The presentation ofAida Verdi’s closing concert version of the Lanaudière Festival 2024, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, will certainly remain the highlight of the classical musical summer of 2024, and even of recent summers.
The idea of testing in Quebec what is likely to happen some time later at the Metropolitan Opera in New York is the idea of Grégoire Legendre at the creation of the Quebec Opera Festival, when he knew, in good agreement with Peter Gelb, the director of the New York institution, to feed his festival with trial runs of Robert Lepage’s productions. There were Storm by Thomas Adès (2012) and Love from afar by Kaija Saariaho (2015), the device turning against the director in The Magic Flute (2018) which the Met ultimately rejected. We also saw in Quebec the fabulous Ghost Ship by François Girard in 2019.
Renaud Loranger’s idea in Lanaudière is to work with music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin to allow him to test operas that he will later direct in New York. So it’s the opposite: just music; no staging. But one advantage: a Metropolitan Opera-quality cast, like we don’t have here. The project Aida has been in the air since 2018 and has therefore found its fruition in 2024. It was definitely worth the wait, because the afternoon entered directly into the legend of the great hours of the Lanaudière Festival.
Gourmet chef
At the head of a white-hot orchestra, attentive to the finest nuances, to the importance of the solos accompanying the singing (oboe, clarinet), to the necessary brilliance (brass) and keeping energy in reserve despite the heat to respond to the most exalted expressions of Acts III and IV, Yannick Nézet-Séguin showed us that he truly cherished this score. The 2e The tableau of Act II and the whole of Act III were the heights of his interpretation, both ardent, but also very flexible.
The conductor enjoys himself in the ballet after the triumphal march by taking the “piu mosso” (faster) at a very sustained tempo. The main thing that remains a little timid in our opinion is in the Amneris-Aida duet of Act II when both guess in private the hidden feelings of their rival, there are lively and light “animato” that could be nourished by even sharper contrasts. But, really, what an accomplishment, both from the conductor and the orchestra!
The choir, too, held its own very bravely, with commitment in a rewarding score, even if the addition of a few professionals among the tenors would have given an additional impact to the warlike imprecations of the 1er Act.
Luxury singers
As for the cast, we will still dream for a long time about what we heard and we will be forgiven for starting with an emotional thank you, that of having been able to hear Ambrogio Maestri as Amonasro. Indeed, if Maestri is “the” Falstaff of the first quarter of the 21st centurye century, he was “eaten up” by this role as Anne Sofie von Otter almost got “eaten up” by Octavian. However, it is not because Maestri is funny on stage that the opera world should deprive itself of the greatest Verdian baritone since Piero Cappuccilli (1970s-1980s). It is with tears in our eyes that we say “Thank you” for this Amonasro, this lesson in Bel Canto, this 3e An anthology act alongside Angel Blue who could not have dreamed of a better “father” to blossom in this role that will mark her career. She has everything to sing Aida : the volume, the roundness of the voice, the sharp high notes.
The titular Radamès was the new revelation of the profession, who has been blossoming for 18 or 24 months, in London and New York in the great Italian roles: the Korean Seok Jong Baek, with a voice of bronze, but musically intelligent and expressively sensitive. Baek had given himself the pandemic project of converting from baritone to tenor. We have seen quite a few pandemic projects. But this one, it is almost on a par with the summits, with the brilliant Requiem by Rufus Wainwright.
In this Aida where the minor roles were fantastically held (Sarah Dufresne, Matthew Cairns), the skewer of “bass clefs” (Robinson, Stavrakakis and Maestri) lined up at the end of Act II gave chills. As the King, Robinson is very physical and toned, not at all old or vibrant, while the authoritarian Stavrakakis seems born to sing Ramfis.
Judit Kutasi remains a very sought-after singer, Amneris effective, solid, not very impressive in the lower midrange, sometimes vague in the middle of the register, less bitter than others. We can’t see her, as it is, succeeding Dolora Zajick at the Met. But her performance here, Sunday, was quite good, and all the better as her character softened towards the end.
A final question, since we were talking about Quebec at the beginning of this commentary. Since Alexandra Stréliski is now playing on the Plains in front of spectators, some of whom are holding up signs saying “we love classical music on the Plains” (!), what would prevent us from having in the future on these same Plains — in addition to the Amphi — Yannick, the OM and the Met soloists to show a little, precisely what can be done here, in “classical”?