[Met Performance] CID:295050



Le Nozze di Figaro
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, January 7, 1989




Le Nozze di Figaro (314)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Lorenzo Da Ponte
Figaro
Natale De Carolis

Susanna
Barbara Hendricks

Count Almaviva
Thomas Hampson

Countess Almaviva
Roberta Alexander

Cherubino
Susanne Mentzer

Dr. Bartolo
Richard Van Allan

Marcellina
Loretta Di Franco

Don Basilio
Michel Sénéchal

Antonio
James Courtney

Barbarina
Harolyn Blackwell

Don Curzio
Andrea Velis


Conductor
Mark Elder







Review 1:

John Rockwell in The New York Times
Newcomers in Met Opera’s ‘Figaro’

Casts seem to be shifting more rapidly in the later years of the James Levine regime at the Metropolitan Opera than they did earlier on, and the four newcomers to Wednesday's cast of Mozart's "Nozze di Figaro" served to underscore that instability.

Fewer cast changes mean, in theory, greater ensemble, homogeneity. But more cast changes offer Met devotees more variety and more "stars," to the extent that term applies in today's operatic world. As it happens, Wednesday's cast was supposed to have a fifth change, with Kiri Te Kanawa replacing Roberta Alexander as the Countess. But with Miss Te Kanawa out for leg surgery, Miss Alexander was still in place.

The results of the changes were, from an ensemble standpoint, barely noticeable. In other words, Lesley Koenig had managed to integrate the newcomers into her realization of the late Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's witty and inventive staging with considerable deftness. If some of the big arias (Miss Alexander's, especially) fell short of top vocal standards, if the cast was predominantly small-voiced for a theater this large, and if Mark Elder's fleet, rigid conducting proved erratically effective, the overall dramatic interplay was still very winning.

The newcomers included two singers making their Met debuts. Suzanne Mentzer, a Philadelphian who now lives in Chicago and who has sung for many of the world's leading opera companies, made a most charming Cherubino. She was hardly successful in impersonating a young boy. But she was cheerful and pleasing from a theatrical standpoint, she phrased persuasively and her mezzo-soprano is of uncommon quality, warm and pulsing with vibrato.

The other debutant was an Italian bass named Natale De Carobs, as Figaro. Mr. De Carolis, who has a pleasant if not particularly large or brilliant bass, made an unusually young and slightly reticent Figaro, and in the first act, particularly, had trouble keeping synchronized with Mr. Elder. But he grew in confidence as the evening progressed, and he should make a helpful addition to Met casting in other parts.

The other major addition was Barbara Hendricks, singing her first Met Susanna. Miss Hendricks acted pertly, and her ethereal little soprano has sounded very beautiful in high-lying lyric roles on records. But on Wednesday, she seemed really diminutive of voice, with an awkward register break, besides. Reri Grist used to make a similar dramatic and musical impression, but she had a timbral focus that projected better in a large space, and more theatrical spunk, as well. From a vocal standpoint, at least, Wednesday's Barbarina, Harolyn Blackwell, would have made a better Susanna.

Otherwise, aside from Anthony Laciura, singing his first Don Basilio of the season and delivering one of his typically amusing performances, the cast included Richard Van Allan as a really funny Don Bartolo, Loretta Di Franco as an amusing Marcellina and Thomas Hampson as a scary, commanding, elegantly sung Count.



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