Spain Mascagni, Iris (concert performance): Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Teatro Real / Daniele Callegari (conductor). Teatro Real, Madrid, 4.10.2025. (JMI)
Cast:
Iris – Ermonela Jaho
Osaka – Gregory Kunde
Kyoto – Germán Enrique Alcántara
Iris’s Father – Jongmin Park
Geisha – Carmen Solís
Merchant / Ragman – Pablo García López
Every opera season, Madrid’s Teatro Real includes a few operas in concert versions in their schedule. Generally, these are less familiar operas and they are always performed with strong vocal casts.
The opera on this occasion is Pietro Mascagni’s Iris. The composer is well-known and his Cavalleria rusticana is often performed in major opera houses, usually with Pagliacci by Leoncavallo. The rest of the fifteen operas that Mascagni wrote are less frequently staged, although some of them are seen occasionally: Guglielmo Ratcliff, L’amico Fritz and Isabeau are the Mascagni titles I have been able to see and hear live.
A friend of mine who is a great opera fan always told me, ‘When an opera doesn’t succeed, there are reasons for it’, and that is indeed true. Iris is a somewhat uneven opera but with musically brilliant moments, such as the overture, the end of Act II and the finale. The rest is monotonous. One might add to this that it is not a tenor opera, and the protagonist requires a spinto-dramatic soprano.
I believe it is the first Italian opera to be set in Japan. The records show that Puccini attended the premiere of Iris in Rome and left determined to write an opera set in Japan as well, which ultimately became Madama Butterfly. Iris is in three acts and has an original Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. There are elements of Pagliacci, strangely enough, with its Act I ‘play within a play’ and Verdi’s La traviata since when Iris is kidnapped by a nobleman, Osaka, and taken to a geisha house, she is cursed by her father. After much suffering there is a fantastical ending with Iris’s spiritual ascension to the sun.
Conductor Daniele Callegari gave an outstanding reading. I had the impression that this might not be the first time he had conducted Iris, but I found no record of an earlier occasion. In any case, he had clearly mastered the complex score, and under his direction the Teatro Real Orchestra and Chorus shone.
The role of Iris was sung by soprano Ermonela Jaho, who has given successful performances at Teatro Real in the past, although she has occasionally been in roles that require a more dramatic voice than hers. This was the case again here: she is a lyric soprano and Iris requires a spinto soprano. I also had the impression that her voice had more trouble reaching throughout the auditorium than in the past. But none of this prevented her from being the star of the concert for the audience.
Gregory Kunde was fine in the role of Osaka. He is not a young tenor by any means (he is well into his seventies), but his voice is still in good condition with no problems in the high range, and he always sings with vigor. It is difficult for a great tenor to decide to sing the role of Osaka, as he has virtually no aria in which to shine.
Baritone Germán Enrique Alcántara and his broad, powerful voice made a good impression in the part of Kyoto who runs the geisha house, as did bass Jongmin Park as Iris’s father. Also noteworthy was Carmen Solís in the part of the Geisha, particularly at the beginning of Act II where she sang with great gusto. Finally, Pablo García López performed well, doubling as the Merchant and the Ragman.
José M. Irurzun
Feature Image: Conductor Daniele Callegari and the chorus and orchestra of Teatro Real’s Iris © J. del Real