Seeing as how the justification for my 10 days in Corsica was that I was attending a small opera festival, I guess I should write a bit about the music, n'est-ce pas ? Les Nuits d'été de Corte was founded six years ago by an opera-loving couple wanting to bring more music to Corsica. A fantastic initiative in my opinion, and one I hope to emulate some day on my own island. Originally the festival consisted of a couple different opera-themed concerts, but this year the organizers decided to go the extra mile and produce a fully-staged opera, as well as a themed concert. The opera they went with was Don Giovanni, and it was terribly well received. While I do think it was slightly lacking in certain departments, it was surely a valiant first effort, and I'll be interested to see how they improve on it in the future. What I most enjoyed about the production was to hear some up-and-coming talent. Two voices in particular I found particularly impressive-both deep and dramatic, yet playful at the same time. Those were that of Sophie Angebault and Alexandre Duhamel. Lucky for me, they both live in the Paris region, so it will be easy to keep track of what they are doing in the future.
An old recording of one of the more recognizable moments from the opera:
While Don Giovanni might have been the big seller of the festival, I greatly enjoyed La Nuit de l'Opera. I felt the program was well balanced, with a French half and an Italian half, and a variety of composers, yet the music moved smoothly and sensibly. And in addition, the evening featured young tenor Andeka Azurmendi (who, unfortunately, as not yet jumped on the personal website boat), whose voice is terribly powerful, yet also sensitive. The highlight of the concert for me was the duet of Angebault and Azurmendi singing Nuit d'Ivresse from Les Troyens. Enjoy !
stumbling & singing through the illuminated city. good times really never seemed so good.
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