Friday, April 10, 2015

Metropolitan Opera – Verdi’s Ernani. April 8, 2015.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center, Balcony (Seat C105, $104.50).

Story.  See previous blog.  The “… demands the life that has been promised to him” at the end of the synopsis leaves open the possibility that no one dies.  Nonetheless we have the same ending, Ernani kills himself, and Elvira follows suit.

Conductor – Paul Nadler; Ernani – Luc Robert, Elvira – Angela Meade, Don Carlo – Placido Domingo, Don de Silva – Dmitry Belosselskiy.

When we first got tickets of this opera as part of our season subscription, I was going to swap the tickets for another opera.  We saw this a few years ago (in 2012) and while I was impressed with my first encounter of Angela Meade, the overall experience wasn’t so overwhelming that I wanted to see it again.  I was then told Domingo would be in the cast also, and decided to keep the tickets.  In fact I thought Levine was going to be the conductor, but that might have been for some selected performances.

In any case, I wanted this opera to “succeed” for several reasons.  One was that CS told me the New York Times review wasn’t all that great, panning both Domingo and (if I remember correctly) Levine.  The other was I was impressed with how Domingo did in La Traviata as Germont, and would like to see him continue that with this role.  I came away feeling just okay, which means some level of disappointment.

Let’s start with Domingo first.  His voice was the weakest among the principals in the cast, even allowing for my usual problems with picking out frequencies in the tenor-baritone range.  Even with having sung over 140 different roles in his career, this was the first time he did this particular one, and he was wooden in the delivery most of the time, and (I think) had to constantly refer to the prompter.  As an indication of how good things could have been, he delivered a great soliloquy at the beginning of Act III, it is too bad that was the exception rather than the rule tonight.  Of course if you account for his age (74), it would be very impressive; I am sure he would be the first to say age shouldn’t be a mitigating factor.  We also noticed that he couldn’t quite bow during curtain calls, so he might have some problems with movement.  (He had no problems walking up and down the staircases, though.)  As a side remark, he is conducting the current production of Aida at the Met.

Angela Meade again sang impressively as Elvira.  I didn’t notice any of the misgivings I had last time (harshness, trills.)  Perhaps it is where we were seated, or perhaps even great singers work to improve their technique.  I was also impressed with how powerful she sounded with the lower register notes.  There is no need for additional remarks on her considerable size, except it is amazing she could move about as much as she did.

The other two suitors put in great performances.  The Playbill mentions three voices are vying for Elvira: tenor, baritone, and bass.  I am not sure I agree with the writer’s remark that the chorus is used sparingly: I thought they sang a lot in the opera.  And they did well tonight.

The set is the same used in the run we saw.


The Financial Times review isn’t the most complimentary, saying that Levine’s conducting is the one good thing in the three elements required to make Ernani successful: a stellar set of principals, an inventive director, and an inspired conductor.  The New York Times review is indeed brutal, suggesting it is time for Domingo to retire.  The reviewer does have a great analysis of the problems with Domingo’s performance, such as “he often seemed preoccupied with the techniques of singing.”  The harshest review I found is the Observer piece with the headline “Domingo Bombs as Baritone.”  A much friendlier review is from the Latin Post.

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