, in the lead role. Her Ruggiero is P. Jaroussky, which makes a change from  the more common team of soprano and mezzo soprano.  I liked the balance of their voices. The key word of this production is 'sex', soft though and right from the first scene with Anna  Prohaska-Morgana 's sexy vocalisms using the da capo for all sorts of nuances towards the complete ecstasy...especially when Bradamante was forced to tickle her with a duster at very sensitive spots on her body, all that taking place in the posh boudoir where the central part is a bed.  Sometimes it gets very clinical (with a kind of medical table with instruments ) to emphazise the powers of the enchantress transposed in modern times. It will be similar and even more sexually minded with the hot scene between Ruggiero and Alcina. Only a beautiful woman like Patricia Petibon can give the change. Ruggiero-Jaroussky must have felt a bit embarrassed! He looked rather frail having to get undressed several times. But his singing was so over the top...as well.  His rendition of Verdi Parti was very melancholic,  coming from another world.
 His  high pitched voice, with no vibrato,  is exquiste in this role. Somehow he did not appear as funny as Vesselina Kasarova did in this role, he gave a more  subtle Ruggiero.
  What made me laugh ( not only me ) was the mysterious machine in the central part of the first floor, which was the lab where men were transformed into animals . A   red light was flashing when it was on. It looked like a cross between an Xray machine and a scanner. Alcina had her trasformations made through this machine and we even saw the end product: a stuffed animal with round ears which looked even famiiar, the sort which can be seen in dusty old Science Museums.
But what was amazing throughout the modernised setting was the orchestra and its beauties. Musicaeterna chorus joined in and it was a true delight. At the curtain calls Andrea Marcon had them cheered as well as the Frieburger ensemble.
Paricia Petibon's aria had such an emotional effect that the whole house was in a kind of suspension, when she added that silence before the last da capo in  her aria 'Oh! mio core' she transformed (with the slow motion dancing of the servants around her to support her despair) this aria in the most dramatic scene of the whole work.  We were miles from Alcina, sharing a real despair of an abandoned woman. Only the baroque variations added skilfully by this tremendous artist reminded me I was actually at the opera. She also enriched her aria with two low tones which made it utterly moving, the first one almost sounding like her last breath.
As much as I remember Anja Harteros 's Alcina at the TCE, I did not feel such emotion as I felt that opening night of Alcina. It was less poetical and fairytale like and much more sharp and dramatic.
What is common to these two singers is the quality of their musicianship in these arias,  both very enjoyable, with more poetry in  high curves of exquisite floating notes from Frau Harteros, and a touch of 'verismo'  from Patricia Petibon!

Some snapshots of the bows on July 2nd. Patricia Petibon is the center of this production being cheered by a very enthusiastic audience. There were some boos for Katie Mitchell but cheering was much louder.
Clapping went on for more than twenty minutes.
This Alcina was a success.

Until oct 10th,  it is possble to watch it here:
Alcina