Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center. Balcony (Seat B115, $87.50).
Story. Euridice
dies of a snake bite and her husband Orfeo mourns at the grave. Amore, god of love, appears and says Orfeo is
allowed to go to Hades to retrieve her, with the stipulation that he shall not
speak to or look at her. Euridice is
brought to Orfeo in Elysium, and he proceeds to bring her back. Euridice, not understanding what is going on,
panics. Orfeo turns to see her, and she
dies. As Orfeo is about to kill himself,
Amore appears and revives Euridice for the second time. They return to earth and everyone celebrates.
Conductor – Mark Wiggleworth. Orfeo – Jamie Barton, Amore – Hera Hyesang
Park, Euridice – Hei-Kyung Hong.
The story of Orpheus and Eurydice is a familiar one, although
there are several variations. Unlike the
story in this opera, most do not have a happy ending. Instead of Eurydice coming back to life,
Orpheus dies. There are many “modern”
stories with a similar plot, “What Dreams May Come” is a film that comes readily
to mind.
The set is quite simple, basically a semi-circular theater
with three rows of spectators. This was
turned around to reveal a set of stairs leading from Hades back to the land of
the living. I probably wouldn’t have
noticed the “historical” characters had Anne not pointed out the article in the
Playbill alluding to that fact. This set
was first used in 2007. Then it was
probably okay to have characters such as Pocahontas on stage, I wonder if there
are no “cultural appropriation” charges leveled against the characters nowadays
– such are the times we live in. Regardless,
it was fun to try to identify who the characters were, although they are not germane
to the story at all.
Indeed, it is noteworthy that the set designers had to use
(resort to) this to keep the set interesting.
One can add a lot of embellishment to the basic plot (and many writers
have) without sounding superfluous, but Gluck (or rather the librettist Ranieri
de’ Calzabigi) decided to make the story as straightforward as it could be, and
(I imagine) let the music do the heavy dramatic lifting.
And most of the lifting falls on the shoulders of
Orpheus. I didn’t track the durations,
but it won’t surprise me that Orpheus’s singing is more than that of Eurydice
and Amore, combined. Afterall, he is the
musician in the group. In that regard
the choice of Jamie Barton as Orpheus is disappointing. Her singing is solid, but not thrilling. While enjoyable, it didn’t engage the listener
emotionally. “Che faro senza Euridice”
is a simple yet heart-breaking aria; the way Barton did it, it was nothing more
than a nice tune.
Hong as Euridice put in a solid performance, and Park provided
reasons for the audience to chuckle as Amore.
The spectators in the theater are "historical" characters. Interesting but not germane to the story.
The main characters: Euridice (Hong), Orfeo (Barton), Amore (Park) and Wigglesworth.
The Playbill claims the opera is performed without
intermission so the full emotional impact could be felt. Given how little impact it had, I do wonder what
it would feel like with an intermission and even less impact.
In all fairness, I was glad to have gone, mostly because of
the supposedly significance of this opera in the genre’s history, including the non-traditional way it was written (3 main parts instead of 6, for instance). In addition, the orchestra and the chorus sounded great. I also liked the lute (guitar?) episode.
Attendance was so-so, we could see many empty seats in the orchestra and the
family circle.
I met up with Anne after the NJ Symphony concert, in Hoboken, before taking Bus
126 into New York.
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