Out West Arts: Performance at the end of the world

Ramón Vargas and cast
Photo : Marty Sohl/Met 2008

It was a mostly Mozart kind of weekend with two productions that are wrapping up the Metropolitan Opera season here in New York, Die Entführung aus dem Serail and La Clemenza di Tito. I saw both today and while they are both less commonly performed works, together they support the argument that overall, the Met’s Mozart productions are in more dire needed of replacement than perhaps those of any other major composer. This evening’s season opening performance of La Clemeza di Tito was poorly attended, which is a shame considering its many fine qualities. Foremost among these was a return appearance of Baroque and 18th century music specialist Harry Bicket who led a wonderfully detailed and lively performance of this work in a house where no one else but James Levine has conducted it since he marshaled it back into the repertory in 1984. A tough act to follow and perhaps some of the reason for the small crowd, but Bicket was spectacular with the Met opera orchestra. He was joined by the typical A-list cast including the legendary Susan Graham. Every note from her throat was perfection and even though she was forced to dress as Barney Rubble throughout Act II she was reason enough to be there. Ramón Vargas made his umpteenth appearance on the Met stage this year as Tito. He is no slouch, but like Domingo’s performances of Bajazet in Washington this month, Vargas is not going to go down in the history books as an illustrious performer of Mozart and Baroque operas. He’s a little too zesty for this material in my opinion but he’s game and can act. The cast also featured an excellent Heidi Grant Murphy as Servilia and Tamar Iveri as Vitellia.

All of this takes place amongst perhaps the most massive and unnecessary set imaginable. Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's design dates back to 1984 and gives everyone a very nice place to stand around while they sing and look for something else to do. Some, like Iveri, take the Norma Desmond approach to this problem, while others emote within a more predictable range. What's the point of all the massive columns and arches if the burning of Rome at the end of Act I is represented by litle more than a few red flashes of light. This is still part of that 80s trend to make it look like the 18th century version of ancient Rome, but today it just looks ridiculous. It’s musical qualities do compensate for many of it’s theatrical problems, though, and there are three more performances remaining over the last two weeks of the season. Unfortunately, only the final one will be broadcast over Sirius so you may want to check out to live internet stream of Tuesday’s performance coming up on May 6 or, better yet, with so many tickets available, why not actually go see it.

Matthew Polenzani and Diana Damrau
Photo : Ken Howard/Met 2008

The parallels between the successes and failures of Clemenza and the Met’s concurrently running Die Entführung aus dem Serail are numerous and I suppose unsurprising. A 1979 production from John Dexter is revived largely as an excuse to have the marvelous Diana Damrau return to the stage. It’s a rather cartoonish staging that is so dated it could border on the transcendent. What at the time was meant to be whimsical, now gives the whole production a rather minimal look. But it's still dull. If the current production of La Fille du Régiment is what comedy is today, this genteel production is a reminder of what comedy was. Serail also has a somewhat miscast tenor in the form of Matthew Polenzani who is fine but not particularly Mozartian in any way. Kristinn Sigmundsson plays Osmin for maximum effect and is quite good here throughout. Damrau is, of course, the star of the show and deservedly so. Though her costumes also do her little favors, the agility and litheness of her voice carries everyone along, regardless of their sins. David Robertson was in the pit with the orchestra and, while he does not necessarily have a big reputation in Mozart circles, his leadership was quite admirable. There is one more performance on Wednesday that will be broadcast on Sirius. Here's keeping our fingers crossed that while Peter Gelb is busily retiring all the out-of-date productions at the Met (a Herculean task I grant you) these two losers make it onto the pile as well.

Labels: Damrau, Graham, Met opera reviews 07/08, Out of Town

Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez
Photo : Ken Howard/Met 2008

Perhaps the biggest hit of the spring season, the Metropolitan Opera’s current run of Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment is quite a wonder. Although it is fashionable on some music blogs to peck and moan about the production, it should be noted that Laurent Pelly’s design, which features Juan Diego Flórez and Natalie Dessay, does in fact live up to all the sold-out, high C, media blitz hype that has been pursuing it across the globe and into New York. I could sit here and carry on about Flórez’ performance, but there’s really no need at this point. (BTW he did not do an encore on Friday's performance, which frankly was A-OK with me. If I wanted to spend all evening marveling at physical prowess, I'd watch sports.) Instead, I’d like to focus on two other major contributors to this huge success.

First and foremost is Laurent Pelly. Directors and designers who specialize in opera often get a bad rap these days, but Pelly is one of the most exceptional directors working in the field today. Infinitely witty, with a playful visual style, he has helmed several of the best productions throughout the world in the last decade, many for the Opéra National de Paris. Not that he doesn't have his detractors who find his irreverence calculating and distracting. But frankly, they're missing the joke, but no matter, almost everyone else in these sold-out audiences seem to get it. His set of mountainous maps is brilliant and his comic use of chorus and dancers always seems right on the money. The criticism that this production is “too small” for the Met stage is ridiculous but not surprising considering the stages full of unnecessary shit that Met audiences have grown used to in countless productions for decades. Pelly’s Fille is one example of what an excellent opera production can look like when the cast isn’t forced into submission but their dull surroundings and instead allowed to fill the theater with their singing and acting talents. (Gelb cannot get rid of all of those Zeffirelli monstrosities fast enough for my dollar.) Or in response to the couple next to us at dinner afterwards, yes this Fille does not "look like an opera" and may be "too Broadway." That is precisely the point. "Looking like an opera" is exactly what makes them so often suck when they do.

But Pelly’s genius must have the performers to carry it out, and not only is he blessed with Flórez, but additionally benefits from a kindred spirit in Natalie Dessay. With so much attention and marketing around encores and high notes, Dessay’s brilliant work is getting short shrift. She is hysterical. Her Marie has apparently developed the ADHD one would associate with a child raised by a group of soldiers. Her singing is wonderfully acrobatic but best of all she never succumbs to making her entire acting performance subservient to it. She performs throughout with a physicality that demands attention and a subtlety to marvel at. This is not your great-grandmother’s stand-and-deliver performance and it should put to shame anyone who would continue to support such an approach to that particular art form. Dessay’s achievement is made all the more sweet by the support of two other world class singing actors – Felicity Palmer and Alessandro Corbelli. Dessay mentioned in last week's half-time feature of the HD broadcast that she finds a true mark of success when the audience can watch and forget that everyone on stage is singing. This run of La Fille du Régiment stands as a great achievement towards this endeavor.

Labels: Dessay, JDF, Met opera reviews 07/08, Out of Town

Act II of Satyagraha
Photo : Ken Howard/Met 2008

I feel I shouldn’t say anything negative about Philip Glass’ Satyagraha that wrapped up its run at the Metropolitan Opera in New York last night. Simply put, this is exactly the kind of opera repertoire I’d like to see more often, so if you want to reinforce good behavior the best thing to do is praise it. So let me start there. It’s really a beautiful opera. Everybody wants to call the music “hypnotic” or “mesmerizing” which frankly is garbage. It’s no more “hypnotic” than Wagner is. Saying that Glass’ music is “mesmerizing” is basically trying to apologize for the fact that it’s repetitive. It is repetitive – get over it. It’s also popular (still) to debate Glass’ overall importance or significance as a composer. But I can think of no composer of art music today whose work would be so immediately recognizable to a lay ear without foreknowledge of the particular piece in question. After several hundred years of music history, that is a decidedly rare accomplishment. Like his work or not – I wager it’s going to be remembered.

Thursday’s final performance of Satyagraha also benefited from the only appearance in the run from Alan Oke as Gandhi. Oke is the British tenor who preformed the role in this production’s original outing with the English National Opera last year. Although Richard Croft sounded great on the radio throughout the run, I was glad to see Oke who carried the evening with his magnificent performance. The whole cast was exemplary as would be expected here in New York, though I was particularly fond of Rachelle Durkin as Miss Schlesen. The production is filled with numerous memorable images including a sky full of hanging lanterns and monstrous puppets waging war with one another. The stage business throughout milks a rather smart and often effective newspaper motif with sheets acting at times as projection screens, scenery or the stuff that puppets are made of. All of this dreamed up by Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch and their Improbable theater group. Glass himself showed up at the end, as he had in earlier performances, to a huge hero’s welcome from the audience. Good for him, he well deserves it.

But, to tell the truth, as much as I want to encourage good behavior, in a perfect world where performances of operas like Satyagraha would be much more common, I’d be less worried to ask why everyone’s sights were set so low here. I didn’t care for this production anywhere near as much as the Achim Freyer staging filmed for Stuttgart Opera in 1983 and currently available on DVD. Freyer seems unafraid of Glass’ concept and lack of narrative structure creating scenes that often have little to do with any action described and instead focusing on the philosophical concepts that underpin them. Phelim and Crouch take a very literal interpretation of the work right down to period costumes and the like. They do everything they can to emphasize the narrative elements of the piece. Even the lack of opera titles reinforces this effect. Since the Sanskrit text is essentially philosophical tracts from the Bhagavad Gita, without titles, it appears the cast members are actually communicating to one another with their own words, which is not exactly the case. Some of the ideological thrust of the work is lost among the late Victorian falderall. The set itself is an enclosed semi-circular wall of rusty corrugated steel. It’s been a big season for new productions featuring walls at the Met and again we are besieged by people popping in and out of various windows in the wall throughout the performance.
Musically there was a little left to be desired as well.

Dante Anzolini led the Met Orchestra through a performance that was all smooth rounded edges and soft landings. Transitions between segments are made with ease and contrasting elements are played down. While a completely legitimate approach, I found it rather timid in a work with as many jarring elements as lyrical ones. Still, these are all minor complaints in my mind. This staging of Satyagraha is a major accomplishment long overdue in this specific corner of the opera world. Let’s hope it’s just the beginning of things to come.

Labels: Met opera reviews 07/08, Out of Town

Vladimir Galouzine as Alexei
Photo: Marty Sohl/Met Opera 2008

It’s just great. Of all the production’s I’ve seen at the Metropolitan Opera this week, the revival of Prokofiev’s The Gambler that opened on Thursday night was easily the most all around satisfying, musically and theatrically. Forget all the endless Tristan PR, this is the real deal. Prokofiev's 20th century masterpiece is back for the first time since 2001 under the guidance of Valery Gergiev and many of his Marinsky stars in a production directed by Temur Chkheidze with set designs from George Tsypin. This Russian dream team and the excellent cast including Vladimir Galouzine as Alexei and Olga Guryakova as Polina have done a masterful job in capturing the complex mix of dark tragedy and irreverent humor integral to Prokofiev’s score as well as Dostoyevsky's original work.

Granted this opera is not everyone's cup of tea. The narrative is disjointed and more concerned with underlying psychodynamic issues than the clarity of plot points - but in this lies its beauty. Everyone involved in The Gambler is not very nice and no one has any way out of their predicament. And while no one dies in the end, it's probably about the most tragic opera one could imagine. The production has a Wizard of Oz feel and while it can't escape the giant slanted round gambling table that always seem to make it into gambling themed operas like Pique Dame, it is both sly and dreadful. A green crush velvet curtain, a flying horse statue in flames, and a giant rotating steel framework all create a sense of the fantastic and surreal. If there is any criticism of the staging, it may be that it doesn't go far enough in its willingness to dispense with the literal aspects of the libretto. Still, it can be more than cheeky when it needs to be, right down to a wink and a nod from the chorus.

Musically, it would be hard to imagine a more passionate, inspired performance of this often discordant score. Gergiev has a real love for this work and it shows. Galouzine is marvelous. He commands the stage with his rich tone and thoughtful, detailed performance. Olga Guryakova is completely believable which is a task, given that the conclusion rests on the audience's recognition of Polina's underlying psychological state. The rogues gallery of a supporting cast were strong with an exceptionally deft turn from Larissa Diadkova as the grandmother who gambles away her fortune more or less to spite her family.

So here lies a gem not to be missed. Sandwiched between the huge press campaigns for two other 20th century works, Peter Grimes and Satyagraha, The Gambler may run the risk of being overlooked, which would be be a shame because it really is wonderful. Which makes me think. A woman in front of me noted is disdain that the only reason the Met programmed this opera was at Gergiev's insistence. And while that may have originally been true, given its proximity on the schedule to works by Britten and Glass, it may no longer be the case.

Labels: Met opera reviews 07/08

Thomas Hampson and Sondra Radvanovsky
Photo: Marty Sohl/Met Opera 2008

With two twentieth century operas and Tristan on offer at the Metropolitan Opera this week, there had to be something from the kitsch department in the mix as well, so it is no surprise that Verdi's Ernani is currently being revived. Despite all of the excitement brought to this company over the last two years, it is still a house that has run on formaldehyde for a long time and so the coffin doors were swung wide on Wednesday for this dusty old relic from Pier-Luigi Samaritani. However, rather than stage the opera around a modern day scientific team working in a humongous archaeological dig, which would have made more sense, the powers that be instead went for a 1960s version of a "straight" performance. Actually, having Ernani play back-to-back with Tristan is fairly appropriate since they both concern notions of honor taken to the extremes. However where the latter is often spun in the sublime direction, Verdi’s opera often ends up going in the other direction.

Ernani may have the most ridiculous plot of any opera outside of…well, Rigoletto. There is much in it that thematically suggests many of Verdi’s later works, of course, both musically and thematically, so there is much to enjoy. Still, while opera is certainly an art form with more than its fair share of the ridiculous, I often felt like laughing more at what was going on than necessarily with it.

Of course, if you’re talking kitsch at the Met, you’re likely talking about Thomas Hampson, who seems to get dragged into these things more often than not. However, he seemed appropriately restrained to me last night, which was good, in that he was one link in a rather excellent cast. I was especially glad to see Sondra Radvanovsky back as Elvira after she missed last week's second performance due to illness. She and Ferruccio Furlanetto were their typical brilliant selves. Her Leonora, which was spectacular in LA a few season's back, should be one of the highlights of next season without a doubt. Marcello Girodani, the evening's Ernani, was surprisingly the weakest of the four and sounded a little wobbly at times, but he more than made up for this with his truly excellent acting chops and his sheer stage presence. In any event, Ernani will be this Saturday's radio broadcast from the Met, which may be the ideal way to experience this production - there one can bask in the sheer pleasure of Verdi's music without succumbing to the giggles.

Labels: Met opera reviews 07/08

A vague general scene
Photo: Ken Howard/Met Opera 2008

In case you're wondering why I've chosen such a distant vague picture to go along with this post, it's because it's the only one I could find vague enough to represent all the various casting permutations that have plagued the Metropolitan Opera's run of Tristan und Isolde. I'll admit I was curious to see what would transpire after all of the unusual cancellations and replacements leading up to tonight's performance, but I didn't expect this surprise - Heppner actually showed up. Of course the down side is that Voigt didn't. Despite all the clucking from various quarters about whether or not she is an ideal Isolde, the Voigt/Heppner pairing was the major excuse for seeing this somewhat silly production in the first place, so I must admit I was a little bit disappointed to see that Janice Baird had been called in again to cover. Of course, on the bright side it appears that no one else has gotten to see what they initially paid to see in this run, though Friday may be yet another story entirely.

In any event, Heppner was back from Canada for the first time in the run and now apparently sans pelvic abscess. Now let it be said that nothing that results in a pelvic abscess is going to heal quickly. So considering Heppner had not been around to benefit from all of Isolde's magic healing potions over the last two weeks, it should be no surprise to anyone that he was less than stellar. By Act III he was quickly unraveling with lots of cracking throughout. He was obviously working very hard to pull this off and in some ways this played into his hands because this was one Tristan who clearly looked like he was hanging on for dear life. It was a relief when he made it to the end, and it must be said that his ability to manage the performance he did for the first two thirds of the evening is a testament to his stamina and mastery of this role.

Ironically, the evening will stand out more in my mind due to Janice Baird’s first complete performance of the opera in this particular run. Although she had previously gotten a couple of good acts in when Voigt bailed mid-way through last week, Baird had yet to get a chance to go all the way through here on the Met stage. She was an unknown quantity to me and, I imagine, most of the audience, and she was actually quite good. She hit the notes and had sufficient volume and staying power throughout. She is certainly better than some other Isoldes I’ve heard recently in that she is expressive despite the fact that her singing and acting are fairly mannered. She has a myriad of open-handed gestures that can be used as a rough guide to what’s about to come out of her mouth, but she did have plenty of honest-to-goodness feeling in there as well. Hell, I'd pay to hear her again.

Of course the supporting cast, which included Matti Salminen, Michelle DeYoung, and Richard Paul Fink were all excellent. James Levine and the orchestra were first class all the way and, as it has been noted by others, are the main reason to see the show at this point. The Diter Dorn production is a low-rent Robert Wilson knock-off that is evocative and modern in the most inoffensive way, which still makes it better than 80% of the Zeffirelli-like garbage that is regularly trotted out on the Met stage. So while it wasn’t the most engaging Tristan ever, it was far from painful or a waste of time. And who knows what surprises may lie in store for Friday’s audience in the last performance of the run.

Labels: Met opera reviews 07/08

Anthony Dean Griffey
Photo: Ken Howard/Met Opera 2008

Monday saw the final performance of the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Britten’s Peter Grimes, which I caught with some trepidation. I usually don’t like seeing the last performance of an opera for many reasons, one being that by this time I’ve read everything everyone else has written and it unfairly raises or lowers my expectations. In this case, I had heard a lot of negative things, particularly about John Doyle’s staging, so I guess it’s no surprise that I actually really enjoyed the whole thing. Yes the two-dimensional set with its giant wall and the total lack of color doesn’t leave one with much to look at. Doyle seems to miss some of the biggest opportunities in Britten's score to wow the audience with stage craft. But there is some motion throughout and it does create the intended sense of claustrophobia on a stage that is known for anything but that. It seems to me that Peter Grimes suffers from the same problem as Fidelio - how do you make an inherently dreary setting interesting to look at for several hours in the course of listening to a masterpiece?

But let’s be clear, even if this were the concert performance it more or less turns out to be, musically it is a masterful one. Runnicles and the orchestra were fantastic and this was nothing short of a dream cast. The real star in any Britten opera, though, is the chorus and I can’t think of enough positive things to say about them here. Anthony Dean Griffey manages creepy where you least expect it which is pretty magnificent given his dough-boy looks. Plus, there isn’t a rotten apple in the entire supporting cast. Felicity Palmer seems to be making a specialty of the “old bitty” roles these days and she is wonderful. Anthony Michaels-Moore and Patricia Racette are superior as Peter’s only friends, and don’t get me started on how much I love Jill Grove who sinks her teeth into Auntie’s rather small part with total zeal. And not only are these great vocal performances, the acting is superb. Everyone is totally believable throughout, and the entire evening was blissfully free of the stock silent-film gestures that pollute most of what comes across opera stages these days.

But perhaps even more inspiring to me were the events around me in the audience. The extremely elderly couple next to me in the 6th row center failed to return from the first intermission after their just completed power naps to be replaced by a very young woman from the standing room who had picked up their tickets for the rest of the show. She was clearly new to the opera experience and commented on how strange it was to hear an opera sung in English, this being the first time she had done so. She was excited to see we were seated immediately next to John Lithgow, although she didn’t know who Stephen Sondheim, seated in front of us, was. In any event, she was completely thrilled by the whole thing making me envious of that time when everything in opera first seemed big and exciting and new. Apparently even Peter Grimes can inspire that feeling in people with this kind of production. Maybe it’s not all about dreamy romantic period costumes to be “transported” after all.

Labels: Met opera reviews 07/08

Act II, Let's eat!
Photo: Ken Howard/Met 2007

My final opera for the year was the second performance of the Metropolitan’s holiday family feature – a “new” production of Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel in English from the mind of Richard Jones. It is a beautiful and visually grabbing effort to put a good bit of the menace back into the original story by focusing on the aspects of hunger, fear, and isolation that run throughout the piece despite its often lyrical music. Christine Schäfer’s Gretel and Alice Coote’s Hansel are thrust from a drab gray abusive home into a German expressionist barren dining room-cum-forest with tree-men and dreams of giant masked chef/angels. In Act III, Philip Langridge further torments the children in a stark industrial kitchen with plenty of treats but nary a cotton-candy awning or gingerbread wall in sight. All turns out quite well, however, musically and otherwise. The production is top notch featuring a detailed and nuanced account of the score under Vladimir Jurowski. Schäfer and Coote are excellent as are the supporting cast.

If you want a primer of everything that Peter Gelb is doing right or possibly wrong at the Metropolitan Opera, this production says it all. Sure there are all of the technical and PR “innovations” designed to increase public access – HD broadcasts to theaters, Sirius radio broadcasts, cheap rush tickets the day of performance, etc. But what isn’t written about as much and seems to me to be as crucial to his mission to move this company forward is its increasing reliance on artistic development strategies that are stock-in-trade for most smaller American companies for decades. A prime example is the Metropolitan’s increasing participation in the global economy of opera. Instead of relying on unique and proprietary productions, the house is incorporating more and more that are “new” to it but have been seen far and wide and often received good reviews elsewhere. Presumably, this is cheaper and in some ways carries less risk. I’m not just talking about “co-productions” here, but about looking for content that already exists and “adapting” it instead of spending money on something brand new. Take this Richard Jones staging of Hansel and Gretel which may be new to the house, but has already traveled to many other parts of the world in reasonably similar forms. In fact much of the touted increase in the number of “new” productions at the Metropolitan rely on either adapted imports or co-productions.

Certainly these trends are not new or unique to this house or any other and while this more easy access may be a good thing, the increasing prevalence on traveling material does raise some questions. As this globalization trend continues and big fish like the Metropolitan participate more and more, what, if anything will there be left to see? Soon everyone has seen the Tambosi Jenufa with Karita Mattila or Richard Jones' Hansel and Gretel or Laurent Pelly's Fille du Regiment with Dessay and Florez. Like the rest of global capitalism, as financial risk is reduced by having only the biggest stars appearing in only the best-received staging over and over again we may be paying for increasing artistic “quality” with increasing artistic homogeneity. With opera houses all eager to distribute their DVDs and broadcasts and everyone increasingly relying on more of literally the same thing, opera may start looking like the rest of America with a Gap or a Starbucks on every corner. Of course none of this is really new. Touring productions of big hits have been around forever and people will always want to see big stars. But, I think we need to recognize the increasing trends of more pervasive distribution in the presence of increased homogeneity of product.

In any event, this is an excellent production with several performances left including one that will be simulcast to theaters on New Year's Day. It's well worth seeing, even if you have seen it before elsewhere.

Labels: Met opera reviews 07/08

On the hillside
Photo: Ken Howard/Met 2007

Friday brought my chance to see the Metropolitan Opera’s current revival of Prokofiev’s War and Peace. Given that I have not seen this opera, much less this production, before, I must admit that the whole experience was rather overwhelming. Championed by Valery Gergiev, this production was a first for the Met in 2002 having been seen only twice prior to that here in touring productions. In many ways this show represents what the Met does best and, up until recently, has been best known for – massive productions done on the grandest scale. It’s hard to imagine anything consuming more theatrical resources. Despite its rather minimal sets by George Tsypin, the staging involves a huge array of elements from it giant cast to live horses, cannons, and a goat. All of this sits atop a steep hill with a rotating top that fills the entire stage spilling out over the top of the orchestra. At over 4 hours it makes one long for those quaint Wagnerian intermissions. (There is a single one in Prokofiev’s work).

But this is one instance where size did not need to serve as a substitute for quality. The often beautiful and highly dramatic score was given great attention by the orchestra led here by Gianandrea Noseda who is subbing for Gergiev in the last two performances of this run. Noseda is no stranger to this material and it shows throughout. The rest of the cast was almost entirely Russian with current stars of the Marinsky Opera who were uniformly exceptional. Perhaps the biggest treat was the presence of some extra Marinsky stars who were filling in for their absent non-Russian counterparts in some apparent cosmic exchange program given Gergiev’s absence. Mikhail Kit, the renowned Russian bass, has greatly impressed me over the last two years as both Wotan and Boris Godunov, and here, he sang the roles of Count Rostov and Field Marshal Kutuzov. These parts have been largely handled in this run by Samuel Ramey and with my deep respect for him aside, Mr. Kit is a significant addition to the proceedings as was Alexei Steblianko who took over for Kim Begley as Count Bezukhov. Irina Mataeva is also exemplary in her performance of Natasha as is Vasili Ladyuk’s Prince Andrei.

This simple but highly affecting staging from Andrei Konchalovsky works well in that it prevents the opera’s biggest pitfall - with such a large cast, it's easy to have everyone just stand around while they’re singing. Instead, the hilltop presses the motion issue throughout, forcing the cast to move over or around it when it is not rotating of its own accord. Stillness here is intentional and often profound. Much has been made of the precariousness of this set up in the press, but I’ve seen steeper – take Alice in Wonderland this year for instance where everyone was fitted with rappelling gear. In any event, this is a great production you may not get a chance to see again soon. There is one more performance on January 3, although it appears to be sold out.

Labels: Met opera reviews 07/08

Ms Netrebko, pretty in pink
Photo: Guy Joosten/Met 2007

It’s holiday time in New York and the city is flooded with tourists, not unlike myself. Everywhere you turn, Russian is spoken which makes the city seem more and more like London or my own beloved West Hollywood. In any event, there was definitely a Russian crowd out on Thursday at the next to last performance of the Metropolitan Opera’s revival of Roméo et Juliette starring Anna Netrebko. This is the second outing for a staging by Guy Joosten – originally developed for Natalie Dessay – that is most notable for how static and unmoving it is. He does have a strong visual concept – astronomy. Which is not lost on the audience as evidenced by my neighbor’s comment to her husband “You see they are star-crossed lovers.” Oh, now I get it. What is most surprising about this whole affair is how dated it looks on only its second outing. Joosten seems to go out of his way to avoid any of the ripe dramatic staging possibilities Gounod littered his score with. The chorus stands around like some clothed Renaissance version of Vegas showgirls, too pretty to move. Meanwhile, outside of a floating bed trick, there is so little for the principals to do they are forced into the whole rolling around on the floor business to hold the audience’s attention.

But honestly, no one came to see this production for reasons other than Ms. Netrebko who turned in yet another stellar performance. Although there had been some grousing last week about her singing during the HD broadcast two weeks ago, she was in fine voice tonight and wowed the audience. Her Act IV aria is still astounding as it was the times I heard her in LA three years back and her acting is still top drawer. Everyone in the room only had eyes for her. The only exception to this, however, was Matthew Polenzani. Which is particularly unfortunate considering that her was cast as her umpteenth Romeo this season. Polenzani sounded fine but often looked like his mind was elsewhere. He looked and sounded less like a young lover than somebody’s nebbishy nephew holding down the job due to family connections. Having listened to several Roméo broadcasts and seeing this one, there is no question that Mr. Villazon’s absence from this run is acutely felt. What could have been a tour de force is now a star-vehicle. But when your star is Anna Netrebko, maybe that is not such a bad thing.

Labels: Met opera reviews 07/08