Nueva asociación musical en Buenos Aires
Por Alfredo Cernadas Quesada
BUENOS AIRES HERALD. Miércoles 4 de diciembre de 2002
There is a silver lining in every cloud. As far as culture in BA in concerned at least: in spite of the storm that has been raging over the country for so long, the theatre and the arts have bloomed an boomed in spite of everything. And this goes for opera too. What in supposed to be a difficult, expensive and elitist theatrical and musical genre has had a bumper year, generally speaking.
I won't delve in detail into the stormy waters that the Colón season has gone through, but even so, several productions were staged, mostly with Argentine performers. And there is, of course, the season in the Teatro Argentino of La Plata, which is attended by many porteño fans. It's in other venues that the operatic bonanza has taken and still taking place.
Indeed, not since the first decades of the 20th century has opera been so busy in Buenos Aires (when it boasted no less than five opera houses).
Courageous private groups offered at least 23 stagings of mostly very little known operas, which included three titles aimed especially at children: Massenet's Cendrillon (Cinderella), Humperdinck's Hänsel and Gretel and Juan Carlos Guiliani's Cuatro caramelos. First-rate pros share the stage with talented newcomers who can thus acquire invaluable dramatic and musical experience. Among these stagings I can't omit Eduardo Casullo's ingenious and resourceful production of Aida, in what at first seemed the most unlikely place in which to perform it: La Manufactura Papelera.
It was the season's hit. Adelaida Negri's forces delighted audiences with Donizetti's hilarious Viva la mamma. A new group, Ensemble Lírico Orquestal, was equally accomplished in Mozart's Impresario and Haydn's La Canterina. Juventus Lyrica contributed with an attractive Stravinsky double bill, The soldier's tale and Pulcinella. The successful return of zarzuela (Doña Francisquita, La verbena de la Paloma) in the Avenida, to name but a few worthy examples.
Next year a new and important group will join the ranks of opera dispensers: Buenos Aires Lírica, who have recently announced their plans for their first season. BAL in of course a cultural, private, nonprofit organization whose aim is to enrich our cultural life with the best possible local performers available. Frank Marmorek, an enthusiastic and energetic go-getter if I never met one, presides it, which augurs well. He in seconded by María Alicia Bourdieu de Menéndez Behety (secretary), Alejandro Dagnino (treasurer), Horacio Oyhanarte (corporate relations), Claudio Ratier (artistic manager), Juan Casasbellas (chorus director) and Patricia Casañas (press) among other capable collaborators.
The titles chosen for the first season are quite attractive: Madama Butterfly (Puccini), The Italian Girl in Algiers (Rossini), Tito's Clemency (Mozart), Orestes, The last tango (Gambartes-Vila), and Lucia (Donizetti). Last tango is a local premiere. It would be ungrateful to carp, but both Butterfly and Lucia were sung here two or three years ago by Patricia Gutiérrez and Laura Rizzo (who have been engaged to sing these roles in 2003). Given the increasing interest of audiences in non hackneyed material, maybe some thing else could have been chosen. What about Lakmé, The pearl fishers, some early Verdi, The sleepwalker, for instance? May be in 2004... Anyway, it's great news to have BAL jump into the fray and we wish them the best of luck. Or, as it's said in the theatre, Merde!.- |
