Donizetti’s spaghetti stuffed eclair smeared with schmaltz reappeared on today’s Met in HD telecast. This production was previously telecast in 2008 with Natalie Dessay in the title role. I wrote this about her performance: Natalie Dessay was as bouncy as a spaldeen. She looked like a combination of Fanny Brice and Edith Piaf on steroids and happy pills. She took over the stage and brought this tired old mish mash to life. Vocally and histrionically she was perfect; forget about a mini-crack. She has a gift for comedy that’s unmatched by any soprano I can think of. When she wasn’t on stage the piece sagged to its proper level – sub par Donizetti, which is still better than almost anyone else. Her performance was one of the rare instances when an artist carries a work far beyond its usual potential. Wonderful. If you were just listening to Dessay’s performance you missed 90% of its impact. She’s truly a singing actress.

Without Dessay The Daughter is a pretty tired piece that has a only few minutes that will rouse the nodding auditor who’s seen the opera before. First among these is the tenor’s 9 high C aria  “Pour mon âme.” Javier Camarena is the current King of the Tenorinos having taken the throne from Juan Diego Florez who sang Tonio in the first telecast. Camarena was terrific and has been granted an encore in each of the performances of the opera this season. I’m not sure he was that good.  Encores in opera should be very rare. Both Pavarotti (The Met 1972) and Alfredo Kraus (Chicago 1973) did the aria at least as well. Florez was just as good and he didn’t get an encore on his HD telecast though he did do repeats on other performances. You can make up your own mind. Here are the 9 high Cs, followed by the bis, taken from an earlier performance. Camarena Ah! mes amis

Stephanie Blythe is great at comedy and stole the show whenever she was onstage. Maurizio Muraro was announced as suffering from a cold, but didn’t sound like he had a URI either as Sulpice or during his intermission interview. Kathleen Turner was brought in from the movies and Broadway to play the non-singing role of the Duchess of  Krakentorp. She didn’t do much with the role which doesn’t have much to it to begin with. The rest of the cast was first rate. Conductor Enrique Mazzola seemed to be having a good time and got all that was possible from Donizetti’s excursion into opéra comique. Gary Halvorson’s video direction was appropriately unobtrusive.

Laurent Pelly’s production inexplicably moved the action to World War I. What was the French Army doing wandering around the Tyrol when they should have been on the western front? But this is opera and one with a particularly goofy story, So, I guess they were just off course.

This leaves me with the main reason for doing the opera – the title role. South African soprano Pretty Yende has a lovely high soprano. Vocally she was excellent. She put a lot of energy into her acting, but she doesn’t have the comedy down and thus got very few laughs. The old theatrical adage “Dying is easy, Comedy is hard” comes to mind. Perhaps with time she’ll get the laughs down.

The audience both at the Met and in the movie theater seemed to really enjoy the show. So take my jaded view of the performance with an aspirin.

 

Metropolitan Opera House
March 2, 2019

LA FILLE DU RÉGIMENT
Gaetano Donizetti–Jean-François-Alfred Bayard/Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges

Marie………………….Pretty Yende
Tonio………………….Javier Camarena
Marquise of Berkenfield….Stephanie Blythe
Sergeant Sulpice………..Maurizio Muraro
Hortentius……………..Paul Corona
Duchess of Krakentorp…..Kathleen Turner
Peasant………………..Patrick Miller
Corporal……………….Yohan Yi
Notary…………………Yohan Belmin

Conductor………………Enrique Mazzola

Production……………..Laurent Pelly
Set designer……………Chantal Thomas
Costume designer………..Laurent Pelly
Lighting designer……….Joël Adam
Choreographer…………..Laura Scozzi
Associate Director………Agathe Mélinand
Dialogue……………….Agathe Mélinand
Stage Director………….Christian Räth
Video Director……….Gary Halvorson