A last drop in the cup full of anger was the tonight's premiere of the atrocious production of La Sonnambula. Maybe not because of the production itself, but rather because of the intendant's choice to stage this opera at the Opéra Bastille. With such an idiotic libretto, there is no alchemy that could convert this pile of inane text into anything dramatically acceptable as to be presented on the immense stage of la Bastille. These sugary arias are for the recitals, and this opera is maybe suitable for a smaller (provincial?) theater [if any!]...
Marelli's ideas lasted for one act and then his show went down in flames: it's naive, it's ridiculous, it's appalling... Even if one adopts the attitude "Come on! It is belcanto. The stage direction doesn't matter there", this "Titanic" would sink anyway. Today's rumor was that Natalie Dessay might cancel her prima. After all the drama, she finally decided not to cancel, and now in retrospect I think she should have. Her singing was painful, she was screaming, pushing her voice to the point where you feel uncomfortable and the whole show turned in a big embarrassment. A badly staged crappy opera, with memorably bad singing.
Joel's incapacity to realize that this opera is by no means suitable for Bastille is beyond me. Would it be less awful if it was staged in Garnier? I don't know but in any case, with the current vocal state of la Nata nationale this production would s(t)ink anyway. Only Javier Camarena was relatively OK, but I'm not sure if that's really a compliment - considering the dreadfulness of this show.
Should I remind that the ONP purchased this production too? Yes, from the Royal Opera House where it was premiered EIGHT years ago!!
Yours Truly - angry and sad :(
