Semiramide created in 1823 it is of bel canto

Inexhaustible, pedagogue and without language, Italian Chief Evelino Pido is a regular at the theatre des Champs-Elysées. He was there, in concert, a flaming vision of "roberto devereux", Donizetti, and returned by twice this spring, the brilliant "Semiramide" by Rossini, and the "Don Giovanni", Mozart.

"Semiramide", created in 1823, it is of bel canto. Pido control all the secrets of the bel canto, this song which gives the primacy to vocal hedonism on the theatrical set, which reached its peak at the time of the castrati, and whose decline began in the 1830s (in this sense, it is totally inappropriate to involve any Italian Opera, Verdi and more Puccini, within any other aesthetics). Masterpiece rossinien, he dealt with it for the first time. With a few cuts, as a full version would be exhausting for the singers, forced to confront as long difficult Arias, highly developed melodies and the coloratura incredible.

Great success

"Semiramide", inspired by the tragedy of Voltaire, is, in the genus "serio", a great success. Yet this aspect of the creation rossinienne is regularly overshadowed. "Rossini is best known for his books comedy and light,"The Barber of Seville"at the top, theatrical infernal machine". "Serious" operas, it is a different matter: because it is not easy to bring together a distribution of leading able to cope with a special vocal writing and formidable tessitures. At Naples, where many of these works were created, it had exceptional singers, including several leading tenors some operas to require two or three vocalisant, one closer to the baritone. To find one is already a problem, then two or three, you'll see the puzzle!

"Beautiful song", a nightmare for his performers Far from it... "Singers are excited because they know that bel canto is good for the voice, even though for them the constraints are inevitable as it is, in a very strict formal framework, that of the air in three parts, reaching a maximum of expression while retaining singing its beauty;" they are as ensconced in a suit of armour, or a corset, they must constantly to control and to submit to a severe self-discipline, while in Verdi or Puccini they must simply give all of their soul.

Very proud

In fact, the Rossini "serio" characters are "very classical, unlike those of the operas of Bellini and Donizetti, more romantic." In this music, we can feel all the Italian soul, this sound, brilliant, we have it in us, and we must seek the brightness in the Orchestra also. I come from a family of painters, this is why I love working on colors and details.

Pido is also very proud of a novelty: "with Director Gilbert Deflo, we decided to give traditional but not the final one that the composer had developed to Parisian performances in 1825." He throws a different day the figure of the Queen of Babylon since it grants his forgiveness to his son just stabbing believing strike Assur, the former lover of her mother.

If it is a duty to know the other face of Rossini, not question to specialize for Evelino Pido. He defended the Italian repertoire and he brings the same energy to the German and French music. Could hear him a few months ago in Lyon, in "The King despite him", Chabrier, and back it will ensure the resumption of Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" at the Bastille. A mid-June, he returned to the Champs-Elysées for "Don Giovanni". "Mozart and bel canto are two universes that have little in common." The trilogy on librettos of Lorenzo Da Ponte, which party "Don Giovanni", bathes in a particular light. the sound must be transparent but never powdered, dramatic intensity must be constantly maintained. I did my studies in Vienna, which is custodian of the Mozartian culture. But, in these three operas, I feel the light of the Italy.