The Verdi Project: Don Carlos

Verdi's last opera for Paris has a complicated history.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Troubled youth: the not-so-youthful Placido Domingo as Verdi's Don Carlos.
Photo © 1982 The Metropolitan Opera.

After the experience of Un Ballo in Maschera, Giuseppe Verdi found himself increasingly withdrawn from the world of opera. His hiatus was interrupted for the commissioning and premiere of La Forza del Destino, but the problems surrounding that opera did not encourage him to continue composing. However, he received a commission for the Paris Opera, to write a five-act grand opera in French for the 1866. That opera would be Don Carlos, and its genesis would be the most difficult of any major Verdi work.

Opera Review: Stripped (Again)

La Traviata returns to the Met.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

No way out: Diana Damrau as Violetta.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2013 The Metropolitan Opera.

No production in the current repertory of the Metropolitan Opera divides opinions like Willy Decker’s stripped-down La Traviata. Mr. Decker reduces the tragedy of Violetta to its bare essence, relying on a geometric white set and simple, modern costumes to frame the tragedy of a Paris prostitute’s last shot at true love. This Spartan approach to Verdi puts the attention squarely on the singers.

DVD Review: The Low End Theory

Plácido Domingo's Simon Boccanegra, from La Scala.

Plácido Domingo gets elected in Simon Boccanegra from La Scala.
Photo by Marco Brescia © 2010 Archivo Fotografico del Teatro alla Scala.

This DVD, filmed at La Scala in 2010, is the third visual record of tenor Plácido Domingo's attempts to scale the summit of Verdi baritone repertory: the title role in Simon Boccanegra. For the most part, it is a success, thanks the the sensitive, intelligent conducting of Daniel Barenboim.

There is no question that Mr. Domingo commits himself wholly to acting the part of Boccanegra. But it sounds like what it is: a thickened, aged tenor voice pushed down to the bottom of its register, struggling to avoid those heights to which he can still scale. Without the low-end bloom and rich, baritonal sound that is expected from this authoritative character. He produces a noble tone in certain scenes, but lacks the dark mystery in his voice that makes this wily pirate turned politico an attractive protagonist.

The Doge Abides

Plácido Domingo to sing Simon Boccanegra with the Opera Orchestra of New York.

Plácido Domingo in the Metropolitan Opera
production of Simon Boccanegra

The Opera Orchestra of New York has revealed its "secret" production of the 2012 spring season, starring Plácido Domingo. 

And it's...Simon Boccanegra. The opera will be performed in concert at Avery Fisher Hall on March 7. This will mark the OONY's first performance of Boccanegra. OONY music director Alberto Veronesi will conduct.

The title role in Boccanegra has long been considered a pinnacle of the baritone repertoire. Mr. Domingo, who began his 50-year opera career singing in that range, added the role to his repertory in 2009. 

Simon Boccanegra had a complex genesis. Verdi wrote the original version of the opera in 1857. The confusing plot and lack of action did not sit well with the public, and the opera vanished from the stage. In 1881, at the urging of librettist Arrigio Boito, Verdi revamped the opera, restructuring the story and adding the climactic Council Chamber scene to the end of Act I.

Although the OONY has a reputation for bringing little-heard works and unusual versions of operas to the ears of New Yorkers, this will be a performance of the 1881 revision of the opera. It is also Mr. Veronesi's second appearance leading the OONY, following a 2010 double bill of Massenet's La Navarraise and Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana at Carnegie Hall.

The opera gained new life in the repertory in the 20th century, becoming a favorite of great Verdi baritones Tito Gobbi and Piero Cappucilli. It is regularly seen at the Metropolitan Opera, where Mr. Domingo sang the role in the winter of 2009. 

Earlier in his career, Mr. Domingo was frequently heard in the role of Gabriele Adorno, the revolutionary firebrand who is determined to knock the Doge off the throne of Genoa. In this performance, Gabriele will be sung by Massimino Giordano. The role of Amelia, Simon's secret daughter and Gabriele's love interest will be sung by Ana Maria Martinez in her Opera Orchestra of New York debut.

This performance will mark the 71-year old singer's only Verdi appearances of the season. It is also his third performance with the Opera Orchestra of New York, following a 1973 Francesca di Rimini and Massenet's Le Cid in 1976. 

Chinese Bureaucracy

A short reflection on Puccini's birthday.

Your yuan at work: Eduardo Valdes (Pong) Joshua Hopkins (Ping) and Tony Stevenson (Pang)
in Act II of Turandot. Photo by Marty Sohl © 2009 The Metropolitan Opera.

Today we celebrate the 153rd birthday of composer Giacomo Puccini, the last of an iconic line of Italian opera composers. And I'm celebrating by focusing on an opera he never finished: (my first opera ever) Turandot.

It all started with Puccini for me. My parents took me to see Turandot at the New York City Opera when I was just nine years old. I don't remember everything about it, but I did like it enough to want to see La bohème a few weeks later. This was back when City Opera had their performances in the summer, so my parents had the time to take me.

Although Puccini's last opera, a blood-thirsty mixture of fairy-tale and Asian exoticism, is not the ideal starter opera, the story appealed to me. It was about riddles and solving problems, and the guy got the girl in the end. Of course, it's a little different when you're grown up, but I was hooked, and hooked early.

Two things stuck with me about that Turandot. First, the riddles. I spent hours poring over them in the libretto, trying to fathom why the answers were "fire," "blood," and "Turandot." The second was the three "masque" characters of Ping, Pang and Pong, who serve as a miniature Greek chorus, commenting on the action and presenting the face of Chinese government bureaucracy.

I know that everybody waits with baited breath for "In questa reggia," the Riddle Scene or the famous "Nessun dorma." But for me, Turandot is all about "Ho una casa nell'Honan", a moment of relative peace in the lives of three bureaucrats stuck in the middle of the Chinese court. Here, Ping (the Grand Chancellor), Pang (the General Purveyor) and Pong (the Chief Cook) long for the simple pleasures of country life.

This is their featured scene from Act II, Scene 1 of the Met's Franco Zeffirelli production, filmed on April 4, 1987. Brian Schexnayder is Ping. Alan Glassman is Pang. Anthony Lanciura is Pong. 

Enjoy.

Opera Review: To Rule, He Must Lower Himself

Placído Domingo in Simon Boccanegra at the Met.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Placido Domingo as Boccanegra.
Photo © 2008 The Metropolitan Opera

The season premiere of the Met's revival of Verdi's political drama Simon Boccanegra gave New Yorkers the rare opportunity to see Placido Domingo as the star baritone in a Verdi opera. Now 69 years of age and nearing the end of his singing career, Domingo, (who first auditioned in Mexico as a baritone) lowered his range and took a chance tackling the toughest baritone role in the Italian repertory.

Recordings Review: Ah, For the Last Time!

Plácido Domingo reaches for the Grail in Vienna.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Placído Domingo and Waltraud Meier in Parsifal.
© 2005 Wiener Staatsoper/
Deutsche Grammophon/Vivendi Universal

Placido Domingo and Waltraud Meier are no strangers to the complexities of Wagner's Parsifal. The tenor has been singing this role for many years now, performing it all over the world and recording it with James Levine and the Metropolitan Opera. In this superb live recording, made in June 2005 at the Vienna State Opera, Domingo gives a definitive performance. And he sounds pretty good for a singer who was 65 when this set was made.

Yep, you read that right.

From his entry in Act I this is a first-class reading, nuanced, textured, and filled with understanding of the holy fool's path toward wisdom. Even though he sounds like he's pushing it at the start of the Good Friday scene, the performance comes off as the character's exhaustion, not the singer's. Besides, he gets better, pulling out magnificent tonal resources and bringing the opera to its glorious climax through sheer vocal; ability.