Sunday, April 27, 2014

Metropolitan Opera – Rossini’s Le Cenerentola. April 25, 2014.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center, Balcony (Seat G20, $98.50).

Story.  This is basically the well-known children story Cinderella, with a few notable differences that do not change the basic plot.  First, we have an evil step-father instead of an evil step-mother.  There was no pumpkin turning into a carriage, no rats that turn into coachmen; instead of a fairy godmother, we have an angel whose usual occupation is advisor to the Prince.  No glass slippers either: here we have matching bracelets.

Conductor – Fabio Luisi.  Angelina (Cinderella) – Joyce DiDonato, Don Ramiro (Prince) – Javier Camerena, Don Magnifico (Step-father) – Alessandro Corbelli, Clorinda and Tisbe (step-sisters) – Rachelle Durkin and Patricia Risley, Alidoro (advisor to Prince and part-time angel) – Luca Pisaroni, Dandini (Prince’s valet) – Pietro Spagnoli.

The problem with going to an opera with certain expectations is one’s reaction if those expectations are not met.  So let me first get those of out the way.

Biggest problem?  Not enough Joyce DiDonato.  Her role isn’t limited in any sense of the word, but it wasn’t dominating either.  And I would have liked a lot more arias out of Cinderella.  Next problem: not enough magic.  I think everyone going to see a show titled Cinderella expect to see pumpkins, rats, and hearing a clock that strikes twelve – with dire consequences.  All these tricks are well within the capability of the Met; unfortunately the score doesn’t call for this.  The only thing close to magical is when Alidoro as angel calls down a box from above, and inside the box is the gown for the Prince’s ball, and into which Cinderella appears.  Speaking of the sets, Spartan is the word for it.  Not that I usually look for elaborate sets, but you can get only so much out of a sofa with uneven legs, for instance.  Also, to make up for lack of midnight magic, there are many large clocks stuffed inside various closets all indicating midnight.  Either a hint for the audience to use its imagination, or a reminder that there is midnight, but no magic.

All these pale in comparison to how enjoyable the opera ends up being.

I have said every time I watch an opera buffa that I am not a fan of that genre.  This one is, however, as good as it gets.  (The other one that comes to mind is Flagstaff.)  I don’t know how to characteristic the story, but there are enough comedic elements in there to make me chuckle.

That starts at the very beginning.  The two sopranos singing the roles of the step-sisters don’t look the least bit alike, but they sing in such a way that they can be mistaken for twins.  The powers that be decided the two artists don’t rate a description in the “cast” section, but I thought they did really well, and they had rather substantial roles.

DiDonato delivered just the way I expected her to be: excellently.  Even though her mezzo-soprano voice didn’t penetrate (for lack of a better term) as well as the two sopranos, it still carried into the balcony beautifully.  In this opera the music demands a lot from the singers, but she made it sound effortless.  Interesting Cinderella in this story sometimes fights back, so there are no tear-jerkers, although the final aria comes close to being one.  Indeed before the final aria I thought Cinderella was underutilized in the story, luckily I hanged on because the Playbill talks glowingly about that aria.  And in this case it was not oversold.  After watching Maria Stuarda with DiDonato in the title role, I called that experience “perfect,” or close to it.  I must say this one doesn’t quite rise to that level.

We heard Camerena for the first time last month as Elvino in La Sonnambula.  I thought he was good.  He was great in this one, and he acted as if he really enjoyed it.  If I had gone to this opera expecting a great performance from the tenor, I wouldn’t have been disappointed.  I must have gone to over 50 Met performances over the years, and this was the first time ever I saw an encore.  (The only other encore was in the Muti-conducted Nabucco performance we saw in Rome.)  To be fair, this was well rehearsed in advance since everyone seems to know what excerpts to play.  In the publicity for this opera, he gets second billing to Juan Diego Flores.  I wonder how Flores would compare.

All the other singers pulled their weight also.  Spagnoli as the valet provided some of the better comedic moments.

Rossini’s music is light and fast, and the orchestra did a superb job.  The first thing we noticed was the much reduced size of the orchestra.  Four cellos and two double-basses, if I remember correctly.  I wonder if that is to accommodate the singers.  I don’t remember reduced size orchestras in other Rossini operas I have seen.  In the same vein, I read for Maria Stuarda some arias had their keys lowered to more suit DiDonato’s voice.  I wonder if that happened here, I certainly didn’t notice it.

The New York Times review spends much time in praising Camerena, and that’s fine.  The reviewer saw the opening night performance, and evidently there was no encore.  Also, Flores withdrew due to illness, so it has been all-Camerena.

We went to this opera with David and Ruby, whom we have known since the 1970s.  I am glad they enjoyed it.  One of our tickets had a $50 price reduction because we subscribed to next season.  Traffic into town was quite bad, so we had only time for a quick bite at Europan.


I mentioned to David that there are no heirs apparent to the three tenors, and the operatic world is looking for one (or several.)  Perhaps Camerena’s stock rises after this run?  I do wonder if anyone can match Domingo in stature and handsomeness at his prime, though.

No comments: