Winning Turns

By: ELI JACOBSON
05/14/2009

Spring has sprung but illness, family crises, vocal problems, and other unspoken matters have sidelined almost a dozen of the scheduled performers at the Metropolitan Opera over the past two months. This rash of cancellations has kept the Met artistic administration scrambling around the clock finding replacements with no time for picking daisies or days at the beach.The most inevitable of these cancellations was the withdrawal of Rolando Villazon from an all-star revival of "L'Elisir D'Amore" due to laryngitis. Bryn Terfel had withdrawn from the role of Dulcamara before the season started, leaving only Angela Gheorghiu to supply the star factor. Italian lyric tenor Massimo Giordano was flown in from Berlin just in time for the final dress rehearsal. Giordano took over the opening night and the following Saturday matinee radio broadcast. Ideally "Elisir" is an ensemble piece with a comedic star turn for the tenor. The backstage drama left the piece out of balance. Giordano has a pleasant but shallow and monochromatic lyric tenor of the right size and quality, but rather plain ideas about phrasing and dynamics. Mostly it was four-square phrasing at mezzo forte with the occasional hint of croon. His acting was high on energy but low on individual character development.

Simone Alaimo as Dr. Dulcamara and Franco Vassallo as Belcore had solid professionalism and some idiomatic flair, but seemed to be working in a vacuum. That left Gheorghiu to decide that the title of the opera was really "I Capricci d'Adina" and take center stage - and the final star bow. Keeping the energy level high, the Rumanian diva poured on the high spirits, high notes, and feminine wiles. The middle voice is more smoke than fire these days, but one had to admire her determination to give the audience full value while looking past the rather self-regarding manner and lack of real engagement with her colleagues. Showing the effects of a disrupted rehearsal period, Maurizio Benini instituted fast and rigid tempos, hoping that everyone would fall into line, which made for an oddly mechanical yet imprecise performance.As Villazon's laryngitis persisted, two other tenors, the elfin Barry Banks and native New Yorker Dmitri Pittas, took over his remaining performances. The young Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja was always scheduled for the last show on April 22, and this proved to be the best of the run. A tall husky man with a broad open face and warmly engaging personality, Calleja's voice is still developing yet already a thing of complex and distinctive beauty. The sound is large yet narrowly focused, with a slightly reedy vibrato in the middle that gives the sound a plaintive urgency. The timbre is honeyed and the top notes in recent years have taken on a more focused golden ring. But Calleja's most treasurable quality is that he treats the music lovingly, often beginning and finishing his phrases with a caressing mezza voce. Also showing strong stage presence and acting ability, Calleja performed Nemorino as a naive yet exuberant teddy bear with a heart bigger than his brain that ultimately took him where he needed to be.Nicole Cabell, the second cast Adina, has a velvety timbre but the tone seemed strangely unsubstantial until it opened up in her final aria. Vassallo and Alaimo now seemed part of a team and showed real vivacity and comic brio. By the end of the evening, the entire audience seemed to be feeling the effects of Dulcamara's love potion and gave Calleja a roaring ovation as he took the final star bow. Calleja's debut role at the Met in 2006 was as the Duke in "Rigoletto," and he returned to the role this April in an interesting second cast. He showed that though a cad, the Duke is an aristocrat; the elegance and tenderness of his vocal manner is the veil for his sins. Revealing herself once againthe real "singing actress," Diana Damrau as Gilda integrated a perfectly controlled, technically secure voice into an untraditional interpretation. All of her vocal effects were used to create specific emotional reactions working off of the music rather than competing with it for attention. Eschewing the usual passive lamb to the slaughter approach, Damrau's Gilda was a headstrong teenager clearly chafing at her seclusion and the secrecy that surrounded her home. Her initial duet with Rigoletto showed her trying to pry information from him and reacting with frustration and anger when she failed to discover her father's secrets. The intricacies of "Caro Nome" were attuned to the hormonal rush of a young girl's first romantic experience, the high staccati were excited giggles, and the downward runs were dreamy sighs. The conception did become less convincing as this obviously smart and willful young girl sacrifices her life to save a man clearly unworthy of her. Some of Damrau's business in the last act began to seem contrived and busy, but clearly this was a major artist at work, and she held the audience rapt to her every utterance and gesture.Roberto Frontali as Rigoletto grew on me as the evening progressed. Not an imposing man or a true dramatic baritone, his anti-heroic sound and presence revealed an underdog in a doomed rebellion against the corrupt society he inhabits. Native Italian diction and insight into the text combined with securely produced medium-sized tone helped Frontali create a moving portrait of the jester.Conductor Ricardo Frizza had some odd ideas about tempos, but worked well with his soloists and musicians. Thanks to a distinctive and involved trio of leads, this "Rigoletto" proved a revival with a strong dramatic and musical pulse.