Metropolitan Opera – Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur. January 8, 2019.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Balcony (Seat C5, $133.)

Story.  The story evolves around three main characters: Adriana the actress, Maurizio, and the Princess of Bouillon.  Both women are in love with Maurizio.  Maurizio gives Adriana a bouquet of violets, which he happens to leave at the palace of the Prince (husband of the Princess.)  When the Princess shows up, Maurizio pretends the flowers are for her. Afraid of being caught with her lover, the Princess hides when the Prince sos up. Adriana also arrives, hoping to convince the Prince to promote Maurizio (who is actually the illegitimate son of the Polish emperor.)  Adriana ends up helping the Princess escape, without she and the Princess finding out about the identity of the other.  At the palace party the two finally recognized each other’s voices; the Princess made Adriana recite a play, and Adriana hits back by directly the play’s venom at her.  By then Adriana thinks Maurizio no longer loves her, but the Princess instead.  Adriana gives up on theater, but her colleagues convince her to return.  A package marked “From Maurizio” arrives, and in it is a wither bouquet of violets.  Adriana takes that as a final insult from Maurizio, smells it, and throws it in the fire.  Maurizio is summoned to Adriana to reassert his love for her.  She is sick from the flowers, and dies in his arms.

Conductor – Gianandrea Noseda.  Adriana Lecouvreur – Anna Netrebko; Maurizio – Piotr Beczala, Princess of Bouillon – Anita Rachveliashvili, Michonnet – Ambrogio Maestri, Abbe de Chazeuil – Carlo Bosi, Prince of Bouillon – Maurizio Muzaro.

The Program Note begins with the sentence “… is an opera some people love to hate.”  Given all the positive things about the opera, it is a pity that I have to agree with it, at least on many aspects.

Should I go first with the good or the bad?  I knew about the composer Cilea, but couldn’t remember what I knew him for on the day of this performance.  (I have three arias of his on my iPhone, two from Act 1 of this opera, and one from his L’Arlesiana.)  The synopsis is probably the longest I have ever seen, and I wondered as I read it at home if it had to be so complicated.  Indeed there were many other characters in the story who had significant roles, but they overall added to the confusion.  A case of not being able to cull one’s own writing?  As a bad writer myself I sympathize.

In its defense, the story in the opera (and the play) is based on real people, and real people’s lives are complicated.  A great writer should be able to distill these complexities into appropriate story lines.  With a bit of mixed metaphor, the Broadway show Les Miserables and the opera War and Peace are great examples of how this could be done.

Every season I look for operas I have not seen before, and can usually find a couple that fit my schedule.  That Netrebko is in the cast certainly helped with the decision in this case.  And she is the real deal in this case.  I don’t have the vocabulary to describe a beautiful human voice, so the reader has to assume they are all used here.  Her technique was simply amaIt seemed no matter where she was on stage, whether it was loud or soft, her voice could be clearly heard where we sat.  In Act III there were quite a few lines that were practically spoken, and she delivered them with much clarity and heft.  The unnecessary complexity of the story made it difficult to be invested emotionally in the opera, and it wasn’t until in the last act when she lamented over the wilted violets that I began to feel a degree of sadness.

I had seen Anita Rachveliashvili several times before, including Carmen and Prince Igor.  I was very impressed with her Carmen.  Her performance today by-and-large matched that of Netrebko.  The only missing component was a “soft high.”  In reading my blog that was my comment about her other performances also.  The audience certainly gave her first aria a very prolonged applause.

Beczala was featured in Opera News recently, and the interview gave a lot of insight to how he cultivated his career.  By all indication he is on track.  We saw him this past May in Zurich where he put in an excellent performance as Werther.  In the large Met auditorium he had to work harder, and he was good, but not quite up to the level of the two leading ladies.

This was the first time the McVicar production is used at the Met, although it debuted in Covent Garden in 2010.  Traditional with a twist: in Act IV we have a theater stage and the chairs and table in front constituted Adriana’s house; grand yet simple: the palace scene in Act III occupies a lot of real estate but there is not much of this ornateness one expects from the 1730 Paris (Rococco, says the Playbill.)  Perhaps it works well for the actors, and there are no pauses for scene changes, but to the audience it is just unremarkable.  I still don’t understand why the stage is usually poorly lit so often.

There is a rather extended ballet session in Act III.  That was the norm for operas written during that period, but to me the time is probably better used to clarify the story. The opera started with Act II of the play, so that’s another candidate for that interval.  I am sure the dancers are all accomplished professionals, but to me ballets seldom belong unless it propels the story along (such as in La Traviata.)

The music is generally very pleasant to listen to, but there are few catchable tunes.  The orchestra played well.  There were quite a few solo lines, especially for the violin, and they were all done with precision and aplomb.

I can lament about various aspects of the opera, but it is what it is, and Cilea is not around to modify it.  Put that way, I must say I enjoyed it, mostly for the superb singing, though.  While I still say the singing makes or breaks a performance, I do wish for more.

Curtain Call with Noseda in front.  The main characters are standing behind him.  This is the set for Act 4.  All the lights were turned on as Adriana dies in her home.

The New York Times critic saw this when it premiered the season on New Year’s eve.  The review was one wave of praise after another.  There was not one single thing he would take issue with.

All traffic reports said the Hudson crossings were clear, so we took Lincoln Tunnel, getting there at around 5:30 pm.  We noticed a lot of buses lined up on the left side and was wondering what was happening.  They eventually stopped using the center tunnel and came to the south tunnel.  We were witnessing the “rush hour changeover.”  We had Chinese takeout inside the car.