Tenor Emiliano Gonzalez Toro comes to Montreal for the first time, Wednesday at Bourgie Hall, to present his program There room of mirrorsa musical ode to twinhood, as a symbol of the name of his ensemble, I Gemelli.
The twins in The room of mirrorsthese are two tenors, Zachary Wilder and Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, but also Italian composers who have married, in one way or another, the music of Monteverdi.
“I’m lucky to have a lot of tenor friends. Among them, there is this extraordinary American, Zachary Wilder, who plays in Europe and whom I have known for 15 years. When we made Vespers we had the same sensitivity, we breathed the same,” remembers Emiliano Gonzalez Toro.
Chance
One day, after a Orfeo in Nantes, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro was vocally exhausted and had to record a record with Wilder right after. “We had chosen the program several months ago, but I could no longer sing. We preserved the period to review a stock of scores.” This is where was born The room of mirrorsa program which will also include instrumental pieces, affiliated with Monteverdi, but without ever going to Monteverdi: “ Damigella tutta bella by Calestani, it is the same text, same rhythm, almost the same melody as Monteverdi; But no disciolgasi, by Gregori, is a great chaconne on the same basis and the same rhetoric as Zefiro tornawhile Dove ten vai by Turini which is based on the moment when Orfeo enters the underworld with Speranza. She tells him “Dove ten vai” when she leaves. »
Gonzalez Toro is inexhaustible on Monteverdi. “One day I was asked why I loved Monteverdi so much and not Rossini. It’s not that I don’t like Rossini, but when I listen to Rossini, I hear music that I find nice. Monteverdi speaks to me, takes me by the hand, takes me where I’m not used to going, explains life, philosophy, astronomy, complex concepts to me in a simple way. so simple that it humanizes me. It’s music that I want to have with me all my life, while Rossini gives me a good evening. »
Emiliano Gonzalez Toro entered our lives through his recording of The Orfeo, at Naïve, which he sang and directed. We had discovered an extraordinary artist, literally possessed by his art. He renewed the magic with his recital Black Sun. But who was he before this Orfeo ?
Pass by
“I have always been inspired by Sylvester Stallone or George Lucas, people who knew deep down that they had a great story to tell, characters to bring to life, and when they offered them to production houses we told them “No”, or “Yes, but not with you””, explains the Swiss tenor of Chilean origin.
With the role of Orphée Gonzalez Toro experienced these situations. ” In 2007 [400e anniversaire de la création de l’opéra], I was too young, but before 2017, the 350th anniversary of Monteverdi’s death, while it was becoming normal for me to be given this role, it didn’t happen, at least in big places with big ensembles . Then I said to myself: “Damn, I’m missing out. So if I want it to happen, I’ll have to do it myself.” »
In his businesses and ambitions, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro is encouraged by his partner Mathilde Étienne, with whom he then founded I Gemelli. “I have always been into the baroque, from Vivaldi to Rameau via Lully and Bach. I sang the Evangelist, worked with every possible baroque group imaginable, even in the United States with Opéra Lafayette. Little by little, I was given quite a few comic roles, because on stage I do that with joy and it shows. »
While he saw himself trapped in his stage antics, Mathilde pointed out to Emiliano that his vocal profile could give another dimension to noble roles. “My usual employers were not prepared to hear me offer them this or that role, rather than playing the clown on stage. I could clearly feel the reactions: “Oh yes? You’re sure ?” I didn’t want to force it. » It’s the Coluche syndrome in cinema, the clown that the world discovered with amazement in a dramatic role in Tchao Pantin by Claude Berri. In the case of Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, the refusals fueled projects: Vespers by Cozzolani, Black Sun,portrait of the tenor Francesco Rasi, creator of the role of Orpheus, and The OrfeoCDs published by Naïve.
Happy who like Ulysses
Today, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro and Mathilde Étienne are already elsewhere. “I have the impression that we have existed for 15 years, but in reality, our first concert dates from May 28, 2019.” Without experience, they turned to the Naïve label to publish their projects. But after The OrfeoEmiliano wanted to address Odysseus’ return to his homeland, “a mishandled opera which suffers from an image of a long and boring opera, when it is quite the opposite. It’s my favorite opera of the whole 17th centurye century “.
The problem: team perfectionism, dreams of editorial grandeur and an opera twice as long asOrfeoknowing thatOrfeo required 10 days of recording for 1h37 of music. “I don’t understand how others manage to record a record in three or four days. Physically, recording 12 to 15 minutes a day makes me feel like I have a gun to my head,” Emiliano Gonzalez Toro tells us.
Naïve will not follow the project Ulysses. No matter, I Gemelli will create its own record label, Gemelli Factory. Emiliano Gonzalez Toro therefore became a record publisher. And not just anyhow. This Return of Ulysses just got out. It is not only an extraordinary musical adventure, of the caliber of The Orfeo, even a tick above, but in the form of a book-disc of luxury surpassing even the Alia Vox and v publications of the same ilk.
“We decided to mark the occasion with specific objects and to emphasize quality at all levels. The five-year sales projections for physical discs are so catastrophic that it makes no sense. But even if the whole market goes down the drain, we might as well put all the love and all the energy into it and bring out a magnificent object by going to the end of the process with a real book that we can read pleasantly, real work research and illustrations. We said to ourselves: “If we didn’t have limits, what would that be?” Well, it gave a bit of that, made possible by a certain number of grants from the French and Swiss side and a major patron who allowed us to take two and a half years to create this object. »
Talent seeker, competition addict, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro is proud to have instrumentalists chosen one by one, who are not necessarily heard in other ensembles, and young singers such as Anthony León or Lauranne Oliva, committed before their recent victories in important competitions. At his side, his Penelope is Montrealer Rihab Chaieb. Hearing the tenor and diehard conductor talk about his partner gives a good idea of the degree of refinement of his recording. “We were looking for a very feminine Penelope, going against the androgynous voices that we hear in this music at the moment. Penelope’s range is very restricted, and Rihab can do the high notes while waking up in the morning at breakfast. But if Monteverdi wrote with a reduced ambitus, it is not for nothing. In the story, she refuses, refuses and refuses the obvious until the final measures of the opera. It is therefore in permanent control and at the end, only, it opens and, there, the voice opens, takes on the light. That’s what I needed and that’s what’s missing with mezzos who sing a lot of this baroque repertoire and are at 100% of their abilities all the time. »
The visit to Bourgie on Wednesday of this artist, whose influence reminds us in many respects of that of Leonardo García Alarcón, is an honor.