We happened to be in New York on October 10th and 11th as part of a longer trip and took advantage of the occasion to attend two performances at the Metropolitan Opera, one of Mozart’s singspiel The Magic Flute (Ger. Die Zauberflœte) and one of Vincenzo Bellini’s bel canto masterpiece Norma. This was a great experience for me since, in my 48 years of opera going, I had never been to a performance at the Met. Here are my comments:
The Magic Flute. This, of course, was the full-length German-language version produced by Julie Taymor, who was directly responsible for the costumes, and partially responsible, along with Michael Curry for the delightful, and very large puppets. Combined with the sets designed by George Tyspin, the setting was imaginative and colorful. For example, the big bird carrying the Three Boys was amazing, although I did worry a bit about their safety.
The singing was first-class. American tenor Charles Castronovo, who previously appeared here in San Diego as Nadir in The Pearl Fishers (2008) and as Ernesto in Don Pasquale (2012) was a fine Tamino, singing beautifully and robustly. (His voice has become more powerful since I last saw him). Kathryn Lewek excelled in the pyrotechnics of the Queen of the Night and during her first aria, was actually moving in her grief over the loss of her daughter. Austrian baritone Markus Werba was perfectly cast as Papageno, projecting a winning personality and good voice. He especially excelled in handling the large amount of dialogue for his part. The real standout of the evening; however, was South African soprano Golda Schultz as Pamina, who looked, acted and sang movingly and beautifully. The Sarastro, Tobias Kehrer, hit his low notes with aplomb, but his voice lacked the ideal plushness. The Met Orchestra, under Music Director James Levine, which I had never experienced in person, was perfect, although as far as the conducting goes, I would have liked a bit more dynamism and forcefulness.
With all this perfection, however, I still was not completely satisfied. Something felt flat to me. Perhaps it was the conducting, perhaps it was because we had spent a long day in New Jersey after getting up early, I really don’t know, but I did not leave feeling that I had experienced a revelatory performance. That was not the case with the next opera we attended.
Norma. Norma, generally considered Bellini’s greatest opera, although held out as an example of bel canto, in which beautiful expressive singing is paramount is no concert in costume. For one thing, it begins with a powerful and tuneful overture and the orchestral introduction to the second act is beautiful There is also plenty of human drama, with a complex love triangle, betrayal of a people and religion, not to mention potential child killing.
Of course, a performance of Norma does not work without an extraordinary cast, particularly in the title role and that of her friend and rival Adalgisa. In this case, both singers, Sondra Radvanovsky and Joyce DiDonato, achieved perfection or close to it. I have been a fan of Sondra Radvanovsky since I first saw her early in her career as Leonora in San Diego Opera’s Il trovatore. (2000). Despite some shrillness in those early years, I could tell she was a superstar in the making. After seeing her performance in San Francisco Opera’s [year] staging of Norma, I commented on her performance as follows:
“I say “largely” [successful] because I did notice in the First Act, some difficulty in ascending to the exquisitely soft high notes, her voice almost, but not quite, breaking; and at the beginning and the end of the Second Act, her voice did break, the latter time during a particularly emotional passage, so it seemed almost natural in this killer role. I hope this does not portend a short future for her in this part, because otherwise, as mentioned, she was excellent.”
As it turns out, I need not have worried because she exhibited none of those problems Wednesday night October 11th. She performed “Casta diva” without a hitch, perfectly projecting Bellini’s long-lined melodies without any break in the voice. As the opera progressed, she excelled in the duets with Aldagisa and was especially forceful when confronting Pollione, her erstwhile Roman lover and father of her two children.
Joyce DiDonato was equally fine as Aldagisa. She began her big introductory opera in the First Act, lying on her side, something that did not inhibit her beautiful and expressive singing one bit, and she blended perfectly with Norma in the exquisite duets. If you are a tenor fanatic, who counts the success of Norma based on the Pollione, you may have been a bit disappointed with the performance of Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja. In his showpiece opening aria, he sang flat at the beginning and barely hit the high note. He was fine as the night progressed, although some, not I, do not like his noticeable vibrato. Matthew Rose’s Oroveso was excellent and he was particularly effective in the moving final scene, which brought me close to tears.
The orchestra played well under the excellent conducting of Carlo Rizzi, who achieved a good balance between accompanying the singers and keeping things moving.
When I read reviews of the opening night, I noticed some complaints about the production, mainly about the darkness, and some reviewers found it too traditional and “not relevant.” As we all know, Norma opens with her, as a high priestess, cutting the sacred mistletoe while singing a hymn to the moon, so some darkness makes sense. I did not find the opening scene too dark at all, but perhaps it has been lightened up a bit since the first night. Compared to the weird San Francisco production, which was mysterious in its meaning, I appreciated the fact that this Norma was set in the intended time and place. There was one reviewer who complained about its lack of relevance to the present day, but there are two types of relevance, personal, emotional relevance and political, social relevance. As to the first, who cannot relate to the story of betrayed love and being torn between love and country? As to the second, one need not portray the Romans as Nazis to understand that people resent being conquered. In addition to the opening scene in the forest, there was an impressive scene-change, probably only possible due to the Met’s advanced stage mechanics to Norma’s rather large hut, a true coup-de-theatre.
For me, this was a great performance of a great opera and it, in itself, made my nights at the Met worthwhile. I will note that the audience roared its appreciation.
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