The rivals

Cavalleria Rusticana
Pagliacci - Metropolitan Opera, 2/6/2016
Urmana, Costa-Jackson, Lee, Maestri / Luisi
Frittoli, Berti, Gagnidze, Lavrov, Stevenson / Luisi

This David McVicar production, the under-recognized success of last season, returned with some cast changes in 2016. In its original run, George Gagnidze sang both baritone leads and Marcelo Alvarez sang both tenor leads, which was a neat but unrevealing stunt. Here there was no duplication, just two groups singing to strong effect.

McVicar's Cav is revelatory from its very start. The circle of chairs that form the initial scene suggest, as no literal staging has done, the mutual examination and ever-imminent rivalries of a one-square town. Everyone snoops, everyone is jealous... until the circle dissolves into daily bustle. Eventually the dangerous all-human circle is transformed in the Easter service into a pure, singing whole: the adoring ordered ranks facing the divine sign before them (in joy) instead of each other (in potential rivalry). But the fallen girl Santuzza's (self?) exclusion holds the tension of the setup just outside the church, and as she's reabsorbed into the scene it forms, in Mama Lucia's tavern, into small groups with that original danger now again close. And, rivalry now enflamed by Santuzza (carrying out her own, non-face-to-face rivalry with the walk-on Lola), the men circle again as Turridu's group faces Alfio's before their offstage duel.

The crowd shapes, all by themselves, reflect at every point the tension of the tale, and McVicar's minimalization of other visual elements (including the color palette) give this part of the double-bill a primal character.

The latter part - Pag - is quite different in style, and the meaning of the shift didn't become clear to me in the show's original run last season. In this revival, absent cast crossover between halves, it's obvious: the bare-bones human scene of the first part has acquired a self-reflective layer, the play-within-a-play that dominates the opera and production. It begins in the prologue, where Tonio appears as emcee (with mic) before what's later revealed to be the troupe's show curtain, and as the curtain rises on apparently the same town square a half-century after Cav we see more mess, more color... and the electrical and telephone wires that signal modernity. In this new world, the troupe's truck and its stage occupy and expand the Cav-era altarpiece's position in the community: center, focus, and maintainer of its peace.

This centerpiece, of course, moves. It reflects and makes light of the viewers' rivalries and frustrations rather than just dissolving them for a time. And perhaps because of this there's a more pervasive peace and relaxation in the town. The locals sit in orderly rows facing the performance, but before then even the troupe's arrival is enough for a festive welcome. (Of course, the performance is going on even during this welcome, as the silent members of the troupe, in a very nice addition by McVicar, help unload and unpack the truck Three Stooges-style.) But those who don't get to watch the show - primarily Canio and Tonio, more or less analogous in their rivalries to Alfio and Santuzza respectively - still feel the old poisons of jealousy and envy.

*     *     *
Roberto Alagna was originally scheduled to sing Canio in this run, before Kaufmann's cancellation from Manon Lescaut pulled him into that dud. His replacement was Marco Berti, whose work in the radio matinee seems to have elicited some negative responses. Now in Verdi his lopsided force-to-refinement ratio can certainly be faulted, but in the house, in this less orderly context, the huge unfettered sound of his despair made for a great and appreciated success. Call him "Barco Merti" if you like, but with affection.

The scale of Berti's work matched, as an Alagna success would have not, that of the night's most thorough success - spinto tenor Yonghoon Lee as Turridu in the double bill's opener. With veteran mezzo-turned-dramatic soprano Violeta Urmana now hindered by declining high notes as well as her characteristically deliberate, longer-time-scale approach that works better in Wagner, it's left to Lee to convey the urgency of the story. This he did magnificently, making the climax of the action - Turridu's farewell to his mother - the emotional and sonic climax as well.

All others did their bit effectively as well - not least Marty Keiser, Andy Sapora, and Joshua Wynter, who reprised their actual (silent) clowning in Pag from last season's original run.

The decorator

Manon Lescaut - Metropolitan Opera, 2/12/2016
Opolais, Alagna, Cavalletti, Sherratt / Luisi

It will perhaps be common opinion that this new production of Puccini's first great masterpiece fell apart with the late cancellation of tenor Jonas Kaufmann. But in fact I suspect it was doomed much earlier than that, specifically when director Richard Eyre came to the conclusion that

"Manon is not an innocent" at the beginning of the opera[...] "I've always thought that she's getting sent to the convent by her father, because she's been with too many boys in the village, and she's getting a reputation."

(From William Berger's preview piece in the current Playbill.) This choice, though reasonable as psychological extrapolation, led Eyre's production fatally astray in several different ways.

First, shifting Manon's nature at the start of the action to better account for what's later breaks the structure of the story. This opera, like all of Puccini's, is an artfully constructed work, perhaps his most profound. As I wrote at the previous Met staging:

Puccini's Manon Lescaut makes it not only over the sea but thereby, in the fourth act, beyond human society altogether. The effect is perhaps not even as "Italian" as it is modern -- at least as remarkably so as the Wagnerian influence on the score.

Puccini and his gaggle of librettists and script doctors -- who here assembled perhaps (along with La Forza del Destino) the most unfairly-maligned libretto in the canon -- set up the contrast of this "desert" finale with an extraordinary set of three preceding acts. They do not, of course, tell a thorough story (only Acts II and III straightforwardly follow each other, and it's in this least eventful gap that Puccini put the opera's intermezzo). But each enacts the characteristic action of the opera (and maybe of opera itself) -- Manon becoming, as she needs, the center of an attentive crowd -- in ever-less-innocent (and ever-more-striking) form. Puccini repeatedly and memorably juxtaposes the soloists' own expressions (particularly Manon's) with a watchful chorus' background. He of course used the chorus in other memorable ensembles later, but never as repeatedly and singlemindedly as for Manon Lescaut. When it's wholly gone, at the end, the absence is stunning, almost incomprehensible: in a sense, that's the true (and fatal) desert.

She must be innocent at the beginning, whether that would be likely in a real-life example or not, because Puccini calls back to that innocence as both immediate (in musical echo) and large-scale (in the progression of the acts) contrast. With Opolais's Manon bizarrely vamping even at the initial flight, there's no light to contrast with the greed, desperation, and death that follow.

Second, focusing on Manon's likely psychology ignores Des Grieux's -- and the audience's. He never sees her innocent first love, never witnesses flashes of it on later meetings (though she still sings about it, as the text and music haven't changed), so what keeps him attached to her even as everything else around her becomes wretched? Even worse, why should we in the audience feel sympathy for the comeuppance of a thorough narcissist? The production's only answer seems to be something along the lines of "she's hot".

Third, the lack of contrasting elements gives Kristine Opolais pitifully little to work with. Perhaps a different soprano might have come up with something else to play up, but deprived of her character's most obvious inner conflict Opolais ended up giving the same energetic but joyless one-note stage performance in every act.

*     *     *
Looking more closely at Eyre's direction of Opolais brings us to what may be the main issue: the overall conceit. What surprised me throughout this opening night was how a production that looked so tantalizing in the promotional glimpses could end up so lifeless. The problem, it turns out is that "film noir" is a fruitful conceit for set and costume design ideas, but an empty one for stage direction. You can dress your soprano as an old Hollywood femme fatale, but you can't in any useful way carry over physical presentation from film into an art where singers are seen from a fixed perspective at rather long distance while projecting their voices into a huge, if resonant, space. And yet the incoherent emptiness of the stage interaction suggests that Eyre and his associates were content to limit personal direction to some failed stabs in that direction.

Nor is the directorial failure merely one of doing too little: in the middle acts it's Eyre's additions that step on Puccini's story. The Act II dance lesson is given a hugely cynical treatment, with Manon's admirers, (non-textual) dance partner, the dance, and Geronte himself rendered as unsympathetic lechers. As with Eyre's cynical take on Manon, this is somewhat plausible psychological extrapolation that is contrary to both the opera's text and its sense. For this scene intentionally echoes the audience's own experience of the opera, and to have the viewers - and viewership itself! - therein shown as wholly contemptible and held by the heroine in contempt is pure poison. (In the 2008 run Mattila's irrepressible thrill in their admiration, as shallow as it and they may have been, contrarily made instant sense of Manon's tragedy and evergreen appeal.) Act III is a simpler failure. Here the team had apparently spent so much effort on the costumes and brazenness of the prostitutes that they allowed this business to hide and sideline the here-drab heroine.

We are a long, long way from the ultra-specific acuity of Eyre's Carmen and even Figaro. Perhaps it's just having fewer and less explicit events to work with than in those operas - most of the stuff we remember from Massenet's setting occurs between the acts. But the disparity in attention and achievement between the visual and human sides of the staging - opera as interior decoration - seems all too in line with the characteristic Gelb-era production, from the Lepage Ring to Kentridge's Lulu. There is a skeleton for a successful Manon Lescaut production here... But it would require a full overhaul of all the personenregie, probably without Eyre's involvement.

*     *     *
Musically, Luisi was excellent, as were singers in some of the smaller roles: Brandon Cedel as a Sargeant, Richard Bernstein as the Captain, and debuting 2015 Met Council winner Virginie Verrez, though debuting tenor Zach Borichevsky did not impress. Unfortunately the principals were less satisfying. Opolais was probably the best, but as strong as her well-grounded sound was through its bottom and middle, she went repeatedly flat on higher notes. Massimo Cavalletti was adequate but not particularly appealing, which leaves Roberto Alagna. Alagna's voice can more or less still sustain a weight sufficient for Puccini's Des Grieux, but only at the cost of a monochrome, ugly tone without steadiness or line. To be frank, he sounded finished, and though Gelb's decision to emergency sub Alagna in for the run after Kaufmann's cancellation might have prevented some pre-run ticket returns, it - barring some miracle after the opener - has done everyone a disservice.

The 2016-17 Met season announcement, annotated

Productions are in order; bold indicates a debut; I may have omitted some one-off cast combos. On the whole, there are some things to look forward to, but with Gelb going all in again on his favored Euro sopranos of a certain demeanor, it's a lot less appetizing than the current season. Good casts seem paired with poor productions and vice versa.

Tristan (new Mariusz Treliński production)
Stemme, Skelton, Gubanova, Nikitin, Pape / Rattle (September-October)
Stemme, Skelton, Gubanova, Nikitin, Pape / Fisch (October)
One of the successes of the late-Volpe era gets replaced by a director whose strength -- and, as this fits the Gelb director profile, I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised -- is in wallpaper and whose insight/interest in the human side is vestigial. Stemme and Pape are major cornerstones, but Skelton hasn't been inspiring. Simon Rattle may do well, but when might Daniele Gatti return after his stupendously concentrated Parsifals?

Don Giovanni
Keenlyside, Plachetka, Gerzmava, Byström, Malfi, Villazon, Rose, Youn / Luisi (September-October)
Abdrazakov, Rose, Byström, Majeski, Sierra, Vargas, Plachetka, Youn / Luisi (November)
Kwiecien, Schrott, Meade, Rebeka, Leonard, Polenzani, Cha, Kocán / Domingo (April-May)
The November cast -- with longtime Leporello Ildar Abdrazakov finally swapping to the title role -- is probably the pick of these, although the October 15 performance with Paul Appleby as Ottavio is also an option. Schrott's fantastic Leporello could make something of the spring cast... but Domingo's awful conducting makes that exceedingly unlikely.

La Boheme
Yoncheva, Phillips, Popov, Bizic, Pogossov, Green, Del Carlo / Rizzi (September-October)
Opolais, Kele, Beczala, Cavaletti, Carfizzi, Green/TBA, Del Carlo / Armiliato (November-December)
Pérez, Phillips, Fabiano, Arduini, Lavrov, Van Horn, Del Carlo / Rizzi (January)
Carlo Rizzi is conducting again at the Met!? Ukrainian tenor Dmytro Popov and Romanian soprano Brigitta Kele debut in different casts. The most notable combo may be the last: Michael Fabiano's last Rodolfo here was not only great in itself, but seemed to take decades of age and cynicism off of Angela Gheorghiu as Mimi. Perhaps he can similarly inspire fellow Tucker winner Ailyn Perez.

L'Italiana in Algieri
DeShong, Barbera, Alaimo, Abdrazakov / Levine (October)
Elizabeth DeShong goes from bit parts to the title part in this Rossini revival, opposite veteran wonder Ildar Abdrazakov and 2008 Met Council winner Rene Barbera.

Guillaume Tell (new Pierre Audi production)
Rebeka, Brugger, Pizzolato, Hymel, Finley, Spotti, Youn, Relyea / Luisi (October-November)
The strong cast -- led by Bryan Hymel (except for one night, November 2, where it's John Osborn) finally again in his element as Arnold -- and rarity of this Rossini opera would make it an obvious highlight if not for the weakness of Audi's previous Met production. That Attila was at least watchable, however, so this show can probably survive.

Jenufa
Dyka, Mattila, Schwarz, Brenna, Kaiser / Robertson (October-November)
For a dozen years, Karita Mattila was the unacknowledged raison d'être of the Metropolitan Opera, returning year after year to repeatedly re-embody the secret of tragic opera -- the excess of life and spirit that pushes back against awful circumstance -- in runs that were as significant as they were (generally) under-promoted. This ended with spring 2012's run of The Makropulos Case. Four-plus years later, Mattila returns in an opera and production she triumphed in twice... but she's now in the older-woman role of the Kostelnička. (You can see Mattila in this new part in San Francisco this summer.) Interestingly, another long-absent singer -- Hanna Schwarz, once a regular with the house Ring company, who has in fact been gone since 2002 -- returns to sing the Grandmother. Unfortunately Jiri Bělohlávek, Mattila's great collaborator in the pit, does not return. But David Robertson will surely do better in Janacek than in Mozart... right?

Aida
Monastyrska, Gubanova, Berti, Delavan, Belosselskiy, Howard / Armiliato (November)
Moore, Gubanova, Berti, Delavan, Belosselskiy, Howard / Armiliato (November-December)
Stoyanova, Urmana, de Leon, Gagnidze, Morris, Howard / Rustioni (March-April)
Stoyanova/Moore, Urmana, Massi, Gagnidze, Morris, Howard / Rustioni (April)
Liudmyla Monastyrska and Latonia Moore have already sung the title part at the Met: the former did not impress but the latter apparently did. Marco Berti is probably miscast as Radames, though I know nothing about alternate tenors Riccardo Massi, who's sung one performance at the Met, and Jorge de Leon, who's sung none.

Manon Lescaut
Netrebko, Álvarez, Maltman, Sherratt / Armiliato (November-December)
Marcelo Alvarez should bring something to this stillborn production (full review soon), but I'd be surprised if Anna Netrebko could fix its many title-character-related issues.

L'Amour de Loin (Met premiere production by Robert Lepage)
Phillips, Mumford, Owens / Mälkki (December)
Excellent cast for an iffy opera and show.

Salome
Naglestad, Herrera, Siegel, Wang, Lučić / Debus (December)
German-based American soprano Catherine Naglestad has had success with the title part abroad and heads a promising cast. (Like many New Yorkers, though, what I'd really like to see is whether Gun-Brit Barkmin could repeat her recent triumph in a fully staged version). Greer Grimsley sings Jochanaan on the run's final night.

Nabucco
Monastyrska, Barton, Thomas, Domingo, Belosselskiy / Levine (December-January)
Melnychenko, Herrera, Diegel, Lučić, Belosselskiy / Levine (Dec 27)
Levine and the chorus have already made this show work with lesser principals. Lucic also has one show with the main cast on Dec 30.

Roméo et Juliette (new Bartlett Sher production)
Damrau, Verrez, Grigolo, Madore, Petrenko / Noseda (NYE-January)
Yende, Murrihy, Costello, Wang, Rose / Noseda (March)
As in this season's Pearl Fishers, Amanda Woodbury is scheduled for one night (Jan 25) with the initial cast. That night aside, the March cast looks on the whole more promising from top to bottom.

Magic Flute (family version in English)
Claire/Brugger, Pratt, Bliss/TBA, Maltman, Shenyang, Robinson / Walker (December-January)
Claire, Lewek, Bliss, Maltman, Shenyang, Robinson / Walker (December-January)
Kathryn Lewek is the best Queen of the Night I've ever heard. But of course I haven't heard Aussie (by way of England and Italy) soprano Jessica Pratt...

Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Yende, Camarena, Mattei, Muraro, Petrenko / Benini (January)
Yende, Korchak, Mattei, Muraro/Lanchas, Petrenko/Gradus / Benini (January-February)
It's characteristic of the Gelb regime's misallocation of roles and promotional opportunities that Peter Mattei, the definitive Don Giovanni and Onegin of our era (not to mention Amfortas or Wolfram), appears this season only in a part he's not particularly good at: Rossini's Figaro. And I'm sure he and Yende and Benini will provide some fun... but it's still a waste.

Carmen
Koch, Agresta, Álvarez, Ketelsen / Ettinger (January)
Margaine, Agresta/Brugger, Álvarez, Ketelsen/Simpson / Ettinger/Langree (February)
Sophie Koch, nondescript in her debut as Massenet's Charlotte, alternates with another French mezzo, Clémentine Margaine, in the title part. Micaela is also the second scheduled part this season for Janai Brugger, standout winner of the 2012 Met Council Finals.

Rigoletto
Lučić, Peretyatko, Volkova, Costello, Mastroni / Morandi (January-February)
Lučić, Peretyatko, Herrera, Calleja, Kocán / Morandi (April)
Solid revival of a solid show. Debuting conductor and former La Scala oboist Pier Giorgio Morandi seems to have a career primarily of traveling around conducting Italian operas, though that doesn't really indicate quality either way.

Rusalka (new Mary Zimmerman production)
Opolais, Dalayman, Barton, Jovanovich, Owens / Elder (February-March)
I have a rather sour opinion of Opolais from last week's poor Manon Lescaut, but the rest of this show looks quite good.

I Puritani
Damrau, Camarena, Markov, Pisaroni / Benini (February)
If you think Diana Damrau is a convincing fragile bel canto heroine, you'll love this. I've not, however, seen evidence to that effect.

Werther
Grigolo, Christy, Leonard, Bizic / Gardner (February-March)
Borras, Christy, Leonard, Pershall / Gardner (March 9)
Italian mezzo Veronica Simenoni debuts with a single performance as Charlotte on February 23. Perhaps she or Isabel Leonard can give this romance-novel daydream of an opera some spirit.

La Traviata
Yoncheva, Fabiano, Hampson / Luisotti (February-March)
Giannattasio, Fabiano, Hampson / Luisotti (March)
Giannattasio, Ayan, Petean / Luisotti (March-April)
Giannattasio, Ayan, Domingo / Luisotti (April)
With Michael Fabiano singing Alfredo and Nicola Luisotti back for the first time since his 2010 Fanciulla triumph, the musical side of this revival is pretty appetizing. It nevertheless remains the worst production in the Met's repertoire.

Idomeneo
Polenzani, Sierra, van den Heever, Coote, Opie / Levine
Not hugely confident in the overall cast, but Levine in Mozart is pure magic when things work. Lindemann soprano Ying Fang sings one performance instead of Sierra on March 17.

Fidelio
Pieczonka, Müller, Vogt, Portillo, Grimsley, Struckmann, Groissböck/Morris / Weigle (March-April)
Klaus Florian Vogt had a Met debut that almost defied belief: a never-to-be-forgotten pair of Lohengrins... in 2006. Whether because of casting politics, the failure of the press, the unearthly character of his voice, or his own travel preferences, Vogt's second Met engagement will be almost eleven years later. I'm not sure Florestan is the best part for him; nor am I sure of the rest of the cast. But this revival is something of an event.

Eugene Onegin
Hvorostovsky, Netrebko, Maximova, Dolgov, Kocán / Ticciati (March-April)
Anna Netrebko was a sullen, blank failure in the 2013 premiere of this production, and Elena Maximova was the worse of the Olgas that season. Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Stefan Kocan have, on the other hand, excelled as Onegin and as Gremin respectively. Which will set the show's tone? I suppose I'd have a better guess if I'd seen Robin Ticciati's only Met outing to date, the 2011 holiday run of Hansel&Gretel.

Der Rosenkavalier (new Robert Carsen production)
Fleming, Garanča, Morley, Groissböck, Polenzani, Brück / Levine
The allure of another Robert Carsen production (he's 2-for-2 on masterpieces at the Met) is greatly offset by a topsy-turvy cast. The Marschallin should be cool and Octavian fiery, but Fleming and Garanca are the reverse... not to mention how past it Fleming sounded in her last Met show (2014-15's Merry Widow). Morley should be OK and Polenzani better, but Levine has never been a good fit for this opera's lightness.

Der Fliegende Holländer
Volle, Wagner, Zajick, Morris, Bliss, Selig / Nézet-Séguin (April-May)
One of the few unqualified must-sees. Amber Wagner scored big here some seasons ago in Verdi, but she finally, a decade after her 2007 Met Council Finals win, gets a run in one of the parts for which she was destined. Add Michael Volle as the Dutchman and Yannick Nezet-Seguin in the pit? Great.

Cyrano de Bergerac
Alagna, Racette, Ayan, Frontali / Armiliato (May)
Speaking of old, both Roberto Alagna and Patricia Racette are already 50 and will be more than a year older when this revival appears. Men don't have menopause, but Alagna was struggling mightily in Manon Lescaut this month. The show was great fun with Domingo and Sondra Radvanovsky (unaccountably missing from the 2016-17 schedule); expect less this time.

50th Anniversary Gala
I'm not too pleased by the current lineup for this celebration of the New Met, and Crouch's work for the company 125th had both brilliance and inanity, but it's probably obligatory.

Is that all there is?

Lulu - Metropolitan Opera, 11/17/2015
Petersen, Reuter, Brenna, Graham, Groves, Grundheber / Koenigs

I'm not sure what was more disappointing: having my operagoing last fall be interrupted by mild but persistent health troubles or coming back to this new production. William Kentridge's Lulu was as inert and obfuscatory as his Nose five-and-a-half years ago was alive and illuminating. It was so poorly judged, in fact, that the earlier success seems quite tarnished.

Many of the surface features from the Shostakovich triumph were repeated here: hand-animated film backgrounds, non-naturalistic foreground acting, and the overall visual construction of the experience carried over. But Lulu is absolutely not the Nose. Both are, of course, products of the interwar period and broadly classifiable as modernist. But Shostakovich's opera is (as one might expect from a piece written in and for a world that went from the courtly constriction and autocracy of Imperial Russia straight to the peer-enforced mass-delusional kakocracy that is Communism) a piece that shows social position and role to be supreme and values, personal feeling, and logic itself to be transient or hopeless. In this aesthetic world the flatness and literal cutout nature of the individual players -- brilliantly highlighted by Kentridge's visual design -- is and accentuates the joke. Alban Berg's Lulu, on the other hand, is in a much more familiar modernist vein: here (as in Shostakovich's other familiar opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk) it's the compulsions within each man -- for domination, sex, and murder -- that are supreme. It demands, as it got at the last Met revival, vivid individuals.

What we got from Kentridge, of course, was the same flattening, de-individuating, and trivializing presentation of his last Met show. It's not clear whether this is because he's basically a one-trick pony or because he (like Ring-director Robert Lepage) was altogether uninterested in the nonvisual side of the production and left it to his colleague, here co-director Luc de Wit (a Belgian of seemingly run-of-the-mill Eurononsense inclinations). In either case, Lulu's tragedy thereby got presented as pure nihilistic comedy... a wretched fit for both text and music.

The wasted opportunity was tremendous, for Marlis Petersen -- who's apparently given up singing Lulu going forward -- was, if anything, an even greater exponent of the killer title role than in the great 2010 revival of John Dexter's now-superseded production. Even next to parodies of Lulu's appeal, Petersen's command of her character's moods and vocal lines was notable throughout. She lacked a foil, however, as Johan Reuter (so effective as Barak two seasons back) was here simply buried under the intentionally ugly outfits and deflating stage bits given to Dr. Schön. Perhaps James Morris (the unexpected star of the last revival) could have made an impression through and despite a production intent on making him ridiculous instead of Lulu's great adversary, but Reuter could not.

Lothar Koenigs deputized well on short notice after James Levine's cancellation, and Susan Graham made much of her opportunities as Geschwitz. (Incidentally, the ridiculous subtitle bowdlerization at the end remains.) More's the pity.

Pearls two ways

So I came back to the draft list and it's amazing how many reviews I have half-written in there. But first...

Pearl Fishers - Metropolitan Opera, 1/8/2016
Damrau, Polenzani, Kwiecien, Teste / Noseda

Pearl Fishers - Metropolitan Opera, 2/4/2016
Woodbury, Polenzani, Kwiecien, Teste / Walker

I'm sure anyone with an interest has gotten to see Penny Woolcock's new production on the screen if not in person, but it was a big factor in this show's commercial success. Woolcock offers both the striking and the detailed, but keeps them apart. The show begins in water (with a lovely rework of the "swimming" harnesses and moving projections from the early Gelb era), has scene transitions in water (more projections), and ends in fire (actual fires, a Met specialty). The action itself occurs on stable, textured, regular constructions, with only hints -- lights, a cigarette ad, a lovely wave effect on a cloth "sea" -- of the elemental forces that bracket it. There isn't deep meaning to it, but the effect bits are well done and the detailed, non-monolithic set bits are a welcome balm for much of the audience.

The original cast all delivered slightly different things. Tenor Matthew Polenzani was the only real exponent of the lyric side of the show, delivering a fine solo romance as well as a nice but still-warming-up half of the famous tenor-baritone duet. Mariusz Kwieicien, whose recent work here has been at best uninspiring, similarly took some warming up but was excellent in the confrontational rage of the latter acts -- a welcome success, though the acoustically friendly full-stage wall behind him in his confrontation with Leila certainly helped. As Leila, Diana Damrau's often too-clever fluency didn't -- as I feared -- get in the way of the show's romantic rapture, but neither did it really assist its flow. Nor was she in fact really that fluent: the hitches weren't enough to jar those there to experience a name, but neither did they allow the virtuosic pleasure in surmounting difficulty that was the original basis for her recognition. Still she and conductor Gianandrea Noseda, whose skill at excitement meshed poorly with the alternating oceanic-pastoral and rapture of the start, seemed to perk up in the clearer atmosphere of the last act's confrontation, and there combined with Kwiecien to deliver the charge of good opera.

*     *     *
The final night's two changes altered the whole dynamic. Two seasons ago, Amanda Woodbury was a Met Council winner. Last season, the young American soprano nearly stole the Don Carlo revival (one of the great ones, when Lee was able to sing and play off Frittoli, but more on that elsewhere I suppose) as Elisabetta's page Tebaldo. This season, she returned here as a cover-plus-one for Leila, and was pretty glorious.

Whatever Woodbury ends up singing (and so far her roles -- this, Konstanze, Donna Anna, Musetta -- seem to fit the lighter dramatic-coloratura I heard at the Council Finals), what should make her a star is the timbre of her upper-middle notes. Sure, she has other important prerequisites -- carrying power, vocal flexibility (with prepared and unprepared trills), stage presence, and, to be frank, looks -- but those are really the delivery vehicle for an unusually vivid and transparently emotion-bearing sound that stands out in the most pleasant way. The very top notes are big and by now nicely integrated, but aren't the main course... and Woodbury currently has the habit, common among (too?) well-schooled young Americans, of not using chest tones at all, leaving no low notes to really speak of. But what's in between is as striking in this full show as it was in her short sing last season.

At least as importantly for this event (and, I suppose, her future prospects), Woodbury seems much more naturally attuned to the ebb and flow of rapt feeling demanded here (and in most romantic opera leads) than her more famous predecessor. The emotional shapes sat as well in her phrases as in her voice, finally allowing the first-act tension with the crowd and the tenor to cohere into an eloquent story. The latter acts were, in this new whole, more poignant as well, not merely exciting (though they were that).

That's not to discount the importance of the last night's other change. Australian conductor Antony Walker, who'd already done one performance in this run, conveyed a firmer sense of the underlying beat than Noseda, thereby giving the performers more room to stray without losing the overall continuity. His work, and Woodbury's, and that of Polenzani -- now suddenly not alone in foregrounding the lyric-pastoral-romantic strain in the piece -- made for a memorable night of sensibility... and perhaps as auspicious an unheralded lead-role-debut as Sondra Radvanovsky's Luisa Miller triumph fifteen years back.

A suddenly promising show

So, as you may have noticed, the Met's Tosca casts through November 2 now look rather different. Out: Massimo Giordano and (crucially) excellent-singer-turned-bad-conductor Placido Domingo. In: Roberto Aronica and Paolo Carignani, the latter taking this on between runs of Turandot and Boheme. The four shows led by Carignani (the start of the revival tomorrow night has Marco Armiliato, who's been less than inspired in two shows already this month) include Angela Gheorghiu's two scheduled nights at the Met this season. Gheorghiu was absolutely inspired in her two Puccini nights last season, and though I suspect it won't be the same without Michael Fabiano (her tenor partner for those Bohemes), October 29 and November 2 are probably now deserve a hearing.

Connective tissue

Il Trovatore - Metropolitan Opera, 10/7/2015
Lee, Netrebko, Zajick, Bilyy, Kocán / Armiliato

Funny thing about this revival: the big questions posed in the season preview turned out well... but the show was still hit and miss, probably not as satisfying on the whole as the relatively star-free casts of 2012-13.

Leonora is actually a very good role for Anna Netrebko, who has long been too unrefined for bel canto but nevertheless can't quite fill real lung-buster roles like Lady Macbeth. Here the technical demands seem both liberating (there's none of the self-indulgent stage business with which she occupied herself in her lighter-role days) and quite manageable, and the scale of her sound is just right. Dolora Zajick, after a rough debut run in the new production, is singing within her limitations and after decades of owning the part still interpretively delivers a near-authoritative Azucena. Meanwhile the remaining voices are strong all around, including Ukrainian baritone Vitaliy Bilyy, who has a more conventionally-shaped Verdi baritone sound than Hvorostovsky. But whether because of the conductor, the revival director, the specifics of the cast, or all of the above, the whole lacks the charging-ahead quality that has been the defining appeal and connective matter of this McVicar production since its 2009 premiere.

My guess is that it's not revival stage director Paula Williams, who's previously handled successful Trovatores including fall 2012 and winter 2013. More likely responsible is Marco Armiliato, whose always competent, singer-friendly regularity does not mesh well with the particular aesthetic of this production, and in fact threatens to turn Trovatore from the most essential of operas back into the jolly/silly collection of famous tunes that has for a long time been its caricature in the public mind. Most hurt - or, to put it another way, most needing a more urgent hand in the pit - are bass Stefan Kocan, known more for his long eloquence than the narrative impetus that is Ferrando's part here, and Anna Netrebko, who (like Renee Fleming) doesn't maintain a strong underlying sense of time in her slower singing. And so the great, driving, confrontational ensembles of the first acts never quite caught fire.

What did work unqualifiedly was Act III, where tenor Yonghoon Lee nailed the back-to-back benchmarks for the Verdian spinto: slow, eloquent, and melancholy in "Ah, si ben mio", and driving with (militarily unwise) rage in "Di quella pira" - where he skipped the repeat, but with such grand high notes (he sang both syllables of "all'armi") that it would be foolish to complain.

The last moment of innocence

Anna Bolena - Metropolitan Opera, 10/5/2015
Radvanovsky, Barton, Costello, Abdrazakov, Mumford, Crawford / Armiliato

A star vehicle - which this opera is, though it's full of moments for all leads - doesn't quite reveal itself until a revival like this, with a soprano equipped for extremes of sound and drama and the large-scale deployment of both. As it did in Norma, however, Sondra Radvanovsky's presence can expose the shortcomings of those who are nevertheless pretty good.

Not that Radvanovsky herself was perfect. She didn't really warm up until the last scene of Act I, seemingly as uneasy as Anne herself while she waits for the other shoe to drop. But as the trap springs, and the opera transforms into a series of duet/confrontations, both she and her voice lock into the awful course of events with stupendous effect. Act II begins with Radvanovsky outshouting Jamie Barton and ends with a tour-de-force of quiet singing (topped off with, of course, more fireworks) in a mad scene that makes little sense absent the moment-seizing tragic charge and tragic finality that was the reason for this opera's birth. (Giuditta Pasta, the first Anna Bolena as well as the first Norma, was as famous a tragedienne as one can find in operatic history.) A good start to her star Met season.

Stephen Costello, as in the original run, was more impressive for his well-textured middle part of his voice than his higher forays, though whatever ailment forced him to cancel the previous performance may still have been afflicting him. The other returning singers make as fine an impression as last time: Abdrazakov's firmness as Henry VIII actually won him some villain boos at curtain, and Tamara Mumford is still a glorious clarion sound for the small role of Mark Smeaton. David Crawford as Anne's brother doesn't quite have Keith Miller's presence, but was strong in his small part.

The main change was this year's Tucker winner Jamie Barton as Jane Seymour. She actually already sang the part opposite Radvanovsky's Anne in Chicago last year, and their Act II duet was the barn-burner you'd expect. But as thrilling as it is to have an obvious next woman up in the lineage of big, loud American mezzos, Barton underdelivered in the starring opportunity that follows. Here Jane - pleading for Anne's life to an unsympathetic Henry, and reacting to his refusal - gets to show genuine pathos, regret, and command of both a long slow line and the more elaborate displays of the finale. Barton had - as on the rest of the night - a big sound, but the nuances of rhythm, line, and feeling were lacking.

I think conductor Marco Armiliato has to take some of the blame, though. Sometimes his solid, singer-sympathetic conducting is just the thing (he gives Radvanovsky a nice solid base to make the twists and turns of the final scene hold together), but for certain parts of the evening - particularly this scene and the following between Percy and Anne's brother Rochefort - Armiliato's insistence on regularity of tone, rhythm, and phrase just steamrolls the deeper communicative potential of Donizetti's music. He was probably better for this than for Trovatore (more on that elsewhere), but I'm glad that Riccardo Frizza is conducting the next installment in this series.

*     *     *
What we see in this vivid representation of the story is this: Anne begins the opera fretting about the future with good reason... she doesn't really have one. Instead she is pushed backwards in time, put face to face again with her old flame Percy and then with her own act of usurpation (from the first wife, Catherine of Aragon). Finally, at the end no longer a participant in the slow-motion mortal combat of the court but its helpless victim, she returns - if only briefly - to the last point of innocent joy, or rather just as she fatally steps away from it and towards ambition. But to hear that lost joy sounded - even in madness and memory - at the end by as significant a voice as Radvanovsky's makes all the gloom before and after worth it... to us if not to her.

Violetta's out-of-town getaway

As interesting as some of the start-of-the-Met-season offerings are and promise to be, I'm maybe most looking forward to renewing live acquaintance elsewhere with an old, absent friend: Verdi's La Traviata. With the abominably foolish and bathetic Decker production monopolizing the local stage since 2011, it seems up to Opera Philadelphia, director Paul Curran, and Met Council winners Lisette Oropesa (2005) and Alek Shrader (2007) to actually tell Verdi and Piave's story (visually updated to 1950).

The show opens tomorrow and runs through next Sunday.

The exploiter

Otello - Metropolitan Opera, 9/21/2015
Antonenko, Yoncheva, Lučić, Pittas / Nézet-Séguin

My guess before opening night wasn't far off: everyone pretty good, only Lucic really better than that among the singers, in a production that does a lot of what the previous one did but in Gelb's house aesthetic.

Antonenko has the right (big) physical presence for the part and warmed up nicely for the latter acts, but the first act really demands more ease with high notes than he has. (The brighter instrument of Botha really worked there.) Yoncheva is lovely and hit all her musical/dramatic cues, but is a trifle cool to really triumph in the last acts.

Sher's production, too, is good enough and without any huge flaws. The fluid scene changes from Es Devlin's moving set elements are nice, though when the bed first appears (Act 2, I think?) it's not secured to the ground - Antonenko almost rolled it around when he sat down in a daze. The clean-but-busy physical spectacle highlights Iago's role as a rather impressive plotter, which suits Lucic well. In the program-book piece, Sher talks about incorporating Ibsen and the conflict between "the old, Christian way against the newer, scientific way of thinking"... and it's Iago who represents the latter. Unburdened by moral scruples or categories, he's able to see how some relatively innocuous deceptions can be strung together into a massive system failure. So one expects him to be cool and fluent and mellifluous in company, which Lucic (the best voice of the group) is, and more nihilistic than purely enraged even in his private hatred, which certainly suits Lucic's temperament.

The odd projection before Act III seemed pointless, but wasn't harmful, while borrowing Carsen's letter scene setup for Act IV was actually a really good idea. Nezet-Seguin guided the ebb and flow and climaxes of the score very well. Let's come back to this with an outstanding Otello or Desdemona.

The 2015-2016 season in preview

So we begin tonight. I've tried to write out all the multiple-night casts, but there may be one-offs not listed here.

Otello (new Bartlett Sher production)
Antonenko, Yoncheva, Lučić, Pittas / Nézet-Séguin (September-October)
Antonenko, Gerzmava, Lučić, Dolgov / Fischer (April-May)
Moshinsky's grand old production of this late-Verdi tragedy finally gives way to yet another Bart Sher show. But though Sher and Antonenko and Yoncheva (and indeed Nezet-Seguin) may not end up hitting their respective nails on the head, they'll almost certainly do basically well. On the other hand Zeljko Lucic, who's been inclined to duck the harder, villainous side of his characters, seems a boom-or-bust choice for Iago. Let's hope for boom tonight.

Turandot
Goerke, Álvarez, Gerzmava, Morris / Carignani (September-October 3)
Lindstrom, Álvarez/Eyvazov, Crocetto/Gerzmava, Morris / Carignani (Late Oct-November)
Stemme, Berti, Hartig/Crocetto, Tsymbalyuk / Carignani (January)
Besides the above medley of casts in this famous, over-the-top Zeffirelli production, there are one-off performances by Jennifer Wilson and Hao Jiang Tian on November 12. Liu seems an odd debut role for 2010 Met Council winner Leah Crocetto, but the stand-and-sing show might suit her powerful, flexible soprano.

Il Trovatore
Lee, Netrebko, Zajick, Hvorostovsky, Kocán / Armiliato (September-October 3)
Lee/Palombi, Netrebko, Zajick, Bilyy, Kocán / Armiliato (October)
Giordani, Meade, Zajick, Hvorostovsky, Youn / Armiliato (February)
Plusses: spinto sensation Yonghoon Lee in a new part; Hvorostovsky's determination to sing di Luna between courses of brain cancer treatment; a pair of excellent Ferrandos; McVicar's always-welcome production. Question marks: Netrebko in Verdi again (to be fair, Leonora is not the brute sing that Lady Macbeth was); an older Zajick reprising the signature role of her prime (though she actually did better in 2012 than in the 2009 production premiere).

Anna Bolena
Radvanovsky, Costello, Abdrazakov, Barton, Mumford / Armiliato (September, Oct. 1&5, January)
Radvanovsky, Stayton, Abdrazakov, Nikolic/Barton, Mumford / Armiliato (Oct. 9&13)
The showdown that should have happened but didn't in Norma two years ago appears every night but one here, as Sondra Radvanovsky and Jamie Barton take up the parts of Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour. The rest of the cast basically returns from the original season for this first of Radvanovsky's three-queen season.

Tannhäuser
Botha, DeYoung, Westbroek, Mattei, Groissböck / Levine (October)
It's been over a decade since the last revival of this early Wagner opera (with DeYoung as Venus then too), and almost two decades since the last revival with Levine. Very strong cast this time, not least Peter Mattei as Wolfram.

Tosca
Dyka, Giordano, Frontali/Lučić / Domingo (October)
Gheorghiu, Giordano, Lučić / Domingo (Oct. 29, Nov. 2)
Guleghina, Giordani, Lučić/Morris / Domingo/Colaneri (Nov. 6&11)
Dyka, Giordani, Morris / Colaneri/Domingo (November)
Monastyrska, Aronica, Vratogna / Colaneri (Nov. 25&28, Dec. 1)
Well, it looks like this is the revival that Domingo's way-below-par conducting will deflate this season. Too bad, though no tenor/soprano combinations really stand out either. (Wasn't too pleased with Monastyrska as Aida, but the nervous character of her sound could suit Tosca better.)

Rigoletto
Gagnidze, Peretyatko, Costello, Leoson, Kocán / Heras-Casado (October-November)
Lučić, Peretyatko, Beczala, Leoson, Kocán / Heras-Casado (November)
Lučić, Sierra, Beczala/Borras, Herrera, Ivashchenko / Abbado (December)
Olga Peretyatko returns after a successful debut in Puritani, sharing the soprano part with 2009 Met Council winner Nadine Sierra. While Beczala and the two baritones have featured in this hit production before, these are Stephen Costello's first Dukes at the Met.

Lulu (new William Kentridge production)
Petersen, Reuter, Brenna, Graham, Groves, Grundheber / Levine (November-December)
Great cast (Marlis Petersen has already succeeded as Lulu), a second Kentridge production, Levine in the pit... Artistic triumph wouldn't be a surprise, but commercial success with this glorious score would be a real coup. (American tenor Daniel Brenna debuts as Alwa.)

La Bohème
Frittoli, Martínez, Vargas, Molnar, Lavrov, Van Horn, Del Carlo / Carignani (November-December)
Agresta/Hong, Phillips, Hymel/Borras, Kelsey, Pershall, Sim, Del Carlo / Ettinger (January)
Agresta, Pérez, Hymel, Molnar, Arduini, Tagliavini, Del Carlo / Ettinger (April-May)
Maria Agresta (who seems to be a dramatic coloratura) crosses the Atlantic for the first time to debut in Zef's evergreen Boheme (sharing Mimi with familiar veterans Barbara Frittoli and Hei-Kyung Hong). I'm not sure why Bryan Hymel is back in this, though: as great as he was in the heroic part of Enee, he's no lyric tenor, and last season's Rodolfos didn't flatter him at all. (Perhaps midseason reshuffling will bring us more Michael Fabiano appearances.)

Die Fledermaus
Phillips, Spence, Crowe, Pittas, Graham, Szot, Opie / Levine (December-January)
I'm not sure even James Levine's conducting and Susan Graham's Orlovsky can save this dog of a production, which conflates old Vienna with inter-war Weimar and various Yiddish tropes in a confused, unfunny mess. Perhaps if Susan Stroman (whose well-oiled machine of a Merry Widow was last season's surprise) gets dragged in to rewrite and re-direct the whole damn thing... Susanna Phillips wasn't so great in the original 2013-14 run, either - not sure whether it was the time (she was fantastic in her appearances last season) or the part.

La Donna del Lago
DiDonato, Barcellona, Brownlee, Osborn, Gradus / Mariotti (December)
Last season's cast with Brownlee in place of Florez. Could be fun.

Barber of Seville
Madore, Leonard, Portillo/Stayton, Lanchas, Pomakov / Walker (December-January)
Pershall, Costa-Jackson, Stayton, Lanchas, Pomakov / Walker (Dec. 29&Jan. 1)
If serious Rossini isn't to your taste, this comedic Rossini will be done in a "Holiday" (kids') edition this season, abridged in English.

Les Pêcheurs de Perles (new Penny Woolcock production)
Damrau, Polenzani, Kwiecień, Testé / Noseda/Walker (Dec. 31-February)
I haven't much enjoyed Mariusz Kwiecien's work of late, but he and Polenzani did, a decade ago, give us one of the great Cosi runs. Not sure Damrau's chilly/studied manner will suit the soprano part, either. Amanda Woodbury, a glorious Tebaldo in last season's Don Carlo revival, will get one show in place of Damrau on February 4.


Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci
Urmana, Lee, Maestri, Frittoli, Alagna, Gagnidze, Lavrov / Luisi (January-February)
Monastyrska, Lee/Tamura, Maestri, Frittoli, Alagna, Gagnidze, Pogossov / Luisi (February)
This excellent McVicar production from last season is revived with more stars... though I'm surprised Ricardo Tamura (whom I did like as Cavaradossi) got brought back after his Don Carlo nightmare this spring.

Maria Stuarda
Radvanovsky, van den Heever, Albelo, Carfizzi, Youn / Frizza (January-February)
This second installment of the Donizetti trilogy from McVicar was a great success on its debut. I don't doubt that Radvanovsky can command the ecstatic length of concentration that made DiDonato's triumph on the part, but her collaborators here are mostly different. Most notably, new tenor Celso Albelo makes his house debut as Leicester and Riccardo Frizza (in the pit for that Norma run) conducts.

Manon Lescaut (new Richard Eyre production)
Opolais, Kaufmann, Cavalletii, Sherratt / Luisi (February-March)
Finally, a really suitable part for Opolais - watching her youthful ambition try to play middle-aged nostalgia in La Rondine some seasons ago was painful. She and Kaufmann make a most promising lead pair for Puccini's dramatically brilliant modernizing of the old-French story.

Madama Butterfly
Hong, Giordano, Zifchak, Rucinski / Chichon (February-March)
Opolais, Alagna, Zifchak, Croft / Chichon (March-April 2)
Opolais, De Biasio, Zifchak, Croft / Chichon (April)
Baritone Artur Rucinski and conductor Karel Mark Chichon make their Met debuts among more familiar faces in this familiar production.

Le Nozze di Figaro
Petrenko, Hartig, Willis-Sørensen, Leonard, Pisaroni / Luisi (February-March)
Petrenko, Hartig, Majeski, Leonard, Pisaroni / Luisi (March)
Last season's season opener returns, with both of the impressive American substitute Countesses reappearing, Willis-Sorensen with a more emotionally responsive presence and Majeski with a grander voice. Luca Pisaroni (a notable Leporello and Figaro) finally gets promoted from servant to nobleman with a swap to the Count this time. I think I've (unintentionally) continued to miss Anita Hartig appearances, which should, barring illness, end here...

Don Pasquale
Maestri, Buratto, Camarena, Molnar/Lavrov / Benini (March)
Perhaps debuting soprano Eleonora Buratto can bring the humanity to Norina (and this opera) that Anna Netrebko never did. Ambrogio Maestri in the title role is inspired.

L'Elisir d'Amore
Kurzak, Grigolo, Plachetka, Corbelli / Mazzola (March)
Kurzak, Chang, Plachetka, Spagnoli / Mazzola/Colaneri (April)
The last revival of this recent Bart Sher production was stolen by Erwin Schrott's comic genius, but this editions may bring it more back to basics. Enrique Mazzola joins the parade of debuting conductors this season.

Roberto Devereux (new David McVicar production)
Radvanovsky, Garanča, Polenzani, Kwiecień / Benini (March-April)
McVicar's multi-season direction work and Radvanovsky's single-season traverse of these Donizetti operas in his productions finishes with this excellent cast.

Simon Boccanegra
Domingo, TBA/Haroutounian, Calleja, Furlanetto / Levine (April)
There's a good chance that, as in last season's Ernani, the combination of now-baritone Domingo and Levine (with two other first-class men) will provide the most classic Met experience of the season. As exciting a Verdi soprano as Lianna Haroutounian already is, I'm surprised that she hasn't been engaged for all the "TBA" dates as well. Unless Mattila or Harteros come back or something, I don't see any superior alternatives.

Elektra (new Patrice Chéreau production)
Stemme, Pieczonka, Meier, Owens / Salonen (April-May)
The cast should say it all, no? Perhaps this Elektra run will be as good as the last one was bad.

Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Shagimuratova, Kim, Appleby, Bliss, TBA, König, Stegmann / Levine (April-May)
Levine in Mozart with fresh principals and a big bass. What's not to like?

The retro moderns

Written on Skin - Mostly Mozart Festival, 8/15/2015
Purves, Hannigan, Mead / Gilbert

There was a lot of hype in Mostly Mozart's marketing of this US (staged) premiere. Not a shock, of course, but the degree to which George Benjamin's music and Katie Mitchell's staging lived up to this hype was both surprising and gratifying. Martin Crimp's libretto was the sticking point, though not a fatal one.

The strength of Crimp's contribution is its dual-time setting: as Benjamin's interview in the program notes suggests, this framing/distancing element releases the characters and action from the (relatively) recent obligation of versimilitude into the "spontaneity and dramatic immediacy" of story. The individuals who act are vaguely medieval (the sense of chronological/social distance is strong, the specifics - despite the illumination motif - not nearly so), while the observing "Angels" comment in the favored cant of today - pessimistic, feminist, against shame, obsessed with past infamies... This all-too-recognizable perspective risks turning the show into a smug sermon (gaining, in all likelihood, more praise now in exchange for quick oblivion later), but that outcome is deflected by a couple of additional factors. First, Mitchell's direction and Vicki Mortimer's set&costume design render the "Angels" with their own distancing specificity, as workers in a sterile office that rather amusingly recalls the Maloja Snake revival set from Clouds of Sils Maria (which I do realize the opera's Aix premiere - in this same production - pre-dates). Second, Crimp's authorial voice does come out pretty strongly, but it's not in the anachronism/ahistoricity of the frame nor the victimary resentment of the commentary, both of which seem like surface adaptation to suit more recent trends (which I'd call early and late postmodern respectively) in taste. What actually tells is the libretto's dead-serious engagement with classic modernist concerns: compulsion (particularly sexual), the artist's perogatives and his formalist foregrounding of ugly and/or awful material, etc., all of which make the 1900s more significant to this piece than the 1200s. Crimp is essentially faithful to this retro-modernism, avoiding the fate of the last modern/postmodern boundary opera I saw Alan Gilbert conduct in the city, which undermined itself with its self-refuting aesthetic mashup. This particular whole suggests nothing so much as a partially re-dressed Wozzeck - a bit antiquated now but a functional enough skeleton for musical drama.

The wonder, of course, is that Benjamin - a composition student of Messiaen - actually wrote a score that can stand comparison to Berg's masterpiece. One hearing (I haven't yet acquired the recording) can hardly unravel the specifics, but what most struck me was where Benjamin doesn't fail: the score lacks neither textural (common) nor rhythmic variety (depressingly uncommon); the vocal lines suit humans, "avoid[ing] the 'zigzagging' cliche of much contemporary vocal writing" (Benjamin's own words); and the scenes and interludes each have their own, strongly marked character. Benjamin finds interest where the libretto suggests cliche (the Protector, who could be dully one-dimensional, becomes the most interesting figure in the first parts because he alone, until Agnes's climactic declarations near the end, offers the confident pleasure of forward-moving rhythmic accompaniments) and adds unexpected bits of invention throughout while building the climaxes and turns the story demands.

Cast, orchestra, and conductor were excellent. I wouldn't hail Written on Skin as the great opera of today when it's so clearly in the aesthetic of a century ago... (Even the postmodernism with which its text flirts is long played out by now.) But it is a stunning piece of music, and a mixed but basically successful piece of theater.

Apollo

Daphne - Cleveland Orchestra, 7/15/2015
Hangler, Schager, Ernst, Maultsby, Anger / Welser-Möst

Remember the city's last notable concert presentation of Strauss, wherein Andris Nelsons and the Vienna Philharmonic brought not only a triumphant account of Salome, but revelatory new soprano Gun-Brit Barkmin in the title role? Well, this show wasn't really like that. An excellent night at the opera? Yes. Instant stardom? Not for the soprano, anyway...

Regine Hangler isn't, mind you, bad: in fact she has just about the right voice for Daphne, a sort of oversized clearish lyric instrument that recalled the great middle-European Strauss singers of old. But if timbre and scale are near-ideal, the rest isn't so great. Perhaps recalling the not-so-good side of the old days, Hangler's pitch on high notes started off dicey, firmed up in the middle, and unfortunately started to wander again near the end. Bearable, but her lack of musical/theatrical presence made things drag. Obviously Joseph Gregor didn't give Daphne the libretto support Hofmannsthal or Clemens Krauss would elsewhere provide, but Strauss's heroines still have to be the most interesting figures on stage, whether by voice or person or (ideally) both. Hangler made a decent tree, but not a very inspiring feminine ideal.

Norbert Ernst (Leukippos) was similar - decent enough, but not particularly interesting. He did set up a very amusing contrast with the other tenor Andreas Schager (Apollo), however. Ernst, as the shepherd stuck in Daphne's friend zone, is sort of short and not physically preposessing... while Schager, tall and striking, actually looks the part of Apollo. Nevertheless it was Schager's voice - specifically the thrillingly firm, youthful-dramatic tone of its middle - and not his appearance that was the highlight of the show. (I see he's already done Tristan and the Twilight Siegfried, which seem way premature. Let's hope he gives us the Strauss and lighter-Wagner parts for a while.)

*     *     *
It turns out that a Daphne where the most compelling of the three leads is Apollo works pretty well, as the setup complements the dramatic arc. Apollo's arrival in the story galvanizes the action as Schager's arrival on stage galvanized the performance, and when he leaves, the tension of the piece relaxes into tranquil transfiguration. Welser-Möst did well shaping the overall arc of the piece, and with the skilful help of the visiting Cleveland Orchestra, the local Concert Chorale of New York, and lively supporting singers who outshone two out of three principals (mezzo Nancy Maultsby as Gaea and bass Ain Anger as Peneios were particularly notable) brought out the glorious colors and moods of Strauss's pastoral.

*     *     *
One can see both the sonic and story lineage in this piece go backward and forward in Strauss's ouvre... As far as the latter goes, compare the woman/god/man triangles in Ariadne auf Naxos (1916), where the man has departed beforehand and the god entirely wins Ariadne to death-become-life; in this piece (1937), where man and god directly compete though both are rebuffed, leading to the man's death, the woman's transformation (in neither death nor life), and the god's renunciation; and in Die Liebe der Danae (1940), where man and god collaborate but the woman chooses the man, prompting the god's renunciation and the mortals' happiness in poverty.

Off topic: the sleeping prince's awakening

It's been five years since I wrote more than a line here about this publication's official off-topic topic: ABT's Veronika Part.

In that time, all too many of Part's lead performances have been dragged down by the use of New York native and recentish (2011) principal Cory Stearns as her primary ABT partner. As absent as she was present, as callow as she was wholly formed, Stearns -- whose actual steps and jumps, to be fair, have certainly gained focus -- left the balletic tragedienne little-or-nothing to work with. Most of her successes have been in her irregular pairings with Gomes, Bolle, et al.

So it was one of the biggest shocks to find that the man who, in last night's Swan Lake, catalyzed as thorough and profound an expressive triumph as Part has ever had was, in fact, this same Cory Stearns. Or maybe not the same: the man on stage certainly shared a name and body with his predecessor, but he has what that predecessor did not -- a self, a presence, a being on stage fit for the tragic story and its heroine. And it showed even before he began to dance: his bearing even in mime (and now I wonder -- was it his work with Ratmansky in the Russian's new/old Sleeping Beauty that awoke this spirit?) is now simply his own, free from the self-doubt and puppyish wanting-to-please that made him an impossible partner for Part. His Prince Siegfried is still (as he should be) in over his head, but he acts decisively on his own desires, as a man -- even one just come of age -- should.

And with this Siegfried Part's Odette shared her awful secret with a depth and fluidity of expression she has never (as far as I can recall) surpassed. As in a great opera performance, it was the extended spans of concentration that impressed most, as Part wove every gesture and every choreographed step of the couple's Act II and Act IV pas seamlessly into two grand spells of love and loss. In between, Part's Odile played Siegfried with the irresistible shamelessness and confidence she's shown at least since her 2009 promotion.

With the company's most sympathetic conductor -- Ormsby Wilkins -- in the pit, Tchaikovsky's music did its excellent part despite an oboist in a hurry. And if Marcelo Gomes weren't so good as a leading man, I'd want to see him as the villain every time. This season not only his non-swamp Rothbart here but his Carabosse (!) was a big success.

Part is now 37. It's good to know that the company now has a suitable non-guest partner for her, with whom she can give one of those performances that justify a company and art form's existence.

Hvorostovsky has a brain tumor

This sounds very bad. Let's hope for the best.