Opera Review: Country Discomfort

The Met revives Leoš Janáček's Jenůfa. 
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Karita Mattila (standing) holds Oksana Dyka in a key scene from Act II of Jenůfa.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2016 The Metropolitan Opera.

This latest Met revival of Jenůfa, the third opera by Czech composer Leoš Janáček is one of the most important productions of the current season. It allows a new generation of opera-goers to discover one of the most powerful dramas of the 20th century, thanks to the presence of a near-ideal cast. On Monday night, soprano Oksana Dyka was incandescent in the title role, a peasant girl whose suffering makes her one of the great operatic heroines. She's pregnant by a man that does not love her. She is attacked and mutilated by his love-struck brother. And then the baby is drowned.

The Superconductor Untitled Awards

The Five Best Performances* at the Metropolitan Opera...this season.
(*that I saw and wrote about.)
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Our award trophy. Well, it's really a big, weird abstract sculpture
(Untitled, by Mary Callery) in the Metropolitan Opera House.

We are at mid-May and as I start getting ready to work on next season's Metropolitan Opera coverage, it's time to wrap up 2012-2013 at the big house. Here are the five best shows I attended in a very long opera season. I've done this before, but this year, the winners get to print out this article with a nice digital blow-up of the Untitled sculpture located over the proscenium in the Sybil Harrington Auditorium. (Shipping, handling and sculpture not included.)

Before you ask, I couldn't get a ticket for Dialogues of the Carmelites. I heard it was great.

Since this year's schedule was heavily loaded toward Wagner and Verdi, (with five operas by one and seven by the other) it's not surprising to see that three of this year's top five are in fact, Verdi operas. Other honorable mentions this season include Pretty Yende in Le Comte Ory, Lyudmila Montyrska in Aida and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in pretty much anything they played, but especially in Parsifal, Götterdämmerung and The Tempest.

And the winners are....

Opera Review: The Princess Diaries

The singers trump the sets (for once) in the Met's latest Aida.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Aida (Liudmila Monastyrska, l.) emotes as Amneris (Olga Boridina) glowers in the Met's
latest revival of Verdi's Aida. Photo by Marty Sohl © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

Since 1988, Sonja Frisell's over-the-top Metropolitan Opera production of Verdi's Aida has been a house favorite. Tourists and opera lovers flock to see the sandstone walls, white-and-gold costumes and spectacular depictions of Ancient Egypt, inspired by the Temple of Dendur at that other Met across town. But thanks to some questionable casting decisions in recent years, the show's big set pieces tend to supersede what is essentially an intimate drama against a huge backdrop.

All that changed Monday night with this current revival, boasting the talents of Liudmila Monastyrska in the title role. This run marks the Ukrainian soprano's house debut as the Ethiopian princess. For once, listeners could look forward to "Ritorno vincitar." The Act I monologue/aria was sung as intended, with a smooth legato and limpid tone that floated above the stilled orchestra.

Things got better from this encouraging start. Ms. Monastyrska won the audience in her Act II confrontation with Amneris even as her character sunk into self-pity. She sliced cleanly through the big ensembles in the Triumph Scene, underlining Aida's plight. Best of all was Act III, where she dominated the banks of the Nile. "O patria mia" presented with the climactic high notes sung, not shrilled.