LE DERNIER JOUR D'UN CONDAMNE - Alagna - Marseille
Opera
Drama in 2 acts and 1 intermezzo
Libretto by Roberto, David and Frederico ALAGNA based on the eponymous novel by Victor HUGO
Premiered in Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, July 8, 2007, in concert version
First performance in Hungary, Debrecen Opera, in 2009, in stage version
First performance at the Marseille Opera
PRODUCTION Grand Avignon Opera
This show won the Grand Prix for best production and staging at the Festival Opera Competition with Mezzo Television (Szeged)
Calendar
Opéra Municipal de Marseille
September 28th 2017
Oktober 01st 2017
Oktober 04th 2017
Cast
Conductor | Jean-Yves OSSONCE
Productor | Nadine DUFFAUT
Set Design | Emmanuelle FAVRE
Costums Design | Katia DUFLOT
Lighting | Philippe GROSPERRIN
La condamnée à mort Adina AARON
Le condamné à mort Roberto ALAGNA
Le bourreau Luc BERTIN–HUGAULT
L’huissier Jean-Marie DELPAS
Le geôlier Philippe ERMELIER
Le prêtre Francis DUDZIAK
Le guichetier de garde Carl GHAZAROSSIAN
Le friauche Cyril ROVERY
Le directeur Yann TOUSSAINT
L’aumônier Éric MARTIN-BONNET
Le Procureur Yves COUDRAY
Récitante Catherine ALCOVER
Violon Alexandra JOUANNIE
Orchestre et Chœur de l’Opéra de Marseille
Press Review
La Provence - Marie Eve Barbier - 09/28/2017
"Alagna and Aaron, sentenced to death by Victor Hugo, give voice to the writer's plea against the death penalty. The bet is won!"
EXCERPT:"In love with [Victor Hugo's] prose, the Alagna brothers, David, Roberto and Frederico, have adapted The last day of a condemned man for the operatic stage. Created in 2007, their opera is revived by the Orchestra and Choir of the Opera de Marseille, conducted by Jean-Yves Ossonce ... The writer's plea against the death penalty is incarnated with conviction by the two soloists ...
Neither Roberto Alagna nor soprano Adina Aaron do not lack any vocal power. The first is combative in his intonations and his acting, while the second rather play on distress. They are embodying the two facets of a same character, sentenced to death, one in his jail of the nineteenth century, the other in a modern prison ...
"The death penalty is neither exemplary, nor just nor useful ..." Great principles supported and conveyed by singers' acting and the emotion they conveyed. [...] The score by David Alagna takes its influences from various universes. It is impressionist, makes feel the hope, despondency, fear and anger. [...] The staging by Nadine Duffaut is not lacking originality. [...] We also appreciated the second roles as the Friauche, magnificent Cyril Rovery, who rushes into an oratorical joust with the Condamné (Alagna) to steal his frock-coat."
La Marseillaise - 09/28/2017 - Patrick De Maria
"An heart-wrenching performance of Roberto Alagna and Adina Aaron in The Last Day of a Condemned Man by David Alagna"
EXCERPT : "The revival at the Opera of Marseilles of the Last day of a condemned man gives an echo of a rare power to the Victor Hugo's words. This condemned man is tenor Roberto Alagna, his character deeply within him, between helpless rebellion and cynical resignation. The voice marks a fragility that suits the thing. As if a too clean singing would have been an indecency. The acting is entirely in this shrinkage of a human being, which is nevertheless just waiting to be heard. [...] The last day of a condemned man is a strong work, full of humanism, an opera punching in the guts, successful in its dramatic construction and in its score, admittedly not revolutionary, but with all that is most pleasing to the ear."
GBOPERA - Jocelyne de Nicola - 09/28/2017
"Roberto Alagna as the condemned man: warm, colorful voice, conveying emotion with a great precision, top range in control, impeccable diction, credibility without dramatization, a great full-fledged artist. A masterfully built opera, long and highly praised by the audience, that promises to have a long life of well deserved success. "
EXCERPT: "For the opening of the 2017/2018 season, the Opera of Marseilles had made the audacious choice to feature The Last Day of a Condemned man. And the choice here was a good one! The curious music lovers in the audience have long and highly praised the show, the performers, the staging and all the work accomplished. The bet was won. Let us bet that this opera will have a long life of well deserved success.
The choice of the performers is also very judicious, with a perfect cast, down to the secondary roles. Roberto Alagna, front-line player of course, is the condemned man in this score written for him and in a role tailored to his full skills. The voice is warm, colorful, with heartbreaking inflections rendered with a great precision. The top range is kept in control, with a bit of fatigue that perfectly befits this anguished character, and as always this impeccable diction which makes the surtitlement useless. Deeply committed on stage, he is this condemned man; He conveys his emotions with credibility but without theatricality. Roberto Alagna is in this role as well, a great full-fledged artist.
A strong poignant show from beginning to end; without emotional weakening, in a staging that remains sober and without exaggerated pathos, we share the last moments of two human beings who are going to die. [...] What to say about this show, except that it is masterfully built. The music is tonal with accents in line with feelings and atmospheres, supported by a judicious choice of instruments: gong, bells, bass clarinet, drum beats ... Paying tribute to Modeste Mussorgsky, David Alagna makes us listen to some reminiscences of his Boris Godunov, but always by light touches and without sustained effects. The passages sung by the chorus are not very marked (as the characters are anonymous) but adapted with intelligence; for instance the lament of the convicts, which remains a moment of great tension. The voices are used in a writing that suits the singers' tessitura, with a few demonstration of brilliance, but always nuanced."
Ôlyrix - Florence Lethurgez - 09/28/2017
"Total presence, penetrating and natural lyricism, a topical universality, a visual and plastics organization of dramaturgy"
EXCERPT: "The drama and the stage are organized and opened by polarities: between man and woman, past and present, singularity and collective, public space and inner-self, etc. They ensure the universality of the subject.
One of Roberto's brothers is a painter, the other a sculptor, and both belong to a generation that has begun to switch from the letter to the image, and we can feel it in their very plastics and even visual way of organizing dramaturgy.
The condemned man is the one who first sang the words of Hugo in his heart: tenor Roberto Alagna. He gives them his total presence, his penetrating - natural up to rattling - lyricism, and a plastics diction that reaches everyone's ear and mind. Alagna obviously likes to stay at the Opéra de Marseille. The Marseilles audience was able to hear and see him in Marius and Fanny (Pagnol-Kosma) in 2007, Le Cid in 2011 and Les Troyens in 2013.
The music by David Alagna is one of those of our 21st century. It has not broken its links with the tonal language, which it declines in reminiscences (to each listener his). It makes us follow, along with the musicians, the long corridor of dissonances, that sonic perspective that leads from day to night, from life to death. These orchestral pages, sometimes pure, such as the intermezzo, with its dense and subtly ringing layers of sound, end abruptly on a tarantella: the spider spreads its lines over the living.
This fraternal work conceived "together separately" around the tutelary figure of a literary man seems to have been nourished by the fine inter-knowledge of the abilities of each one to advocate himself for the opera genre. It is capable of putting its own resources (emotion, lyricism, passion) at the service of a discourse that is not only dedicated to its self-celebration, that of the lyric fable."
Opera Magazine - Bruno Villien - 09/28/2017
"A deeply moving Condemned man, whose voice captures the emotions that possess him, from revolt to the dream of escaping ... The receptiveness of the audience is such that we hope that a so intense and topical show will follow its way"
"Ten years after its creation at the TCE in concert version, the Last Day of a Condemned Man is more topical and relevant than ever ... Roberto Alagna embodies a still very moving character as the Condemned Man. His voice reflects the emotions that possess him, from revolt to the dream of escaping... Adina Aaron is just as poignant [...] To the prisoners' solitude, the French composer David Alagna (born in 1975) opposes the chorus: trained by Emmanuel Trenque, that of the Opera de Marseille excelled itself [...] Jean-Yves Ossonce highlights the lyricism of the score, emphasizes its dark dramatic accents, skillfully defining the many characters who inhabit the prison of yesterday and today. The Orchestra of the Opera de Marseille keeps the tension constant.
Cyril Rovery gives to [the Friauche] a dark cynicism. Yves Coudray embodies the strict Prosecutor, whose appearance announces the last moments of the Condemned Man. The Priest finds in Francis Dudziak a convincing performer. Already among the cast in Avignon, the other singers are all perfect, from Philippe Ermelier as the sarcastic Jailor to Eric Martin-Bonnet as the Chaplain or Jean-Marie Delpas as the Usher who looks a little as Orson Welles.
At the end of the first of the three performances in Marseilles, the receptiveness of the audience is such that we hope that a so intense and topical work will follow its way.
Gallery
06/01/2018
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