Thursday, April 1, 2010

Singers let all the stops out!

Chances are that most people even remotely interested in opera have heard selections from Verdi’s La Traviata. The opera’s fame grows from its amalgam of romanticism and realism, an Italian trend depicting more explicit human emotions. Verdi transformed these emotions into some of the most heart wrenching and technically challenging vocal music in the repertoire. Violetta has been and continues to be a calling card for the best sopranos of the generation. Equally so are the roles of Alfredo and his father, Giorgio Germont. These three leads demand not only the technically best but also the dramatically superior. The role of Violetta is so special because it is constantly open to different interpretations. In the famous Zeffirelli film, Teresa Stratas portrayed Violetta as introverted and emotionally unstable, with at times almost speech-like singing. At the 2005 Salzburg Festival, Anna Netrebko turned the role into a warm, sexy, and powerful woman. The list goes on…

In the current production at the Met that opened on Monday (also by Zeffirelli), the Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu was intent on doing something new. She used rubato to its maximum capacity, rarely singing in strict meter, and enunciated everything with perfect diction, sounding like a native Italian speaker. On a number of occasions she held her final note for a second after the orchestra had already cut off, maximizing the drama. Most importantly, her interpretive choices led to more musicality in places I hadn’t heard before. The audience absolutely loved her and exploded with cheers during her curtain call.

Making his Met Debut was the dashing tenor from New Jersey, James Valenti. His voice is not as big as some of the tenors who have championed Alfredo in the past, but his lyrical sound has just as much conviction and was never lacking in Italian style. Like Ms. Gheorghiu, he used rubato as a means of maximizing expression. The audience adored his singing and oh so handsome looks.

The veteran baritone, Thomas Hampson sang his calling card role Giorgio Germont like he was born to. He filled the hall with a big sensual sound, and seemed to feed off the energy of Ms. Gheorghiu and Mr. Valenti. I know I’ve only been at this for a year or so, but the singing last night was so beautiful that it made me tear up and loose my breath more than once.

I hate to dwell on the unfortunate, but for a complete review I must discuss the conductor, Leonard Slatkin. To start, American classical music owes a debt to him for championing new music, bringing the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra up in the world, and leading the National Symphony Orchestra in DC for over a decade. Here however, he was a mess. Unfamiliar with the music, his plan was to feed off the experienced singers for interpretation. The result was a pit totally unconnected to the stage. “I have seldom heard such faulty coordination between a conductor and a cast at the Met,” Anthony Tommasini wrote in his review for The New York Times. Come on! Why accept the engagement if your idea is simply to follow? Given his performance, his applause was surprisingly restrained. There were only a few boos.

Forced to survive on their own, without inspiration from the orchestra, Ms. Gheorghiu, Mr. Valenti, and Mr. Hampson thrived. They raised the bar for the next generation of singers, and reminded me of the beauty that humans are capable of producing.

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