Opera Review: Going For the Throat

Stuart Skelton debuts in Otello.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

There's been a nasty cold rampaging around New York this month. It struck down your faithful correspondent last week, and also afflicted tenor Stuart Skelton, star of the Met's revival of Verdi's Otello. The tenor, acclaimed for his portrayal of Wagner heroes, was scheduled to sing the role for the first time at the Met last Friday, but it wasn't until Monday night that the big man felt well enough to appear. This revival of the Met's season-opening 2015 production featured Mr. Skelton opposite two of that show's stars: soprano Sonya Yoncheva as Desdemona and baritone Zeljko Lučić as the conniving Iago.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Roméo et Juliette

"A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life..."
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Publicity photo of Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo as Juliette and her Roméo.
Photo by Kristian Schuller for the Metropolitan Opera.

The Met unveils a new take on Shakespeare's classic story of doomed young love, with Vittorio Grigolo and Diana Damrau singing Charles Gounod's gorgeous music. This new production by Bart Sher was first seen at Salzburg and La Scala. It arrives at the Met on New Year's Eve.

Opera Review: Well, There's Your Lion

The Met brings back Bart Sher's Otello.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A rit of fealous jage: Aleksandrs Antonenko returns as Otello.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2016 The Metropolitan Opera.

At the Metropolitan Opera under the aegis of general manager Peter Gelb, it has become standard practice to open the fall season with a new production, and to bring that staging back in the spring for radio broadcasts, usually with a few casting changes. The current revival of this year's new Bartlett Sher Otello is back on the boards, and Superconductor finally had the opportunity to attend a live performance of this revival on Monday night.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Les contes d'Hoffmann

Orgies. Doctors. Robots: The Met revives Les contes d'Hoffmann.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Olympia Mark II: A ballerina is whirled in the air in Act I of Les contes d'Hoffmann.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2015 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Met explores the dark side of obsession and love with the return of Bartlett Sher's 2009 production of Jacques Offenbach's fantastical final opera.

The Lady Vanishes

Marina Poplavskaya fades out of Figaro.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Marina Poplavskaya has faded from the picture and stepped down from the 2014
Metropolitan Opera season opener. Photo of Ms. Poplavskaya from the 2013
production of Eugene Onegin by Ken Howard © 2013 by the Metropolitan Opera.
Photo alteration and solarization by the author.

The Metropolitan Opera, currently locked in a standoff with twelve of the sixteen unions that make up the workforce at America's largest opera house, has announced that Marina Poplavskaya has bowed out as the Countess Almaviva of the season-opening run of Le Nozze di Figaro.

The announcement from the Met press office arrived on Twitter yesterday.

Opera Review: Days of Wine and Voices

Juan Diego Flórez and Diana Damrau in L'Elisir d'Amore.

by Paul Pelkonen

Back off: she's got an umbrella. Diana Damrau fends off Juan Diego Flórez in L'Elisir d'Amore.
Photo © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

During his tenure, Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb has made it his mission to phase out old productions of standard repertory operas. So Monday night marked the opening of the last run for John Copley's charming 1991 L'Elisir d'Amore. This popular production uses cardboard cutouts, wooden acting surfaces, bright Italian pastels, tri-color flags and a deliberate theatrical artifice to make the giant Met stage ideal for Donizetti's rural comedy.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Le Comte Ory

Juan Diego Flórez makes a welcome return to the Met in the title role of Le Comte Ory.

The Metropolitan Opera continues its trend of reviving Rossini rarities with this staging of Le Comte Ory, the composer's last comic opera. This is the Met's first production of this infrequently heard opera.

Le Comte Ory was written in 1828 for the Paris Opera, right before Rossini's retirement from active opera composition. In some ways it stands alone in the composer's canon of works as a comedy written in French. It tells the story of a nobleman, determined to win the hand of Countess Adèle, through disguise, deception, and more disguises than Bugs Bunny.

At the MetTalks presentation on March 10, director Bartlett Sher explained his concept of the new production. He is taking the work back to its 1828 roots: a wooden stage within the Met's cavernous auditorium. The second act, in the convent, will be staged by candlelight. Yes, you read that right.

The production reunites the team of Juan Diego Flórez and Diana Damrau, the tenor and soprano who wowed audiences with a stunning display of bel canto fireworks in the company's 2008 staging of Donizetti's La fille du Regiment. The opera also features mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato in the trouser role of Isolier, the page who is also attempting to woo the Countess.



A video clip of Juan Diego Flórez in Le Comte Ory. The staging is by Bartlett Sher, and is the third collaboration between the Met and the Tony®-award winning director.

Recordings Recommendation
I don't really know this opera. But there are three recordings of Le Comte Ory available. I haven't heard them, so I've included what I could learn about them. They are:

Glyndebourne Festival Orchestra cond. Vittorio Gui (EMI, 1956)
Count Ory: Juan Oncina
Countess Adèle: Sari Barabas
Isolier: Cora Canne-Meuer
A mono recording made at Abbey Road, and based on a staging at the tiny but wonderful Glyndebourne Festival, a gem set in the English countryside. This set was originally released by EMI and can be purchased from Amazon as a download, with each disc forming one MP3 track. Yes, that's a pain, but on the bright side, you get the whole opera for $1.98. Caveat emptor!

Orchestre et Choeur de l'Opera de Lyon cond. John Eliot Gardiner (Philips, 1988)
Count Ory: John Aler
Countess Adèle: Sumi Jo
Isolier: Diana Montague
This was one of John Eliot Gardiner's early opera recordings. The period performance expert accompanies the sparkling soprano of Korean soprano Sumi Jo. This was an award-winning recording and has long been considered an industry standard of this rare opera. Since the entire Philips catalogue was effectively deleted when that label was absorbed into Decca, this set was re-released by ArkivMusic in 2006.

Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna cond. Jesús López-Cobos (DG, 2004)
Count Ory: Juan Diego Flórez
Countess Adèle: Stefania Bonfadelli
Isolier: Marie-Ange Todorovitch
This recording was made at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro in 2003, and was one of Mr. Flórez' first exposures on the internatonal operatic stage. Featuring Maestro López-Cobos, an experienced Rossini conductor who brings charm and sparkle to this composer's music. The rest of the cast is middling--it is Mr. Flores' presence that is the selling point here.

Opera Review: Through a Stein, Darkly

Les Contes d'Hoffmann at the Met.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

"I'll take you in my arms, Kathleen."
Kathleen Kim as Olympia in Act I of Bart Sher's  Les contes d'Hoffmann.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2009 The Metropolitan Opera.

Veteran director Bart Sher has delivered again with this imaginative, outside-the-box staging of Offenbach's final opera, presenting this convoluted work with fresh dramatic insight. He is aided by a strong cast with three seperate female leads and a superb performance by tenor Joseph Calleja in the demanding title role.
Bart Sher approaches Hoffmann's stories as a series of surreal fever-dreams. Even the events in Luther's tavern that frame the action are a little weird. Spalanzani's toyshop (birthplace of the doll Olympia) is now a production-line facility for anonymous men to buy their own personal female playthings, a kind of cybernetic prostitution that recalls the film Blade Runner. Antonia's house is a wintry landscape with a piano and sheet music strewn across the stage. And the Giulietta act is set in a Venetian bordello with an orgy/ballet worthy of Tannhaüser.

Mr. Calleja has a pleasing tenor voice, ideally suited for the lyric expanses of Offenbach's score. However he would have been better served if James Levine had slowed down during the prologue, and allowed the opera's lyric, eldritch power to bloom. Kate Lindsey made the Muse the opera's true leading lady, switching genders with ease and working against Hoffmann and his romantic designs throughout the evening. Mention must also be made of character tenor Alan Oke, who made the most of his four roles. The short little aria for Franz is often cut from the score. It was a highlight of this performance.


In this version, the Muse and the Four Villains are in cahoots, stacking the deck to to keep Hoffmann on the straight-and-narrow creative path. Alan Held was the living four-fold embodiment of evil, using his smooth, rich bass-baritone to good effect. Yes, he victimizes Hoffmann repeatedly, breaking Olympia, killing Antonia, and arranging for Giulietta to capture the poet's reflection in a mirror. But how can you hate a bad guy who can sing "Scintille, diamant" so beautifully?

Kathleen Kim gave a star-making performance as the doll Olympia, combining broad physical comedy with a tremendous coloratura technique, managing the tricky pin-point notes with a few "mechanical" effects. Anna Netrebko was everything an Antonia should be--sad, doomed, and beautiful. Wendy White made a surprise appearance as Antonia's mother and it was a pleasure to hear these great voices together. Ekaterina Gubanova was a sensuous, thoroughly corrupt Giulietta.

With the opera left unfinished at Offenbach's death, there are myriad versions of Hoffmann to choose from. When the opera premiered, the Antonia act was placed last, allowing the diva to end the work with a glorious death scene. However, this renders the Giulietta act, with its corruption and descent into depravity nonsensical. Mr. Levine and Mr. Sher opted to place Antonia in the middle of the opera (where she belongs) and omitted much of the extra music (including Giulietta's suicide) from the Venetian act. In this version the finale was staged as a confrontation and reconciliation between Hoffmann and his muse, bringing the curtain down on the image of the great writer, alone at his desk, and doing what he did best.