Xiang Xu - La cambiale di matrimonio (2018)

When the triumph of La cambiale di matrimonio launched the career of the composer, the profession of director did not exist. Today, it exists and thrives often to the detriment of works, which it submits to distorting "readings". So first we have the impression that Lorenzo Regazzo, in Bad Wildbad, not far from cities where the "regietheater" reigns, complies with this game by introducing into the work an additional character, that of a director directing La cambiale di matrimonio. This eccentric figure, whose silvery hair makes him look like old Liszt, and who despotically treats the troupe, is creating before our eyes. It would be more accurate to say: to try to create, because quickly the contradictory indications, the immobility imposed on the interpreters, the confusions with La Scala di seta, reveal indecision and incompetence. In spite of himself, however, the work will come to a successful conclusion, and its salvation will only come from flight, the rebellious interpreters threatening to kill him.

Welcomed by the public, this satirical vision of the regietheater is an incessant comedy in an invention that seems inexhaustible. Thus, it is dressed as a woman that Edoardo informs Slook that Fanny is reserved for other loves, since sexual ambiguity has become a commonplace. Tobia Mill's monologue before the duel becomes a confession on the couch of a psychoanalyst immersed in the reading of Psychopathia sexualis and who is none other than Slook. And Norton has found the trick to quiet momentarily the frenzy of the director: Zeffirelli's photograph acts on him like a crucifix on a possessed. We will stop there not to spoil the pleasure of discovery.

No doubt objections are emerging: but this character, when he intervenes, breaks the rhythm of the work! That's right, since the music stops. And this is another feat, realized by the conductor, the musicians and the singers: the musical impression does not suffer from it. For his first trip to Bad Wildbad, where he has been an assistant for years, Jacopo Brusa performs a flawless performance in these particular circumstances. With the close complicity of the excellent Gian Luca Ascheri at the pianoforte they succeed in the challenge of giving the illusion of musical continuity despite interruptions of the fabric. The orchestra sounds fair, cheerful, and combines vivacity with lyricism in a balance that is both tonic and elegant.

Singers are obviously at the heart of the business since they must play the characters of the prank and performers, shared between submission, constraint and rebellion, play the game without reservation. This is another explanation of the company's success. If Matija Meic's Tobia Mill has a song that is a little too rogue for our taste and a theatrical play a little rough for this gruff character with a good heart, we applaud his partners unreservedly. The Fanny of Eleonora Bellocci has the precision of the song and the charm of the person one wishes to find in the character. His Edoardo is pitched by Xiang Xu, a Chinese tenor who confirms last year's flattering impressions of the breadth and roundness of his voice and climbs a stage in stage mastery. The pragmatic Canadian is brilliantly portrayed by Roberto Maietta, who seems to sink with ease into the exuberance of the character and whose vocal presence confirms a posteriori the merits of its public prize awarded in loco in 2017. The role of Norton does not give Javier Povedano the opportunity to show off as a soloist, while that of Clarina allows Maria Rita Combatelli in the air "Anch'io sono giovane" that the facetious Lorenzo Regazzo makes him interpret at the request of director as a soft number of Crazy Horse.

So, yes, the work is jostled, since it is interpreted in a tempo that is not that of the continuity of the score. But we touch the neural point that makes this spectacle of great art: these interventions have the necessary duration for the satirical intention but are brief enough not to constitute a hiatus. Between the fun of the theatrical proposal and the plenitude of the musical proposal, we have just witnessed a glittering celebration of Rossini, as foolish as he was when he threw his strangles in Venice!