Soprano Karina Gauvin doesn’t like monochrome. The soprano who will perform in the opera Alcina by Handel from Les Violons du Roy, prefers varied and colorful suggestions.
An opera in concert version performed at the Palais Montcalm on Thursday evenings and at the Maison Symphonique de Montréal on Saturday. Conductor and musical director Jonathan Cohen has dreamed of performing this work since arriving with the Quebec ensemble.
“Alcina is a larger than life woman. She has a rich and complex personality. It goes in all directions and it’s a big challenge,” she said in an interview.
Alcina is a sorceress who lives alone on her island with her sister Morgana. She casts a spell on the men who venture onto this island and, when she tires, turns them into animals.
It is different when she comes into contact with the knight Ruggiero, whom she loves very much.
“She is transformed by love. She is very confused and doesn’t know what to do with him. Things are very different and that will cause her downfall,” said the 57-year-old soprano, originally from Repentigny.
challenging role
Alcina’s role is vocally demanding. This is even more true in a version without stage elements.
“Alcina is very powerful. The phrasing is long and requires a lot of breath. We see all facets of this character, tenderness, anger, fury, a certain nobility and love. You have to infuse its characteristics into the different melodies. You have to put everything into the voice,” she remarked.
The complexity of Alcina’s character suits Karina Gauvin very well.
“It goes in all directions and I like it. I don’t like monochromatic stuff. I like it when it’s varied and colourful,” she says.
Karina Gauvin slipped into the skin of Alcina for the first time in 2003 with the Orchester des Talens Lyriques in the Cité de la Musique in Paris. She then picked it up again in Madrid, Los Angeles, Nantes, Brno in the Czech Republic and Versailles.
Alcina celebrates 30 years of Karina Gauvin’s collaboration with Les Violons du Roy. An adventure that began in 1992 with Handel’s Messiah in Gatineau.
“I realized that when Laurent Patenaude, co-general manager and artistic director, approached me about Alcina. He hadn’t noticed,” said Karina Gauvin.
Lucy Crowe (Morgana), Rowan Pierce (Oberto), Kayleigh Decker (Ruggiero), Avery Amereau (Bradamante), Stuart Jackson (Orontes) and Nathan Berg (Melisso) complete the cast.