Opera Diaries: Women Who Kill

Radvanovsky as Medea, photo @ Marty Sohl

This fall has been very busy. I spent much of September and October at NYCB's fall season, where I continue to write reviews for bachtrack. It was only last weekend that I attended any opera at all, but I saw both Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Medea.

Both focus on angry, desperate women who kill. Both treat those women with a degree of sympathy. And both were lights-out vehicles for the starring sopranos.

Medea and Neris, photo @ Marty Sohl

Sondra Radvanovsky's Medea got more publicity and critical praise. It's the first production of Luigi Cherubini's opera for the Met, and it's an opera that is still rarely done. In part, it's because the role was so closely associated with Maria Callas that it's hard for other sopranos to tackle the challenge. But also, the role is extremely long and punishing. Medea comes onstage towards the end of Act One and then never leaves. Constant singing, very emotionally charged. And then there's the music itself -- Cherubini's musical style blends the formalism of opera seria with a more free-form romantic style. The orchestration is rich (Beethoven was an admirer of Cherubini), but the vocal lines can be surprisingly bland. The Met is performing the hybrid version which is an Italian translation of Franz Lachner's recitatives.

Glauce and Jason, photo @ Marty Sohl

Radvanovsky in the title role got a huge ovation at the solo curtain call at the end of the evening. She certainly works hard. Her voice has a hard, raspy edge, but it works in this music. What she's missing is a strong lower register -- it often comes off as a weak little growl. She also doesn't have Callas's genius for phrasing -- the long, unbroken vocal lines don't have Callas's sweep and majesty. But she's fearless and I can't think of another soprano I'd rather hear in the role currently. Her "Io son Medea!" of the last act was an amazing display of sheer vocal endurance.

The opera is Medea, Medea, Medea, so the other singers can be touched upon briefly -- Matthew Polenzani did his usual dutiful work as Giasone, although it can be hard to imagine someone so earnest as a heartbreaker. Janai Brugger was charming in Glauce's opening aria (the aria Maria Callas famously wanted cut, to Renata Scotto's chagrin). Neris has maybe the most beautiful aria of the opera, which Olivia Vote sang with a soothing sweetness. The reliable Michele Pertusi rounded out the supporting cast as Creontes. Carlo Rizzi was dully competent in the pit.

The unit set, photo @ Marty Sohl

David McVicar's production had a handsome setpiece -- a stone facade that looked reasonably like a Corinthian temple, that opened up for some of the opera's other locations. There was a large mirror that made it easier to see some of the upstage action and made for a striking final tableau in which Medea throws herself into the burning temple. 

The direction was pretty basic -- mostly just stand over there, sing over here. Medea did gesticulate wildly, but McVicar tried to make Medea more of a victim of Giasone's heartlessness than a villainess who kills her own children and gloats about it. In other words, there's some 21st century sensibility applied to a very elemental story of revenge. The costumes were also puzzling -- Regency era costumes that give this mythic opera a slightly staid, frou-frou look. But it's one of McVicar's better recent productions (the Don Carlo last season was awful), and didn't get in the way of the singers.

 I can't see this becoming a staple of the Met's future repertoire -- there just aren't enough sopranos who can actually sing the role. So that's why operaphiles should either try to catch one of the two remaining performances or the HD on Saturday.

Sozdateleva and Relyea, photo @ Evan Zimmerman

Medea at least is selling well and creating a lot of buzz. Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk has been heavily papered over its run. Too bad, because Shostakovich's opera is one of the most compelling, gripping music dramas in the canon, and Graham Vick's garish production is also strikingly effective -- full of bright colors, tackiness, it perfectly encapsulates Katerina's ugly little world. 

None of the lead singers had voices that we'd call conventionally beautiful, but all of them threw themselves into the opera with absolute commitment. Svetlana Sozdateleva was astonishing as Katerina -- angry, resentful, desperate. Her voice could turn harsh, but it never sounded wrong. 

Katerina and Sergei, photo @ Evan Zimmerman

John Relyea also gave a wonderfully creepy performance as Boris, Katerina's lecherous, abusive father-in-law. Brandon Jovanovich's tenor is now rather leathery, but he captured the essence of sleazy, worthless Sergei. The supporting cast was so strong -- from Maria Barakova's sultry Sonyetka to Goran Juric as the amoral waltzing priest. 

After an opera filled with satire and some dark humor, the bleakness of the ending is always shattering -- the convicts trek on to Siberia, where they will no doubt die. Katerina and Sonyetka are already forgotten. You can see why this opera was just too much truth for Stalin.