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La Forza del Destino
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, March 4, 1996
La Forza del Destino (212)
Giuseppe Verdi | Francesco Maria Piave
- Leonora
- Sharon Sweet
- Don Alvaro
- Plácido Domingo
- Don Carlo
- Vladimir Chernov
- Padre Guardiano
- Roberto Scandiuzzi
- Preziosilla
- Gloria Scalchi
- Fra Melitone
- Bruno Pola
- Marquis de Calatrava
- Hao Jiang Tian
- Curra
- Jane Shaulis
- Mayor
- James Courtney
- Trabuco
- Michel Sénéchal
- Surgeon
- Christopher Schaldenbrand
- Conductor
- James Levine
Review 1:
Leighton Kerner in the Village Voice
Less fortunate than Miller's up-dating of “Der Rosenkavalier" was Giancarlo del Monaco's 100-year hop for his new Met production of Verdi's "La forza del destino," whose action should be contemporaneous with the Strauss opera's, Since "La forza" deals in part with the War of the Austrian Succession. (Novelizing Anthony Burgess killed off Octavian in that war.) By putting Verdi's opera into the mid-19th century, Del Monaco turned it into a Risorgimento piece, like Verdi's earlier blood-and-thunderers that paralleled Italy's struggles for unity. The struggles were over by the time "La forza" was first composed (1862), and Verdi's opera is concerned not with patriotism, but with mad personal obsessions with religion, guilt, and vengeance. Del Monaco confused and deflected the issue.
Things were musically right, however, for most of the March 4 performance. James Levine had the. Orchestra playing the violence hotly and the piety radiantly. The chorus went from strength to strength; I had never heard the "Rataplan" ensemble done so stirringly. As Alvaro, destiny's heroic plaything, Placido Domingo — after an underpowered first act — delivered tenorial bronze and headlong tragedy. As his pursuer Carlo, Vladimir Chernov acted to the well-detailed hilt, but his finely polished baritone is two sizes too small for this music. Sharon Sweet's Leonora sang big but too often out of focus and flat, and acted with relentless vacuity.
Search by season: 1995-96
Search by title: La Forza del Destino,
Met careers
- James Levine [Conductor]
- Sharon Sweet [Leonora]
- Plácido Domingo [Don Alvaro]
- Vladimir Chernov [Don Carlo]
- Roberto Scandiuzzi [Padre Guardiano]
- Gloria Scalchi [Preziosilla]
- Bruno Pola [Fra Melitone]
- Hao Jiang Tian [Marquis de Calatrava]
- Jane Shaulis [Curra]
- James Courtney [Mayor]
- Michel Sénéchal [Trabuco]
- Christopher Schaldenbrand [Surgeon]