ANGELIQUE

With the renewal of Ibert’s opera, Angelique, we wanted to begin a new cycle of the representative performances in order to bestow them to all opera lovers, as well as to the youngest ones, primary and secondary schools students. By the end of the season 2016/17 we will have had six such new operas on the repertoire. 

Our intention is not only to acquaint the children with the opera art achievements in the world and in our country, but also to perform these works in their complete equipment, beginning with the orchestra, through stage and costume design solutions, not depriving them of any element.  

The comic opera Angelique appeared in 1926. By its language, style and expression, it shows plenty of features and ways of Ibert’s music expression. In the opera are, in addition to arias and ensembles, used spoken fragments, recitatives as well as the voice choir, but particularly successful are the orchestra parts based on brass corpus. In the language that involves many styles and directions, Ibert reaches jazz as well and tries to characterize different nationalities of Angelique’s customers and suitors in mélange manner.  Thus an Italian, Englishman and a Negro get the leitmotifs that differentiate them in a musical way.  The opera is designed as a farce and a parody, stylish but impudent, academically formulated but also very ironic and sarcastic at times, never exceeding good taste, what the composer obviously paid a great attention to.

The story takes place in a French port at an unspecified time. On the pier there is Boniface’s house and a china warehouse over which there is an inscription reading: „At Fragile Luck“. His neighbor Charlot’s house is across the street and Boniface asks him for help and advice how to tame his young and beautiful wife Angelique who makes his life insufferable and impossible. The neighbor proposes him to talk her into sitting by the window over which they will secretly put a board announcing in that way that the woman is for sale and as she is young and beautiful, she will have a lot of suitors and it will quickly solve the problem.  

When the two men managed to make Angelique appear at the window, an Italian, Englishman and a Black man who were passing by the window, quickly fell in love with her and bought her from her husband. Each suitor is represented by „his own music“. The Italian is accompanied by a parody of Rossini’s buff operas and the Negro by syncopated jazz notes. However, none of the three men was able to endure Angelique’s foul nature so they give her back to her husband. Utterly discouraged, Boniface turns to the Devil in order to get rid of his wife forever. But the Devil promptly returns her. Then Angelique realizes how good her husband is, she repents all evil she has done to him, and swears to him her eternal love and goodness so he forgives her. The performance ends and while the curtain is going down, her husband’s voice is still heard from behind it: “She is still for sale!”

In our area, this opera was performed in Zagreb in 1957 and in Novi Sad in 1959. The premiere in the Opera and Theatre Madlenianum took place on 16th March, 2010.

Sunday, 22nd May, 2016 at 19.30h

Large Stage of Madlenianum

PREMIERE RENEWAL

Jacques Ibert

One- Act comic opera

Libretto: Michel Veber

Translation: Flora Dosen

Conductor: Đorđe Stanković

Director: Stefan Sablić

Set Design: Aleksandar Denić

Costume Design: Zora Mojsilović-Popović

Lightning Design: Srđan Jovanović

 

CAST

Angelique..................Snežana Savičić - Sekulić

Charlot.......................Nenad Nenić

Boniface....................Vladimir Andrić

Italian man.....................Nenad Čiča

Englishman.....................Goran Strgar

Negro......................Goran Krneta

Devil.......................Ljubomir Popović

Neighbor...............Tanja Obrenović

Tourists......................Jovana Jovićević, Vladimir Bulatović Jelena Nikolić Krneta, Ivan Debeljak / Srđan Miletić

 

The ORCHESTRA of Madlenianum, Concert Master Vesna Janssens

Stage manager: Vesna Ćurčić-Petrović

Organizers: Andreja Rackov, Vukašin Tomić, Mirko Jeremić

Music equipment: Đorđe Stanković, Dragana Anđelić Bunjac

Lector: Ljiljana Mrkić Popović

Set Design Assistant: Valentina Popržan

Costume Design Assistant: Snežana Veljković

Prompters: Zorica Popović, Silvija Pec, Kristina Jocić

Stage Master: Milan Ćirić

Video Realization: Zvonimir Jelušić

Sound Realization: Dušan Arsikin

Master of regulation: Vladimir Krunić

Surtitle: Dragan Stevović

Make-up and Hairstyle: Mirjana Rakić

Wardrobe: Tanja Vuksanović i Miladin Pavićević