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[Met Performance] CID:353178



Il Trittico
Il Tabarro
Suor Angelica
Gianni Schicchi
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, November 20, 2009
Broadcast

Debut : Stefano Ranzani, Joyce El-Khoury, Saimir Pirgu, Neel Ram Nagarajan







Broadcast live on Sirius and XM Metropolitan Opera Radio
Streamed live at metopera.org
Il Trittico received seven performances this season
Production photos of Il Trittico by Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera.

FUNDING:
Revival a gift of The Dr. M. Lee Pearce Foundation

Review 1:

David Shengold in the February 2010 issue of Opera News
Jack O'Brien's pictorial, audience-friendly 2007 staging of "Il Trittico" returned to the Met on November 20 in a highly enjoyable performance that was generally well-shaped by Milanese conductor Stefano Ranzani, in his company debut. The evening was dominated, however, by the "triple threat" feat of Patricia Racette. On the heels of the same hat trick at San Francisco Opera, Racette became - after Renata Scotto and Teresa Stratas - only the third artist in the Met's history to perform all three heroines in the same evening, carrying them off commendably.

Racette's interpretive skills allowed O'Brien to take all three operas to a higher level. Her timbre is light and bright for the tougher stretches of Giorgetta, yet nothing was shirked: Racette's instrument carried well over the orchestra, and her admirable legato-based phrasing afforded both clear diction and the kind of specific verbal shading that - while seeming utterly natural - illuminated character as surely as did her wonderful command of stance and movement. The frustrated barge wife, penitent aristocratic nun and Florentine teenager all emerged as distinct, comprehensible beings, utterly credible in their starkly different contexts.

After his splendid bow in last season's "Rusalka," Aleksandrs Antonenko returned very strongly as Luigi, sturdily handsome and with the bronze vocal chops for this fearsomely orchestrated part This Latvian tenor deserves a bright Met future. Zeljko Lucic is never unpleasant to hear, but his baritone lacks the tonal focus and verbal cut-and-thrust to achieve Michele's full impact. David Cangelosi rather overdid things as the drunkard Tinca, but Matthew Plenk made a dulcet, clean-toned Song Seller.

Racette has spoken of how her inspiration to turn from jazz to classical singing was Renata Scotto's recording of "Suor Angelica." Her deeply committed performance honored Scotto's legacy while proceeding vocally and psychologically on its own (quite devastating) terms. "Senza mamma," deeply felt and phrased with keen understanding of its architecture, faltered slightly on the final high A; like Scotto, Racette had the taste and artistry to obviate applause at this juncture, adding to the finale's cumulative emotional tension. (Elsewhere, Racette nailed two dead-on optional high Cs.) "Gianni Schicchi"'s evergreen "O mio babbino caro," acted with enchanting simplicity, was good but showed a bit of (understandable) fatigue; here, part of the problem was Ranzani's questionable tempo. Still, the evening marked a major achievement for the popular soprano.

Stephanie Blythe's own triple turn was the triumph of this production's premiere season; she repeated her pronounced success with the audience. "Tabarro"'s Frugola found Blythe uncharacteristically raucous on top, but "Suor Angelica"'s Zia Principessa was truly superb - chillingly embodied, the more so for the welcome richness and velvet finish of the vocalism. She and Racette moved with commanding expressiveness, their physical interaction speaking volumes about the characters shared past; Angelica, grief-stricken, shrank from her aunt's one comforting gesture as from a threatened blow. As "Schicchi"'s Zita, Blythe boomed authoritatively, her comic antics hitting home.

O'Brien wisely toned down some of the "Sound of Music"-like blocking in the triptych's middle panel. The sisters were a sonorous bunch, with delectably pure light-soprano sounds issuing from Joyce El-Khoury (Lay Sister), Monica Yunus (Novice) and Anne-Carolyn Bird (Alms-Collector) in particular. Surely only the Met could offer principal mezzos of the caliber of Wendy White (Monitor), Barbara Dever (Mistress of Novices), Maria Zifchak (Nursing Sister) and - in particularly haunting voice - Tamara Mumford (Abbess) in Puccini's comprimaria roles. Heidi Grant Murphy's once-sunny tones have served the Met beautifully in roles such as Mozart's Servilia and Poulenc's Constance, but time has moved on: Murphy's rather calcified means lacked the needed radiance for Genovieffa.

"Gianni Schicchi" - set by O'Brien in Cinecittà-land, Anno 1959 - also garnered applause for Douglas W Schmidt's lavish set; he and O'Brien pull off a parody (I think it's a parody) homage to stage-elevator-happy Met productions, leaving us with a bracing rooftop view of an Edenic Florence. Puccini's comedy here went like wildfire. The Met has previously fielded fuller-voiced Schicchis than Alessandro Corbelli, but the baritone gave a terrific, triumphantly seedy star performance; he is one of a few remaining great Italianate stylists - a complete master of the text with a fantastic range of facial expression.

Albanian tenor Saimir Pirgu, another debutant, made a tall, plausibly romantic Rinuccio. His voice projected well, but except in its secure upper reaches - on this occasion it lacked the tonal beauty it displays in YouTube clips. Perhaps, like many a Met newcomer before him, Pirgu saw the size of the house and felt compelled to crank out a bigger-than-natural sound. Ensemble work, reflecting O'Brien's comic savvy and Ranzani's attentiveness, proved excellent: there was no weak link. Patricia Risley (Ciesca), Jeff Mattsey (Marco) and Keith Jameson (Gherardo) sang and acted enjoyably as the more "normal" among the scheming relatives, but the palms here went to the rich Fellinian cameos offered by Jennifer Check (Nella), Patrick Carfizzi (Betto) and the marvelously droll Donato Di Stefano (Simone), all in fine, healthy voice. Little Neel Ram Nagarajan piped Gherardino's lines to fine effect.

Search by season: 2009-10

Search by title: Il Trittico, Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi,



Met careers

• Stefano Ranzani [Conductor]
• Patricia Racette [Giorgetta]
• Aleksandrs Antonenko [Luigi]
• Zeljko Lucic [Michele]
• Stephanie Blythe [Frugola]
• Paul Plishka [Talpa]
• David Cangelosi [Tinca]
• Matthew Plenk [Song Seller]
• Ashley Emerson [Lover]
• Tony Stevenson [Lover]
• Jack O'Brien [Production]
• Douglas W. Schmidt [Set Designer]
• Jess Goldstein [Costume Designer]
• Jules Fisher [Lighting Designer]
• Peggy Eisenhauer [Lighting Designer]
• Patricia Racette [Angelica]
• Stephanie Blythe [Princess]
• Heidi Grant Murphy [Genovieffa]
• Rosemary Nencheck [Osmina]
• Jennifer Check [Dolcina]
• Wendy White [Monitor]
• Tamara Mumford [Abbess]
• Barbara Dever [Mistress of Novices]
• Maria Zifchak [Nurse]
• Joyce El-Khoury [Lay Sister]
• Edyta Kulczak [Lay Sister]
• Monica Yunus [Novice]
• Teresa S. Herold [Novice]
• Anne-Carolyn Bird [Alms Collector]
• Reveka Evangelia Mavrovitis [Alms Collector]
• Alessandro Corbelli [Gianni Schicchi]
• Patricia Racette [Lauretta]
• Saimir Pirgu [Rinuccio]
• Jennifer Check [Nella]
• Patricia Risley [Ciesca]
• Stephanie Blythe [Zita]
• Keith Jameson [Gherardo]
• Patrick Carfizzi [Betto]
• Jeff Mattsey [Marco]
• Donato Di Stefano [Simone]
• Neel Ram Nagarajan [Gherardino]
• Paul Plishka [Spinelloccio]
• James Courtney [Amantio]
• Donovan Singletary [Pinellino]
• Jeremy Galyon [Guccio]