Glass’ “Akhnaten” is Met at Its Best
Anthony Roth Costanzo, Iestyn Davies, Golda Schultz shine
BY DAVID SHENGOLD
“Akhnaten,” fi rst
heard at Stuttgart
in1984, has
become the third
Philip Glass opera presented by the
Met. Seen November 12 in Phelim
McDermott’s spectacular English
National Opera staging centered
around an amazing marathon
star performance by Anthony Roth
Costanzo, it was a terrifi c evening.
McDermott has varied and
deepened the physically mesmerizing
production since its 2016
English National Opera premiere.
I’ve always enjoyed Glass operas
more on second hearing. This time
I appreciated the composer’s fascinating
polytonal harmonics and
heard intriguing echoes of baroque
masters, particularly Bach and
Pergolesi. The only scene I found
frustrating — both the libretto and
its realization by McDermott — is
the very dated-seeming cameo of
a contemporary archeologist describing
the ruins of Akhnaten’s
capital.
Costanzo’s brave performance
has been discussed in some quarters
largely in terms of the time he
spends onstage nude. More important
are the superb pinpoint physical,
vocal, and emotional control
he brings to the multiply mysterious
pharaoh’s testing part. In her
fi rst Met role, mezzo J’Nai Bridges
looked and sounded spectacular
as Nefertiti; the beautifully staged
duet between her and Costanzo
and their characters’ vocal interplay
(in life and posthumously)
with the accomplished Icelandic
soprano Dísella Lárusdóttir’s
Queen Tye ravished the ear.
Also a carry-over from ENO,
imposing bass Zachary James
declaimed impressively as Amenhotep
III. Aaron Blake’s secure,
penetrating tenor aced the High
Priest’s quasi-cantorial melismas
and Will Liverman sang strongly
as Horemhab. Conductor Karen
Kamensek made a very welcome
debut, though I found the playing
initially somewhat muted; Acts II
and III, though, blazed, and the
Anthony Roth Costanzo in the title role of Philip Glass’ “Akhnaten.”
chorus performed powerfully as
well. “Akhnaten” appears through
December 7; beg, borrow, or steal
your way in, this production
showed the Met at its best.
The Met’s “Turandot” October
26 proved most notable for
Yannick Nezet-Seguin’s luxurious
conducting, which mined the
score’s osmotic modernism — underlining
for example, dissonance
when possible. Orchestra and
Donald Palumbo’s chorus (much
put upon in Franco Zeffi relli’s
overblown staging) were in stellar
form, guaranteeing a worthwhile
evening. Act Two’s sensational
mid-music set change still evokes
understandable cheers, but otherwise
the show looks tired (the ludicrous
New Year’s dragon barely
kept together), and its everythingbut
KAREN ALMOND/ MET OPERA
the-kitchen-sink chinoiserie
seems hopelessly offensive and puerile.
Surely the Met, with its supposed
emphasis on promoting dramatic
values, can do better than
this and mount a staging with a
more psychologically and politically
astute take on this highly problematic
piece?
The casting was more than
creditable but not ideal. I’ve heard
Christine Goerke triumph in many
parts, and she lends the role absolutely
complete dramatic conviction
in a way few “Turandot specialists”
could even contemplate. But her
top notes, though there, narrow in
Puccini’s exposed peaks, and attacks
were not always squarely on
the note. When can we hear Goerke
in something more interesting, like
Ortrud (fabulous in Houston) or
Alceste?
OPERA
By operatic tenor standards,
Riccardo Massi made a handsome
Calaf, and his liquid tone and genuine
Italian diction counted positively,
though he should abjure the
Riddle Scene’s high C in future.
Gabriella Reyes earned buzz with
her fi ne “Aida” Priestess last season;
here she delivered a highly
professional “cover” performance
as Liu: the voice has the quality
and vibrancy for Musetta potential,
but on this occasion she didn’t
offer suffi cient dynamic shading
for the self-sacrifi cing slave girl’s
exquisite music. James Morris, at
the Met since 1971, sounded recognizably
himself as Timur if inevitably
less steady and strong than in
his World’s Reigning Wotan days.
Besides Carlo Bosi’s superbly incisive
Altoum there were strong contributions
from sonorous baritones
Alexey Lavrov (Ping) and Javier
Arrey (Mandarin). Chorister Maria
D’Amato, in the Handmaiden’s
brief duties, sounded like another
plausible Liu.
It was salutary to hear star
countertenor Iestyn Davies —
slated for Ottone opposite Joyce
DiDonato in the Met’s “Agrippina”
a few months off — in the intimate
confi nes of Carnegie’s Weill Hall
October 19. Working with the excellent
fi ve-member string ensemble
Fretwork, who offered several
fi nely articulated instrumental selections,
Davies presented a keenly
considered program spanning several
centuries and languages. I
wanted more light in the room to
read the texts. Davies — working,
as most recitalist seems to do now,
with a music stand — proved most
expressive in his native language:
pieces by William Byrd (including
a transfi xing memorial piece
to fellow composer Thomas Tallis),
Henry Purcell’s exquisitely set
“O solitude” and some archaizing
pastoral songs by Ralph Vaughan
Williams. A complex “Lamento”
by Johann Christoph Bach (Johann
Sebastian’s paternal cousin)
proved astonishingly mov-
➤ DAVIES continued on p.27
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