[Met Performance] CID:350127



Tosca
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, May 11, 2002

Debut : Salvatore Licitra




Tosca (845)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/Giuseppe Giacosa
Tosca
Maria Guleghina

Cavaradossi
Salvatore Licitra [Debut]

Scarpia
James Morris

Sacristan
Paul Plishka

Spoletta
Anthony Laciura

Angelotti
James Courtney

Sciarrone
Richard Vernon

Shepherd
Garrett Eucker

Jailer
LeRoy Lehr


Conductor
James Levine


TV Director
Brian Large





The last minute cancellation of Luciano Pavarotti, the originally scheduled Cavaradossi, necessitated a change in cast. Salvatore Licitra flew in from Italy and made his debut in the performance, which was greeted with a standing ovation.
The performance was projected onto a screen on the facade of the Opera House and the sound relayed to an audience of three thousand in Lincoln Center Plaza.

Review 1:

Anthony Tommasini in The New York Times
Instead of a Swan Song, A Warbler’s Ardent Debut

So, as the whole world must know by now, Luciano Pavarotti did not appear in the Metropolitan Opera's season-closing performance of Puccini's "Tosca" on Saturday night. Instead, Mr. Pavarotti, the 66-year-old tenor, remained in his Central Park South apartment downing chicken soup, fighting the flu that he said had forced him to withdraw from Wednesday's performance and, one can only hope, ruing the advice he was given to take on these performances in the first place.


Replacing him was an emerging Italian tenor, Salvatore Licitra, 33, flown in at the last minute on the Concorde, courtesy of the Met, which was determined to salvage the evening. If this was not to be the farewell of a faded superstar, then at least it would be the starry anointing of a potential successor.


It could not have been easy for Mr. Licitra to face a demoralized Met audience whose members had paid up to $1,875 for a ticket to the gala benefit and dinner, as well as some 3,000 opera lovers who had scooped up free tickets to watch a video relay of the performance in Lincoln Center Plaza.


Everyone was hoping to hear what seemed likely to be Mr. Pavarotti's final appearance in staged opera, and almost certainly his final Met appearance. The audience played its part, though. People seemed bent on swallowing their disappointment and making the night special. When Mr. Licitra first appeared onstage, he was greeted with encouraging applause.


He did his part as well. He is a genuine find, an exciting tenor with a big, dark- hued and muscular voice. There were some worrisome aspects to his singing. Though his top notes were viscerally powerful, he seemed to be pushing his sound in his upper range, which occasionally caused his pitch to waver. It was not until his account of the painter Mario Cavaradossi's despairing Act III aria "E lucevan le stelle" that Mr. Licitra demonstrated an ability to shape long pianissimo phrases with sensitivity. At this point, he is not the most subtle artist. His singing was more impassioned than interesting.


He's also a stocky young man, but he carried himself confidently and moved vigorously. With his unkempt mane and trim goatee, he inhabited the stage well. Finally, though, it was his athletic and ardent singing that won you over. Saturday night's audience was clearly in no mood to quibble over Mr. Licitra's minor imperfections. It rewarded him with an ecstatic standing ovation.


Though on Friday afternoon Mr. Licitra sang through the role with coaches and was walked through the staging, there was no chance for a stage rehearsal with orchestra. Fortunately, his costars were veterans of the popular Franco Zeffirelli production of "Tosca": the soprano Maria Guleghina in the title role and the bass James Morris as Scarpia. Ms. Guleghina sang with her customary vocal and dramatic intensity, sacrificing beautiful sound for dramatic impact. Mr. Morris was in good voice, delivering a chilling rendition of Scarpia's malevolent soliloquy in Act II. Both deserve no end of credit for performing with such focused and serious artistry in the midst of the media whirlwind and backstage chaos.


The conductor James Levine was determined, it seemed, to avoid routine. He coaxed a richly detailed and boldly expansive reading of the score from the orchestra. At times the spacious tempos lent the music Wagnerian weight; at other times the pace just dragged. But it was always thought provoking.


In assessing Mr. Licitra after this madcap debut, one is tempted to say, given the context, yes, he's great, but he's no Pavarotti. Still, it is often forgotten that Mr. Pavarotti was also 33 when he made his Met debut as Puccini's Rudolfo in "La Bohème" and had nothing like the success Mr. LIcitra just enjoyed.


During rehearsals for his debut, Mr. Pavarotti came down with Hong Kong flu. He sang the debut and received largely favorable reviews. But he made it through only half of the next performance, which was completed by a cover singer. After that, he pulled out of his remaining engagements with the Met tor the rest of the season and went home to Italy to recuperate. He returned two years later for a well-received "La Traviata." But it was not until 1972 when he sang Donizetti's "Fille du Regiment" that Met audiences realized just what had arrived.


Mr. Pavarotti has sung so well for so long, you can't help forgiving him for his recent years of carelessness and coasting. He should have stopped sooner, and he may finally realize that. But it's terribly hard to do. His troubles make you admire all the more those artists who knew their voices were slipping and chose to leave with dignity, like Renato Tebaldi, who phased out her career while in her mid-50's.


Leontyne Price found a model way to prolong her singing career. She retired from opera with a 1985 farewell performance of "Aida" at the Met, broadcast live on public television. She was 58. This allowed her to continue recital work for a good dozen years.


Approaching 70, she was still singing beautifully and giving pleasure to people. Surely there must have been times when she sang a fine recital program and thought to herself, "I could have sung ‘Aida’ tonight." But she knew that was not so and was content in what she could sing.


Mr. Pavarotti has not been helped by his longtime manager Herbert Breslin, who has been telling anyone who will listen that even though his chief client has no future bookings at opera houses, any major company would tear up its schedule to accommodate Luciano Pavarotti. Not true. Even Joseph Volpe, the Met’s general manager, who shares some blame for agreeing to these performances early on, has conceded that there will be no more appearances in opera by this famed tenor at the Met.


If Mr. Volpe tears up the schedule at all, it will be to accommodate Mr. Licitra, who was not due to make his Met debut until the 2004-05 season. You can only hope that Mr. Licitra does not push himself too hard, too soon. Otherwise he may be a lot younger than Mr. Pavarotti is when he faces the question of retirement.



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