As I struggled to comprehend what I witnessed at the Metropolitan Opera House on New Year’s Eve, as I strode onto Lincoln Center Plaza in the pouring rain, it occurred to me Gypsy Twenty blocks to the south were recently opened for revitalization. Maybe it was because of the director’s new production that night aida I imagine Michael Mayer, the Tony Award-winning Broadway executive producer, thought when he was offered the job of producing Verdi’s classic masterpiece Gypsy’Great performance in the second act “You have to have a gimmick”.
How else can we explain his enigmatic concept: a riveting ancient Egyptian opera of love, war and death, told through the explorations of a silent group of early 20th-century archaeologists? In Verdi’s prelude, a man who looks like Indiana Jones descends to the stage floor in a pool of light, discovers a dagger (remember that dagger!), and is surprised by the hieroglyphics he sees . After Ramfis and Radames entered, the lead explorer disappeared. From then on, with one important exception, he and his archaeological colleagues became so peripheral to the operation that for long periods of time you forgot about them entirely.
Perhaps their inclusion was a feeble attempt by Mayer to make his otherwise thoroughly traditional aida More importantly, it focuses on opera’s recent struggles with its longstanding fascination with “foreign” cultures. Only once did his actors participate directly in the action of the opera. In monumental triumphal scenes, “modern” figures parade through the scene, carrying various golden statues, the spoils of their expeditions. After the intermission, they retreat into the background again, reappearing only occasionally to observe the opera’s riveting action, a conceit that only alienates us from its principles. The audience’s most offensive inaction occurs in the opera’s tragic final moments, when Indiana and his female colleagues calmly watch Aida and Radames die in their graves, and a grieving Annaris commits seppuku, presumably with The dagger he grabbed in the opera.
Mayer’s long-delayed production replaces Sonja Frisell’s beloved 1988 vision, whose death prompted an outpouring of grief. More than three decades after its premiere, the show’s recent revival has been plagued by a cast that appears to have been given no direction beyond basic lockdown. Any hopes that Mayer could provide more detailed guidance were quickly dashed, as his singers seemed largely left to their own devices, relying on clichéd gestures to project their voices to the top rather than to their colleagues, and almost always It is a voice coming from the front line.
The lack of direction is most evident in Angel Bleu’s fragile Aida, a relatively new role for her. A sympathetic soprano can become a persuasive actress if given strong direction, e.g. Porgy and Bess, But here, her Aida is too modest and unsure of herself, offering little glimpse of a proud Ethiopian princess suffering under Egyptian rule. Delightfully, her voice was filled with radiance, sending sparkling high notes into the Met’s vast spaces. Even if her middle and chest registers don’t bloom as excitingly, she demonstrates a solid grasp of the character’s intense demands.
Perhaps as the run continues into the spring, Blue will bring more specificity and poignancy to her words, like her father’s. Quinn Kelsey fiercely embodies the image of the captured king Amonasro, whose appearance late in act two briefly jolts the otherwise quiet proceedings into a lively performance. . He raged, darkening his energetic soaring baritone and briefly inspiring Blue to become more urgent in their anxious, anguished duet, which proved to be the most gripping sequence of the evening.
The wisdom of Piotr Beczala playing the punishing dramatic role of Radamès was hotly debated before the opening, but these reservations went unanswered as the elegant, earnest ‘s tenor was bored with the opening and probably shouldn’t have performed it at all. Metropolitan Museum of Art general manager Peter Gelb announced the news of his illness and thanked him for carrying on, but many viewers may have been less grateful. He continued to tap, tuning the notes an octave lower or omitting them entirely, inevitably confusing his partner and diminishing the effect of the music.
Bezalah’s exit from New Year’s Eve 2023 must be under the influence of an unlucky New Year’s Eve star Carmen Premiered, then missed several further performances. The tenor, who turns 58 on December 28, has been in fine form since his Carnegie Hall recital in early December, so his disastrous Radames must not be seen as a sign of decline . Why he was encouraged to start — and then continue — remains an unsettling mystery, especially in front of a smartly dressed audience who paid top dollar to attend a less than stellar premiere.
As Ramfis, Dmitry Belosselskiy also sounds terrible, his bass low and unconfident. Perhaps due to Beloselski’s ill health, Morris Robinson, who would take over the role of Ramfis later in the season, dominated his scenes like The King of Egypt rarely did. While Yu Yongzhao pays little attention to The Courier’s urgent narrative, Amanda Bautista brings a talented soprano to play the role of the priestess behind the scenes.
See also: The experience of living with Michael J. Schumacher’s “living room piece”
Last season she made a disappointing debut in the new season as the wrong Preziosilla. the power of destiny, Romanian mezzo-soprano Judit Kutasi returns to the Metropolitan Opera as the outrageously dramatic Amneris, a scorned Egyptian princess. Her captivating performance won some cheers for its unbridled flamboyance, especially in contrast to the introverted Blue and struggling Bezalah. However, her singing was unexpected. Sometimes the highs will ring out clearly, but more often they’ll be alarmingly sharp. Her closed waist often swayed, and the notes in her chest sounded more like talking than singing.
Given the precarious situation in Betzla, Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads an unusually cautious team Aida, Although many passages reveal quick, mesmerizingly transparent views of the score. His fellow musicians responded by shining brightly. Several dance sequences once again revealed the conductor’s delicate and lively side; however, Oleg Glushkov’s artificial ballet for twenty lithe, shirtless men with undulating legs should have Repurposed in next edition. Broadway nudity. Donald Palumbo returned from retirement to prepare the chorus for this new work, and his male chorus gave a particularly thrilling performance.
Given the bland predictability of Mayer’s work, the Met might as well have retained its old Frisell version, which features Gianni Quaranto’s convincing set pieces. But Christine Jones’s new set, boosted by 59 Production’s elegant and colorful projections, looks very evocative, as do Susan Hilferty’s striking costumes. Physical production would be a boon for the company, but unnecessary archaeologists like Alfredo’s intrusive mute sister in Mayer’s “Disney” are sure to quickly fall out of favor. La Traviata.
The big question remains why Mayer was asked to re-direct one of the Met’s most beloved productions when his previous two Verdi productions, the infamous 1950s Las Vegas Rigoletto (It had already been abandoned because of Bartlett Scheer’s Weimar chaos) and La Traviata An eyesore–constantly reviled. One hopes that cast changes later in the season will help us love the opera while tolerating another Gelb misstep: The cast will continue in HD on January 25. Nielsen will later play Aida, while Elena Galanka and Amatufshin Enkhbat will also return in highly anticipated returns.
