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Memories of the Metropolitan Opera, 11/17/24
Ricochetti will recognize me as the gynecologist who remembers classical music concerts. Of all the shows Mrs. Doc Robert and I attend, we have come to love operas the most. Opera offers a depth of emotion, beauty and excitement that exceeds even the symphonies of Beethoven and Mahler.
We were thus excited to receive the Metropolitan Opera schedule last summer and to buy tickets for four weekend matinees. Three days ago, we attended our second show of the season, Verdi’s Il Trovatore. Briefly, the opera is a revenge vehicle in which an old Gypsy woman, Azucena, induces the villainous Count de Luna to kill the hero, Manrico, whose beloved Leonora commits suicide by poison, dying in his arms rather than accept betrothal to the Count. In fact, de Luna and Manrico were brothers separated in infancy by events that led Azucena to erroneously immolate her own son instead of Manrico. Yeah, it’s complicated, but it’s a great show. Any show whose moral, as the program put it, is “to properly identify a baby before throwing him into a fire” has got to be full of dramatic music, and Trovatore has truckloads of wonderful tunes. Wonderful tunes + world-class singers = great opera.
We bought our tickets in August. Two weeks ago my stepdaughter, a professional pop singer, asked to attend. We were delighted to see that the seat next to ours in the first row of the Grand Tier was still open 12 weeks later, so we grabbed it for her. What a bit of luck, it was kismet!
Our Sunday morning ride to NYC from western Mass. took less than 3 hours, even with the time we took to pick up my stepdaughter in New Haven. Quickest trip ever. More kismet. After brunch in the Opera House restaurant, we took our seats and the show began.
Before the overture, the house manager came on stage and announced that the singer for the role of Leonora, Angela Meade, was nursing a cold but that she would carry on. Through the first two acts (played without pause) she sang well but not superbly — there was a catch in her upper register.
Angela Meade
After intermission (and dessert in the restaurant), the house manager came back on to announce that Leonora was hanging it up and that her part would be sung by Leah Hawkins, the winner of this year’s Met Opera Beverly Sills Artists competition. Oh, and the tenor singing Manrico, Michael Fabiano, was himself nursing a cold, but he would carry on.
Ms Hawkins fit perfectly into the production. Act 3 had her in a convent struggling with questions of morality and fidelity up to a high C. After an initial moment of uncertainty, she sang beautifully, even brilliantly, throughout the act. It was very impressive to see how flawlessly she fit into the role that Ms Meade had vacated. They shared limpid high notes, impeccable pitch and even a certain physical similarity. We felt privileged to watch her first Met Opera performance.
Leah Hawkins
Act 4 followed Act 3 without pause. In Act 4 the bulk of the singing belongs not to the soprano but to the tenor, who seemed stronger voiced than he had previously in this performance. His high notes especially were wonderful. However his makeup looked odd through my 4x opera glasses. Why would the production call for a change in the tenor’s makeup? The opera ends with his offstage beheading by de Luna’s soldiers (cymbal crash!) and a scream from Azucena that she now has revenge for the death of her own baby boy. As in Bizet’s Carmen, the hero’s death in the last 10 seconds of the opera, without any musical comment or time for reflection, gives a brutal finality, like a kick in the solar plexus to the whole audience.
The curtain fell on what had been a splendid performance. But before we could erupt in horrified applause, another house manager came out and announced that the part of Manrico had been sung in Act 4 by Arturo Chacón-Cruz, as Mr. Fabiano’s ague had proved overwhelming by the end of Act 3. Mr. Chacón-Cruz is an established Mexican tenor and he sang with distinction. “We saw more relievers than at a Red Sox game,” I joked to the couple sitting next to us, and the gentleman replied that “the relievers sang better than the starters.”
How the understudies fit into the production so seamlessly is a mystery to me. Opera is not just singing; there is also blocking, acting, and dealing with other singers. It seems to me that this would require separate rehearsals for the understudies, which would get expensive.
We found our way back to the car, paid $17 less than had been quoted for parking, and drove to New Haven where we enjoyed a meal in a tiny Italian restaurant. We were home by 11 and, jazzed by the events of the day, watched TV until almost 2.
The production was based on Goyesque themes, sets and costumes which were very effective. We much prefer productions done in period costume and this one did not disappoint. As always, the secondary singers were wonderful and the Met orchestra played like suave, sexy angels. I love the sound of the Met orchestra.
What will Mrs. Doc, our daughter and I remember of this performance? It was a day full of kismet, from the ticket, to the quick trip, to the parking, to the subbing in of two brilliant artists in place of indisposed principals. We may have seen the first major performance of an important young soprano.
I will treasure this production in my concert memory, at least until it gets knocked out by a grander performance. In January we will venture to NYC again, this time to see Tosca. Perhaps you will read about it here, in Ricochet.
Published in General
Wonderful post, thank you.
As an opera buff, perhaps you’re familiar with the occasion on which the soprano Rachel Gilmore as understudy substituted for Kathleen Kim at a Met performance of The Tales of Hoffman. Wikipedia:
There’s video, and it’s fabulous.
Yarob, thank you for your kind words and for the video link. Wow, that is quite a video, those high notes are amazing.
The Tales of Hoffmann was the first opera we saw this year, in the same production that Ms Gilmore graced. Olympia is a mechanical woman by whom Hoffman is infatuated, you can see how she runs out of energy and has to be wound up. It is a funny show but was not interesting enough to do a “Memories of” posting.
Ms Gilmore seems to have retired from concert life, her web page lists a last performance in December 2021. Perhaps she sang too high and burned out fast. At least she got to thrill a couple of thousand opera goers on 23 December 2009.
https://www.rachelegilmore.com/schedule-1
My niece Emily Richter, one of the winners of the Metropolitan Opera 2024 Laffont competition, is a Resident Artist with the Chicago Lyric Opera.
She’s understudying the role of the Contessa in their production of The Marriage of Figaro this month. The lead had a cold, so she [Emily] got to perform the role for the dress rehearsal, and was in line to perform opening night. Sadly (I kid, I kid) at the last minute she recovered.
The Met used to tour the United States. They came to Atlanta every spring for a week starting in 1910. We were fortunate that my grandmother had gotten 2 season tickets in the 1940’s when they were still obtainable. Our family went every year, with my grandmother, parents, and my sister and I taking turns.
In the early 70’s, I was attending with my grandmother at the Fabulous Fox (pictured below.) where the Met had moved in the late 40’s. Before the start, the manager came out and announced that the tenor was ill, to sighs and moans from the audience. Then he announced that the role would be sung by Pavarotti. I’m sure the original tenor (who shall remain nameless) would have been disappointed to hear the cheers of the audience. Pavarotti had made his major breakthrough a couple of years earlier and was at that time terrifically popular.
Great comment, Yarob. Thanks for the video.
Sensational post, Doctor R!
I’ve never been to an opera but I enjoyed this post. I never considered the impact that seasonal colds transmitted between cast members might have on a production! Could be catastrophic…
My brother told me how much more Emily would have gotten paid for the performance if she’d had to cover the lead role.
To which I replied, “I thought it was about the art” and he replied back “It’s mostly about the art, but the extra money helps too!”
Great post! But…..“Opera offers a depth of emotion, beauty and excitement that exceeds even the symphonies of Beethoven…”
Beethoven?! Them’s fightin’ words.
Yeah! #Fideliomatters
Perhaps, but Mrs Doc and I have the experience to prove it.
What’s your favorite Beethoven symphony?
Your post prompted me to buy tickets to Il Trovatore and a few others. I stopped going to the Met during the pandemic. I was mad about something or other. But your post reminded me how much I loved to go and, as I’ve said elsewhere, I’m giving most things a pass for the insanity of those years.
Years ago Mrs R and I attended a performance of Monteverdi’s Magnicat(?) at the Episcopal church in Kalamazoo. I hadn’t heard it before, but have been a fan of Montever ever since. You may have seen that church if you’ve driven through on I-94. It’s on the north side of the highway. I always thought the building was ugly, but it has multiple balconies that were put to good acoustical use for the Monteverdi piece.
During intermission we learned from the woman in front of us that her husband was one of the tenor soloists, and that he had come down with a cold so wasn’t at his best. Coulda fooled me. I have no idea how someone with a cold could sing that at all, much less that well.
The Episcopal congregation ran out of rich widows to support it, so the building was sold to a local megachurch denomination (it appears) which added a larger structure to the building and put the moral equivalent of aluminum siding on the addition.
Well, the Met shut down during the panic and unlike the NY Philharmonic and most other full time ensembles, they offered no pay to their furloughed employees. So perhaps that’s what you were mad about. “a pass for the insanity of those years” is certainly in order.
I hope you enjoy Il Trovatore. As to the rest of the season, I am particularly looking forward to Jake Heggies’s Moby Dick, which has outstanding reviews from Houston and San Francisco.
I have no familiarity at all with opera. I don’t admit that proudly. It is what it is. About twenty-five years ago, when my wife and I began international travel, we booked a Perillo tour throughout northern Italy. It was a bus tour. The bus was full and included people from many countries. We went with several friends, some of whom were still friends after the trip. There was an elderly frail woman named Florence on the tour who wandered around and seemed perpetually lost on the trip. Many of our tour compatriots began to make snide comments about her behind her back. One night we had dinner at a countryside villa that provided dinner accommodations for busloads of tourists along with musical entertainment. There was a silvered hair opera singer who was very enthusiastic and cheerful. After he left the stage, our tour guide, along with the MC of the show, got up and announced that we had a special guest in our midst, Florence, who would give us a special treat. Frail, very shriveled, Florence burst out in song singing an aria from La Traviotta, and within a minute the silver haired opera singer joined her onstage to join in a duet. It was stunning. Very similar to that time that Susan Boyle stunned the world at that reality TV show.
It was very humbling for those on our bus who had been making fun of Florence. She was once a major diva and had been married to the conductor of the New York Metropolitan Opera.
Sometimes things happen that seem too good to be true and those times are the best times that can ever be true.
Some of the uncertainties in my post have been addressed by an email from the Met. I can’t make changes in the body of the text or the post will be sent back to Members’ website.
“The first and third announcements were made by Yasmine Kiss who was #1 Stage Manager. We generally only note who made an announcement if it is NOT the #1 Stage Manager for the performance. Peter Gelb announced substitution for Leonora . (Mr Gelb is the Met’s general manager).
“The alternates observe room and stage rehearsals and have room rehearsals of their own.
We provide time for them to experience walking on the scenery during stage rehearsal period and they may rehearse specific technical or intricate moments, but do not have their own stage rehearsals, unless called to fill in for principal cast member. Mostly they rely on observation.
“If they are called to sing the role, stage staff will provide time to walk the set before the performance and assistance backstage through out the evening.”