Janáček and the squaring of the circle

PalmThe cunning Guineueta, By Leoš Janáček, it might have seemed like a minor opera to open a season, that of the Gran Teatre del Liceu. In Czech, less than two hours long, and without the less-than-high-profile voices that, moreover, will line the majority of the titles in it. But whoever thought this way is seriously mistaken, and for quite a few reasons. To begin with, Leoš Janáček's music, a collage of delightful and highly varied factors and circumstances, which make each moment entirely appropriate to what is happening on stage. And again, although it's not news, from Josep Pons's baton emerged all the colors of a score filled with thousands of nuances and details of a complex yet exquisite simplicity. Only one small, however, at some point in the soliloquy of the gamekeeper, the male protagonist, the fragment that the composer chose to play on the day of his funeral, performed by baritone Peter Mattei, was overshadowed by the orchestra. However, the chromatic explosion was an unattainable musical kaleidoscope that placed this great little opera in its rightful place.

Not unrelated to this situation is the hand of Australian artistic director Barry Kosky, with the scenography of Michael Levine and the lighting of Franck Evin, who turn the high school proscenium into a fascinating and dazzling setting for the same fable that would have been signed by Isop, but for the book the stories of Rudolf Těsnohlídek, originally titled, Liška BystrouškaA story no less juicy and profound than its musical context, the squaring of the circle. A narrative that might seem light due to the composition of the characters: the fox, the fox, the rooster, the hens, the dog... and the humans, in mournful black. All of this, a timeless and precise story for reflection.

In the chapter of voices, it is true that they are not of a major demand, but, on the other hand, they require different and unlikely nuances, which, like the rest of the animal characters, use no tools other than their voice and a special lightness of movement. The soprano Elena Tsallagova shines, as does her partner, the fox, played, no less masterfully, by the mezzo-soprano Paula Murrihy. The aforementioned Peter Mattei is solid and convincing, as are the other supporting actors and the Children's Choir of the Orfeó Català and the Gran Teatre del Liceu. All of them are convincing, very convincing, and up to the many delicacies required by the circumstances.