Metropolitan Opera – Prokofiev's War and Peace, December 28, 2007.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center – Grand Tier Rear, Seat G25 ($140).

Conductor – Gianandrea Noseda; Andrei – Vasili Ladyuk, Natasha – Irina Mataeva, Sonya – Elkterina Semenchuk, Pierre – Alexei Steblianko, Anatol – Vladimir Grishko, Helene – Ekaterina Gubanova, Dolokhov – Alexander Morozov, and many others.

Story: Andrei falls in love with Natasha and they are eventually engaged to be married. However, Andrei's father does not like Natasha, so he sends his son away. Natasha eventually meets Anatol who gives her a love letter written by Dolokhov. Natasha and Anatol plan to elope but are thwarted. Natasha then overhears Andrei's good friend Pierre saying Anatol is already married. Pierre, who is married to Anatol's sister Helene, is also in love with Natasha. Natasha tries to commit suicide, but is unsuccesful. Meanwhile, Napoleon is preparing to invade Russia, and the Russians are defiant. The war begins and the Russians flee Moscow to protect other parts of the country, torching the city as they do so. Pierre is caught with others for arson and narrowly escapes execution. Andrei also fights in the war, is wounded, and is cared for by Natasha, to whom he declares his love again before he dies. Pierre is freed by Russian soldiers, and learns Andrei has died, and that Natasha is still alive. Meanwhile the Russians repel the French and the opera concludes with a victory celebration.

Tolstoy's War and Peace is 1500 pages long, and the story in the opera (more coherent than the synopsis I put together) focuses on the lives of Natasha, those that love her, and the unsuccessful invasion of Russia by the French. Prokofiev's work was censored by the government, so I suspect it is much more sympathetic to the Russians than the book is. Indeed all the back-and-forth on what is acceptable delayed the final work so much that Prokofiev didn't live to see the opera performed in its final form.

To say this is a Met performance is a bit of a stretch. While Noseda is on the Met's roster, this is the only opera he is conducting for them. Most of the soloists are from Russian (predominantly Mariinsky Theater, which the program acknowledges as a co-producer). The advertisements probably oversell the opera a bit, saying it has 60 plus solo roles, for instance. Perhaps there are that many, and the list in the program is very long. However, many of the soloists have one or two lines, and (thankfully) only fifteen or so of them were there for the stage call.

Prokofiev managed the 4 hour 30 minute (with only one intermission) opera without one “singable” tune, quite a feat. Despite that, the drama is compelling enough that it didn't feel long at all. (Similar experience with the Cantonese opera we saw recently.) I suspect, as with my experience with other Prokofiev pieces, the music will grow on you – but who is willing to sit through multiple productions of this opera, and it isn't easy to find one performed in your area! They certainly used a lot of singers, actors, dancers, and extras. Many scenes called for crowds, some of them running. There was this scene describing the wounded and oppressed where a poor guy was carried strung up on a pole. The by-and-large spartan staging is a bit disappointing. Most of the scene changes (13 scenes and a choral epigraph, in the two acts) were done with the aid of a rotating platform and props dropped from the ceiling. I find the one where Napoleon was standing above a pile of dead bodies (mannequins, no doubt) particularly macabre, perhaps that was the idea. I find the staging in Magic Flute much more impressive. Then again, the Magic Flute performance I saw in November was the 385^th production, and this was the 17^th.

Just a few remarks on the performance. Valery Gergiev is the conductor most associated with the “revival” of this opera and conducted some performances, I wonder what it would be like to see him. Noseda conducted with great energy, though. The New York Times reviewer talks glowingly of the soprano in Natasha's role, however she didn't sing in the performance we saw: in that case, I thought Sonya (mezzo soprano) did better.

It is quite unlikely I will see this opera again. But I am glad I saw it.

See also the New York Times review. The headline says “52 soloists and 1 horse,” and the text says there are 68 roles. I disagree with the assessment that “the opera was conceived as a series of telling scenes for an audience who knew the novel thoroughly.” I had no trouble following the story; granted, the episodes may be more compelling in the context of the entire novel. It was an informative review, but a bit short on critique and assessment. According to the reviewer, the rotating set is a bit dangerous and people and props have been known to fall off (into a safety net).