OPERA
What Beats Mozart & Berlioz?
“Così fan tutte,” “Damnation de Faust,” “Nozze di Figaro”
BY DAVID SHENGOLD
The Met’s “Così fan tutte”
(February 15) showed the
advantages of recasting
and reassigning conducting
duties in this 2018 staging.
Harry Bicket led a sparkling reading
with a strong, fully plausible
cast. They still had to contend with
Phelim McDermott’s good-spirited
but way overbusy “Coney Island”
production revived by Sara Erde,
which has impressive visual values
but — from the Overture onwards
— upstages the music and
story with a 12-person “Skills Ensemble,”
some hammy and some
rather blank. Too much dancing to
the beat and extra-musical noise:
both besetting sins of comedies
at the Met these days, as if a moment’s
stillness would risk losing
HD audiences.
As it happens, the afternoon’s
most affecting moments were
those clear of mugging or (literally)
fi re-breathing extras. “Per pietà”
soared as sung by the very capable
Nicole Car: not the most individual
of sounds but technically able and
far more natural in the role than
Amanda Majeski — a good Mozart
singer who never seems to hit her
stride at the Met — had been. And
the slightly narrow-timbred but
very pleasing-voiced Ben Bliss,
one of two original cast members,
aced “Tradito, schernito”. (Why
on earth don’t they let Ferrando
sing his second aria,”Ah, lo veggio,”
the absence of which leaves
a perceptible hole onstage?) I liked
Serena Malfi ’s sparkily feisty Dorabella
much more this time around.
Broadway star Kelli O’Hara had
fared acceptably in her overhyped
Met Despina, but Heidi Stober
brought a more rounded, penetrating
instrument to her music, doing
a fi ne job throughout.
I fi rst heard Luca Pisaroni as a
stellar Guglielmo in Turin in 2003.
Though his timbre has somewhat
dulled, he way outclassed the production’s
original Adam Plachetka,
both in idiomatic recital delivery
and looks (which matter in this
part). Hearing Pisaroni and Malfi ’s
Luca Pisaroni in the Metropolitan Opera production of Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte.”
seduction scene provided linguistic
specifi city rare these days in
Mozart anywhere. Gerald Finley
may be a bit too elegant a singer
for Alfonso, but he gamely sported
the Peter Allen-worthy red spangly
costume in which the philosopher/
ringleader ends the evening.
Bicket had the cast inserting
tasteful decoration, and Jonathan
C. Kelly fl ourished at the harpsichord.
Listen to Mozart’s overture
beforehand, but this “Cosi,”
through March 14, merits a visit.
Berlioz’s “Damnation de
Faust”— revived by the Met unfortunately
not in the drolly inventive
Robert Lepage staging but in
perfunctory concert form — boasts
spectacular stretches but needs
visionary conducting to unify its
parts. Edward Gardiner’s work
February 8 was effi cient and even,
so that one wished the fi ne players
— oboes especially — were onstage;
but no transfi guring magic
took hold.
Elina Garanca, dressed to kill
and superb in presence (if hardly
the story’s vulnerable Marguerite)
sang with great beauty and distinction,
though a certain froideur
always prevails. Ildar Abdrazakov,
a genial, sexy Mephistopheles,
coped smoothly with his music
but might have mustered more
verbal bite. Phenomenal French
style marked company newcomer
JONATHAN TICHLER/ METROPOLITAN OPERA
Michael Spyres’ work as Faust,
though his formidable and often
lovely tenor, while unfazed by high
C sharps, encountered some uncharacteristic
constriction in sustained
high passages. One hopes
this very individual, accomplished
star returns in other roles. Out gay
bass-baritone Patrick Carfi zzi aced
the one-number role of Brander.
The men’s and children’s choruses
sang strongly; the women did fi ne
save for some edgy climaxes. Perhaps
lower pricing for the concert
format might have fi lled the many
empty seats?
The revival of Richard Eyre’s
reasonably successful 2014 “Le
nozze di Figaro,”styled after Jean
Renoir’s 1939 fi lm ‘The Rules of
the Game,” provided a nice evening
in the theater February 5, despite
Cornelius Meister’s equivocal
conducting: well-textured and allowing
for apt decoration from the
singers, but with frequent lapses in
pit/ stage coordination. Suffi cient
rehearsal was likely lacking.
It’s time for the Met to re-evaluate
its constant deployment of
Plachetka in Mozart roles. His career
started out very well, but his
bass-baritone has deteriorated
and often emerges rough and undistinguished,
and what passed
for youthful charm has become
lumbering and overdone: Figaro as
Ralph Kramden. Soprano Hanna-
Elisabeth Mueller — in her third
Met role — shares Plachetka’s fundamental
plebeian vocal quality,
particularly in the middle voice.
She’s an apt stylist and a vivid actress,
and did her best work where
it matters most, in the fi nal “Deh,
vieni.” Yet Maureen McKay— the
unusually strong Barbarina —
would have done more justice
to Susanna’s magical music, as
would Ying Fang or any number of
sopranos on the roster.
The highly stageworthy Anita
Hartig didn’t sing her two great
arias perfectly — the attractive,
very personal tone sometimes
turned glassy in the Teresa Stich-
Randall manner — but, as the
Countess herself says of Cherubino:
“Che bella voce!” Neither
Almaviva mustered much of a
trill, but Étienne Dupuis — looking
aptly like a slightly aging but
entitled Midwestern congressman
— proved a very creditable Count,
stylish and unfazed by his aria’s
climax. It’s not a distinctive timbre,
but he served this role very well.
Sparky French mezzo Marianne
Crebassa made a smashing debut.
The randy page Cherubino, with
his audience-pleasing arias and
antics, has furnished New Met entrées
for many distinguished artists;
a short list would include Berganza,
Ewing, von Otter, Mentzer,
Donose, Kozená, and DiDonato,
and Crebassa, with her distinctive,
well-modulated, androgynous timbre
and keen phrasing, belongs in
that company.
Veterans Maurizio Muraro
(Basilio) and MaryAnn McCormick
(Marcellina) showed more than
enough voice for their parts, and
the bass gave the evening some
genuine italianità. The ever-welcome
Keith Jameson’s mercifully
uncamped and fl uid-voiced Basilio,
and Paul Corona (sounding like
a Figaro while Plachetka sounded
like an Antonio) also added luster
to the ensemble.
Rob Howell’s sets are rather
cumbersome but his costumes —
Hartig really knew how to “work”
hers sexily — have great appeal, as
does Paule Constable’s lighting.
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