Virus season at the Met
Filed Under Shower Curtain | Posted on March 29, 2008
Twenty-three years have passed since the Met last ventured Ernani . Perhaps they should have waited a bit longer.Pier Luigi Samaritani’s sparse designs, created in 1983, decorate Verdi’s glorious score and Piave’s creaky libretto with clunky window-dressing. Samaritani’s staging scheme forces the cast to clamber awkward steps when not striking picturesque poses. Peter McClintock, the current director, did what he could on Monday to maintain order. They don’t make productions like this any more, even at the Met. Thank goodness.Roberto Abbado tried, no doubt, to sustain coherence in the pit. Unfortunately, he had trouble maintaining a rhythmic pulse and seemed reluctant to accommodate his singers. There were times when one wondered if the conductor, orchestra and principals would reach the cadence at the same time.In a day when it is easy to cast Handel yet hard to cast Verdi, the Met could be forgiven for an uneven central quartet. Still, some compromises proved more reasonable than others.Before the curtain rose, a stage manager appeared, microphone in hand. The audience greeted him with a nervous buzz. Virus season has produced an epidemic of last-minute substitutions, and the latest victim turned out to be Sondra Radvanovsky. She had agreed, however, to go on as Elvira in spite of indisposition. One could admire her fortitude, not to mention her attractive stage presence and her style. One could regret her wild lunges at top notes, her pervasive hoarseness at the lower depths and her smudging of fioriture .Under the circumstances, it was every man for himself. Marcello Giordani looked dashing in the title role and sang with gleaming tone when not forcing for climactic impact. He did score finesse points for singing softly twice in a while. Thomas Hampson’s slender baritone lacks the amplitude traditionally required of Don Carlo, but he provided considerable compensation - or distraction - with dramatic urgency and artful phrasing. Ferruccio Furlanetto’s broad black bass snarled and boomed imposingly as old Silva. Another odd night at the opera. ***Tel +1 212 362 6000
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