Metropolitan Opera Archives

Paul Frey cancelled following Act II and was replaced as Aeneas by Gary Lakes.

Review 1:

Review of Allan Koznin in The New York Times
Two New Leads (Almost) in “Les Troyens”

The Metropolitan Opera tried to present new singers in two of the central roles in "Les Troyens" on Tuesday evening, but the change did not take. After two of the three acts — and with only one substantial scene left for Aeneas to sing — the company announced that the tenor, Paul Frey, had a throat infection and could not continue. Gary Lakes, who sang the role when the production opened last month, took over for Aeneas's farewell.

A singer whose voice is properly supported can sing through a sore throat, and in the dead of winter this is more common than audiences usually know. The problems with Mr. Frey's Aeneas could not all be as described to illness. From the start, his sound was powerful enough to cut through Berlioz's hefty orchestration, but he sounded fuzzy, as though he were singing with a mouthful of cotton. Persistent pitch problems and stiff acting also afflicted his reading, but it was undoubtedly the cracked notes in the passionate duet with Dido at the end of the second act that persuaded Mr. Frey to abandon the effort.

It must be said: Mr. Frey's eagerness to sing may seem valiant, but if he was too ill to make it through the evening with at least the appearance of competence, allowing him to go on was a disservice not only to him but to an audience that pays high prices for an evening at the opera. Gary Lakes was hardly warmed up, and his account of the final scene was far from perfect, but it won bravos from listeners grateful to hear some singing, however belatedly.

The Met was luckier with its new Dido, Carol Yahr. At first Ms. Yahr sounded slightly underpowered, and in danger of being buried by the orchestra. But she projected better as she settled into the role. Vocally, she was thoroughly secure: her sound has both warmth and transparency, and she used timbre and phrasing impeccably in suggesting Dido's character and her changing emotional landscape. At the start of the second act, her Dido was truly regal. As Dido's affair with Aeneas took shape, that regal quality melted into passionate abandon. And in the last act, she shifted to a chest voice that gave Dido's despondency and bitterness real force.

Also new to the cast was Hong-Shen Li, who applied an attractive lyric tenor to the small role of Iopas.

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