La Juive Revisited

Believe it or not, but I have been to La Juive at the Muziektheater again. Not because I bought tickets for another performance, but because I actually won two tickets (yes, I actually WON something - the last time I won something (a Victorian mansion, Playmobile style) was when I was ten years old). Instead of just giving away the tickets (which probably would have been the noble thing to do), I decided to go again myself and maybe get the chance to 'reconsider' some things.

And I did. Somehow (and I don't think it's just due to the amazing seats I got!), I got to appreciate the magnificent performance each and every single cast member delivered more. Because they did deliver! Even the weak link of the previous performance I attended, Dennis O'Neill, was in a very good vocal shape this evening, and provided a more credible Eléazar (of course within the limits of the character's credibility). I also got the feeling that some elements in the cast's acting had been adapted - it seemed that at least a bit of the rigidity of the tableaux vivants had been thrown out of the window.

Of course, the essential weaknesses of the opera and production remained: the story was still over the top (in a negative sense) - some characters, no matter how much the singers tried to enliven them, simply remain inexorably flat. The production - martians included - remained ineffective, and eerily strange.

So, all in all, I was glad to see the production again, and I have warmed to it somewhat. What I really hope is that Annick Massis has enjoyed her time and performances in Amsterdam enough to return in the near future for, say, the title role in Lucia - her extremely agile, beautiful and warm voice (and, of course, her prowess in the role) would make for an amazing reprisal of DNO's Lucia production.

Coming up soon: my review of DNO's Dido & Aeneas