Meet the New "Love Couple"

or "Whatever Anna Wants, Anna Gets."
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Jump shot: Anna Netrebko and hubby Yusif Eyvazov will sing 'Tosca' together at the Met.
Photo © 2018 The Royal Albert Hall.

The Metropolitan Opera has announced yet another casting change in the company's current production of Tosca which is scheduled to return to the stage on April 26. Tenor Marcelo Alvarez is out, replaced by the tenor Yusif Eyvazov in only his fourth appearance on the Met stage. He is Ms. Netrebko's husband.

Opera Review: She's Bigger Than Life

Angela Gheorghiu brings her Tosca to the Met.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The odd couple: Angela Gheorghiu (left) menaced by Željko Lučić in Tosca.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2015 The Metropolitan Opera.

A revival of the Metropolitan Opera's ugly and unloved Luc Bondy staging of Puccini's Tosca is not a cause to celebrate. However the appearance of Angela Gheorghiu in her first performances of the title role in New York City, is. On Monday night, Ms. Gheorghiu sang the second and last of her two Met appearances this season, in the title role of Puccini's most violent opera.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: La Rondine

The Met presents the return of Puccini's bittersweet rarity.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

On the couch: Kristine Opilais as Magda in La Rondine.
Image © 2013 The Metropolitan Opera.

La Rondine ("The Swallow") is not a complicated story, but it has the misfortune of being neither tragedy (nobody dies) nor comedy (it has a sad ending). The opera falls between two stools, and as a result has never earned a place at the table.

Rare bird though it is, this is still a mature product of Giacomo Puccini's later years. (It premiered in 1917, and follows La Fanciilla del West in the composer's catalogue.) Puccini's heady music is redolent of the gilded age, depicting the world of a "kept woman" in early 20th century Paris with gorgeous dance rhythms. There are parts for two leading sopranos--and two leading tenors.

This stylish production was originally conceived in 2008 for the so-called "love couple," Angela Gheorghiu and Roberta Alagna. With Ms. Gheorghiu currently persona non grata at Peter Gelb's Met (not to mention in the middle of a nasty divirce with Mr. Alagna) this revival offers Kristine Opilais her chance for a house debut. Giuseppe Filianoti is Ruggero, the man she loves and ultimately, rejects.

La Rondine opens Jan. 11, 2013.

Opera's "Love Couple" Calls it Quits

Roberto Alagna, Angela Gheorghiu announce divorce.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Better days: Robert Alagna (l.) and Angela Gheorghiu as Ruggero
and Magda in Puccini's La Rondine.
Image © 2009 The Metropolitan Opera.

Tenor Roberto Alagna and soprano Angela Gheorghiu, whose 1996 marriage catapulted both singers to operatic stardom, have announced their "imminent" divorce after 16 years of marriage.

The report comes from an interview the soprano gave with the news agency Mediafax.

"We have decided to divorce by mutual agreement and in perfect friendship," Ms. Gheorghiu said. (Her remarks are translated here from the French.)

The Alagna-Gheorghiu story begins at Covent Garden, when the singers met in a performance of Puccini's La bohème.  They played Rodolfo and Mìmi. She was a divorcée and he was a widower with one daughter.

 In April of 1996, they were performing the same roles at the Metropolitan Opera, marking Mr. Alagna's house debut. Ms. Gheorghiu had bowed in La bohème in 1993.

On April 27th, the singers arrived at a gala concert celebrating James Levine's 25 years at the Metropolitan Opera. They had been married that day. They celebrated by singing "Suzel, buon di" by Pietro Mascagni, (also known as the "Cherry Duet" from L'Amico Fritz) and brought down the house. The marriage was blessed by then-Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani.

The Airing of the Grievances: the Worst of 2011

From the City Opera to the Battle of Lincoln Center.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

"As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be a better way... a Festivus, for the rest of us!!!"
Festivus prophet Frank Costanza (Jerry Stiller. with pole), acolyte Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards)
and his disciples Jerry and George. Image framegrabbed from Seinfeld "The Strike"  © 1997 NBC.

Today is December 23, the date some New Yorkers celebrate Festivus, the holiday invented at a toy store by one Frank Costanza while fighting over a Cabbage Patch™doll.* Originally observed every year in the Costanza household, Festivus is a simple holiday. It requires a large aluminum pole (instead of a tree.) At the Festivus table, there is a simple meal, followed by the Airing of the Grievances, and then something called the Feats of Strength.

In the spirit of the season, we here at Superconductor celebrate Festivus with our first ever Worst-of list for 2011. There are eleven items on the list, in deference to the year. So set up the aluminum pole, and let's get to the worst things that happened in the classical music industry--or at least the ones that we covered this year.

Ed. Note: The closing of Opera Boston happened the day after this piece went to press. We've added it to the bottom of the list.

Cancellation fever strikes.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2011-2012 season was marred by all manner of cancellations. Ben Heppner and Gary Lehman both pulled out of the title role in Siegfried, the latter one week before the prima. Angela Gheorghiu cancelled Faust for this year, citing "artistic differences" with director Dez McAnuff. (She was replaced by Marina Poplavskaya.) Just to be sure, the Romanian diva cancelled her 2012 contract as well. It's a matter of some conjecture if she sings at the Met anytime soon.

The decline and fall of the New York City Opera.
This one had been brewing for a while. With its labor contracts up, the decision of NYCO general manager George Steel to ditch his company's longtime digs and embark on a (sort of) odyssey across New York recalls the decision by fictional British rock group Spinal Tap to replace their songs with the blues-jazz (or is it jazz-blues?) noodling of bassist Derek Smalls. This ongoing story includes a protracted battle with the unions for both the orchestra and chorus, a bitter dispute that is currently before a federally appointed mediator.

(For more on the slow death-spiral of New York City Opera, read Fred Cohen's excellent (and educational piece in Opera News: The Ballad of NYCO.)

Salvatore Licitra dies in a motorcycle accident.

A number of singers passed away this year, but the most shocking death was the loss of the talented Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra. Following a motorcycle accident in his native Sicily, Mr. Licitra died of complications following a brain injury. He wasn't wearing a helmet.

Bankruptcy on Broad Street.

Labor troubles between symphony boards and musicians have been a common thread this year, with industrial action taken in Louisville and Detroit. But the venerable Philadelphia Orchestra became the first major American ensemble to file Chapter 11 this year. This was either a loud cry for help or an attempt to play hardball with the union. Eventually, the union blinked, and the season started on time. The effects of this action are still reverberating in Philadelphia.

The Metropolitan Opera's new start times.

As long as we're airing grievances, the Met's new 7:30pm start times make the relaxing activity of going to the opera house a mad dash through New York's subway system. Citing a survey of opera-goers taken in 2011, the Met pushed back all of their start times by half an hour. That's so people driving in from the suburbs can get home a little earlier, but a little hard on us New Yorkers. Maybe it's a plan to close area restaurants around Lincoln Center and sell more little sandwiches at the Revlon Bar?

Peter Gelb vs. Bradley Wilber
The most shameful act by the Metropolitan Opera this year. The company sent a "cease and desist" letter to Brad Wilber, an upstate librarian and author of the 'Metropolitan Opera Futures' page, a website that offered uncannily accurate predictions of forthcoming seasons at the Met.  (The Met claimed that the site was making it harder to negotiate advance contracts with artists.) We miss Mr. Wilber's cybernetic crystal ball, which had a knack for telling you what was coming up on the Met schedule and what direction the company was heading in. 

James Levine's Labor Day slip.

The ailing conductor was placed on the disabled list in May, stepping down from his Boston and Tanglewood obligations to rest and recover. On Labor Day weekend, Mr. Levine fell while walking in New England. Emergency surgery was required. As a result, Mr. Levine hasn't conducted anything since Wozzeck and Die Walküre in the spring. He is not scheduled to conduct at the Met until at least the 2013 season, but retains the post of Music Director.

The Music Director's (literal) fall from grace led Met general manager Peter Gelb to elevate Fabio Luisi to the post of Principal Conductor at the Met. Mr. Luisi agreed to salvage the new productions of Don Giovanni, Siegfried, and next year: Götterdämmerung. But the schedule-shuffling required Mr. Luisi to cancel a number of European and North American  commitments: concerts with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Symphony. He also bailed out of a Rome production of Richard Strauss' Elektra, three weeks before the premiere.

EMI Records sold.

The proud record label, which made the first major recordings of Herbert von Karajan with the Vienna Philharmonic and helped set the tone for the development of the modern classical recording industry is being folded into Vivendi, owners of Decca and Deutsche Grammophon. Will the EMI brand (which has been home to artists like Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagna, Plácido Domingo and Jacqueline du Pré) survive into the next decade, or will it suffer the same fate as Philips Classics?

The "Machine" Malfunctions.

Miscues and malfunctions marred the 2011 premieres of Die Walküre and Siegfried, the second and third installments in the Met's new production of Wagner's Ring Cycle. Deborah Voigt fell off the set on opening night of Walküre. (She was OK.) The first two Siegfrieds had clunks, thunks, and one outright dead stop (in Act III) on the second night. The action was hastily moved to the apron of the stage. 

The Occupation of Lincoln Center--by the NYPD.

On Dec. 1, the night Metropolitan Opera's final performance of Satyagraha, Lincoln Center was closed off. Hearing that Occupy Wall Street was planning a demonstration, the NYPD and Lincoln Center security barricaded the entire plaza against the arrival of peaceful demonstrators. This shameful behavior led to the Occupiers having their say on the sidewalk. Speakers included songwriter Lou Reed, his wife Laurie Anderson, and Satyagraha composer Philip Glass, who read from the Bhagavad-Gita.

Opera Boston goes under.
A late addition to this list--because it happened after this post went to press. On Dec. 23, two days Christmas, Opera Boston announced that it was ceasing operations, effective immediately. The company reported that it could not continue due to a $500,000 operating deficit and insufficient fund-raising. According to a report in the Boston Globe, six members of the 17-member board were against folding. So they weren't invited to the meeting when the company was folded. So much for democracy.

Visit the rest of the 2011 Year in Reviews, our account of the year that went to "'11".

*According to Wikipedia, the "Festivus" holiday was actually invented in 1966 by Dan O'Keefe, whose son Daniel wrote the 1997 Seinfeld episode "The Strike."

Angela Gheorghiu vs. Maria Callas

Technology pits Romanian soprano against La Divina.

"Devo veramente a cantare con lei?"
Maria Callas in Cherubini's Medea.
Photo © EMI Classics/La Scala archive.

Like the late diva Emilia Marty, soprano Angela Gheorghiu has made a bid for immortality with her forthcoming CD release: Homage to Maria Callas.

The disc features the Romanian soprano singing some of Callas' favorite repertory in the verismo genre, including arias from Puccini's La bohème, Catalani's La Wally and "La Mamma Morta", the aria from Giordano's Andrea Chenier made famous in the movie Philadelphia.

But the most controversial addition to the disc is a digitally built duet between La Gheorghiu and the late Maria Callas. The two sopranos, one living, one very dead, will sing "L'amour c'est l'oiseaux rebelle", the Habañera from Act I of Bizet's Carmen.

According to a press release (received today from EMI Classics) the new "duet" was created from the original master tape of Callas' 1961 recording of the aria. The engineers chose this over the '63 recording of the complete opera, because it lacked the usual choral accompaniment.

In the engineering booth, the original orchestra (the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française under the baton of George Prêtre) was scrubbed out. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Marco Armiliato re-recorded the music, with the players using a special click track to match the original. Ms. Gheorghiu also chose to learn Callas' particular sense of rhythm and meter, enabling the two divas to warble together, or seperately.


Leaving aside obvious reservations (the biggest one being that the Habañera is intended for one singer!) the new disc will hit New York's few remaining record shops in October, shortly before Ms. Gheorghiu's scheduled appearance with the Opera Orchestra of New York. In the OONY performance, she will sing the title role in Cilea's Adriana Lecouvrer.

Ms. Gheorghiu has a history of recent cancellations and controversies at the Metropolitan Opera. In an interview this weekend with the Los Angeles Times, conductor Leonard Slatkin blamed the diva for his exit from a disastrous 2009 revival of Verdi's La Traviata.

Earlier this year, the singer dropped out of the company's new production of Faust. Scheduled to sing Marguerite opposite Jonas Kaufmann, Ms. Gheorghiu cited "creative differences" with the new production, which updates the German legend to the 20th centiry and makes Faust into Robert Oppenheimer. Perhaps she will use her free time to prepare another tribute, this time to Catalan soprano Victoria de los Ángeles.

Opera Review: Roméo is Sleeping

Roméo et Juliette at the Met

Piotr Beczala and Hei-Kyung Hong
at the rehearsal of Roméo et Juliette.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera

Monday night's performance of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette at the Metropolitan Opera featured strong performances from tenor Piotr Beczala and soprano Hei-Kyung Hong in an otherwise unexciting revival of the Shakespearean opera.

This revival has already made headlines for the 11th-hour withdrawal of soprano Angela Gheorghiu. Her replacement was Hei-Kyung Hong. The 51-year old Korean soprano may be a little older than Shakespeare's 14-year old Juliette, but she sang boldly, going up for the high notes in Juliette's Waltz even though her voice thinned noticeably at the top.


As the performance continued (and her voice warmed up) Ms. Hong displayed the soprano warmth and bloom that has made her a longtime fixture at the Met. She was strong in the difficult fourth act, with the long "floating bed" duet with Piotr Beczala, followed by the difficult Potion Scene. Her onstage collapse the dramatic climax of the evening.

Tenor Piotr Beczala was a bluff, enthusiastic Roméo, singing with ardor in the balcony scene and generating real chemistry with his leading lady on the floating bed that is the setting for their Act IV duet. However, he looked lost in the Act III fight scene, standing about without any direction after killing Tybalt, as if the director failed to give him any directions at that point in the opera.

The biggest surprise of the evening was James Morris in the brief, but memorable role of Friar Laurence. The Met's former Wotan sounded ideal in this paternal role, using his woolly, well-oiled bass voice to give gravity to the priest's scenes in Acts III and IV. Mr. Morris has had some rough outings at the Met lately, but this short part was well suited to his fading fach.

Guy Joosten's staging uses the plays Renaissance setting and the idea of star-crossed lovers for a production that combines astrolabes, clocks, trompe l'oeil paintings and the streets of Olde Verona. Occasionally, the back wall cracks open to reveal cosmic landscapes, more suited to the work of Carl Sagan than Shakespeare. These ultimately prove distracting, although the "flying bed" duet remains a theatrical coup.

The performance was undermined by the conducting of tenor-turned-maestro Plàcido Domingo, which lacked that degree of lift that can make Gounod's melodic lines soar. That, combined with the librettists' decision to boil almost all the fight scenes and much of the excitement from Shakespeare's play  made for a long evening. But that's not the Met's fault.

Angela Ankles Faust

Marina Poplavskaya to sing Marguerite in new Met production.

Angela Gheorghiu,
in between cancellations.

Angela Gheorghiu is out of the Metropolitan Opera's current run of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, but the dark-eyed Romanian diva continues to make headlines. The latest: she has dropped the bomb on her commitment to sing Marguerite in the Met's new production of Gounod's Faust. The cause was cited as that old stand-by: "artistic differences."

The cancellation is the latest by Ms. Gheorghiu, a soprano who rose to international fame after she was cast (by Sir Georg Solti) in a 1994 Covent Garden production of La Traviata. The string started in 1998, when she and her husband, tenor Roberto Alagna, attempted to inflate their fees to appear in Franco Zeffirelli's second Met production of that same opera. They were replaced by soprano Patricia Racette and Argentinean tenor Marcelo Álvarez, and the show went on anyway.

More recently, Ms. Gheorghiu pulled out of the Dec. 31 2009 prima of the Met's new David McVicar staging of Bizet's Carmen. An early 2010 run in La Traviata (that same Zeffirelli production) featured the singer, although conductor Leonard Slatkin was fired withdrew for personal reasons after the prima.

The Roméo cancellation is the most recent. Ms. Gheorghiu pulled out of all seven performances of the opera this season, citing what was reported to be a month-long case of the flu. Her replacement is the experienced Korean soprano Hei-Kyung Hong, who was initially engaged to "cover" these performances.

A gilded cage: a scene from the ENO Faust.
Photo by Catherine Ashmore © 2010 English National Opera.

Faust was one opera that Ms. Gheorghiu actually sang at the Met recently, taking the role of Marguerite in the company's laughably bad 2005 staging of the opera, the one that featured a cadre of choristers waving tricolor French flags and René Pape attempting to look "menacing" in a rubber devil suit. It has never been repeated.

Its replacement is this new staging by Canadian director Des MacAnuff. Mr. McAnuff updates the opera to the 20th century and makes Goethe's medieval mystic into a mad scientist working to finish the atomic bomb, is bound to be some improvement. It is a collaboration between the Met and the English National Opera, and has already run in London to generally positive reviews.

Ms. Gheorghiu will be replaced in Faust by Russian diva-on-the-rise Marina Poplavskaya, who made an excellent impression at the Met this season in new productions of Verdi's Don Carlo as well as the lead role in La Traviata. Hopefully, Ms. Poplavskaya will be able to sing in French as well as she does in Italian.

For more about the Met's 2011-2012 plans, check out this preview of the upcoming season.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Roméo et Juliette

Hei-Kyung Hong will sing Juliette.
Photo © The Metropolitan Opera

Charles Gounod followed up the smash success of Faust with this ultra-romantic setting of William Shakespeare's tragedy. This is one of the most succesful operatic settings of a Shakespeare play. By paring down the drama and focusing on the two young lovers, the librettist team of Jules Barbier and Michele Carré created the ideal vehicle for a tenor and soprano to sing gorgeous French love-music on the stage.

The best known highlight from this opera is "Je veux vivre", also known as Juliette's Waltz, a lilting showpiece for the diva that remains one of the best tunes Gounod ever wrote. This revival of the Met's 2005 production by Guy Joosten and Johannes Lieckar emphasizes the work's Renaissance origins, putting the lovers in cosmic settings including an onstage orrery and an astrolabe. This revival pairs tenor Piotr Beczala (fresh off his successful Rodolfo in La bohème) with Korean soprano Hei-Kyung Hong. Ms. Hong has been announced as a last-minute replacement for Romanian diva Angela Gheorghiu, who cancelled the night before the premiere.

Did you know?
While this is the best known and most frequently performed version of the Shakespeare play, there have been 24 operatic adaptations of the play. Other notable versions include Hector Berlioz' symphonic drama of the same title, Vincenzo Bellini's I Capuletti e il Montecchi ("The Capulets and the Montagues") and Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's musical West Side Story.

Recording Recommendations
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus cond. Emil Cooper (Sony, 1947, released 2010)
Roméo Jussi Björling
Juliette: Bidú Sayão
Friar Laurence: Nicola Moscena
Mercutio: John Brownlee
Fans of French opera have long known about this famous Feb. 1, 1947 broadcast recording which paired Swedish super-tenor Jussi Björling with Brazilian diva Bidú Sayão. And it's been available before on the German label Cantus. But this classic set, recorded from the stage of the old opera house is a welcome arrival in the catalogue. It captures the young Mr. Björling at his most ardent, soaring to new heights in Romeo's romantic music. He is well-paired with Ms. Sayão and the set crackles with the energy of their interactions. Conducted by Emil Cooper, who specialized in the French repertory at the old Met.

Orchestra and Chorus of Toulouse cond. Michel Plasson (EMI Classics, 1998)
Roméo Roberto Alagna
Juliette: Angela Gheorghiu
Friar Laurence: Jose Van Dam
Mercutio: Simon Keenlyside

The so-called "love couple" made a number of opera recordings in the 1990s for EMI. Among them, this much-needed three-disc set of Roméo et Juliette. Roberto Alagna always sounds better when singing in French. Here, he tackles the role of Shakespeare's ardent young lover. His performance is all the more convincing because he is wooing Angela Gheorghiu, his wife. Their chemistry is what drives this set. Michel Plasson offers his usual, expert interpretation of Gounod and there is a fine supporting cast.

CD Review: Domingo's Verismo Hat Trick

The Hat Squad: Placìdo Domingo, Angela Gheorgiu, conductor Alberto Veronese
Photo © 2008 Universal Classics/Deutsche Grammophon

Placìdo Domingo adds the umpteenth recorded role (actually his 35th or 36th, I've lost count) to his repertory with this stellar recording of Fedora, an almost-forgotten opera by Umberto Giordano, the verismo composer whose best known work remains Andrea Chenier.

This set from Deutsche Grammophon, (recorded in January of 2008) is the tenor's third collaboration with conductor Alberto Veronesi, the innovative Italian maestro who is digging up lost operas by important composers in the early 20th century. Some of these works (Puccini's Edgar) are early products of the composer. Others (Leoncavallio's I Medici) were the beginnings of ambitious Wagnerian projects that never reached fruition.

Fedora is neither of these. Written in 1898, it is a sort of a cousin to Tosca, although the Puccini opera came out two years later. Both works are based on plays by Victorien Sardou. Sardou wrote both parts: Fedora Romazova and Floria Tosca for the divine French actress Sarah Bernhardt. Because of its theatrical heritage and the Tosca connection, the role is something of a favorite with divas who can handle its difficulties and sing the opera's libretto with a straight face. Renata Tebaldi recorded it, and Mirella Freni chose Fedora as her final bow at the Met.


Here, the Countess is played by Angela Gheorghiu. The Romanian soprano swoops through the role, coming across as a blend of aloofness and passion. She is at her best in the last act, when the showpiece aria "La montanini mia" allows her voice to bloom. This is not the most distinguished performance of the role--it lacks the fire of a Tebaldi or a Freni, but it is a good performance. And the pairing  with Mr. Domingo makes for interesting listening.

The role of Loris has been a favorite of Mr. Domingo's for many years. In fact, he has preserved it before, on the  Met DVD opposite Mirella Freni. On this recording, he sings with the same freshness and vitality that he brought to the other projects in Maestro Veronesi's series. He is clearly enthusiastic about playing the role of a nobleman turned nihilist hitman, and skates blithely over the absurdities and anachronisms of the opera's libretto.

Considering that Mr. Domingo made this recording two years ago, his tenor range is intact. The voice has darkened over the past two decades, but he still pulls out the top drawer of high notes when the work calls for them. This is a canny tenor making the most of his remaining resources and his knowledge of the studio to deliver an exciting performane that he might not be able to reproduce onstage. His Act I reading of "Amor ti Vieta" makes one reach for the back button to hear it twice.

Opera Review: The Doge Rises, The Statue Falls

Figlia! Thomas Hampson hugs Angela Gheorghiu
in Act I of Simon Boccanegra.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2007 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Met revives Simon Boccanegra.
We were at the Met last night to catch the revival of the company's excellent revival of Giancarlo del Monaco's 1995 staging of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra. Ably conducted by Fabio Luisi and anchored by a stellar portrayal by Thomas Hampson, this was an emotional reading of this underperformed opera.

The star of the evening was Angela Gheorgiu, who grabbed the audience's attention as Amelia and proceeded to bring out the warmth and depth of Verdi's heroine. She blended well with Hampson, and the two generated real emotional pathos in the "Figlia" duet.

Hampson was a multifaceted Doge--a loving father, a thundering statesman and finally a dying martyr. This is a very complicated part and he was able to portray Simon with dignity and vocal versatility. His "O patrizi, plebei" made the arches of the Met's massive Council Chamber resonate, his agony while dying in the third act was almost painful to watch.

Mention must also be made of Marcello Giordani, who made the most of the underwritten tenor part of Gabriel Adorno. I have never seen this part this well portrayed--not as a tenor afterthought but as a character almost as complicated as Boccanegra himself.

Ferrucio Furlanetto was a vocally imposing Fiesco, nailing all of the killer bass notes in "Il lacerato spirito" but coming off more as a kindly uncle than a proud nobleman hell-bent on revenge. Vassily Gerello had some rough spots in the prologue--he plays the key role of Paolo, the opera's real villain, and gets the job of telling the audience what the hell is going on in the opera. However, Gerello evened out and sang very well in Acts 2 and 3.

That production has held up pretty well, although the image of the angry Genoese mob pulling down a statue in the opening prologue--once meant to portray the death of Communism, eerily recalled events in Iraq following the fall of Saddam Hussein. As it often is at the Met, the massive sets require that intermissions be at odd times (between the Prologue and Act One?) which makes the evening longer than necessary. But these are minor quibbles.