Emilio Sagi: the Spanish director tells what it’s like to bring L’Elisir d’amore to the Colón, with Javier Camarena and Nadine Sierra

From 3 July the Spanish director Emilio Sagi has been working on the staging of The Elixir of Love from Gaetano Donizettiwhich will go up on Tuesday 2 August at the Teatro Colón, under the musical direction of Evelino Pidò and a great international and local cast, led by Javier Camarena and Nadine Sierra.

“I really like to think so Thirty years ago I made my debut at the Colón Theater. I started in 1980 and have a forty-two-year career. Last year they paid me a lot of tribute in Spain. The government and the king gave me the gold medal for fine arts. It was very exciting for me, “says the director.

In his dressing room, Sagi remembers his other productions in Buenos Aires. In addition to his exciting debut at the Colón with the short lifeby Manuel de Falla in 1992, made Dona Francesca, Figaro, Carmen Y Don Giovanni. And also a cabaret, the story of the singer Celia Gamezwhich he performed with Lino Patalano at Maipo.

word and music

Since that debut at the Teatro Colón, many things have changed in the opera: “Today it is conceived, as the musicologist Paul Henry Lang says, as a drama in music or a comedy in music. So, the musical part is as important as the theatrical oneSagi opines.

And he adds: ‘It’s not about rekindling the old fight’first the words or first the music‘. They are both. In all the theaters of the world that encounter between theatricality and musicality prevails. Today there is no singer who does not want to act, on the contrary she expects a message from the director about the character and her dramaturgy. No theater would place a vision of opera as a concert “.

-Do you recognize an identity mark in your work that has been maintained over the years?

-It is very difficult. Everyone says it but I don’t know what my identity stamp is. When I come across a work, I try to deal with it in the best possible way. Today, after many years in the profession, I am a bit eclectic. A small tradition with modernity.

In general, in comedy, a genre that I do a lot, they tend to see a very particular sense of humor, a search for color, good humor, showmanship. But I don’t know how to explain it, that’s what I get.

– He is not dedicated to analyzing his own production …

No. Besides, I think it depends on the job I have in front of me. Compare, for example, this one The Elixir of Love with my PirateBellini’s, which I did at the Teatro Real and at La Scala, have nothing to do with it. If you see the two works, you can tell that they don’t seem to come from the same director. One is almost gothic and the other is a freshly woven comedy.

Which aspect of the job interests you the most?

-When I do a job I try to go to literary criticism, it will be because I studied Philosophy and Literature. One of the things that struck me most is that this is what it says in every musicological criticism The Elixir of Love it is a funny but romantic opera. That is, they suggest that this romance is all there, the quest to tell a love story of Alina and Nemorino.

I liked it a lot, then I tried to make that story very fresh. So, I think that in all Spanish poetry, zarzuela -including classical Spanish theater-, the woman cannot show her feelings, because her personality is not considered. This is the case of Alina and Nemorino.

-How do you conceive the character of Nemorino?

-For me he is not the idiot of the country. A lot of times he goes out with those embarrassing pouts and I don’t want it. I want him to be a shy character who doesn’t know how to approach that woman with a kind of huge pretentiousness. Point and finish.

A tight and rockabilly environment

-And where is the work set?

-A very cool environment, close to today’s young people. I raised it in the 50s, 60s, in a college or university, where they play basketball, dance rockabilly, ride bicycles and drive cars. A little close to the musical world. We have done something very nice and young people will feel very close. It has nothing to do with the solemn work.

-What elements do you think the work has to keep it so popular?

I think the music is really delicious. Everyone knows it, not just the air A furtive tear, who is happy even though many people say he is sad. It is joyful! Finally that man sees that she has some interest in him. It’s a very nostalgic but very cheerful air, Nemorino’s personality must be in full joy at that moment.

the barcarola You hear it once and it stays in your head. On the other hand, I think a romantic and fresh romance can be anytime.

-Have you updated Alina’s perspective at any time?

-It is an important female role with a lot of character. Alina wants that shy man to have more courage to get close to her. Due to his upbringing and her way of being, the only thing she decides is to make him jealous with an idiot, which is Private Belcore. Alina is not happy with the relationship she is having with that idiot, she sees that the wedding date is approaching and Nemorino has not yet reacted. She doesn’t know what to do.

In the end, when Nemorino makes the contract to be a soldier, she can’t tell him she likes him. And then he takes the paper. It’s a super dramatic Donizetti, becomes a kind of Anna Magnani, as if to say: “But stupid! Don’t you realize I did all of this for you? ”I like to point that out.

-The female roles in bel canto are extraordinary.

-Yes, in dramatic bel canto they are characters used by everyone. Lucia of Lammermoor, for example, it is used by her brother, her boyfriend, the priest. Is gorgeous. Belcanto gives to highlight today the role of money that women have played throughout history.

-Does the introduction of pathetic traits into the comic, as in L’elisir d’amore, have to do with a certain underestimation of the depth of the comedy?

–There are comic works that have great depth. The Quijote it is a wonderful novel that is not very dramatic, then it has terrible consequences. But it is a job that has gently raised very strong problems, from politics, to social mores, everything. Comedy is very important, you enjoy it, but then it can give you a lot to think about.

-Do you prefer to emphasize or tone down the comic elements in the dramaturgy?

-I like to remove that world of thrusts and coarse salt. I think the opposite we have to look for something more refined, because we are on a stage that is seen by 1700 people. We are not in a meeting where we can even play a dirty joke. Refinement must be sought, I insist a lot on this. Yes, introduce the comedic hits that life often has.

– Did you do anything in particular with the choir?

-I really enjoy working with the choir and I get along very well with them. There is an important complicity. I always try to make them real characters, especially in L’elisir … It’s a great choir, with great singers, and besides, they’re phenomenal from a theatrical point of view.

The couple protagonist of dreams

-And Nadine Sierra and Javier Camarena as protagonists are a dream couple for this job.

They are two angelic beings. I worked a lot with Javier, also with Ambrogio and Alfredo Daza, but I didn’t know Nadine. I am fascinated. She understands everything by the minute, what you give her increases like a balloon, she is super creative. She and she is a good person.

I love working with people who are good people. Many times our work can go from being wonderful to being scary, because you meet perverse people. But that’s not the case here. In reverse.

Information

The elixir of love It will be seen starting from Tuesday 2 August at the Teatro Colón. The rest of the functions are on August 3, 4, 6, 9 and 10 August at 8pm And there will be a function on August 7, at 5pm.

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