Opera goers can be rowdy, don’t be surprised. Mary Zimmerman was booed as she took a bow at curtain call of her Met production La Sonnambula two weeks ago. Which made me wonder if that same thing would have happened if she showed up at yesterday’s matinee.
Originally set in a Swiss village, La Sonnambula is simply a happy opera, no tragedy, just a silly love story beautifully written and composed by the great Bellini. Mary Zimmerman’s set was a modern-day rehearsal room where an opera company was rehearsing a production of La Sonnambula which some traditional fans found to be a turn-off.
At the restroom line during intermission, we saw a lot of head-shaking, heard a lot of tsk.. tsk.. and ranting from the less-than-pleased customers; without hesitation they expressed their disapproval of Zimmerman's staging. One lady was heard saying. “Just shoot that Peter Gelb – he took all the romantic operas and trashed them”. I don’t agree. The critics were too critical, perhaps this is part of their job. What Zimmerman was trying do was a create balance in the story between real life situation and dream time. And that showed at the very end when the cast finally were dressed in their native Swiss costumes. It mirrored what life is about during sleep and wakefulness.
It was a dream cast with the title role of the sleepwalker Amina, played by Natalie Dessay opposite the tenor Juan Diego Florez as Elvino, her fiancé. She is petite and he is of small build but both have powerful voices for Bellini’s romantic and tuneful music with lots of sustained high notes and soft singing. An absolutely stellar performance!
Doris reminded me that this is a reunion for this duet Dessay and Florez after their last season's performance of La Fille du Regiment. Doris and her husband Dick were my seatmates today, a lovely couple. Dick proudly announced how the two of them met - she was a costume designer for the Old Met about 50 years ago when the opera house was still at 39th Street. And she was not a bit critical of the set as the others were so I knew right away she must be reading into this production and making sense of it. Me? I read the reviews so I knew what to expect, that's why I was open to the change.
On the way home, we passed by this photoshoot of what appears to be the brass section of the Juilliard Orchestra. To be young and talented!
Well, that concludes the Opera season. Until the next one in September, we'll see what the Met brings to us. Unfortunately the Metropolitan Opera is also feeling the pinch that it has decided to put up its two murals by Marc Chagall "The Triumph of Music" and "The Sources of Music" as part of a collateral for a loan to finance its productions.
Like Amina, we hope to be awakened from all these economic complexities - safe and sound.
I am hopeful.
