The Met’s fall season revolved around three great opera composers—Verdi, Rossini, and Strauss—and provided laughs galore.
Franco Zeffirelli’s production of Verdi’s Falstaff has aged very well. It is more than 40 years old now and still looks great, capturing timbered Elizabethan interiors and a lovely old forest for the final scene. Bryn Terfel’s portrayal of Falstaff remains a fabulous combination of wonderful singing and great comic acting, especially in the last act when he climbs out of the orchestra pit onto the stage, a funny equivalent for his dunking in the Thames.
The supporting cast succeeded as well, with Stephanie Blythe utterly wonderful as Mistress Quickly. Hers is a large, gorgeous mezzo-soprano voice with no technical problems and wonderful diction. Patricia Racette became a comic marvel as Alice Ford, while Roberto Frontali provided moving moments of potential tragedy as her deluded husband, Ford.
Matthew Polenzani’s lovely, lyrical tenor voice made Fenton a delightful presence while Heidi Grant-Murphy’s Nannetta was suitably girlish, if sometimes a bit small of voice. Jean-Paul Fouchecourt and Mikhail Petrenko made the two rascals, Bardolfo and Pistola, utterly delightful, and James Levine’s conducting captured the bouncing rhythms and witty sounds in the orchestra.
Rossini’s Cenerentola is not one of his greatest operas, but Olga Borodina sang the title role of Angelina apparently effortlessly, making even her sweetness seem credible. Cesare Lievi and Maurizio Balò’s production, seven years old now and originally done for Cecilia Bartoli, has not aged well. It uses a surreal approach to the opera in the style of Rene Magritte, but such an approach did not add much fun to the proceedings.
Antonello Allemandi made an auspicious debut as conductor, capturing the comic but precise rhythms in this score. Simone Alaimo tried his best to make Don Magnifico funny, but rarely succeeded, though Barry Banks sang Don Ramiro with amazing accuracy and beauty of tone. Ildar Abdrazakov’s Alidoro made this character suitably angelic, and Simone Alberghini was quite funny as the valet Dandini.
Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos benefited from two wonderful sopranos, Violetta Urmana as a ravishing Ariadne and Diana Damrau making her house debut as Zerbinetta and utterly captivating the audience with her coloratura pyrotechnics and comic flair.
Jon Villars also made his debut in the killer tenor role of Bacchus, which he sang quite well, though with some strain. Susan Graham dominated the first act with her impassioned portrayal of the poor composer, distraught at seeing what is happening to his masterpiece as it is invaded by a group of clowns.
The supporting cast added to the fun, especially Christopher Maltman as Harlekin, Eduardo Valdes as Brighella, Garrett Sorenson as Scaramuccio, and Andrew Gangestad as Truffaldino. Kirill Petrenko’s conducting kept the pace fast and always exciting.
Whoever said that opera was essentially about sopranos dying of tuberculosis? Not so at the Met this fall!
