Javier Camarena may not be around now for other more pyrotechnic bel canto roles, but that of Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola still suits the Mexican tenor like a glove, who yesterday, together with the rest of the cast, raised the Liceu audience in the seven minutes of applause finals, at the premiere of this Rossini. Camarena especially shined in the second act aria Sì, ritrovarla io giuro, which undoubtedly invites him to park his vocal evolution towards more lyrical roles, a tendency that goes against his natural flexibility.
In his role as Don Ramiro, he is prince and beggar at the same time, the nobleman who disguises himself as a servant… and thus love arises with the heroine of the story. Well, this opera with a libretto by Jacopo Ferretti that spans more than two centuries – it premiered in Rome in 1817 – is based on Charles Perrault’s Cinderella (or on La virtù Premiota, Felice Romani’s semi-serious drama), with its tones of humor and perhaps that dark side of every fable.
Darkness that does not explode as intended in this production staged by the award-winning Italian actress Emma Dante, who took the step into theater direction with a theater of denunciation and finally received proposals to make operas. In Italy she has been very celebrated, without going any further, with her heartbreaking Macbeth of Palermo, and it is now that she appears in theaters for a second crown.
Dante puts on a great comedy, but it is limited in its attempt to bring out the dark side of the story: the showy look, either Disney or Tim Burton, weighs more, and this successful acting of entertaining parody keeps the audience happy. In fact, all functions are already close to 90% occupancy.
The idea of ??inventing a series of avatars of the protagonist couple in the form of wind-up dolls could have been disturbing: it is the way in which Don Ramiro and Angelina survive their loneliness, surrounded by automatons, as humanity will end up speaking in the 21st century. alone with artificial intelligence. And ballet is important, with artists arriving in part from the Rome Opera production (2016). They are also directed by actress Manuela Lo Sicco, although she does not seem interested in evoking with quality the grace of Coppelia’s classic. It all comes down to I want to and I can’t, or perhaps I don’t want to do a good ballet from the start. It is still just an accessory that makes sense at the end of the first act, when Angelina appears incognito like a Timburtonian lady at the prince’s ball. The rage that her beauty causes in the stepsisters is reproduced by a parody ballet, gun in hand, which ends, one by one, committing suicide.
Maria Kataeva’s Angelina is not as feminist as advertised either. The Spanish debut of the Russian mezzo who joined the Liceu production replacing Gaëlle Arquez is noteworthy, despite her Slavic coldness. Florian Sempey’s magnificent vocal elasticity as Dandini, the servant/prince; Paolo Bordogna also received praise from him as Don Magnifico, the undesirable father, and Erwin Schrott prevailed as Alidoro, the wise man who plays the male fairy godmother and pursues the triumph of innocence.
Vibrant tempi by Giacomo Sagripanti leading the orchestra and a good Madrigal choir, invited to cover this title while the Gran Teatre choir is dedicated to Gustavo Dudamel’s Fidelio next week.
