sábado, 19 de dezembro de 2009

Balanços líricos

Eis um discutível e controverso (é britânico, está bem de ver...) - mas interessante - balanço operático da primeira década do século XXI:

«Pavarotti died in the twilight of his career, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Susan Chilcott were cruelly cut down in their prime. Domingo soldiered on magnificently, the great survivor.

Some prodigious new tenor talents also emerged: Rolando Villazón, Jonas Kaufmann, Juan Diego Flórez. Among the women, Anna Netrebko’s glamour hit the headlines, but it was Joyce di Donato, Nina Stemme and Natalie Dessay who gave evidence that the art of great singing was far from dead. Renée Fleming and Cecilia Bartoli stayed at the top of the game, too.

Flying the flag for Britain were Bryn Terfel, Sarah Connolly, Alice Coote, Simon Keenlyside and Gerald Finley, as well as a clutch of superb young conductors (Richard Farnes, Edward Gardner, Robin Ticciati) plus an octogenarian who could give any of them a run for their money – Charles Mackerras.

Directors continued to delight and enrage in equal measure with productions that sometimes threatened to hijack the score and libretto. Among the agents provocateurs, Calixto Bieito mercifully seems to have vanished, but David Alden and Graham Vick have come back, older and wiser. Mature talents, matching thoughtfulness and originality with musicality, included David McVicar and Deborah Warner and, above all, the prodigious Richard Jones.

The search for new opera continued. There were many premières, but little took root. Thomas Adès and Harrison Birtwistle impressed the coteries rather than the wider public, Jonathan Dove vice versa. For my money, the era’s one masterpiece was George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill, a perfect miniature which haunts, chills and thrills.»

1 comentário:

Anónimo disse...

Eu nem fui ver, mas cheira-me a um comentário feito por um inglês. João, eu penso que quer dizer século XXI.
RAUL