Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center Orchestra (Seat AA11, $25).
Story. See previous
post.
Conductor – Marco Armiliato. Jack Rance – Zeljko Lucic, Minnie – Maria Westbroek,
Dick Johnson (Ramerrez) – Yusif Eyvazov.
I started this blog in April 2005, and my first entry was
a review of this opera, performed by NYC Opera.
In the meantime, I have written about 586 different (mostly) concerts
and operas, and this is the second time I saw this opera. Not sure if any conclusions can be drawn; for
now, just some interesting statistics. I do know there was more insight in my last review, though.
I remarked in 2005 that the NYCO set was more elaborate
than the ones I had seen prior. I still
remember a windmill, and the sunrise (I had thought it was a sunset) Minnie
and Dick walked into at the end of the show.
Tonight’s staging was a lot more complicated, which may explain why the
two intermissions took so long (40 to 45 minutes) as the crew probably had to
work at putting the sets together.
For Act 1 we have Minnie’s tavern. It was huge: high ceiling with rafters and
joists. I don’t know what the backstage
mechanism is at the Met, but can imagine how complex it must be to move
the props on and off stage. Minnie’s cabin in
the mountains is depicted in Act 2, and there is this constant snow fall
outside. It is a wonder that none of the
heavy snowfall spills into the orchestra.
Act 3 is “main street” with two rows of houses and a few gallows. The noose looked real enough that I worried about an accident happening. (I do
hope they rehearse these scenes well.)
Despite the impressive staging, I don’t think I enjoyed
it as much as the 2005 NYCO performance.
One could attribute this to my being a bit jaded after so many operas,
but there were things I jotted down for that performance that I didn’t find as
compelling tonight.
The scene that stood out for me was the card game played
by Minnie and Jack Rance, with Dick Johnson’s life at stake. Minnie cheated to win, but it was not as
funny tonight. I still (vaguely) remember
how the cello’s sound enhanced the mood, but tonight the cello just sounded
weak. (I think the description “…
pizzicatos in the lower strings suspend time …” is wrong.) The other one was how Minnie appealed for
Johnson’s life in Act 3. It was a gripping moment in 2005, tonight it didn’t
particularly stand out. Since I knew
Minnie would make an entrance, so I looked for it, and tonight I got it.
For Act 1 I sat in my ticketed seat AA11 in the
orchestra. Generally this area has good
acoustics, but I found the voices quite weak, perhaps due to the cavernous
tavern on stage. I took AA1 after the
first intermission, it was better; the smaller cabin may have contributed to the improvement. Chung
Shu, Felicia, and John were sitting in the Grand Circle (free tickets provided by CS’s
daughter), and there were empty seats around them. For Act 3 I had a good seat in that section (center, row D.) There was no walking into the sunrise (or sunset, for that matter) at the
end of the story.
The cast is nearly all men. The only women are Minnie and Wowkle.
A couple more unrelated remarks. One, I remembered this Lady M mentioned
several times in the opera, but forget again her name after a couple of
days. Two, it is a bit strange to see an
American “western” sung in Italian.
The New York Times review is generally positive, but not
effusive. The reviewer wants an updated
staging to reflect today’s values; on that point, I am not sure I agree. Wowkle is described as "the squaw of a Red Indian" in Wikipedia, perhaps one reason why the reviewer calls the opera "awash with ... casual racism."
I had the evening free and decided to get a rush ticket
for this opera. Anne didn’t want to go,
so I went by myself. I drove
in as the train schedule would mean arrival at home after 1 am. Dinner was a sandwich in the Rubenstein
Atrium. It took about 90 minutes to get
into town, and I had to take Holland Tunnel back home as the usual entrance to
Lincoln Tunnel was closed due to construction.
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