Soprano Arias

Description

Marina Mescheriakova - Soprano AriasEugene Onegin Norma Don Carlo Luisa MillerLiving in a global world, we rarely consider how many operasingers in the last fifty years have triumphed, at least in part, because of aparticular cultural background which shone through their public image. MariaCallas's blend of Greek, American and Italian culture, for instance, was anessential ingredient of her perceived persona, just as Leontyne Price'sdescent, with African-American memories of deportation and slavery, must havehelped with the creation of her unforgettable Aida.Nowadays we can still detect regional varieties of tastewhen comparing opera programmes in Italy, France, Germany, Britain, the UnitedStates and Japan, but extending comparisons over the last fifty years, agrowing harmonization is undeniable almost anywhere, except in the formerSoviet Union. There things only now start to respond: only in 2002, forinstance, did the St Petersburg's Mariinsky stage their premi?¿re of Mozart'sCos?¼ fan tutte.Ten years ago the programme of the recital here recordedwould never have been the choice of a Russian soprano. Until the final days ofthe Soviet era, Russian performers and opera lovers could know Luisa Miller,Maria Stuarda and La Vestale only from hearsay. Recordings of Callas orSutherland were restricted to a tiny elite of well-connected connoisseurs, andeven arias from standard operatic repertoire like Ernani or Norma were rarely,if ever, heard in their original context.In other words Marina Mescheriakova's choice of programmehere is motivated by entirely personal reasons, founded on expatriation andcross-cultural encounters. Life-stories like hers are generally squeezed intothe uninspiring bio format, but become very interesting when read like anexplorer's logbook. We can say, in fact, that this recital charts the explorationof the global operatic repertoire by a brave and talented young lady fromRussia.Composed in 1844 and based on the ultra-romantic stagesuccess Hernani by Victor Hugo, Ernani is Verdi's first opera set in Spain, oneof a series including Il trovatore, La forza del destino and Don Carlos. Allthese operas present sharp contrasts between day and night, love and duty,personal ethics and religion, young and old, contrasts on which Verdi thrived.In Ernani, Ernani, involami Leonora feels like a hostage in the castle of theold aristocrat Silva who wants to marry her. She hopes to be kidnapped by thebandit hero Ernani: his mountain cave will be heaven, compared with her gildedcage. In the closing cabaletta she bursts into an outright declaration of love.Bellini is a supreme stylist in Italian opera, a strictobserver of quintessential elegance. His melodies curl snake-like around longsustained arches, accompaniments are kept at a meaningful minimum, chorus wordsbecome pointillist syllables detached by long pauses. With a libretto againbased on a French play, the lyric tragedy Norma was first staged at La Scala,Milan, in 1831. Norma is a druid