Critic’s Notebook: Drop-dead gorgeous: Pygmalion plays Shakespeare — en français
Also reviewed for Die Presse: Zum Sterben schön: Ein Requiem für Ophelia mit Pygmalion im Konzerthaus
The French ensemble’s musical Hamlet-synthesis culminated in a heavenly Fauré Requiem
Music-as-theatre — that’s a concept Raphaël Pichon and his Ensemble Pygmalion have been embracing for a while now. By threading a dramatic arc through a series of thematically and musically connected works, they often bring lesser-known pieces out into the light. They’ve done it with Bach (Köthener Trauermusik), resurrected early Mozart (“Liberta!”, both Harmonia Mundi), and in Salzburg this summer they will give Mozart’s unfinished stage works an outing, propped up and united by some dramatic scaffolding (Zaide, or the Way towards the Light).
Saturday night at the Konzerthaus, it was Ambroise Thomas’s grand opéra Hamlet and Fauré’s Requiem, joined by rarely performed Berlioz (Tristia, Parts 1 and 3, but not “La mort d’Ophélie”) that formed a full-length program under the title/theme: Requiem pour Ophélie.
Since Thomas’s Hamlet is a rare guest at the opera house (last seen in Vienna in 2012, also with Stéphane Degout) and comes with its longueurs, hearing its best scenes in this concentrated form was a treat. Sabine Devieilhe—with her agile voice, secure high notes, and dramatic punch—lent the music a quality bordering on outrageous and made an Ophelia to die for. Degout: powerful, open, warm, sonorous, and without a trace of nasality. What more could one want?!
Still more, as it turned out! Fauré’s Requiem — unquestionably one of the most beautiful of its kind — offered everything the heart could desire. The orchestra, with its colourful, rich yet pliant sound, a sublimely musical harp, and a harmonium that chimed in (in the best sense) like a cross between synth and accordion, was sheer joy. The superbly blended, earthy-sounding chorus was its equal in tonal and executive quality. And by the time Devieilhe reached her “Pie Jesu” and “In Paradisum,” all that was left was childlike wonder and quiet bliss. It’s hard to hold back the tears, when faced with such beauty.
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