On November 4, the New York City Opera (NYCO) welcomed hyper-romantic opera, "Vanessa," by late gay creative artists, composers Samuel Barber (music) and Gian Carlo Menotti (libretto), written for the Metropolitan Opera and celebrating its 50th anniversary season, into its repertory for the first time, for half-a-dozen hearings, the second of which, on November 6, is considered here. "Vanessa" has a Strindberg or Chekov "northern country," turn of the 20th century setting and, in its overheated melodrama, can feel something like a 1950s movie, a beloved 'weepy,' guiltily cherished.

The opera had its Met premiere on January 15, 1958 and was last given by that company during March and April 1965. Its original principals were Eleanor Steber as the Baroness Vanessa, carefully preserving her youthful appearance for two decades while awaiting the return of her lover, Anatol; Rosalind Elias as Erika, her niece or perhaps, as she broadly hints near the end, her "own child," her daughter by Anatol; Nicolai Gedda as the younger Anatol, who comes to Vanessa in lieu of his father, now deceased; Regina Resnik as the old Baroness, Vanessa's forbidding mother and Erika's grandmother; and Giorgio Tozzi as the loyal old family Doctor. Led by Dimitri Mitropoulos, they recorded their effort for RCA Victor shortly after the premiere.

Soprano Lauren Flanigan headed NYCO's cast with distinction, encompassing with ease Vanessa's romantic and ornate, Richard Strauss-style lirico-spinto line and enacting with flair the part of the grand and beauteous aristocrat, seizing a belated chance for happiness and oblivious to any hurt she causes her family. Scarcely discernible at her first appearance, veiled as heavily as the mirrors and portraits in this house of sorrow, Flanigan soon threw down the gauntlet in a passionate, bel canto account of her aria and recitative, "He has come ... Do not utter a word, Anatol," making clear her sacrifice of 20 years and palpable the pain underlying her imperiousness, establishing conditions and rules for the reunion. After the initial shock of confronting a different man than the one expected, Flanigan's Vanessa cheered up considerably, throwing off the gray and black mourning, matching that of her family members, and with a bravura reaction, almost managed to make the tragedy potentially derailing her happiness, her niece's suicide attempt, more about her than about Erika.

Katharine Goeldner (Erika) photo courtesy NYC Opera

Mezzo-soprano Katharine Goeldner's sympathetic, lushly vocalized Erika provided an excellent foil for Flanigan's protagonist. Goeldner sang her art song-like aria, "Must the winter come so soon," with consummate lyricism; concluded the second scene with feeling, with a most emotional outpouring, sung against and contrasting with an offstage choral hymn, as she decided to put her aunt's happiness ahead of her own; and, with Vanessa's engagement festivities as backdrop, descended and faltered on a grand staircase, before rushing out into the snow to harm herself and/or her and Anatol's unborn child. In virginal white, before it was bloodied by her miscarriage, Goeldner's Erika looked intentionally more like the bride-to-be than did Flanigan's heroine, in scarlet. At the end, the now embittered younger woman adopted Vanessa's veils as her own as she began her own period of waiting, cut off from the world.

Entering in fur coat and hat, looking like a figure out of "Boris Godunov" or "Queen of Spades," Ryan MacPherson's handsome, irresponsible Anatol offered Erika, in "Outside this house the world has changed," his carefree credo, lyrically sung. In apparent distress the upper reaches of "Love has a bitter core, Vanessa," his big duet, having little to do with love, with Flanigan, MacPherson, pleading an allergy attack, withdrew and Christopher Jackson, replacing him in the final scenes, sang, with full lyricism, of finding the fallen Erika "On the path to the lake."

Mezzo Elias, now 78, returned to "Vanessa" to bring potent presence to a portrayal of the old Baroness as a figure of fragile mien physically, wielding her matriarchal power by giving first Vanessa and then Erika the silent treatment, when she felt they deserved disapproval.

Once opera's fair-haired, matinee idol lyric baritone, a Billy Budd, Ulisse and Pelléas, Richard Stilwell contributed a burly veteran Doctor, leading spirited country dance, "Under the willow tree," and tipsily limning a zaftig lady at Vanessa's party and contemplating his announcement of the betrothal.

As Vanessa prepared to leave the family manse for Paris, with Anatol, these singers joined forces for a moving farewell quintet, "To leave, to break," with haunting overtones of the "Rosenkavalier" trio, "Hab' mir's gelobt," in which the Marschallin takes leave of Octavian and 'surrenders' him to Sophie, as well as of the biblical Ecclesiastes' "For everything there is a season."

Conductor Anne Manson - photo courtesy of the Kansas City Symphony from Cohn Dutcher Associates

Bass Branch Fields, as Nicholas, the major-domo, made the most of his assignment.

While evincing essential sensitivity to the singers, conductor Anne Manson, new to NYCO, saw to it that "Vanessa" had the requisite full-bodied sound and romantic sweep. Director Michael Kahn, in association with Cynthia Edwards, also helped guide the effective company.

Designed for the Dallas Opera, Michael Yeargan's elegant set pieces and scrims, permitting views of several rooms and of indoor and outdoor venues at once, suggested, with Jeff Harris' lighting, a magnificent estate and Martin Pakledinaz' period costumes accorded well with the characters' changing moods and circumstances.

Does "Vanessa" reflect the gay sensibility of its creators? It is, perhaps, not such a stretch to imagine the heated emotional interrelationships the story posits as being almost entirely same-sex ones. In a production Menotti directed in 1961, he relocated the action to a Hudson Valley mansion not unlike the one he shared with Barber, according to David Shengold's program note here, and, in a 1988 Opera Theater of St. Louis "Vanessa," which I reviewed for the now-defunct Opera Monthly, director Graham Vick decreed that Anatol, blithely rebellious "man of today," intrude upon and excite Vanessa's household garbed in full gay fantasy black leather.

Remaining performances of "Vanessa," at this writing, are on November 8 at 8 pm, 10 at 1:30 pm, 14 at 7:30 pm, and 17 at 1:30 pm. Tickets, priced from $16 to 130, are available at the New York State Theater box office at Lincoln Center, on line at www.nycopera.com, or by telephoning 212/721-6500.