Metropolitan Opera Preview: Tosca

Yes, it's the Met's Luc Bondy production...thankfully for the last time.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

With furniture like this, you might jump too.
Act II of Tosca in the Met's current Luc Bondy production.
Photo © 2015 The Metropolitan Opera.

Add together four sopranos, three tenors, two conductors and one of the most godforsaken opera productions in recent memory at the Metropolitan Opera, and whaddya get? Tosca! With a new production (by Sir David McVicar) scheduled to premiere on Dec. 31, 2017, this is the final, flying leap for the Luc Bondy version of Puccini's most blood-curdling opera. The title role will be split four ways, between sopranos Oksana Dyka, Angela Gheorghiu, Maria Guleghina and  Liuydmila Monastyrska.

Recording Review: There Will Be Blood

Oberto, Verdi's first opera indicates great things to come.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The young Giuseppe Verdi. He started work on Oberto when he was 23.

Oct. 10, 2013 marks the 200th birthday of composer Giuseppe Verdi. To celebrate that birthday in style, Superconductor will offer in-depth coverage of Verdi's long career and vast catalogue in coming months.

We start at the beginning, with Oberto.

Verdi's long career as a composer began with Oberto, Comte di San Bonifacio which had its debut at La Scala in 1839. He was 26, and had worked on the opera for three years.

According to Julian Budden's excellent The Operas of Verdi, this work may have originated under the title Rocester, a libretto by Antonio Piazza. He also hints at a libretto called Lord Hamilton that was making the rounds before Verdi settled on Oberto. Both of these earlier works are either lost or integrated into the structure of Oberto.

Opera Review: A Long While in Babylon

Nabucco bows at the Metropolitan Opera.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Over the top: Maria Guleghina as Abagaille in Verdi's Nabucco.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

On Tuesday night, the Metropolitan Opera opened Nabucco, the company's first revival of the 2011-12 season. Verdi's version of the Old Testament story of the Babylonian captivity features the chorus as a central character, but the opera has plenty of room for star turns in its two leading roles.

Maria Guleghina will never be the most subtle singer, but she impressed in the difficult role of Abagaille. The daughter of Nabucco (Nebachudnezzar) seizes the throne when her father goes mad, threatening to exterminate the Jews captured in the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem. It is a thoroughly unsympathetic part, but Ms. Guleghina brought raw emotion and occasional beauty of tone to the role. Her best singing came in the quiet passages, like the Act II cavatina. She also brought her laser-like chest-voice to bear on her big confrontation with Nabucco in Act III.

Baritone Željko Lučić tackled the role of Nabucco. His rash act of declaring himself God (in the second act) leads to madness, despair, and ultimately, conversion to the Jewish faith. Mr. Lučić sang with a rich, dark-hued voice, handling the role's stentorian, early passages with power and delivering his best singing in the Act IV prison scene.