Metropolitan Opera (HD broadcast), 10/02/2018
Donizetti : L'elisir d'amore
Chorus and Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera
Domingo Hindoyan
This Bartlett Sher production of L'elisir d'amore dates from 2012, and it looks a bit like characteristic, old-style Met fare, traditional, and a bit clunky, as evidenced by a scene change in Act 1 that lasted several minutes, and really wasn't necessary. I've seen several Elisirs that do not require any sort of scene change at all, while most simply use the interval. I suspect the Met likes to show off its capabilities a little, though, and in the cinema broadcasts, you get to see backstage while the scenery shifting is going on. I'll grant that it's impressive, but it's still a long gap for no particularly good reason. That beef aside, the sets are handsome, the costumes too (a bit too much so, in Act 2 - that's a very modishly dressed community of peasants!), and the production itself sympathetic and undemanding.
Pretty Yende sang Adina, with plenty of zip in her acting, and a fine, clear voice with easy coloratura and bright, sure high notes. Yet the characterisation she was able to project physically did not come through vocally. It sounded very nice, and that was all, a smooth, unruffled surface unrevealing of the depths that should lie beneath, and so we only got half a character. She was at her best in the Act 2 duet with Dulcamara, which sparked something extra within her so that the voice took on more colours, of laughter, of charm, of hope.
Matthew Polenzani, on the other hand, was on excellent form, delivering an earnest, very likeable Nemorino whose ears one occasionally wanted to box because he was just being such a dope about things! He sang with practised ease, the voice clear, fluid and very nicely graded at all times, and his "Una furtiva lagrima" rightly brought the house down.
The one novelty of Sher's production was the Dulcamara. Traditionally, this is a role that goes to a basso buffo, frequently one in the later years of his career, and a rotund, genial, elderly, comic figure. Ildebrando d'Arcangelo gave us a lean, cynical, world-weary character just on the cusp of middle age, with a genuinely seductive quality about him, and an equally lean, dry timbre to go with this rather more edgy and decidedly interesting version of Dulcamara. The Belcore of young Italian baritone Davide Luciano was more conventional, a smooth, evenly produced baritone to go with a smooth, glib charmer. Like Yende, there was not a great deal of expression in the voice itself, and the best part of his contribution was the "recruiting" duet with Nemorino in Act 2, where some mischief glinted through.
Domingo Hindoyan kept a good, lively pace throughout, with excellent playing from the Met orchestra - the on-stage banda at the start of Act 2 was particularly effective - that contributed significantly to a generally admirable performance.
[Next : 16th February]
Chorus and Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera
Domingo Hindoyan
This Bartlett Sher production of L'elisir d'amore dates from 2012, and it looks a bit like characteristic, old-style Met fare, traditional, and a bit clunky, as evidenced by a scene change in Act 1 that lasted several minutes, and really wasn't necessary. I've seen several Elisirs that do not require any sort of scene change at all, while most simply use the interval. I suspect the Met likes to show off its capabilities a little, though, and in the cinema broadcasts, you get to see backstage while the scenery shifting is going on. I'll grant that it's impressive, but it's still a long gap for no particularly good reason. That beef aside, the sets are handsome, the costumes too (a bit too much so, in Act 2 - that's a very modishly dressed community of peasants!), and the production itself sympathetic and undemanding.
Pretty Yende sang Adina, with plenty of zip in her acting, and a fine, clear voice with easy coloratura and bright, sure high notes. Yet the characterisation she was able to project physically did not come through vocally. It sounded very nice, and that was all, a smooth, unruffled surface unrevealing of the depths that should lie beneath, and so we only got half a character. She was at her best in the Act 2 duet with Dulcamara, which sparked something extra within her so that the voice took on more colours, of laughter, of charm, of hope.
Matthew Polenzani, on the other hand, was on excellent form, delivering an earnest, very likeable Nemorino whose ears one occasionally wanted to box because he was just being such a dope about things! He sang with practised ease, the voice clear, fluid and very nicely graded at all times, and his "Una furtiva lagrima" rightly brought the house down.
The one novelty of Sher's production was the Dulcamara. Traditionally, this is a role that goes to a basso buffo, frequently one in the later years of his career, and a rotund, genial, elderly, comic figure. Ildebrando d'Arcangelo gave us a lean, cynical, world-weary character just on the cusp of middle age, with a genuinely seductive quality about him, and an equally lean, dry timbre to go with this rather more edgy and decidedly interesting version of Dulcamara. The Belcore of young Italian baritone Davide Luciano was more conventional, a smooth, evenly produced baritone to go with a smooth, glib charmer. Like Yende, there was not a great deal of expression in the voice itself, and the best part of his contribution was the "recruiting" duet with Nemorino in Act 2, where some mischief glinted through.
Domingo Hindoyan kept a good, lively pace throughout, with excellent playing from the Met orchestra - the on-stage banda at the start of Act 2 was particularly effective - that contributed significantly to a generally admirable performance.
[Next : 16th February]