Bilbao presents, from Saturday, the 2006-2021 season, everything that Verdi wrote for the scene in different versions. The operas of the Italian composer had as main weapon use the human voice in all its manifestations. An adventure that will put the Basque city in the spotlight of world poetry.
When those responsible for the Bilbao Association of Friends of the Opera presented their project Tutto Verdi, consisting of staging all operas of Italian in all its forms, could not resist calling it bilbainada, ie one of those impossible companies that only happen to people there, a little assurance that no other capable if not to carry them out themselves, at least, to boast to be so. There is no record that the people of Sarasota, in sunny Florida, are similar in character to those of Bilbao, but they were the only ones who had proposed so far. Whether or not the sarasotada, the fact is that the small American town in 1988 won a titanic company which has already 18 deliveries. Bilbao based culminate in 2021 must increase the number of titles per season. These will be two, starting next Saturday, by Rigoletto. We will Oberto from January 20, 2007.
The question is inevitable. Is it such a worthwhile endeavor? Of course. And for various reasons. The first purely musicological. Knowing all Verdi is living an exciting adventure walking along a path towards excellence with firmísimo other sometimes and hesitant step. The viewer may doctorate in a field full of rewards and see how the most democratic writer of the history of music, who wanted to be always understood, worked tirelessly toward their own consecration, as the difference between Oberto His first operation and Falstaff -the last- is simply abysmal. And then there’s another clever revealing what their managers: put Bilbao in the crosshairs of fans worldwide. And with an original project. The easy thing in the opera can be pulled checkbook, if there is money, and provide programming homologous -a, also in repertory with most major theaters. When the budget is not enough for this competition, it is best to find a place based on imagination, be different. Added value is given by the city itself. Since the inauguration of the Guggenheim, and a review of its planning absolutely exemplary, Bilbao is that it comes and its culture grows without doubt the Tutto Verdi. In addition, public opera is one that does not conform with the music and we know what Bilbao gives of himself in other aspects such as the gourmet. A thought, then, is devilishly good one. Furthermore, knowing the hook names have for these things, ABAO is taken out of the hat a committee of honor in which they appear, among others, as unquestionable figures in the art as conductors Claudio Abbado and Riccardo Chailly, Carlo Bergonzi singers perhaps the greatest Verdian tenors never have been-and Giulietta Simionato, the director of the Metropolitan Opera House New York, Peter Gelb; Stephan Lissner, La Scala in Milan; the writer Mario Vargas Llosa, amateur acknowledged that ensures a special intellectual jerk, and Pierluigi Petrobelli, director of the Institute of Verdi Studies in Parma, which ensures the scientific soundness.
No less than 35 PRODUCCIONS will all go through the Euskalduna Verdi. There will be titles of those who never hear, as Un giorno di Regno, Alzira or Corsaro Il. Others will offer aspects that anticipate the best Verdi or not deserved oblivion, as will be the case with I due Foscari, an opera in which Venice sea smell. And reviews that ultimately nothing accounted, at Jerusalem which had previously been the Prima I lombardi Crociata- or Aroldo -first Stiffelio-. We will also have the opportunity to see a Verdi adhered to the tastes of a different audience, curious travel round, as they did Don Carlo -from Paris to Milan-or La forza del destino -from St. Petersburg to La Scala igualmente-. And say nothing of the opportunity to compare the two versions of Simon Boccanegra, the summit each day shines brighter.
The Bilbao will have its own characteristics, because there are more things. For example, the newly introduced compact disc that includes highlights of those who lived in the ABAO with Verdi pretext, with voices such as Franco Corelli, José Carreras, Renato Bruson, Giulietta Simionato or Alfredo Kraus. Or the lectures and exhibitions. There is talk of building at the University of Deusto of a Chair Verdi and even the annual presence in Bilbao of a great chef universal fame to bring the kitchen knows what musical suggestions.
http://elpais.com/diario/2006/10/14/babelia/1160780778_850215.html