{"id":290,"date":"2019-08-14T17:44:38","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T16:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=290"},"modified":"2019-08-14T17:52:02","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T16:52:02","slug":"more-than-opera-by-norman-warwick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2019\/08\/14\/more-than-opera-by-norman-warwick\/","title":{"rendered":"MORE THAN OPERA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The director of\nthe island\u00b4s music academy has recently delivered the first opera fully\nproduced on the island, with students, staff and volunteers coming together to\nperform to more than 500 people at the El Salinero Teatro in the island\u00b4s\ncapital city of Arrecife. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nonly last week Dee and I\nsaw a live performance called Algo mas que Opera, which, More Than Opera. This\nwas the final concert, number 8, in this year\u00b4s series of Conciertos Clasicos.\nWe had attended all of last year\u00b4s series but other arts events had meant this\nwould be only our third of this year\u00b4s presentations. In 2018 the Opera related\nconcert had been a light hearted, flirtatious and romantic affair, delivered by\nfive or six protagonists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\nthe total number of performers was three, being a Baritone, a Soprano and a\nfemale pianist. The programme looked to hold somewhat more gravitas too, and we\nnoticed composers such as Mozart, Puccini, Gounod and Bellini in what was\nlisted the \u00b4Opera\u00b4 section. The second section was named Zarzuela, which\ntranslates as Spanish Musical Theatre, and therefore sounded slightly lighter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baritone\nBorja Molino, all bearded and brooding, is a native of Lanzarote and has taken\npart in many notable productions. His delivery of \u00b4Deh vieni all Finestra\u00b4 was\nperformed over a playful piano accompaniment. The power, and the carry, of his\nvoice were even better demonstrated on Gounod\u00b4s \u00b4Avant de quitter ces lieux\u00b4\nbut even when singing at such strength he never lost his musicality. There were\nlovely piano trills too as he gave us \u00b4Ah per sempro lo ti perdei\u00b4 by Vicenza\nBellini, to which he contributed a real sense of yearning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking\nalternate lead roles through this six-piece Opera half of the show Soprano,\nTairuma Mendez, proved an absolute delight. She has performed in many excellent\nOpera productions but has also played lead roles, such as Evita, in musical\ntheatre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Baritone, Pianist & Soprano
photograph by Dee Dutton<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Tairuma\nmaximised the opportunities here  to\nprovide the light and shade that were to be found in Puccini\u00b4s \u00b4Donde liete\nusci\u00b4 and exquisitely conveyed her desolation in his \u00b4Sola perduta\nabbandonata.\u00b4 She also beautifully delivered another Puccini piece, \u00b4O mio\nbaboino caro\u00b4 with perfect control at notes at both ends of the register. Her\nlong, sustained soaring fashions were incredible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suddenly,\nafter a brief interval, these two performers stepped outside their various\ncharacters of that first half and, as their real selves, enjoyed some witty and\npointed banter between each other, and with the audience, before they moved\ninto the Zarzuela section. They performed together on \u00b4Duo somos dos barcos\u00b4\nand \u00b4hace tiempoque vengo al taller\u00b4 and \u00a8Que esta esta muy bajo\u00b4 even saw them\npartake in some quick and witty call and response pieces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a\nsoloist in this section our male vocalist gave us a pensive performance of\n\u00b4Luche la fe por el triunto\u00b4 and a sombre \u00b4Calor de Nido\u00b4 and his delivery of\n\u00b4Amor vida de mi vida\u00b4 brought rapturous applause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her solo\npieces in this section Tairuma Mendez also gave full range to her wonderful\nvoice and, too, displayed excellent acting and interpretive skills, most\ndramatically perhaps in \u00b4La Pretenera.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this\nand more was accompanied unobtrusively by pianist Conchi Reyes. She moved\neffortlessly from playful to portentous, as required, and was not only\nsympathetic in her playing for her vocalists but also was empathetic in her\nplaying for their characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nstanding ovation and demands for an encore had been well earned by all three\nmusicians and the subsequent closing work of the evening was a tour de force\nthat saw baritone and soprano battle, for the sake of the song, with each\ncontriving almost impossible vocal leaps to complement the music from the\npiano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We talk a\nlot on these pages about standing ovations and encores but the frequency of\nthem should not diminish their status. Artists on Lanzarote do not receive\napplause for reputation, for rarely do is there a sufficient public awareness\nthat would make that happen. The ovations are given instead for their\nabilities, professionalism and entertainment value. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dee and I\nhaven\u00b4t yet stayed seated because we have felt the standing ovation around us\nwas unwarranted, but neither do we rise to our feet simply because others do.\nWe stand for a performance that has genuinely rated an 11 out of 10 mark on our\nimaginary scorecards, and this was and this was another of many that have done\nso, this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check our archives for;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Marriage Of Figaro and Opera On Offer For All\n\n\n\n\n\nnK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The director of the island\u00b4s music academy has recently delivered the first opera fully produced on the island, with students, staff and volunteers coming together to perform to more than 500 people at the El Salinero Teatro in the island\u00b4s capital city of Arrecife. And only last week Dee and I saw a live performance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}