Anna Bolena - Metropolitan Opera Premiere - Opening Night, Sept 26, 2011

Anna Netrebko - Anna Bolena
Ekaterena Gubanova - Giovanna Seymour
Stephen Costello - Lord Riccardo Percy
Tamara Mumford - Smetton
Ildar Abdrazakov - Enrico VIII (Henry VIII)
Eduardo Valdes - Sir Hervey
Keith Miller - Lord Rochefort
Conductor - Marco Armiliato
Director - David McVickar
Anna Bolena - Gaetano Donizetti


Anyone who knows me knows that I am crazy about Anna Netrebko. The woman is prettier than Kim Kardashian, can sing beautifully, and has charisma and brains to die for. I've met her, talked to her and went to see her Elvira in I Puritani three times. (Thanks Petro!) Elvira is one of Maria Callas's roles. Anna Bolena is one of Callas's roles. So thus I am drawn to Anna Netrebko. Anna Netrebko is a beautiful singer, beautiful to listen to, and even more beautiful to watch. I will continue to follow her in Callas repertory.

The role of Anna Bolena is historic for Netrebko as an artist and historic for the Metropolitan Opera as the premiere. Netrebko will always be known as the first soprano to premier Anna Bolena at the Metropolitan Opera. Some honor! I love her. I think she is fantastic! And although Renee Fleming will always be the "darling" of opera, to me Anna Netrebko is the "beauty" of opera.

Netrebko is sort of like a modern day Anna Moffo: beautiful, rich, creamy vocals, bel canto repertory, lyric soprano with a flair for finding drama in music that is sometimes not exactly standard repertory. She commands new productions. She studies her work and finds new motivation, so that when you experience her, her art is not your 'every day experience.' In other words, expect something special when you are going to the opera to see and hear Anna Netrebko. She is a game changer.

Although Maria Callas made the opera Anna Bolena famous in the previous generation (Maria Callas resurrected many bel canto operas from the dead in the 1950's), I was not born in a time to experience Maria Callas on stage. I had only listened to her recordings, viewed pictures of her in costume in my collection of books, and mulled over her greatness. So when I heard Netrebko was premiering the opera with 27 costume changes, I was really excited. I waited two years for this production.

Anna Bolena is the first of a trilogy of Donizetti’s operas based on the lives of Tudor-era queens that David McVicar will be directing at the Met in coming seasons. Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux complete the trilogy, each with a different design team. All three operas will be Met premieres.

Anna Bolena was Donizetti's first major hit, though he had already composed some 30 operas. It premiered in Milan in 1830. Its success earned Donizetti commissions from Italy's best opera houses, along with a newfound reputation in foreign musical capitals such as Paris and Vienna.

The opera remained popular for nearly five decades but fell out of fashion as the new century approached. Anna Bolena would have to wait another 50 years before making a comeback when Maria Callas starred in a successful production at La Scala, in Milan in 1957.

Quoting Anne Midgette from The Washington Times: "Monday’s performance was littered with missed intonations, smeared runs and a good deal of running about the stage with clasped hands, which evidently qualifies as operatic acting."..."Even Netrebko, the big star, still comes off as a willing novice, someone who doesn’t always live up to her considerable potential. If she approached the part with the focus and commitment of a Maria Callas, or if opera companies today actually invested time in helping singers master the music they’re performing, the evening might have been a whole lot better."..."Alas, all this added up to an evening that represented what too many members of the glittering opening-night crowd probably expect of opera: something long, dull and not very believable, with a lot of gesticulation and, under it all, some pretty music."



So what went wrong?....

I've thought about this for months...

First of all, from a vocal point of view, I think the role of Anna Bolena sits too low for Netrebko. The glory of Netrebko's voice sits in Violetta, Lucia di Lammermoor, and even Mimi naming a few. Listening to Netrebko sing in her passagio all night long was very painful for me and did not make me happy. Although the role worked wonderfully for Callas for she had what we called that "coke bottle" sound going on in her passagio, you could hear Callas singing in her passagio clearly probably for 10 blocks away, Netrebko thus resorted to pushing. That said, Netrebko did not seem to have the vocal heft that Donizetti required for this particular role. But I certainly can understand her determination to sing it! The music is beautiful. Her singing was beautiful. But my heart was breaking. This is NOT Don Pasquale. This is dramatic bel canto. This is spinto territory. Don't try to sing everything Callas sang. Don't try to be the new Callas. Don't do that to yourself. And please don't be Anna Moffo. We know that story. Please just be Anna Netrebko. And please sing Amina in La Sonnambula next season.

While it is wonderful to premier a role at the Metropolitan Opera, we as singers must sometimes "stop chasing fame, fortune, and the dollar bill" and just flow with what is naturally God given glory in our voices. We as singers should not always look to put another crescent on our star, or go for the gold against our natural born instruments. We should always submit to our instruments, to the music and strive to serve the composer's intent. We are servants..not gods and goddesses.

Anna Netrebko is your basic beautiful lyric soprano voice type. She is not a spinto nor should she try to sing any roles that require a spinto fach. I think she may need to put this role away for now, and come back to it again, in 10 years, when she's 50.

Ekaterina Gubanova stole the show in the 'confrontation scene' duet in the mezzo role of Giovanna. She matched a unison high "C" with Netrebko at the end of the duet and the crowd went wild.

Steven Costello has grown in leaps and bounds vocally since I heard him in Lucia. However, all he focuses on is singing runs and roulades and doesn't incorporate them into the character. Matter of fact, there was no character development on his part. He was so focused on getting right notes and scales, his character as Lord Riccardo Percy was very basic, unmotivated, and wild.

Ildar Abdrazakov as Enrico VIII (Henry VIII) barreled out notes like he had lost his mind. As I have said before, I do not like that kind of singing. A singer should always go to the legato line of the music unless there is a specific dynamic that the composer indicates..a staccato, which in bel canto operas is usually just a puff of the breath with the diaphram. Every line should never be forte, ever. Skilled sensitive singers know that vocal lines should swell and contract. The difference between singers and instrumentalists is that singers have the ability to use words and texts to create certain dynamics: crescendo > decrescendo. But never should one belt note to note without the standard legato connection. This is opera not broadway.

Tamara Mumford as Smetton was your standard lyric mezzo soprano pants role, totally in line with her fach, perfectly cast. She was great.

The chorus sang with precision and wore beautiful costumes, the orchestra was outstanding as usual, but the sets dark and minimalistic.

This leaves me to say, while I did see lack of research and preparedness in this production, as always, opera is a treasure and a beautiful art to me and I will always enjoy and love it greatly. I enjoyed the night, the ambiance, the celebrities, and the media coverage. The opportunity to see Anna Netrebko in Anna Bolena for the first time was a blessing and an unforgettable experience for me. Viva Bel Canto! And now I look forward to Eric Owen's Alberich in Götterdämmerung in the spring!