The Russian invasion of Ukraine, which instantly radically changed international cooperation in culture, also affected the annual concert series Elina Garanca and friends organizers – Yulija Lochmeli and her company Strong Art – because the initial plans for this summer’s concert included the performance of the Latvian prima together with the Abkhazian Russian soprano Hibla Gerzmava. In the new political situation, Hibla Gerzmava’s visit to Latvia was completely excluded and the Liepāja star festival was also canceled immediately. But the excitement and worries have culminated in success: from the point of view of the curious listener, the result is even better than the original plan, giving the opportunity to listen to the internationally sought-after Chilean-American tenor Jonathan Tetelman and the young Spanish soprano Marina Monso for the first time in Jūrmala instead of the Russian artist already heard here. .
A clearly focused approach
At the gala concert in Dzintari concert hall on July 12, Elina Garanča, together with her friends and Karel Mark Šišon, sang a program of Italian opera music and Spanish zarzuela at the conductor’s desk of the festival orchestra. Classic in the Alps in Kitzbühel and Classic under the stars in Gothenburg. In addition, this year was the third opportunity for our audience to hear Elīna Garanča in her homeland – first in an ambitious solo concert at the Latvian National Opera, then at the European concert of the Berlin Philharmonic in Liepāja In the big amber and also in Dzintari concert hall with colleagues invited by herself.
Program Elina Garanca and friends is a good, classic end concert model. Good precisely because it did not offer a motley rasola with a little bit of everything, but was clearly focused: in the first part, opera music by Italian composers from romantic opera to verism, in the second part – Spanish zarzuelas and Latin American melodies, the sequence of which was started by chants from Leonard Bernstein’s musical West Side Story. The most popular Neapolitan song was saved for encores ‘O my sun. It should be noted that it is precisely the passionately performed fragments from zarzuelas – Spanish operettas – that are the special, different repertoire of the repertoire, with which Elina Garanca and Karel Marks Chishon, whose veins run with British and Spanish blood, tend to please the audience and the orchestra in their concerts. This repertoire also perfectly suits the two guests of the concert, who are native to the Spanish and Latin American temperament.
Dramatic splendor
We could enjoy the vocal skill and depth of interpretation of Elina Garančas nice singing the operas of master Gaetano Donizetti Anna Bolena in Giovanna Seymour’s voluminous aria, which develops in a variety of dramatic moods and vocal expressions, from sweeping flow to virtuosic coloraturas. For the second part of her solo concert, Elina Garanca chose the wonderful Spanish folk song, which is also featured in her album sun and life, highlighting both girlish cuteness and angry or sad shades in the seemingly musically the same, but each time so different, song. A simple folk song, but it has a whole story!
Tenor Jonathan Tetelman, who, in parallel with his dynamic stage career, is now also a member of the prestigious sound record company German gramophone artist, Dzintaros showed himself magnificently both in dramatic power (in the impressive volume and brilliance of his voice) and in the lyrical nuances of the performance, moreover, purposefully using his temperament, unbridled theatrics and charisma given by nature. All this is concentrated in Pinkerton’s compact aria Farewell, flowery asil (from Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly) and in the effective aria from Pablo Sorosabal’s zarzuela Port innkeeper, he passionately played relationship scenes in a duet with Elina Garanča and Marina Monso, self-confidently using his sexual appeal and not forgetting to look deeply into the eyes of his stage partner or kiss her sensually. A vivid example of this was the deeply appealing Polliona and his beloved Adalgiza, torn by conflicting feelings, a duet by Vincenzo Bellini, sung together with Elina Garanci. Standards, and Giuseppe Verdi’s The Encounter of Gilda and the Duke sung with Marina Monceau Rigolet in the first act. And, of course, the passionate make-out with Federico Torroba’s romantic zarzuelas played by Elina Garancha Luisa Fernanda the title characters – real Spanish verism in all its emotionally dramatic glory.
I happened to watch Jonathan Tetelman live and in recordings from various opera houses, while the Spanish soprano Marina Monso was a discovery for me. This was a pleasant, gratifying discovery, as Marina Monceau charmed with a light, warm lyric soprano voice, as well as with nimble, light, clear coloraturas, bright but not cutting top notes and a heartfelt simplicity of performance. The festival orchestra accurately responded to conductor Karel Mark Šišon’s gestures and highlighted particularly nuanced phrases, however, the sum of many great musicians did not result in the organic, cultivated quality of the orchestra ensemble as one complete musical instrument – the feeling, freedom and joy of making music that Karel Mark Šišon has managed to achieve both the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra and the Latvian National Opera Orchestra. This requires a permanent ensemble foundation and a correspondingly long rehearsal period. It is interesting that the joy of playing the orchestra turned out to be the most sparkling precisely in the solo performance – in the intricately syncopated Things in the polyphony of dance rhythms.
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