Donizetti – Anna Bolena

Enrico VIII – Alex Esposito
Anna Bolena – Olga Peretyatko
Giovanna Seymour – Daniela Barcellona
Lord Riccardo Percy – Xabier Anduaga
Sir Hervey – Santiago Vidal
Smeton – Florencia Machado
Lord Rochefort – Cristian De Marco

Coro Estable del Teatro Colón, Orquesta Estable del Teatro Colón / Iñaki Encina.
Stage director – Marina Mora.

Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Tuesday, June 27th, 2023.

Tonight marked my first ever visit to the legendary Teatro Colón.  It’s a venue I’ve wanted to visit for as long as I’ve been aware of opera.  It’s an exceptionally handsome house, a riot of gold and plush velvet, having been lovingly restored in 2010.  The city of Buenos Aires is also a fabulous place to visit, with exceptional food, wine – not to mention the highest number of bookstores per capita in the world.  The Colón is famed for its acoustic and from my seat in the centre of the Platea, the sound had an agreeable clarity and depth – even if the voices did sound a touch recessed, something I doubt would be the case higher up. 

This production of Anna Bolena was credited to stage director, Marina Mora.  The reality is that Mora gave us more of a mise en espace rather than an actual staging with sets and costumes.  The chorus was seated in rows at the back, while a backdrop changed colour to illustrate the changing mood of the plot.  Six raised platforms, of varying height, were arranged around the stage with music stands, from where the characters sang.  Although the principals were in evening dress, they did genuinely engage with each other and only Xabier Anduaga’s Percy made use of the score.  The atmospheric lighting added to setting the tone.  As a way to get international stars to appear with minimal rehearsal, it was certainly useful.  Though I imagine those who expected a fully-staged production would have been disappointed.

The evening gave much to enjoy, but I’ll start with a significant disappointment.  That was Iñaki Encina’s conducting.  It may well be the most exasperatingly soporific bel canto I’ve heard.  The positive is that he secured good playing from the Colón orchestra, even if there were a few passages of scrappy attack in the strings.  He also kept things together between stage and pit.  Encina clearly phrased the music in long paragraphs and aimed for a beauty of line.  It’s just that the entire thing lacked any drama.  It wasn’t that Encina conducted the evening with the parking brake on, more that he never actually left the parking spot.  I longed for that sense of long lines superimposed over a constantly driving rhythmic impetus.  Instead, what we got was a shapely ramble through the score.  After Olga Peretyatko’s Bolena and Daniela Barcellona’s Seymour desperately tried to inject some drama into their duet, the coda felt like a flaccid anti-climax.  The house chorus, prepared by Miguel Martínez, sang with agreeable blend, while the horns coped well with some very tricky writing. 

Peretyatko sang with genuine determination as Bolena.  She has the elements of a bel canto technique – a willingness to spin long lines, a natural understanding of the idiom, and a thoughtful engagement with the text.  And yet, I found her singing problematic.  She has a rich chest register, that she isn’t afraid to dip into, but unfortunately the registers aren’t very well integrated, revealing a considerable hole in the middle.  The top is also rather tight, those acuti that should be her crowning glory lacking in amplitude.  Peretyatko did sing with genuine poise and her mad scene had my seat neighbour in floods of tears.  For me, I just found that Peretyatko is at something of a crossroads in her vocalism and technique and it will be interesting to see where she goes from here.

Seymour is the best thing I’ve heard from Barcellona.  She brought decades of bel canto understanding to her music, her mezzo plush and rich, able to turn the corners with ease, digging deep into the text.  The voice showed no signs of succumbing to gravity, absolutely even from top to bottom, and her high C in the Bolena/Seymour duet was sensational.  Barcellona tonight was magnificent.  Alex Esposito’s Enrico is a known quality, having seem him in the role in València last fall.  Esposito is most definitely a stage animal and, even in this semi-staging, he filled his every move with sheer energy.  He also tried desperately to inject drama into his music, by spitting out the text with anger, despite the tepidness from the pit, not afraid to sacrifice the beauty of his inky bass to bring out Enrico’s selfish entitlement.  Another highly engaging assumption from this accomplished singer.

It seems that every time I see Anduaga live I mention that he’s a phenomenal talent – and that impression was confirmed tonight.  His tenor is so handsome of tone, bright and focused, able to penetrate with ease into this grateful acoustic.  He also demonstrated an elegant line and impeccable legato.  I did notice a little tightening in the very highest reaches, although the registers are absolutely integrated from top to bottom.  His upcoming roles include Alfredo and Nadir and it may well be that his future repertoire will take him away from the stratosphere.  I just hope that he has the right people around him to guide him, because his is a rare gift indeed.  The remainder of the cast introduced us to some interesting local talent.  Florencia Machado sang Smeton agreeably in a fruity mezzo.  Cristian De Marco demonstrated a large, rich and cavernous bass as Rochefort, while Santiago Vidal sang Hervey’s music in a focused, bright tenor. 

On a personal level, this was a very special evening because I finally got to visit this legendary house – and what a treat it was.  Yet, it was also an operatic performance that you, as readers, would rightly expect me to appraise.  In that respect, there was a lot to enjoy – from Anduaga, Barcellona and Esposito in particular.  Peretyatko inspired admiration for her determination, even if one has concerns about the long-term sustainability of her instrument.  Yes, the evening was significantly hampered by highly pedestrian conducting, but the semi-staging was sensibly done.  The audience response felt polite, although there were some cheers for the principals.