Kraus & Sutherland "Lucia di Lammermoor " (1982)

He aquí la esencia del "Bel Canto"; pocos, muy pocos, son los binomios (tenor,soprano) que en los últimos cincuenta años han podido hacer unas recreaciones belcantistas como todas las protagonizadas por estos dos gigantes de la lírica.

De muy lejos viene la relación del tenor español con la australiana, concretamente de 1959 y es que con ella debutó Kraus en el teatro londinense de Covent Garden y precisamente con una Lucia.

Este matrimonio artístico entre Kraus y Sutherland se prolongaría durante treinta largos años hasta practicamente lo que supuso el final de la carrera de la "estupenda" y finalizando tan larga travesía con dos producciones (si mis datos no me fallan) de sendas "Lucrezia Borgia" la primera en el teatro del Liceo y la segunda en el Théâtre du Champs-Elysées.

El fragmento que hoy nos ocupa es el archiconocido dúo del Acto I "Sulla tomba che rinserra" en el que ambos cantantes despliegan toda la técnica y virtudes canoras en este caso al sevicio de la obra, para muchos, cumbre de Gaetano Donizetti.

A continuación os transcribo la crítica que de esta función realizó el crítico Robert Croan para la Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
He preferido copiarla tal cual sin quitar, poner, añadir ........ absolutamente nada,ni tampoco traducirla. Para los que el inglés se les haga "un pocoduro" (yo no soy ningún erudito en la lengua inglesa pero lo entiendo), mi recomendación es realizar un "copiar" en este texto y llevarlo a alguno de los muchos traductores que hay por la red. La traducción no será para lanzar cohetes pero se puede hacer uno una idea de lo que el crítico quiere decir.

Sutherland is now 56, Kraus, 57, but both artists have retained their vocal glamour to the point of effacing just about all the competition. True, neither one is much of an actor, but no one would accuse "Lucia" of being sensible musical drama anyway. It is old-fashioned bel canto, and their ability to give voice, voice and more voice fills the bill perfectly.

Sutherland may not have quite the ease in the highest mar she once had. She is careful to husband her tones, and chose to sing the first part of the Mad Scene down a tone, saving a well-placed high E-flat for the end. Very sensibly, she has started to wean herself from the coloratura, toward such lyrical roles as "Adriana Lecouvreur," which she will soon do in San Diego.

But the soprano's only real competition is herself, years or so ago. She sang even better then, but no one in the interim has came even close. From the moment she walked on stage, there was no question that she remains the reigning queen in her domain. The middle voice is full, fast-note passages are unfailingly accurate, and there is no break throughout her scale.

Her old idiosyncrasies, of course, remain. She distorts vowels to maintain her rounded tone, and minimizes consonants, though if anything a little less so than before. No matter. She manages to make her points, dramatic as well as musical, and gives an audience more than its money's worth, even at ticket prices that go up to a $65 top.

Kraus is a different story. He is not a showman of the Domingo-Pavarotti type, and his basic sound has always lacked the opulence of those more extroverted colleagues. Moreover, by performing less frequently than they do, has become something of a cult figure.

This Spanish tenor's great virtue is his patrician bearing and elegant musicianship. Still trim and athletic on stage, he stands there as Edgardo and molds every phrase with effortless smoothness and near-perfect enunciation. The voice may have a certain dryness but it penetrates, never losing its point or becoming enveloped by Sutherland's aural blanket. Interpretively, he makes the Domingos and Pavarottis of this world look like students; vocally, he is a lesson to aspiring tenors of lesser technical accomplishment.

Too bad the Met did not surround Sutherland and Kraus with singers of comparable stature. Only Paul Plishka as Raimondo, with his resonant bass and ringing highs - though he pays for it with weakness at the bottom - held his own. It was a good idea to reinstate his usually omitted duet with Lucia in Act Two, an unexpected highlight of the evening.

Sin más preambulos disfrutemos de este "tesoro" musical concebido en el Metropolitan Ópera House , en noviembre de 1982, con el siguiente reparto:

Lucia...................Joan Sutherland
Edgardo.................Alfredo Kraus
Enrico..................Pablo Elvira
Raimondo................Paul Plishka
Normanno................John Gilmore
Alisa...................Ariel Bybee
Arturo..................Jeffrey Stamm

Conductor...............Richard Bonynge