OPERA
Love and Death — in Song
A Tchaikovsky “Queen of Spades” not to miss at the Met
BY ELI JACOBSON
Fatal passions are the stuff
of opera — and this fall
season was replete with
doomed love stories. These
sad stories of dead lovers featured
several local debuts of much lauded
international talents.
We will start with Tchaikovsky’s
dark tale of fatal obsession: “The
Queen of Spades.” In Pushkin’s
original story, the obsessive antihero
Hermann’s fi xation on the
Old Countess’ secret formula for
winning at cards lands him in an
insane asylum. His discarded lover
Lisa ends up palmed off as the wife
of a nonentity. In Tchaikovsky’s
operatic adaptation (to a libretto by
his brother Modest), both Lisa and
Hermann end up suicides.
The Metropolitan Opera’s current
revival featured a large number
of role debuts including the
Met debut of the rising young Norwegian
heroic soprano Lise Davidsen.
Davidsen recently made her
Bayreuth debut and just released
a solo CD of Wagner and Strauss
arias on the Decca label. Davidsen
lived up to all the advance hype
but was one bright light among
equal luminaries in a consistently
strongly cast.
Elijah Moshinsky’s 1995 production
remains starkly effective
with its use of light and shade and
slightly skewed perspectives in formal
landscapes and architecture.
However, several singers would
have benefi ted from more precise
physical stage business and several
effects were blurred over. Lisa’s
suicide in the Winter Canal looked
like a hysterical rush offstage before
the stage panels closed in on
her — originally, she waded into
the water as the lights dimmed
around her.
The opera is driven by the male
protagonist, Hermann: Yusif Eyvazov
(a late replacement for Aleksandrs
Antonenko) delivered a gamechanging
tour de force performance.
The distinctly reedy, nasal timbre
of Eyvazov’s tenor sounds odd in
Italian opera but suits Russian
repertory marvelously (his open
Yusif Eyvazov and Lise Davidsen in Tchaikovsky’s “The Queen of Spades.”
ringing high notes work in any
tenor role no matter the repertory).
The newly slimmed down Azerbaijani
tenor’s dark looks and intense
projection of Hermann’s obsession
and passions made him the star of
the evening. This is not a fi rst-rate
voice but with hard work Eyvazov
has earned his place in the spotlight
outside of the shadow of his
superstar wife, Anna Netrebko.
The tall and lovely Davidsen has
a darkly luminous middle register
full of Russian melancholy.
But her upper register is pure and
her seamless tone ascends and
expands without tonal glare, unsteadiness
or harshness. Davidsen
is currently more a vocal than
a dramatic phenomenon but she
has an appealingly natural stage
presence and engages the listener.
Her upcoming Met engagements in
operas by Beethoven, Wagner, and
Strauss are something to anticipate
with pleasure.
As the mysterious Old Countess,
Larissa Diadkova was formidable
vocally and dramatically — her robust
contralto fi lled out lines that
have been croaked by some of her
predecessors. Physically she needed
to suggest more decrepitude
and frailty. Alexey Markov was a
virile and dashing Count Tomsky
who dealt a winning hand with
his Act I aria about the three winning
cards. Elena Maximova was
KEN HOWARD/ MET OPERA
an adroit Pauline revealing a more
consistently focused contralto tone
and charming stage manner. As
Lisa’s jilted fi ancé Prince Yeletsky,
baritone Igor Golovatenko (in his
Met debut) initially seemed sonorous
but stolid but his showstopper
aria revealed long-breathed legato
lines and elegant phrasing.
Smaller roles were given prominence
by such bright talents as
Leah Hawkins, Paul Groves, and
Jill Grove. The third debutant was
the St. Petersburg born conductor
Vasily Petrenko, who led Tchaikovsky’s
score with a brilliant clarity
that intensifi ed the dark passions
and brooding orchestral colors inherent
in this score. Try to catch
one of the remaining performances
before December 21 as this is the
Met at its best.
Wagner interprets the fatal
passion of his titular lovers in
“Tristan und Isolde” through
binary concepts opposed against
each other: love-death, night-day,
etc. Love can only end in death
as day ends in night. The outside
world of duty exists during the day
but romantic passions can only
thrive at night.
The National Symphony Orchestra
brought Act II of “Tristan und
Isolde” in concert to Geffen Hall on
November 17 as part of the White
Lights Festival. This concert reading
gave us our fi rst glimpse of
Christine Goerke’s Isolde, a role
that she is preparing for international
(and possibly local?) engagements.
Goerke sang with great
musical, textual, and dramatic detail
but somehow the role of Isolde
eluded her — the music never quite
settled into her voice. She had all
the notes (including the two tricky
high C’s at Tristan’s entrance) but
the tone sounded hollow and unsettled
with passing intonation
problems. I was hoping for something
darkly sensuous with a mezzo
coloration. But Goerke never
managed that kind of warm legato
phrasing as the voice kept going in
and out.
In contrast, Bayreuth veteran
Stephen Gould is an experienced
Tristan who despite a somewhat
mature and leathery tone carried
off the role with authority and focused
power. Mezzo Ekaterina
Gubanova repeated her anguished
Brangäne (last seen in the Met’s
new production two seasons ago)
with fi rm dramatic and vocal projection.
Bass Günther Groissböck
showed the advantages of casting
a native German speaker as King
Marke — his long monologue imparted
the shock of betrayed honor
and trust rather than self-pity.
His baritonal bass with its rather
grainy texture evoked affronted
pride, anger and disillusion.
Gianandrea Noseda’s conducting
hung fi re where it should have
rustled with anticipation or surged
with passion. There were moments
of sloppy ensemble. The most interesting
interpretation came in what
is the dullest section of the act: the
once routinely cut but structurally
indispensable “Tag” (“Day”) section
of the great love duet. This was far
from a perfect performance of this
demanding act but it imparted
enough Wagnerian passion to excite
an audience of opera afi cionados
to enthusiastic cheering.
Online at gaycitynews.com, Eli Jacobson
reviews Opera Lafayette’s
production of John Blow’s “Venus
and Adonis” starring Lea Desandre
and Douglas Williams.
December 19, 2019 - January 1, 2 36 020 | GayCityNews.com
/gaycitynews.com
/GayCityNews.com
