Metropolitan Opera (HD broadcast), 10/03/2018
Rossini : Semiramide
Chorus and Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, New York
Maurizio Benini
I was 17 when we attended a performance of Semiramide at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. It had taken some persuasion to get the tickets; while none of the family were opera novices, what we knew of Rossini was limited to the Barber, and snippets of this and that, including the overture to Semiramide. As for the rest of the bel canto repertory, that boiled down to Lucia, Elisir and Don Pasquale, pretty much. However, this was 1980, the cast was to include Monserrat Caballé and Marilyn Horne, and it was very likely this would be our one and only chance to see these illustrious performers in the flesh. Nothing could have prepared me for the experience of that legendary production, for the absolute torrent of stupendously virtuosic singing from all the principals involved, and for the sheer sense of revelation that ensued. I've never seen the opera on stage since, but I still look for that impact, that breathtaking awe, from every performance I come across. I was looking for it tonight, and the Met delivered.
Productions of Semiramide tend to come in waves. It's a horrendously difficult opera to cast, so you have to wait until there are enough singers capable of undertaking it, and when they're around, opera houses jump on the opportunity to stage works like this in order to take advantage of the momentary availability. Then there's a period of dearth again, until the next batch of suitable singers emerges. This Met production was mounted towards the end of the previous 'glut' period, in 1990, in a distinctly D.W. Griffith-inspired staging and costumes, extremely lavish and very gorgeous, but a little preposterous. John Copley's production was the kind of safe, sure thing you expect from him, traditional, well put-together, not especially challenging dramatically, but this is the kind of opera where the focus is, and should be, very much on the singing, so it was nice not to have any unnecessary distractions.
Semiramide is also a very long opera with, I believe, a significant number of editorial issues to complicate matters. The Aix performance was severely cut; at the time, the programme had no synopsis, and supertitles hadn't been invented yet, so we went in blind, with just the basic Italian that any operalover tends to acquire from repeated listening. I remember being distinctly puzzled as to why the three main male characters were all raving about the same woman who was nowhere to be seen on stage, and certainly never got a note to sing. I don't know if there were significant cuts to the Met's production, but at least we got a good portion (if not all) of the Idreno/Azema sub-plot, allowing Javier Camarena to show off his clear, strong tenor in two substantial arias.
Ildar Abdrazakov doesn't have quite the precision of ornamentation displayed by his colleagues, but he's not far behind, and he more than compensated for it by his commanding presence, vocally and physically. If Assur's Mad Scene didn't quite have the impact I'd hoped for, I blame it on the production, which lacked atmosphere at that point. It had managed the appearance of Nino's Ghost at the end of Act 1 rather better.
I had been favourably impressed with Ryan Speedo Green at the Cardiff 2015 competition, and he seems to be living up to his promise, with an excellent performance as the High Priest Oroe. Elizabeth DeShong (Arsace) and Amanda Meade (Semiramide) were outstanding, both together and apart, DeShong's dark and weighty mezzo blending superbly with Meade's creamy soprano in their duets, although Meade's best duet was at the start of Act 2, with Abdrazakov, a brooding and fiery confrontation that marks the darker turn the opera takes in its latter half.
The Met orchestra, which normally plays with the precision of Swiss clockwork, got off to a shaky start in the overture, with some rather dodgy playing from the French horns and the woodwinds. Fortunately, however, the nerves and/or cold lips wore off quickly, and the playing for the rest was crisp and sure, with Maurizio Benini a firm guiding hand on the reins. There was one inadvertently humorous moment from the cameras, regarding the conductor. In the pause before the start of Assur's Act 2 scene, the camera fixed on Maestro Benini's face, while we could hear various clunks and thumps from the stage as scenery was shifted. Benini was visibly reacting to this, and when the last one came, there was a distinct nod, and a faint, wry smile, as if to say, "Thank goodness that's done, let's get on with the show." It was certainly a show worth getting on with.
[Next : 7th April]
Chorus and Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, New York
Maurizio Benini
I was 17 when we attended a performance of Semiramide at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. It had taken some persuasion to get the tickets; while none of the family were opera novices, what we knew of Rossini was limited to the Barber, and snippets of this and that, including the overture to Semiramide. As for the rest of the bel canto repertory, that boiled down to Lucia, Elisir and Don Pasquale, pretty much. However, this was 1980, the cast was to include Monserrat Caballé and Marilyn Horne, and it was very likely this would be our one and only chance to see these illustrious performers in the flesh. Nothing could have prepared me for the experience of that legendary production, for the absolute torrent of stupendously virtuosic singing from all the principals involved, and for the sheer sense of revelation that ensued. I've never seen the opera on stage since, but I still look for that impact, that breathtaking awe, from every performance I come across. I was looking for it tonight, and the Met delivered.
Productions of Semiramide tend to come in waves. It's a horrendously difficult opera to cast, so you have to wait until there are enough singers capable of undertaking it, and when they're around, opera houses jump on the opportunity to stage works like this in order to take advantage of the momentary availability. Then there's a period of dearth again, until the next batch of suitable singers emerges. This Met production was mounted towards the end of the previous 'glut' period, in 1990, in a distinctly D.W. Griffith-inspired staging and costumes, extremely lavish and very gorgeous, but a little preposterous. John Copley's production was the kind of safe, sure thing you expect from him, traditional, well put-together, not especially challenging dramatically, but this is the kind of opera where the focus is, and should be, very much on the singing, so it was nice not to have any unnecessary distractions.
 |
| Metropolitan Opera, Semiramide, Angela Meade (centre) (© Ken Howard, 2018) |
Semiramide is also a very long opera with, I believe, a significant number of editorial issues to complicate matters. The Aix performance was severely cut; at the time, the programme had no synopsis, and supertitles hadn't been invented yet, so we went in blind, with just the basic Italian that any operalover tends to acquire from repeated listening. I remember being distinctly puzzled as to why the three main male characters were all raving about the same woman who was nowhere to be seen on stage, and certainly never got a note to sing. I don't know if there were significant cuts to the Met's production, but at least we got a good portion (if not all) of the Idreno/Azema sub-plot, allowing Javier Camarena to show off his clear, strong tenor in two substantial arias.
Ildar Abdrazakov doesn't have quite the precision of ornamentation displayed by his colleagues, but he's not far behind, and he more than compensated for it by his commanding presence, vocally and physically. If Assur's Mad Scene didn't quite have the impact I'd hoped for, I blame it on the production, which lacked atmosphere at that point. It had managed the appearance of Nino's Ghost at the end of Act 1 rather better.
I had been favourably impressed with Ryan Speedo Green at the Cardiff 2015 competition, and he seems to be living up to his promise, with an excellent performance as the High Priest Oroe. Elizabeth DeShong (Arsace) and Amanda Meade (Semiramide) were outstanding, both together and apart, DeShong's dark and weighty mezzo blending superbly with Meade's creamy soprano in their duets, although Meade's best duet was at the start of Act 2, with Abdrazakov, a brooding and fiery confrontation that marks the darker turn the opera takes in its latter half.
The Met orchestra, which normally plays with the precision of Swiss clockwork, got off to a shaky start in the overture, with some rather dodgy playing from the French horns and the woodwinds. Fortunately, however, the nerves and/or cold lips wore off quickly, and the playing for the rest was crisp and sure, with Maurizio Benini a firm guiding hand on the reins. There was one inadvertently humorous moment from the cameras, regarding the conductor. In the pause before the start of Assur's Act 2 scene, the camera fixed on Maestro Benini's face, while we could hear various clunks and thumps from the stage as scenery was shifted. Benini was visibly reacting to this, and when the last one came, there was a distinct nod, and a faint, wry smile, as if to say, "Thank goodness that's done, let's get on with the show." It was certainly a show worth getting on with.
[Next : 7th April]