Finished with the beautiful recitative and final chorus of Domènec Terradellas’ Giuseppe ricinuso, these lines are sharing the public’s enthusiasm in this brilliant inauguration of the new edition of the Festival de Torroella de Montgrí.
In those critical years that Francesc Valls and Pere Rabassa lived in the Barcelona Cathedral, another great musician of that time was born there (1713), Domènec Terradellas, who was to develop his artistic life in major European centers in the stylistic transition towards classicism, drinking from baroque fountains.
Terradellas, possibly a disciple of Valls in the cathedral, came to occupy important responsibilities in Rome, as chapel master (and there he died very young under unknown circumstances in 1751) after directing the King’s Theater in London in 1746-47. His training took place in Naples and it was there that his first opera Giuseppe riconosciutto premiered in 1736, which now opens this edition of Torrroella. A festival that honors these presentations and commitment to the Catalan musical heritage.
Brilliant opening as interpretation. Undoubtedly five stars in this aspect, to which is added the sound recovery, with a sense much closer to the original in the instruments of Vespres d’Arnadí, a group that is growing steadily led by Dani Espasa on the harpsichord.
There are many factors that bring this proposal to the forefront of quality and without a doubt the vocal soloists: the soprano Alicia Amo who transmits happiness with a beautiful voice, good phrasing and entity in the character, as well as her colleague Mercedes Gancedo, together with Anna Alàs, in well-differentiated fields, with personality and vocal beauty; Roger Padullés and Jorge Navarro are excellent, and the sopranist Rafael Quirant was a very pleasant surprise, natural emission, intonation, exceptional timbre and musicality.
It is necessary in the staging to project the texts, and to want this proposal to have greater visibility and to be able to roll, thus allowing an adjustment of the acting expression; It is a stage work, and a Neapolitan one!
Ernest Lluch, an outstanding music lover, was remembered at this concert, who for years stimulated, even with his own scholarly works, the recognition of the musical history of Catalonia in the European context. And now we add to the well-deserved memory the figure of the musicologist Josep Dolcet who, in this case from Terradellas, has done important work, and in particular the recovery of this youthful opera, which was released in 1995.
Torroella begins this way showing off his best profile, and tonight none other than the Orchestra of the Enlightenment and Mark Padmore. In short, a festival that in this new stage maintains an identity committed to this difficult task of valuing Catalan musical history, without neglecting its innovative spirit and the already recognized great repertoire.
There are many festivals in the summer, some that unfortunately have opted for the path of speculation and the easy formula of agency, but there are few that maintain a level that means that every year we must pay attention to their proposals, both in this field of review history, as well as in the interpretation of high-level universal repertoire. We now have an excellent new generation of musicians, partly present at this concert, who deserve recognition for their hard work. A version that showed the expressive impetus of Terradellas, his stupendous sense of the use of vocal variety, character, and dramatic sense, which are already seen in a work of youth, in a brief and musically rich life.
