Return to music heaven with Elena Garanca

What an honor for Linz and a happy reunion! The elite audience expressed their appreciation and filled the musical theater on Friday. At the end there was the usual roaring applause and a heartfelt farewell before the fifth encore, which is no longer permitted.

Will the international star who is blessed with all the gifts in addition to her talented voice return? Elena Garanka has a beautiful and charismatic stage presence. In fact, as always, what she sang this time was not at all relevant, because her performance was always convinced by an ideal state of how the piece was designed and undoubtedly approached the artist's identification with the work.

However, a simple objection to the “Primadonna assoluta” program is permissible. It has been enriched with Southern content and taste, and the names of famous composers and their language are encountered more in the first part. Opera singer Garanca unleashed the splendor of her mezzo voice, both in the low and high registers.

In the aria from Gounod's opera “Sappho”, he played Delilah in Camille Saint-Saëns's “Samson and Delilah” and again with Gounod in the cavatine del pilquis from “La Reine di Saba”. In between, the orchestral relaxation impressed the audience after the Vienna Chamber Orchestra opened the evening with Rakoczi's lively March by Hector Berlioz.

Amazing violin solo

A special surprise was the violin solo by the concertmaster for the guest orchestra in Jules Massenet's “Symphonic Intermezzo” from his opera “Thais.” There are distinct audio spots of different quality that will be reported in the second part of the program after the break. It largely occurred in unfamiliar territory, but continued to move across France, Spain and the rest of the world.

The introductory booklet reads like a history lesson (Walter Weidringer). Presumably, as far as you can understand the texts linguistically, they were often about love. At a high cultural and intellectual level, the star, dressed in a luxurious crimson robe, devoted himself faithfully to 19th-century songs by Barbieri, Xavi, Licuona and Heitor Villa-Lobos, including vocal and orchestral arrangements for her conductor husband. Carel Mark Chichon.

Secret declaration of love? No matter, it was a real treat, as were three Neapolitan songs, most of which were arranged by the maestro in the office. As a noble gesture for Austria, a rendition of Strauss's “Gypsy Baron” was heard before Garanca finally dispelled any thoughts of an artistic expiration date with her dream role of the gypsy woman from Bizet's “Carmen,” which no longer quite exists. Yes, “Love Has Colorful Wings” and it carries the incomparable vocal miracle to the sky with every performance.

Written by Georgina Seles