More than a Flower Duet: Delibes' Lakmé at the Teatro Real with Sabine Devieilhe.

Madrid, March 1, 2022.

One of the biggest surprises, when the current season at the Teatro Real was announced, was to see two concert performances of Léo Delibes' Lakmé.  Once a very popular opera, now it is less frequent, but two pieces are universally known: the first one is the Flower Duet, repeated in tons of films, advertisements, even in electronical remixes.  The other one is the Bell Song, one of the most pyrotechnical and celebrated coloratura arias. 

Léo Delibes is known basically by this opera and the famous ballet Coppélia. He appeared in a stage in the history of French Music in which it was interested on "exotic" themes. This story is about a beautiful Hindu priestess falling in love with a British soldier, during the British Raj, which was in its early years when this opera was premiered, and Hindus pray to their gods to expel the barbaric Brits.

Alongside Saint-Saëns, Bizet or Massenet, this interest was translated in rich, evocative, exhuberant melodies and also rich orchestrations. The music echoes these trends,  specially in the preludes, musical interludes or the ballets. It becomes more conventional in the most intimate moments and when Western characters appear.

In the history of the Teatro Real, the last performance took place in 1921, with the famous Spanish soprano María Barrientos. I personally don't know if it was performed at the Teatro de la Zarzuela since then.  One hundred years later, Lakmé returns with an A-class cast, but that doesn't mean they didn't need to make quite an effort to succeed.

Leo Hussain conducted the Teatro Real Orchestra with slow tempi. In fact, the performance lasted 40 minutes more than the handbill stated (two hours and twenty minutes), so it implies that the opera was performed complete, including the ballet music. The orchestra seemed not to get completely the hang of the work at the very beginning, but under Hussain's baton they did the best they could. After a restrained Act One, the orchestra got on top by Act Two. The introduction displayed a beautiful Flute rendition, and strings were very good in the ballet music. During Act 3 prelude, Hussain's rendition was calm, evocative, with the strings shining again but the woodwind wasn't as much as brilliant. The Teatro Real Chorus had to cope with being placed at the ultimate bottom of the stage, being surpassed by the orchestra. However, in their offstage Act 3 scenes, they showed again their usual stamina, sounding really astonishing and showing their high level again. Pity it was in such a brief part.

Sabine Devieilhe performed Lakmé. After her successful concert at the Teatro de la Zarzuela Lied Cycle, she makes her debut at the Teatro Real. She succeeded, but not without difficulty. Her voice has a beautiful, sort of charming tone, but sometimes not very resistant. After an enigmatic, seductive entry, she make herself heard during the famous duet, and she was good during the rest of the First Act. During the second act, the Bell Song came. Devieilhe commands the coloratura, and as a matter of fact she did very well the introduction, sounding agile. Then, in the famous part with celesta accompaniment, she sang very well but lacked some roundness. Unexpectedly, maybe due to enthusiasm, maybe due even to the lack of familiarity with the work, after the first half of the aria, the audience exploded in an applause. She reprised the aria with an splendid level, but the final high note was a bit shortened. During Act 3 she gave a great rendition of her opening aria, now with a larger final high. In the rest of the act she maintained the good singing.

Xabier Anduaga was a splendid Gérald. This young tenor is one of the best promising voices in Spain. His voice is powerful, vigorous, with a shining, youthful tone, and with a generous volume. From the very beginning, he impressed the audience with his volume. However, the score's difficulty was present in his Act One aria, in which the high register had some trouble. But he regained much of stamina for the rest of the opera, from the first duet with Lakmé. In Act Three he was really amazing, even singing a great high note during the final duet. Certainly, he was very close to steal the show.

Stéphane Degout as Nilakantha wasn't the nicest voice in Act One, despite his big volume, but in his Act Two aria he was better, even he was awarded with bravoes. 

David Menéndez as Fréderic had a bigger, more beautiful-toned baritone voice, but during his Act One aria the high register wasn't the most resistant.

Heloïse Mas was a beautifully sung Mallika, with a very attractive dark tone. Inés Ballesteros was a charming, beautifully sung Miss Ellen, as well as Cristina Toledo in the role of Miss Rose. The veteran mezzo-soprano Enkelejda Skhosa sang the role of Mistress Bentson, with her still beautiful velvet-like tone sounding, and very hilarious as actress. Gerardo López as Hadji sang his aria with a baritonal voice, in a good performance.

As mentioned before, the opera lasted around 30 minutes more than expected. At 22:06 the second act ended, exactly when the complete performance was supposed to end. To many of us, it was strange that Lakmé concluded such abruptly. Even the doors were opened and some people left, but not the orchestra, which were still tuning their instruments. Then, Hussain appeared and reprised the performance, actually ending around 22:40. Why the Teatro Real hasn't estimated well the timings? Because prior to that, most of us thought this opera would be performed with cuts.

The audience seemed to be very happy with the final result, and awarded Degout, Anduaga and Devieilhe with ovations. At the end, one could realise that despite all, this opera would be better off staged, because of its rich orchestration. But we must be thankful to hear these operas live, even in concert, otherwise they would be even more rarely performed. 

Update, 4th March 2022: It seems that both Devieilhe and Anduaga were a bit affected in their health, and recovered by yesterday's performance, they did better.

My reviews are not professional and express only my opinions. As a non English native speaker I apologise for any mistake. 

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