The production of Bellini’s La Sonnambula, now playing at Barcelona’s Liceu theatre, is an operatic masterpiece.
The show is a visceral roller-coaster for the senses, often leaving the audience breathless as they try to keep up with the emotional highs and lows of the main character, Amina, as she tries to prove her fidelity.
Three-quarters of the way through (with things not looking good for Amina or love in general) the auditorium is so charged with emotion, that had the opera ended there it would have been more than many could take.
Many of those in the audience had come to this particular performance for one reason, to see Nadine Sierra.
Sierra is one of America’s best-known and best-loved sopranos currently on the operatic circuit.
Sierra delivers a masterful performance as Amina, displaying at one moment the intense beauty of feeling true level, and then in the next the crushing anguish of having this all taken away for nothing that she has done.
Such wonderful execution earns the 36-year-old performer enthusiastic cheers and calls of “Bravo!” throughout the performance, as well as an extended curtain call at the end of the show.
But an opera is rarely about just a single star, and Sierra is backed up by a wonder cast of talented singers. Sabrina Gárdez, an up-and-coming soprano from Valencia (who has only been singing in opera houses since 2022), gives a sterling performance as Lisa, the spurned lover of Amina’s fiancé who rarely elicits much sympathy in the opera, and who provides a crucial juxtaposition to the true love that Amina is feeling.
It is hard to have a convincing Amina in La Sonnambula without a good Lisa. When it becomes clear that love means little to her, even as she exploits the situation for her own ends, the audience’s collective heart reaches out even further to Amina.
Fernando Radó and Xabier Anduaga are also extremely good as Count Rodolfo and Elvino respectively, with both enjoying enthusiastic applause at the end of the performance and at intervals throughout.
The opera, brilliantly directed by Bárbara Lluch, is a fairly classical rendition, with period costumes designed by Clara Peluffo Valentini. The Liceu theatre is a fitting venue in which to see it.
The opera is running until May 8, although the cast changes for two of the performances (on April 16 and May 7). Check the theatre’s website for details.
