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The comments on ‘Lakmé’ written after the premiere at the Teatro Real in Madrid in 1888 are still valid. The theme and the score imbued with a more or less artificial orientalism, of a certain good taste, monotonous at times, delicate and careful, managed to attract attention in some of the seventeen performances that were offered, despite their distinguished French ancestry and the fact that exoticism was a dominant fashion of the Second Empire where it stopped the music of Wagner. That climate is still valid, to the point that almost out of the blue, after the ambitious performances of ‘The Twilight of the Gods’ and the emotional ones of ‘The Letter Opener’, the Real presents two interpretations of ‘Lakmé’ these days
in concert version.
But the Real has obtained important means for Delibes’ opera. Sabine Devieilhe, the priestess Lakmé, plays between the fragile, the delicate and the naive. The role has in its favor the (terrible) experience of a complex score with some critical moment like the aria of the bells. Devieilhe saves the coloratura and does something more complicated, which is to give it musical substance, concluding the role in a stealthy half-voice. The contrast is evident before Xavier Anduaga, in which his ‘official’ presentation at the Real should be considered. The cleanliness, brilliance and youthful power with which he approached the first act in a formidable display of power and talent should be remembered. After the break, everything went differently, off paper, looking for the support of a stool and manifestly uncomfortable. His final cantilena was the opposite of the aria of the first act with which he drew the English officer in a very personal way. And even, Stéphane Degouta Brahmin priest, whose vocal and interpretive authority marked outstanding levels of maturity.
In ‘Lakmé’, as in ‘mélodie’, timbre and harmony define a space that the director Leo Hussain He has defended with enormous security, clarity and vocation. He has got on very well with the orchestra, the Real choir and with the entire cast: David Menendez in a controlled and sometimes cautious interpretation; Heloise Mas very well collected in the flower duo with Devieilhe; Ines Ballesteros meticulous and lyrical; Cristina Toledoinsightful; Enkelejda Shkosagood actress and enthusiast Mistress Bentson… On Tuesday the confusion arose when at the end of the second act the choir left the stage to sing the inmates and their director Andres Maspero came out to say hello. There were those who believed that the opera ended; even who left the theater. But there was still the outcome of a predictable affair. Because ‘Lakmé’ continues to be an opera of little relevance, no matter how significant its historical definition may be, which does not deny the possibility of listening to it pleasantly.
Datasheet
Lakmé (Gondinet, Gille and Delibes). Cast: Sabine Devieilhe (Lakmé), Xabier Anduaga (Gérald), Stéphane Degout (Nilakantha), David Menéndez (Fréderic), Héloïse Mas (Mallika), Gerardo López (Hadji/a Chinese merchant), Inés Ballesteros (Miss Ellen), Cristina Toledo (Miss Rose), Enkelejda Shkosa (Mistress Bentson), David Villegas (Un domben), Isaac Galán (Kouravar), Royal Theater Choir, Royal Theater Orchestra. Musical director: Leo Hussain. Venue: Royal Theatre. Date: 1-III.