Elina Garanca in La Favorita by Donizetti in Berlin

Review Bruno Tredicine
.

BERLIN/GERMANY: La favorite is an opera rarely performed nowadays
. Written by Gaetano Donizetti in 1840 for Paris’ Theatre de l’Opéra, it was in the past more popular, specially in the Italian translation, so much that in 1953 it was chosen for a movie, starring not less than Sophia Loren, obviously dubbed by mezzo Palmira Vitali.

It was composed by Donizetti almost in a urge; he was busy with L’ange de Nisida, for Theatre de la Renaissance and had a planned Le duc d’Albe for Opéra, but this theatre suddenly asked for a different work. So the plot of L’ange de Nisida was enlarged and used for La favorite as well as much of its music while from Le duc d’Albe came what would have become the work’s most popular aria, “Spirto gentil” (Ange si pur in the original french), that didn’t fail to be in repertoire of every tenor, from Björling to Pavarotti as well as it has been for the protagonist aria “O mon Fernand/O mio Fernando” that is in the recital repertoire of almost every famous mezzo.

Unbelievably La favorite has any sign of being almost a patchwork and we may call a masterpiece on its own. Now to see it on stage is an occasion not to be missed and so it’s understandable that many opera fans came also from abroad to see it in the Deutsche Oper in Berlin even if in just a concertant form
.

The announced cast was great reuniting two of the best reputed singers like Elina Garança and Joseph Calleja, and the disappointment in the audience was strong when it was announced that the maltese tenor had cancelled all the three performances, but the delusion was soon forgotten every time Garança was singing: She was the real fully deserved triumph of the evening; everything in her exhibition was pointless, both musically and dramatic.

Her voice is always full, rich in warm tones that increase expressivity, and she showed an enchanting easiness and fluidity all along the score, everything in her emission was under control starting from the breath allowing a perfect legato, crucial in Bel canto
. Moreover the deep care she put in her phrasing and the accents full if characters gave so much intensity to her acting that the audience sometimes forgot that it was just a concert performance, in that moment she really created the character of Leonora De Guzman on stage. In the whole a perfect performance, epitomized by an exemplary “O mon Fernand.”

Belgian tenor Marc Laho had to face the not-very-welcoming audience considering how much the conversation before opera were focused on Calleja. In the role of Fernand he did the best that he could and so his performance was respectable but displaying at the same time all his limits: his voice, although the timbre was stylistically fitting the role, showed weakness in volume and in extension with an evident effort when the score went up, and high notes were still on the edge. He tried to put character in his singing but any comparison with Garança was out of question and also his Ange si pur was not more than correct.

Maybe the best among the male singers was baritone Florian Sempey as a regal Alphonse XI, always imperious even when longing after his lover. His voice was full and homogeneous, moreover he knows how to reach the audience with vocal effects and an extroverted expressivity sometimes a bit old fashioned, sometimes self indulgent but in the whole always stylistically under control.

Bass Ante Jerkunica, resident artist of the Deutsche Oper, was very good as the monk Balthazar, his deep voice giving to the character mistic authority.

Russian soprano Alla Tsallagova was Inès, Leonore’s maid, although her voice seemed at first nice but too light, she impressed thanks to her excellent vocal line and temperament.

Matthew Newlin was fully in part rendering very well the mellifluous and treacherous Gaspar

.

On a distinguished level all the intervents of Deutsche Oper’s Choir: voice’s harmony and balance as well as expressivity and eloquence, all was under the good control of William Spaulding.

Italian conductor Pietro Rizzo led Deutsche Oper’s Orchestra. The ensemble clearly has not Bel Canto in its veins, so they started very well with the beautiful Ouverture which has orchestral values for itself almost on a symphonic level but when it was about of accompanying singers the correspondence was less proportioned, sometimes the sound was too high and specially horns and woods’ sound was not always clean and under strict control. But in the whole it has been a good achievement which kept the whole evening at a well over the average level.

At the end long acclaims with a special ovation, fully deserved, for Elina Garança.

Distribution:

Conductor Pietro Rizzo

Chorus Master William Spaulding

Léonor de Guzman Elina Garanca

Fernand Marc Laho

Alphonse XI Florian Sempey

Balthazar Ante Jerkunica

Inès Elena Tsallagova

Don Gaspar Matthew Newlin

Chorus Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin

Orchestra Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin