Seeing the Metropolitan Opera Live in Portugal

Oddly, I had never before been to a Metropolitan Opera Live in HD performance until this month. This is mainly because I could see them live when I lived in the USA. I finally corrected this lapse, snagging the last remaining seat (!) in the 1200 seat Gulbenkian Auditorium for Verdi's La Forza del Destino, the first new Met production in over 30 years, and only their 10th performance this century. More on that in a minute. First I will share my experience of seeing the Met live, but at a distance. 

As you arrive in the auditorium the screen is showing slides of upcoming Met performances, rather like at a movie theater.  What you hear is the buzz of arriving guests at the Metropolitan Opera house in NYC, which is kind of a cool way of building excitement. The Gulbenkian auditorium filled, largely with older Portuguese people (seats cost about 20 euros) dressed as they would for any concert. You then see the orchestra arrive into the pit, and hear some interviews backstage, here led by soprano Luciana Serra (graceful but a bit stilted). These are only interrupted when the orchestral "A" sounds for tuning. Once the opera began, the volume was a bit quiet for my taste, but was probably similar to what you would hear live in the hall. The camera work was phenomenal, with multiple shots of every scene, high tracking cameras, behind the scene views of  dozens of workers changing scenery, even shots of singers waiting to make their entrance. I got a really nice feel for the dynamic of what goes into the production. The camera really zooms in on singers, so any borderline acting or makeup flaws are seen here.  At each intermission there are more interviews (eg the first clarinet, the main stars, the conductor). Overall, you get your money's worth, and the extras were mostly interesting, and not intrusive. 

As for the performance, I was mostly gripped by it for the four hours I was there. La Forza del Destino is middle-period Verdi, composed as he was experimenting with new kinds of plots and forms. You hear big dramatic orchestra passages like the later Otello, but also music that sounds like earlier Verdi, including a formal aria with two parts: slow and lyric, then a fast cabaletta (think of "Sempre libera" from La Traviata). This opera is not performed much (at least at the Met), perhaps because of a very confused plot (lots of mistaken identity and people masquerading as someone else) and the need for four major singers in the primary roles, rather like Il Trovatore. Also, it's a bit of a hard plot to sell to a modern audience. The women respond to stress by heading for the convent, and the men respond by going to war and having duels. It's a bit Hamlet-like, with one main character brooding over whether to avenge the shooting death of his father--by killing both his sister and her lover (who is also his friend!). Lots of confusion occurs, along with an odd appearance of a carnival festival mid-war and a gypsy contralto that goads men into battle with some perky arias. 

This new production by Pole Mariusz Treliński improves things for a modern audience by updating the setting to a post-apocalyptic landscape with lots of blacks and greys, bombed out subways, ruins, wrecked cars, and bleeding/wounded characters. 

Fascist leaders abound, as do weary troops worn down by battle. The original Verdian pro-war singing is made ironic here, with cheery songs being sung by amputees and cachectic soldiers that look like they come from the WWII Russian front (or maybe modern day Ukraine?). 

The carnival ballets, which seem very odd in conventional productions (why are these people dancing amid warfare?), were made a bit satanic here, with sexy dancers wearing skull-rabbit hybrid masks that reminded me of the evil rabbit in the move Donnie Darko.

The stage direction also makes all the tuneful religious imploring (eg "Pace, Mio Dio") seem rather hopeless--religion and war are both poor ways to solve problems. A striking device happened at the end of Act II when, at the climax of the superb soprano-chorus aria "La Vergine degli Angeli", an actual projected virgin hovers over the stage, but in a ghostly blue that seemed less Madonna-like than Ghostbusters. So here even Catholicism was made creepy. Interestingly, the director chooses to make us disconnect what we see on stage (grim, hopeless war) with what we hear (beautiful, even perky music). I thought this ironic demand on the audience worked great, a bit like a flip of the recent move Zone of Interest, in which we are asked to see the bland domestic family events of commander Rudolf Hoess while we hear a steady background of screams, gunshots, and flaming ovens from the adjacent Auschwitz death camp. 

The cast was quite good. The Met choir and orchestra, led by music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin was on its game, with exciting passage work in the strings and powerful brass. The latest new hot dramatic soprano, Norwegian Lise Davidsen, delivered a powerful performance as Leonora. 

It's hard to cast these big dramatic Verdi roles these days (there is no voice like Leontyne Price around), since, like Aida, Leonora has to be sung with both power and a flowing bel canto line--hard to do. Despite some lack of punch in the low register and occasional choppy phrasing during Verdi's long arching lines, Davidsen gave a convincing vocal performance, and her acting really held up to the extreme camera closeups. With some more seasoning I think she can grow into a great Verdi soprano. Ditto the Russian baritone Igor Golavatenko, who produced a rounded, pure baritonal sound up and down the register. American tenor Brian Jagde started out a bit constricted in Act 1, but warmed up and produced a nice pinging tenor sound by the end. Maybe not Pavarotti, but quite good for these days. 

What I liked best was the general sense of ensemble and direction of the singers. This often-confusing opera actually seemed to make sense here. And the update to a setting comparable to the Ukraine war did not seemed forced. Rather, it provided a modern solution to a dynamic opera whose original plot makes it hard to perform in our times. The four hours flew by, as it should in great opera. I hope this production returns the opera to the regular Met repertory, and that Ms. Davidsen will get more opportunities to grow into the role of Leonore.