Le Nozze di Figaro from the Met 👍🏻

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Conductor...............James Levine
Production..............Jonathan Miller

Figaro..................Bryn Terfel
Susanna.................Cecilia Bartoli
Count Almaviva..........Dwayne Croft
Countess Almaviva.......Renée Fleming
Cherubino...............Susanne Mentzer
Dr. Bartolo.............Paul Plishka
Marcellina..............Wendy White
Don Basilio.............Heinz Zednik
Antonio.................Thomas Hammons
Barbarina...............Danielle de Niese

The Metropolitan Opera has rerun free of charge the 1998 telecast of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro.  I would have seen the original, of course.  It was in the center of my infatuation with Cecilia Bartoli. Watching it again I find that it is a Figaro for the ages.  There is not even the tiniest hole in this cast.  Even Barbarina features Danielle de Niese making her Met debut at 19.

This opera features the Countess in two glorious arias-- Porgi Amor and Dove sono--sung gloriously by Renée Fleming.

This film still has the most hits for Cecilia Bartoli on YouTube and the second most for Fleming.

The Met cast Bartoli into more or less the same Fach as Kathleen Battle only with a comic slant. In her career she was known for her very successful coloratura singing, and this provides the explanation for the replacement of Deh vieni non tardar, an entirely legato aria, with something with at least some coloratura.

Bryn is perhaps my all time favorite Figaro, and Cecilia and Bryn's flirting is the best ever seen in this opera.

The last time I watched it I wrote this:

It was a surprise when it was announced that Cecilia would sing the role of Susanna, a role I don’t think she has sung since. There was a huge scandal because she insisted on performing different arias. I know “Un moto di gioia” is one of her favorites. Her choices, especially the final aria, are very successful, but she does not sing “Deh vieni non tardar.”

I have felt since I first saw this film that I never really understood this opera before. In a world where everything had to be about status and privilege, where the operas were clearly divided between elevated moral dramas about the upper classes and comedies in dialect from the lower classes, Mozart has brought us real people from all the various classes of his era, people with serious problems, people like us. I don’t think I really understood how deeply serious Figaro really is.

Cecilia is key in the success of this entire performance because she makes you feel how much Susanna loves Figaro and how much she hates the idea of sex with the count, how much she loathes his attentions while successfully masking her emotions from him. This is the content of the Marriage of Figaro, not just the jokes. I have read the book this is based on, but it is Mozart and da Ponte who give true life to these people.

There is a wonderful rapport between Cecilia and Bryn which they exploited in a duet album and dvd. This rapport is at its best here. They are exciting and very charismatic together.

As if this were not wonderful enough, there is also the fabulous countess of Renée Fleming, who needs only to sit around being miserably regal while singing two of the most gorgeous arias ever written. Gorgeously. She is in top form.

It is a succession of perfectly executed scenes by ideally cast singing actors. When was Figaro’s discovery of his parents ever so perfect? The count and countess are effectively upper class while Susanna and Figaro are common, as it should be. The entire production is pure perfection in singing, conducting and ensemble acting, and never becomes stale.

As one who has long adored Cecilia and has seen a lot of her stage work, this is her masterpiece.

Tosca from Vienna

 Scarpia, Tosca, Cavaradossi

I wanted to see Tosca, but the recent one from the Met is too soon for me.  Besides it was just ok.  I looked around and found this amazing one from the Wiener Staatsoper 2016.

Conductor: Jesus Lopez Cobos
Stage Designer: Nicola Benois

Tosca: Angela Gheorghiu,
Cavaradossi:  Jonas Kaufmann,
Scarpia:  Bryn Terfel

Bryn is astounding.  I've seem him in a variety of roles--Falstaff, Méphistophélès, Figaro, Wotan, etc. --, but this is not the Bryn I know.  He roars and terrifies.  Perhaps Scarpia should always be like this.  He's peeling fruit while he interviews Cavaradossi.

Jonas is the great romantic hero of our time, and is perfect in this role.  He receives extended applause for his aria at the beginning of the third act.  In fact he gets an encore here.  This is the performance where Angela missed her cue.  I'm very surprised they left it in.  Maybe you could get an edited version.  Because it's funny but spoils an otherwise fabulous performance.

I recommend this.  All are on the same page, with great intensity and beautiful singing.

No offense to the Met.

Evgeny Nikitin to replace Sir Bryn

Evgeny Nikitin will replace Sir Bryn Terfel in Wagner's Der Fliegende Hollände from the Met in HD on March 14.  He appears in featured roles at Bayreuth, Bayerische Staatsoper and the Metropolitan. Sir Bryn suffered a very serious injury to his ankle which required surgery.

Don Pasquale from Covent Garden

Director Damiano Michieletto
Conductor Evelino Pidò

Don Pasquale Bryn Terfel
Norina Olga Peretyatko
Ernesto Ioan Hotea
Doctor Malatesta Markus Werba

Occasionally operas from the ROH play in a local movie theater here.  This time we saw Donizetti's Don Pasquale with Bryn and Olga Peretyatko.  This is an excellent role for Bryn.  This is regie, of course.  When Norina receives a message from Ernesto, it is by way of her mobile phone.  Ding.

This opera works pretty well in a modern setting.  She's not an imprisoned woman like in so many other Italian comedies.  Instead it's the young man who is being disinherited for wanting to marry the girl he loves.  In Italian comedies love always will out.  One tires of the young people tricking the nasty old man plot.  One is after all old oneself.

Jonas Returns

I know I've said it before, but now everyone is saying it.  The return of Jonas Kaufmann to live performances is supposed to be Lohengrin in Paris.  Here's the whole story in English.

In other news...

Alex Ross is saying in the New Yorker that I called it on the pianist Trifonov.  If this sentence makes no sense, remember I like to do a lot of irrelevant bragging.

Though some were calling it "camp", I think I just thought the Christmas concert this year from Vienna was simply bad.  It's on youtube if you want to watch it.  The Knabenchor was good.  The only other thing of interest was how great Noah Stewart sounded.  I want to give him a plug.

We must now refer to Bryn Terfel as Sir Bryn.  The Queen has knighted him.

The Damnation of Faust from the Paris Opera

 Bryn, Dominique, Sophie, Jonas

Conductor Philippe Jordan
Director Alvis Hermanis

Marguerite: Sophie Koch (mezzo-soprano)
Faust: Jonas Kaufmann (tenor)
Méphistophélès: Bryn Terfel  (baritone)
Stephen Hawking (mute): Dominique Mercy

The basic premise of the Eurotrash movement seems to be that any music and set of words can be fitted to any set of pictures and movements.  Any actual relationship is unnecessary.  Faust is supposed to be a scholar, so we will make him a scientist working on the space program.  Why not?  This is at least a tenuous relationship.  This staging of La Damnation de Faust from the Paris Opera is more a comedy than a serious drama.  No one cares about souls any more.

Of the above characters the one who spends the most time on stage is Stephen Hawking.  For most of the opera he sits in his chair.  At the beginning he speaks in his mechanical voice.  He is immediately recognizable without use of a program.

Act I

The intention to establish a colony on Mars in 2025 is announced.  The colonists are announced.  In any opera there are people who look one of two different ways:  they are uniformly young and thin or they are representative of all mankind.  The former group is, of course, the ballet, and the latter is the chorus.  People identified as going to Mars are all from the ballet.  They remove parts of their dress and appear in various stages of dress and undress until the last scene.

Jonas Kaufmann as Faust appears, except for the addition of horn rimmed glasses, as himself throughout.  He doesn't suddenly become young, as is traditional with Faust.

Act II

Faust, Hawking and Méphistophélès appear.  Potential colonists are tested like lab rats.  Méphistophélès chloroforms Faust who falls on the floor and dreams of Marguerite.  We see films of the Mars rover, and a copy appears on stage.  An orientation confusion device is brought on stage and Faust refuses to go into it.  So they choose Hawking instead who while still in his chair, rotates in all directions for a while.

Then Hawking is back in his chair, nude (body stockings?) women dancers appear, Jonas and Sophie interact.

Act III

Marguerite sings.  Almost nude ballet couples become intimate.  Perhaps on Mars they will have to pair up.  Then duet with Faust and Marguerite.  Then a trio with Bryn.  The male dancers have abandoned the females who now look injured.

Act IV

This is the best part of the staging.  Marguerite is Hawking's nurse.  She sings the most famous aria so far.  There was much discussion in reviews of snails mating, but for us this is not seen and we have closeups of Sophie instead.  She takes off her lab coat and strokes Hawking's cheeks.  So you see the love she sings about is for Hawking.  She lays her cheek against his.  The Mars rover goes by.  And finally she kisses him.

Jonas comes out and sings "Nature immense" with an erupting volcano behind.  Very nice.

Bryn comes out with 3D goggles and tempts Faust into putting them on.  The colonists, including Marguerite, put on their space uniforms and we see a rocket blasting off.  Perhaps it's time to depart.

Faust finds Marguerite's dress in the pile of clothes and searches for her among the colonists.

Ending:  We are supposedly sending Marguerite off to heaven, but instead Hawking gets out of his chair and does an extended ballet.  Sort of.  Faust gets in the abandoned chair and drives it off the stage.

So is this The Salvation of Stephen Hawking instead of The Damnation of Faust?  The music was lovely.  We heard no booing.

Sweeney Todd at Lincoln Center

This was my third Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim:  the first was a pirate DVD with Angela Lansbury; the second the movie with Johnny Depp, and the third this wonderful concoction from Lincoln Center with the New York Philharmonic.  I must say I much prefer this cast with the always charismatic Bryn Terfel as Todd, Emma Thompson as a completely daffy Mrs. Lovett, Philip Quast as Judge Turpin, Jeff Blumenkrantz as The Beadle, Christian Borle as Pirelli, Erin Mackey as Johanna and Audra (The Great One) McDonald as The Beggar Woman.  Audra also introduced the show for PBS.

If you look behind the performers you can see people playing instruments.  They wandered crazily along narrow paths between sections of the orchestra.  The performers carried the show.

If you missed it, perhaps you can find it on PBS.

Falstaff in San Francisco

I noticed something I hadn't noticed before in Verdi's Falstaff seen last night at the San Francisco Opera:  Bryn Terfel enters Windsor Park in the final scene in his very Wotan-like outfit (see picture above), and some very Wotan-like music accompanies him.  My goodness.  Wasn't he doing Wotan....?

Conductor:  Nicola Luisotti
Director: Olivier Tambosi

Falstaff:  Bryn Terfel
Alice Ford:  Ainhoa Arteta
Nannetta:  Lisette Oropesa
Dame Quickly:  Meredith Arwady
Fenton:  Francesco Demuro
Ford Fabio:  Capitanucci *
Meg Page:  Renée Rapier
Bardolfo:  Greg Fedderly
Dr. Caius:  Joel Sorensen
Pistola:  Andrea Silvestrelli

Heidi Stober was scheduled for Nannetta, but she was replaced by Lisette Oropesa who is singing the role at the Met.  Bryn was fabulous.  Meredith Arwady was excellent as Dame Quickly.  It was well cast and well sung all around.

But.  You knew this was coming.  I couldn't get over how much easier it was to follow the plot in Portland.  Perhaps in Portland the Falstaff was less interesting and therefore the others stood out in comparison.

Remember I'm the one that thinks the production is supposed to explain the opera.  It didn't.  The hiding Falstaff while everyone searches was well done, but the characters were not really drawn individually.  Which is what I like.  I liked the linens being thrown all over the stage.  That was cute.

It is a problem for me to see the same opera over and over in close succession.  One cannot resist comparisons.  And there's going to be another one soon in HD.

Die Walküre rerun

Die Walküre in HD ran last night as part of a complete Ring cycle that finishes on Saturday.  Philistine that I am, I have not been exactly thrilled.  For me Wagner soars often enough to keep me in the game, but he also gives me gigantic extended scenes that bore me to tears.  One of my fellow bloggers says she has seen 9 complete Ring cycles in the last year.  Ugh.  I think I would give up opera.  My favorite Wagner has always been the Wesendonck Lieder.  Soaring and terse all at the same time.

Eva and Jonas were still wonderful--beautiful AND passionate.  I think I'm used to the machine.  I remember that in the house you can see the black-clad gremlins that lurk behind the set, but not in the movie theater.  I rather like that it doesn't really translate into an "interpretation," if you know what I mean.

James Levine has done a complete Ring before, which included Jessye Norman as Sieglinda.  I guess we should not feel too sorry for him.

I sincerely hoped that I would like Bryn more this time, but I didn't.  He's all talky and melodramatic when I only want that wonderful, soaring Wagner line.  Do I care what they're talking about?  Not really. 

I made it through 4 hours and went home.

Die Walküre in New York

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One of the joys of live opera comes from comparing the different perspectives many productions of the same work can bring to great works of art? Die Walküre last night at the Metropolitan Opera is more your old fashioned Wagner.

Working from story boards can lead you to see the work as a series of pictures. Deborah Voigt in particular was the perfect image of Brünnhilde. The log machine creates pictures which I begin to think look better in the house than on the big screen. In act 1, though, everyone was cut off at the knees. I especially liked the forest in act 2.

Or maybe it was just Eva-Maria Westbroek and Jonas Kaufmann as the fated twins I liked. They were a great pair, even looking a bit alike, and acting with style. I wish they had set a standard for the whole opera. There were no cute moving set bits in their scenes, and nothing to trip over, which may have helped.

Jonas was perfect--warm, romantic, gorgeous. I feel smug telling what an astounding Siegmund he turned out to be. In the house his singing sounded full and perfect for the tessitura of Siegmund. Sigh.

This is the first time I have believed the hype for Stephanie Blythe. In the role of Fricka her voice achieves the highest standards for a Wagner mezzo. This time her contract said not only no wire walking, but no walking at all. She sits in a chair, and all movement is by the machine.

The Hunding of Hans-Peter König was also outstanding.

Deborah Voigt looked wonderful, and the brightness of her voice cut easily through the orchestra. She flubbed the first high note. I wouldn't want to have to walk out on stage and throw off a high C first thing. No thank you.

Bryn Terfel. Let's just say he livened up a whole lot from Das Rheingold. He also lost his Veronika Lake hairdo. I liked him a lot more this time.

The staging of Wotan putting Brünnhilde on her rock was ridiculous. The drama is in the characters, and it is a great loss to sacrifice that to pretty, sometimes absurd pictures.

The biggest ovation was for James Levine. Every appearance these days seems like a miracle. I remember when we took his smiling face for granted.

 [See Kinderkuchen History 1850-1870]

Die Walküre in New York

Bryn in Berkeley

Berkeley audiences are so cool. If they like someone, they let them know. The audience at Zellerbach last night liked Bryn Terfel and his accompanist Malcolm Martineau. There was a sense of informality that fits Berkeley. Someone in the front row was coughing so Bryn Terfel went off stage and brought them out a glass of water. Why doesn't anyone sell cough drops in the lobby?

Then later he performed a Gilbert and Sullivan piece "The Ghosts' High Noon" where exclamations from somebody interrupt the person singing (Bryn). The exclamations came at first from the pianist, I think, but later people in the audience were doing it, too. If this description makes no sense, I apologize. It was all very silly and a bit chaotic. And fun.

We are still in the Schumann bicentennial year so he devoted the whole first half of the program to him, including "Belsatzar," all of Liederkreis, and "Die beiden Grenadiere." The first and last of these are pieces preferred by baritones. It was all very nice. The half closed with "Mein Wagen rollet langsam" which was included as an excuse for more silliness. The piece has singing for only a brief minute or two and then continues on with a seemingly endless postlude on the piano. Only Schumann would compose such a thing. Maybe it's supposed to be an aural description of the Wagen rolling langsam. Bryn lumbered off into the wings and peeked out every now and then to see if the piece was still going on.

After intermission was a group by someone named Gerald Finzi on texts by Shakespeare. The tunes weren't particularly catchy and will certainly not make me forget Schubert's "Who is Sylvia." Then Ibert songs about Don Quichotte in French.

Bryn interprets with his own personal style which, of course, makes him more rather than less interesting. My son decided not to go, which is probably a good thing. He would have bored me with stuff about how it's actually supposed to go. If you can pull it off, I'm good with the idea of completely tossing conventional interpretations.

Which brings us to a group of five songs from the repertoire of the Welsh-American baritone John Charles Thomas. Please remember, I am not doing journalism. Two of the five songs were pieces that I sang in my youth. I can still remember all the words to "Trees" and will complain that Bryn did not. He faked it extremely well, though. I loved this kind of kitsch. He ended the group with a very sincere and respectful rendition of Malotte's "The Lord's Prayer." I cried. Great pouring drops. Love can simply not be explained.

What is one to do? He is such an amazing amalgam of charisma, voice and style that one would wish to forgive him anything. If he doesn't really want to sing Wotan, he should simply not do it.

Rheingold

Wotan...................Bryn Terfel
Fricka..................Stephanie Blythe
Alberich................Eric Owens
Loge....................Richard Croft
Erda....................Patricia Bardon
Fasolt..................Franz-Josef Selig
Fafner..................Hans-Peter König
Freia...................Wendy Bryn Harmer
Froh....................Adam Diegel
Donner..................Dwayne Croft
Mime....................Gerhard Siegel
Woglinde................Lisette Oropesa
Wellgunde...............Jennifer Johnson Cano
Flosshilde..............Tamara Mumford

Conductor...............James Levine
Production..............Robert Lepage

The Metropolitan Opera has invested deeply in its new Ring cycle.  As Peter Gelb explained, they have even shored up the building to support the incredible piece of machinery that serves as the set for all four operas.

I really loved the beginning of Rheingold.  The rippling Rhine and the floating Rhine maidens were fabulously exciting.  And the staircase image going down to Nibelungenland was striking.  The rest was comme si comme sa.  I think we in the movie theater have the best view.

Loge and the Rhine maidens were on wires.  All of Loge's attention was focused on maintaining his balance on the wire, and nothing was left over for developing a character.  Bryn Terfel and Stephanie Blythe had "no wire walking" clauses in their contracts, I'm sure.  Or?  Was Bryn on a wire in the staircase scene?

Rheingold is a very funny opera, and I laughed out loud several times.  Nibelungens screaming and running here and there were especially amusing.

My son thought the tempos were too slow, but I was fine with it.  James Levine looks very frail these days, but the music is still there.

I would have thought that Bayreuth in the 50's would have proved once and for all that it isn't about the set.  In fact, it's never about the set.

It's about the singers:  how they sing, how they PHRASE, how they move, how they look, how they sing, and how they understand and conceive their roles.  They make the drama, not the stupid set.  The main role of the director is to conceive the characters within the drama and communicate that concept to the singers.  Who are they to one another?  How do they feel?  If your concept is that they are sticks of wood or at best pretty pictures, your opera will fail.

I don't know what to say about the singing.  No eggs were laid.  Eric Owens was an amazing Alberich.  I wanted to see this before I actually saw it.  Bryn was a terrible disappointment.  If he wants to impress me, he's going to have to try one hell of a lot harder.

The Ring is scored for an absurdly large group of brasses.  Even such a large orchestra as the Metropolitan Opera orchestra would have to call in extra players, players who had never played The Ring before.  I'm making excuses.  The performance of Das Rheinglold included a lot of out of tune brass playing.

This has to be contrasted with the really quite wonderful San Francisco Die Walküre. Maybe I'll go after all.

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Borrowed writing

I have posted this article because it says some things that are contrary to things I said in a previous post. Things have to be copied from the New York Times because they disappear very quickly.

Welsh Bass-Baritone Hears the Call of Home

By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER
Published: November 10, 2007

During a recent rehearsal at the Metropolitan Opera for Mozart’s “Nozze di Figaro” the marvelous Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel exuded charisma, pretending to answer his cellphone mid-aria. Mr. Terfel’s Met performances as Figaro, a signature role and the one with which he made his Met debut in 1994, start this afternoon, and this will be his swan song in the part.

Mr. Terfel will also lend his dramatic intensity, fine diction and instantly recognizable, richly expressive voice to Mendelssohn’s majestic oratorio “Elijah,” with the Collegiate Chorale at Carnegie Hall on Nov. 19.

While reminiscing fondly about the 1998 opening of Jonathan Miller’s production of “Le Nozze di Figaro,” Mr. Terfel, who is married with three young sons, said, “There was a twinge of sadness within that period as well, as I missed the birth of my second child.”

“When you’re a young singer,” he added, “the words are always ‘Yes, yes, yes,’ as you’re afraid you’ll never get the same contract again. But I should have been home, really. I should have canceled the whole thing.”

The problems Mr. Terfel, who turned 42 yesterday, has always faced juggling family life and career came to a peak in September. He withdrew from eagerly anticipated appearances as Wotan in Wagner’s “Ring” cycle at the Royal Opera House in London because his 6-year-old son had broken a finger and required three operations.

Mr. Terfel’s decision prompted a terse, angry statement from the Royal Opera House and a collective roar from irate fans, columnists and bloggers. But Mr. Terfel also received “stunning letters” of support, he said, and he remains unrepentant.

“I missed two of my children’s births,” he said. “I’ll never get over the fact that people didn’t turn round to me and say: ‘Look, you should be at home now. You shouldn’t be here rehearsing.’

“Wotan can wait. Being a father cannot wait. If something happens to my children again, I’ll do the same thing. I’ll be home, and people should recognize that fact. If there’s something on your mind, and you’re not 100 percent, it will be detrimental to you as an artist. It’s much better that I stayed at home than sang six very terrible performances of Wotan.”

Mr. Terfel said that his wife, Lesley, was initially adamant that he go ahead with the “Ring” performances, contrary to reports in the British news media, but he didn’t even unpack his suitcase during rehearsals.

“I’ve never been so uncomfortable at going into an opera house,” he said. “As you can see, I’m usually very comfortable.”

He certainly appears comfortable at the Met, striding around the maze of corridors backstage in jeans and sneakers and warmly greeting colleagues with a lilting Welsh accent as lyrical as his singing. Mr. Terfel’s first complete “Ring “ will be Robert Lepage’s new production, which begins in the 2010-11 season at the Met.

Other Wagnerian milestones ahead include his Hans Sachs in “Die Meistersinger” at the Welsh National Opera in 2009-10. “Wagner can enchant you, carry you off into a different world,” he said. “With Mozart you can have a social life, but when you’re singing Wagner, it’s a different animal. I’ll never forget reaching the end of ‘Walküre’ for the first time. I was a blubbering wreck, crying away in the corner of the opera house by myself.”

Mr. Terfel will take something of a sabbatical next year, to focus on recitals and record a disc of Celtic songs. His only operatic performance will be in Verdi’s “Falstaff” with the Welsh National Opera. He hopes the break will provide insights into his career trajectory. “Do I want to give more time to my home opera company?” he muses. “I think it’s going towards that direction.”

Mr. Terfel could then spend more time with his family in northwest Wales, near Caernarfon. He grew up on a sheep farm in Pantglas, speaking Welsh, and regularly participated in the Welsh singing competitions known as the eisteddfodau. A recording of the prepubescent Terfel singing at an eisteddfod reveals his precocious musicality.

His schoolmates ridiculed his love of singing, “but I had the height to take care of myself,” said Mr. Terfel, who at 6 foot 3 has the bearish build of a rugby player. He attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and his career took off after he won the lieder prize in the 1989 BBC Singer of the World competition in Cardiff, back in Wales.

Since then, Mr. Terfel has tackled a dizzying array of music, including Broadway and popular songs. “I did a lot of concerts with male-voice choirs in Wales, and the last thing you’d sing would be a Wagner aria,” he said. “They’d much rather hear ‘Some Enchanted Evening.’” Mr. Terfel sang the title role in Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” in London and Chicago and said he would love to have Mr. Sondheim write an opera for him.

Mr. Terfel’s Deutsche Grammophon catalog, though impressive, includes a few crossover discs featuring saccharine orchestrations and collaborations of dubious artistic merit. One crossover album sold in excess of 800,000 copies, he said.

“Perhaps the businessman kicks in as well then,” he added. “So come on, there’s a bandwagon, and am I to miss out on the sales of 800,000 compared to selling 60,000 of a Schubert record? No, I’m not.”

Along with the Schubert lieder disc, there are notable recordings of English and Welsh songs, Wagner and Handel arias, Verdi’s “Falstaff” and Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.” (He has given acclaimed performances of both the title role and Leporello in “Don Giovanni.”) A recent disc, “Tutto Mozart!,” features arias by Papageno in “Die Zauberflöte” and Count Almaviva in “Figaro,” roles Mr. Terfel has never sung onstage, but might.

What’s on his iPod? Wagner, the Beatles and Elvis Presley. Mr. Terfel describes Presley as “very classically orientated with his voice and diction and very sincere and wanting to get everything perfect.” He could be describing himself.

Bryn Terfel sings Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera until Dec 1; (212) 362-6000, metopera.org. He sings “Elijah” at Carnegie Hall on Nov. 19; (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org.

Falstaff

I have dropped from heaven into Bryn Terfel's Falstaff at the Wiener Staatsoper.

Verdi´s Falstaff is a one off. Verdi hadn´t written anything since Otello, and his style of opera in the purely Italian tradition was out of favor. Wagner and leitmotifs ruled the day. So the old man wrote his only opera buffa just to show what he could do. Falstaff is a symphonic opera with leitmotifs and all, but not to worry. Just sit back and enjoy. It won´t remind you of anything else by Verdi. Mozart? Or Pergolesi, perhaps.

I have seen lots of Falstaffs--Shakespeare's play, Nicolai's Merry Wives, Verdi's opera and last year´s Sir John in Love--but this was by far the best. The production used a hydrolic platform to change scenes quickly. When the platform is raised, we are in Falstaff's tavern. When it is lowered, we are in the world of the women he is trying to seduce, or the forest. The wait between scenes was minimal.

Only one thing was mildly disturbing--Falstaff and his hangers on were dressed in clownish pink and orange clothing, in sharp contrast to the formal fin de ciecle outfits of the wives and their husbands. Admitedly one would not have wanted to miss the bizarre courtship outfit of our hero, done in pink stripes. Falstaff becomes a kind of comedia del arte figure here, and not what he sees himself as--a nobleman, war hero and former companion of the king.

We would never have imagined such delicacy, such teetering/tottering on the edge of magnificence, such hideousness of figure combined with such nobility of spirit. The thing about great weight is that you need to balance it over your feet so as not to fall over. We will not divulge from where this knowledge comes. Bryn built an entire characterization from this, making him seem deliciously silly. And, of course, as a singer Bryn can do no wrong. This portrayal was magnificent and sweet.

Obviously he should pursue Dame Quickly, Janina Baechle. She is the woman for him. For the first time I noticed that at the end Falstaff sings "Reverenza" to her.

It was a very professional ensemble cast with pleasing performances by the young couple Fenton, Saimir Pirgu, and Nanetta, Ileana Tonca. The conductor Asher Fisch seems to have thought Pergolesi, too.

It was the most completely satisfying Falstaff I have seen. My luck is definitely improving.

[See Kinderkuchen History 1890-1910]

Figaro

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Figaro:  Bryn Terfel (bass)
Susanna: Cecilia Bartoli (soprano)
Doctor Bartolo: Paul Plishka (bass)
Marcellina: Wendy White (soprano)
Cherubino: Susanne Mentzer (soprano)
Count Almaviva: Dwayne Croft (bass)
Countess Almaviva: Renée Fleming (soprano)
Barbarina: Danielle de Niese (soprano)

Among the treasures in my collection is one that is particularly valued: a film of a production of Le Nozze di Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera starring Renée Fleming, Bryn Terfel and Cecilia Bartoli. I don’t think it has ever been released commercially, and I have it only because I filmed it from a broadcast. House of Opera doesn’t sell it.

It was a surprise when it was announced that Cecilia would sing the role of Susanna, a role I don’t think she has sung since. There was a huge scandal because she insisted on performing different arias. I know “Un moto di gioia” is one of her favorites. Her choices, especially the final aria, are very successful, but she does not sing “Deh vieni non tardar.”

I have felt since I first saw this film that I never really understood this opera before. In a world where everything had to be about status and privilege, where the operas were clearly divided between elevated moral dramas about the upper classes and comedies in dialect from the lower classes, Mozart has brought us real people from all the various classes of his era, people with serious problems, people like us. I don’t think I really understood how deeply serious Figaro really is.

Cecilia is key in the success of this entire performance because she makes you feel how much Susanna loves Figaro and how much she hates the idea of sex with the count, how much she loathes his attentions while successfully masking her emotions from him. This is the content of the Marriage of Figaro, not just the jokes. I have read the book this is based on, but it is Mozart and da Ponte who give true life to these people.

There is a wonderful rapport between Cecilia and Bryn which they exploited in a duet album and dvd. This rapport is at its best here. They are exciting and very charismatic together.

As if this were not wonderful enough, there is also the fabulous countess of Renée Fleming, who needs only to sit around being miserably regal while singing two of the most gorgeous arias ever written. Gorgeously. She is in top form.

It is a succession of perfectly executed scenes by ideally cast singing actors. When was Figaro’s discovery of his parents ever so perfect? The count and countess are effectively upper class while Susanna and Figaro are common, as it should be. The entire production is pure perfection in singing, conducting and ensemble acting, and never becomes stale.

As one who has long adored Cecilia and has seen a lot of her stage work, this is her masterpiece.

[See Kinderkuchen History 1780-1803]