FULL Le vin herbé (Martin) Rio de Janeiro 2022 Ricardo Gaio, Gabriela Meira, Sophia Dornellas
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Le vin herbé
- Composer: Martin Frank
- Libretto: Frank Martin based on Joseph Bédiers Le Roman de Tristan et Iseut Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Salão Assyrio, Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Recorded: December 11, 2022
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Gabriela Meira, Sophia Dornellas, Cinthia Fortunato, Sarah Salotto, Cintia Graton, Andressa Inácio, Guilherme Moreira, Ricardo Gaio, Karhedin João Campelo, Paulo Maria, Murilo Neves, Leo Thieze
- Conductor: Priscila Bomfim
- Orchestra: Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira/OSB
- Stage Director: André Heller-Lopes
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Andre heller-lopes
- Date Published: 2023
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 3 Audio:3
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Review by Jornal do Brasil:
Eighty years after its world premiere, in Zurich, in 1942, Brazil will finally see for the first time the famous opera “O Vinho Encantado” (“Le vin herbé” in free translation), by the Swiss composer Frank Martin (1890-1974), in a single presentation, free of charge, this Sunday (11), at the Assyrio Hall of the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, with the creation and artistic direction of André Heller-Lopes.
A Tristan with a difference. This is how this original opera was defined, which flirts with the oratory and with the association with the famous drama by Richard Wagner, “Tristan und Isolde”. However, there is something more in this version: the universe of Celtic and medieval legends retold by the poetry of Joseph Bedier in “Le Roman de Tristan et Iseult”, where characters strange to the Wagnerian plot appear, such as the mother of Isolde, Duke Hoel or even a second Isolde, whom Tristan marries to forget the other Isolde.
The legend of the magic potion that released the tragic love of Tristan and Isolde, in Martin’s version, achieved worldwide fame after its scenic premiere at the 1948 Salzburg Festival. Productions followed in dozens of major theaters around the world. They ensured “Le vin herbé” its prominent place among the works of our time. Its format mixes the functions of choir artists and soloists, putting them in contact with the audience in a way that is rarely explored on the lyrical stage.
According to Ed Universal, which owns the rights to the work, there are also no records of performances in other Latin American countries — which would make this show the Latin American premiere of “Le vin herbé”.
In this performance at the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, the soloists will be spread across the immensity of the fascinating Salão Assyrio and its art nouveau architecture, which dialogues perfectly with the exoticism of the music. To give voice and life to the show, a cast of 12 young singers take on all the roles, accompanied by 7 instrumentalists from the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra/OSB, in a special participation, plus the pianist Silas Barbosa.
It is perhaps the only opera in the entire repertoire in which a group of singers is divided between choral and solo parts, with young artists, around 25 years old, many of whom came from UFRJ.
“’The enchanted wine’ is a work of original format, transiting between opera and oratorio: perhaps the best way to define this work that transits between light and shadow would be to call it a ‘profane oratorio’. In it, the singers are sometimes invisible voices that narrate the action and emotions, sometimes protagonists and characters in the famous enchanted love story of Isolde and Tristan. The staging thus follows these paths: voices in the darkness that manipulate threads of light, and singers that enter a corridor of light to defend their roles”, adds André Heller.