Based on a drama by Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, Poul Rovsing Olsen’s one-act opera Belisa (1966) turns convention on its head with a surrealistic story of a young, attractive woman who marries a wealthy older man. Bored with her husband even on their wedding night, Belisa has five lovers who enter her bedroom through the open doors of her balcony, and she makes no secret of them. Her husband Don Perlimplin alternates in expressing emotions of embittered frustration and forgiveness. But there is a sixth lover who fascinates Belisa most of all; she has never seen his face though he appears to her in a red cloak and sends her passionate love letters. Belisa agrees to meet this mysterious lover in her garden, but Don Perlimplin appears and tells her that he intends to kill the man that she claims to love above all others. He rushes off and moments later a man in a red cloak staggers out and dies, stabbed, at Belisa’s feet. When she removes his cloak, she discovers that the mystery man is none other than her own husband.
This is great stuff for opera, and Olsen’s music fits the story perfectly. The idiom is largely atonal, often textural, but with strong tonal leanings and (especially in Belisa’s music) frequent recourse to Arab/Eastern exoticism to complement the surreal, sultry eroticism of the story. The orchestration is very sensitive and colorful, and questions of style notwithstanding, the music serves the drama at every point. At a concise 72 minutes, and with each scene broken up into a series of pointed arias, duets, choruses, and interludes (there are six characters in all, including two gossiping “household spirits”), the music grabs your imagination and sustains the work’s modest length very impressively.
Certainly Tamás Veto and the Odense Symphony Orchestra play magnificently, and the principals, especially soprano Eir Inderhaug as the title character and baritone Sten Byriel’s very sympathetic Don Perlimplin, acquit themselves with real distinction. Beautifully balanced, natural sonics and attractive, elegant packaging–including texts and translations–complete the picture. This one’s a gem. [4/16/2004]
