Verbier Festival 2018: Magdalena Kozena and La Cetra in Verbier

Magdalena Kožená’s musical range seems expandable to infinity: whether adopting Cole Porter or Duparc, Mahler or Martinu,  her mezzo-soprano voice works wonders. However within the richness of her career, baroque music remains a favourite repertoire, as proven once more by this recital in the Church of Verbier filmed in the summer of 2018. It demonstrates of a remarkable simplicity: alternation of vocal and short sparkling instrumental works. The programme illustrates “blindness in love”, a theme which is best embodied by the magnificent Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. Magdalena Kožená’s here changes the Church into a theater hall: on a sleekly decorated stage, with a moving naivety, the singer seizes a few accessories to improvise the narrative and the medieval legend is revived by her hallucinated expression. An extremely beautiful moment.