This bittersweet opera grows on you
Opera Pinocchio Aix-en-provence Festival
The leading opera festivals of France and Britain, Aix-en-provence and Glyndebourne, could hardly be more different from each other, but by coincidence this summer both are offering programmes that span from the 17th-century Cavalli via Mozart to new commissions. Aix’s opening night premiere, an opera on Pinocchio by the veteran Belgian composer Philippe Boesmans, makes quite a statement: a work aimed at audiences of all ages, it is one part of the festival’s ongoing drive to widen its demographic.
In the event, it was a little hard to see how this impressively performed new opera fitted the “family” billing. The lengthy work is probably not quite entertaining enough for most children, nor quite probing enough for many adults. Still, those approaching this latest version of Carlo Collodi’s immortal story, one of the most frequently and variedly adapted in our culture, need to forget those mushy films and even some previous operas. In the best French-language tradition (the co-production moves on to Brussels to launch the new season at La Monnaie, the opera house), it tries hard to emphasise the tale’s philosophical moral.
Yet Joël Pommerat’s libretto, sticking more closely than some to Collodi’s outline, is often rather witty; it’s a nice conceit that one of Pinocchio’s nose-lengthening lies is that he has been brought up on classical music. Pommerat is also the stage director, and he gives the narrating role to a somewhat sinister manager of a theatre troupe, sung by the incisive baritone Stéphane Degout. The 25 scenes flow seamlessly in an ingenious production designed by Éric Soyer and Isabelle Deffin, but the black and white tone is unrelenting. Renaud Rubiano’s video is integral and imaginative, if more black than white.
Boesmans’s bittersweet score, a mix of styles that never sounds like pure pastiche, is unfailingly lively and held together with brilliant assurance by the conductor Emilio Pomarico. The references range back as far as Ravel and his L’enfant et les sortilèges, notably in scenes between Chloé Briot’s lively Pinocchio and Marie-eve Munger coloratura-spinning Fairy. Vincent le Texier supplies pathos as the Father. The playing of Klangforum Wien is vivid, and the onstage trio (saxophone, accordion and gypsy
violin) is effective. But at a festival dedicated to building bridges with Arab culture, their switch to Arab-inflected music for the prison scene is inexplicable.
Festival d’aix-enprovence runs until July 22. Details at festival-aix.com. Pinocchio opens in Brussels on Sept 5. Details at lamonnaie.be