‘The Met’s new production of Bellini’s La Sonnambula was broadcast over the company’s Sirius channel last night. It featured Nadine Sierra in the title role. Spanish tenor Xabier Anduaga was Elvino.
Sierra has all the vocal bells and whistles necessary to realize Belini’s sleepwalking canary. She is the reason for this production. Anduaga, on the other hand, was a bit of a disappointment. Not that he was bad, but rather that he wasn’t as good as the hype generated about his appearance. One was expecting the resurrection of Giuseppe Di Stefano or at least the equivalent of Rolando Villazon before his vocal collapse. Villazon, interestingly, directed this new production. Anduaga’s voice had little sheen and seemed somewhat muffled. He made little of the lyrical simpleton that is Bellini’s hero. Elvino is on an IQ par with Donizetti’s Nemorino, Anduaga’s debut role at the Met in 2023. I’ll withhold final judgment until after the telecast of the opera on October 18.
If you would hear the role of Elvino sung to perfection, listen to Raúl Giménez singing recorded during a live performance made in performance more than 20 years ago.
Alexander Vinogradov has a light lyric bass and was fine as Count Rodolfo. Sydney Mancasola and Deborah Nansteel made as much as possible out of Lisa and Teresa, respectively. Conductor Riccardo Frizza kept everybody together. There’s little else for the conductor to do in this opera which is solely built on the quality of its singers. A detailed review will describe the production after the upcoming HD telecast.
