A royal show on Sunday afternoon to close the Lanaudière Festival.Aida by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, which brought together his Montreal band and a few regulars from the Metropolitan Opera in New York, was one of the most exhilarating musical events of the last few months.
It was in the fall of 2018 that the talks began leading to the presentation ofAida in concert version in Joliette, if we are to believe the artistic director Renaud Loranger, who came to say a few words in the company of the outgoing general director Xavier Roy, who took the opportunity to greet the public one last time.
The wait was worth its weight in gold, because the lineup of singers gathered on the stage of the Fernand-Lindsay Amphitheatre had everything to make any voice lover’s jaw drop. Three of them (Angel Blue, Judit Kutasi and Morris Robinson) will even be on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera with Nézet-Séguin for a special presentation of the opera on December 31, before several performances in the following months.
Even though it was an unstaged version, with no sets whatsoever, it was far from a frozen show with singers glued to their lecterns. The characters of the opera really came to life before our eyes, entering and leaving as they spoke, or even going behind the orchestra on certain occasions.
On the women’s side, the two main roles deserve all the praise possible, especially the Aida from Angel Blue, which we were able to hear last year at the end of the OM season in a completely different repertoire. The American soprano combines absolutely all the qualities that one can expect from the greatest singers, including great sensitivity and a voice that combines – a rare thing – both metal and velvet.
PHOTO CHARLES WILLIAM PELLETIER, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Singers Angel Blue, Judit Kutasi and SeokJong Baek, at the concert on Sunday
As for the Romanian mezzo-soprano Judit Kutasi as Amneris, she has an impressive volume and a sparkling timbre, if we except a few high notes that are too covered.
The role of Radames is a real challenge for many singers, but not for South Korean SeokJong Baek, a very solid tenor voice. lyric spinto (more valiant than the lyric tenor), despite a timbre that does not particularly stand out (even if one thinks at times of someone like Marcelo Álvarez).
Of the three male low voices, it is the Greek bass Alexandros Stavrakakis (as Ramfis) who leaves the best memory with his sumptuous voice disturbingly evoking that of Nicolai Ghiaurov. His colleague from the south of the border Morris Robinson (as Roi) is less memorable, his Italian sometimes betraying his mother tongue (in the “ou” in particular). The same goes for the Amonasro of the Italian baritone Ambrogio Maestri (a Falstaff specialist) who, despite a timbre of great nobility, is quite short of high notes.
The hero of this Aida Yannick Nézet-Séguin remains, who gave a soul to this score, finding almost always the right tempo (except perhaps for the final duet, a bit too cheerful) and giving all the relief desired to the musical material. The second act, with its six Egyptian trumpets set back in the sides, was simply mind-blowing.
If the Metropolitan Choir sometimes lacked a little flesh when certain sections sang alone, the orchestra was in its best form, in particular the brass.