Donizetti’s Anna Bolena
Metropolitan Opera
October 9, 2015
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| Queen Anna Bolena unleashes her rage Photo credit: New York Times |
Lei: As bel canto lovers, we are always over
the moon when we get to see an opera from Donizetti’s “Tudor trilogy.” In this
series the incredibly beautiful and virtuosic singing also serves the purpose
of expressing a range of dramatic emotions that runs the gamut, particularly
for the regal title roles. Each of these works features a most complex female
lead, a queen who rules, loves, rages, suffers, fights, avenges and melts (not
necessarily in that order). The singing here is so challenging that there are
very few artists able to tackle it. So, when the Met announced that it was
going to present all three of the “Donizetti Queens” in the same season, with
the title role sang each time by one of the most exciting sopranos around,
Sondra Radvanovsky, we started jumping up and down, giddy with excitement and
anticipation. Drama! Vocal fireworks! Thundering yet tender but crazy queens!
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| The Queen cannot believe she's fallen into Henry VIII's trap Photo credit: Ken Howard / Met |
Lui: Donizetti’s Anna Bolena is a rare gem.
Despite or perhaps due to the musical supremacy of its score and the vocal
extravagance it demands of its singers, the first of Donizetti’s three queens
only appears all too infrequently. In fact, this season the Met is one of the only two opera
houses staging it around the world (the other being Bergamo) – how lucky for us! The role of its heroine
comprises an odyssey of musical moods and emotional tones that is among the
most dynamic in the repertoire. With its forbidding vocal demands and its broad
range that spans the whole spectrum of human emotions from somber sadness to
raw feminine heroism, Donizetti’s Anna Bolena is one of the great soprano
assoluta roles par excellence, up there with Bellini’s Norma and
Donizetti’s third queen, the Elizabeth of Roberto Devereux, who will be
making her Met debut later this season.
This was Sondra Radvanovsky’s night in every way.
From the very start, she rendered the reflective, nostalgic mood of her opening
aria, Come, innocente giovane through lyrical low-lying phrases and
intricately delicate coloratura juxtaposed to flexible high notes with several
flights into the uppermost registers.
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| Regal dignity Photo credit: Ken Howard / Met |
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| Queen Anna, Queen-to-be Elizabeth and the lusty page Smeaton Photo credit: Ken Howard / Met |
In terms of the story and score, Anna Bolena’s
initial trajectory presents a powerful woman who is steadfast in her
convictions as she withstands the temptation of seeing Percy again. Here
Radvanovsky demonstrated great feats of coloratura flexibility and a truly
resolute, stouthearted tone. In the concluding Ah, segnata è la mia sorte,
Radvanovsky gave us the full power of her dramatic sound. The full heroic
strength of a true soprano assoluta was on display.
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| The treacherous Giovanna pleads with Anna Photo credit: Ken Howard / Met |
Lei: This Act II opener really caught me off guard in
its surprising human and moving twist. One would expect Bolena to unleash all
sorts of insults on her double faced friend who’s sleeping with her husband,
but the queen here actually forgives her as she’s been in her same shoes before
(when she was the king’s lover causing him to dump his then queen) and so she understands the lure of Henry VIII and the power that comes with him (è reo soltanto / chi tal fiamma accese in
te). On the other hand, though, Anna’s forgiveness has the effect of
further punishing Giovanna who just cannot bear the guilt of having betrayed
the trust of her amazingly gracious queen (ah!
peggiore è il tuo perdono / dello sdegno ch’io temea).
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| The Queen suspects her husband's fidelity Photo credit: Ken Howard / Met |
Lei: Her performance was extraordinary throughout the first two thirds of the evening. But by the time she got her grandiose finale that climaxes with the famous “mad scene” in her prison cell and subsequent execution, it was like she was only pacing herself in the lead up to this phenomenal passage of music.
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| Coppia iniqua! Photo credit: Ken Howard / Met |
Lui: For her last scene, Donizetti gives us a
panorama of her emotional existence. Radvanovsky’s voice masterfully embodied
every contour of her heroine’s psychic landscape with resilience and stamina.
Her vocal technique ranged across the spectrum – the melancholy piano
pianissimo of her sad and somber reminiscence back to happier times (Al
dolce guidami), the hurt (Cielo, a’ miei lunghi spasimi), the heroic
(Coppia iniqua). It’s an emotional storm. And Radvanovsky was mind
blowing. The way her voice got all friable and frail, almost like dry
parchment, during the most delicate moment of her big climax in the mad scene,
ranks up there with some of the great Met performances of my humble experience.
It’s just a shame that the rest of the cast was rarely at her level.
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| Serial husband Henry VIII Photo credit: Ken Howard / Met |
Lei: Ildar Abdrazakov, who is usually
reliable, had his moments but from time to time tonight just couldn’t get
there. His voice seemed to drop off and was almost inaudible. Which is
only made more conspicuous by the sheer force of his extraordinary female lead.
I hate to say it but his heart just didn’t seem to be in it. Taylor Strayton
as Percy was a mediocre tenor at best, though he has shown signs of
improvement since the last time we saw him in Bellini's La Sonnambula a few years
back. Milijana Nikolic in her Met debut as Giovanna Seymour was solid,
though I found her sound to be muddled, almost milky. Her enunciation of the
Italian wasn’t as crystal clear and cutting as Radvanovsky’s.
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| Smeaton pours his heart out. Photo credit: Ken Howard / Met |
Lui: The court singer, Smeaton, sung with
romantic agility by one of my favorite bel canto mezzo sopranos, Tamara
Mumford was perhaps the highlight of the supporting cast. She has great
stage presence and really embodies the lovelorn longing of the young Cherubino-esque
farfallone amoroso, who flies a little too close to the flame with tragic
results for all involved.
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| Anna falls into the trap Photo credit: Ken Howard / Met |
I also came to a greater appreciation of Sir
David McVicar’s production this time. I was a little underwhelmed by the
starkness of Robert Jones’s sets when we saw this production at its
debut back on opening night in 2011. But tonight they really struck me as
almost painterly in their attention to period details like the cavernous space
of the early modern royal castle and palace. The modular design makes for fluid
set changes that keep the action flowing almost oneirically. And Jenny
Tiramani’s costumes are just spectacular. So plush in their florid
Renaissance flair. Many scenes looks like a Holbein or a Bronzino painting.
With the light flooding into the vast interiors of the palace through high
gothic windows and the pencil thin trees that populate the wasteland that lies
just outside the castle walls, the set design is starkly expressionistic in its
minimalist efficacy.
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| The sets for the big Anna/Giovanna confrontation scene Photo credit: Met |
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| A more defiant Anna by Netrebko in 2011 Photo credit: Met |
Lei: Interestingly, in this run of the production they switched things
up for the last “mad scene.” Back in 2011, when Anna Netrebko sung the title
role, she wore a fitted black gown and, after attacking the raging aria Coppia
iniqua, she lifted her long hair to bare her neck for the executioner’s ax
and marched resolutely towards her death, with a feisty defiance that was
exciting to see. Radvanovsky, on the other hand, was wearing a loose white
tunic, almost like an under garment or the smock of an in-patient at a mental hospital, and, after her ladies in waiting cut her
hair to a short bob, she was blindfolded and guided gropingly towards the
executioner. While Radvanosky’s singing was sublime (and, in my opinion,
superior and more convincing than the Russian’s soprano), her acting was of a
terrified madwoman, quite a change from Netrebko’s dramatic and
proud interpretation of that same scene. One thing did not change though, the
blood-red silk curtain swishing down the scene immediately after the sight of
the scary executioner and his ax – that’s what I call a powerful finale!
- Lui & Lei
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| Radvanovsky's Anna loses it before the executioner Photo credit: Ken Howard / Met |
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| Netrebko's Queen is regal till the end Photo credit: Met |
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