Gluck Alceste dance/opera to libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi (Paris Version 1776). Directed and choreographed 2019 by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. Stars Charles Castronovo (Admète); Dorothea Röschmann (Alceste); Michael Nagy (The Grand-Priest of Apollon/Hercules); Manuel Günther (Évandre); Sean Michael Plumb (A Herald at Arms/Apollo); Anna El-Khashem, Noa Beinart, Caspar Singh, and Frederic Jost (Coryphées); and Callum Thorpe (An Oracle/A God of the Underworld). Also stars Dancers of Comapagnie Eastman, Antwerp, including Nicola Leahey, Josepha “Princess” Madoki, Acacia Schachte, Qing Wang, Ema Yuasa, Shawn Fitzgerald Ahern, Kazutomi “Tsuki” Kozuki, Morgan Lugo; Robert “Robbie” Moore, Mohamed Toukabri, Jonas Vandekerckhove, Pol Van den Broek, and Patrick Williams “Two Face” Seebacher. Antonello Manacorda conducts the Bayerisches Staatsorchester and the Chorus of the Bayrische Staatsoper (Chorus Master Sören Eckhoff). Sets by Henrik Ahr; costumes by Jan-Jan Van Essche; lighting by Michael Bauer; dramatic advisor was Benedikt Stampfli. Directed for TV by Tiziano Mancini. Sung in French. Released 2021, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
This is an opera performance with famous singers for the lead roles plus a substantial group of dancers, all directed by the famous choreographer Cherkaoui at one of the world’s most aggressive and inventive opera houses. Critics who saw this live were divided. operatraveller.com applauded the dancing throughout even if it worked to the detriment of the singers, including Dorothea Röschmann’s “somewhat introspective assumption of the title role.” But French-speaking Charles Castrovovo got top marks for singing with an “open, ringing tone” and diction “absolutely clear throughout.” Shirley Apthorp, writing for the Financial Times, was more critical saying that Röschmann sounded “tired and a little worn” and accusing conductor Manacorda of “heavy-handed Romanticism.” After auditioning the disc, David J. Baker, writing in the July 2021 Opera News (pages 56-57) likes both the “gripping production” by Cherkaoui and goes on to say that “Röschmann is decisive, thanks to a flood of transcendent tone that is almost otherworldly in its tenacity and resonance.” Wow. Maybe in this case recording is better than hearing her live. Baker also praises Manacorda in the recording saying “He’s especially adept at maintaining tension and pulse in adagios.”
Here’s a trailer from the Bayerische Staatsoper, where Cherkaoui sometimes appears to be borrowing moves from waacking dance battles:
And here’s a trailer from C Major about the disc:
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