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photo by Ken Howard
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Anna Netrebko, Ildar Abrazakov & Keith Miller
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Before the eras of Maria Callas and Giulietta Simionato, Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne, Nicolai Gedda, Beverly Sills, Montserrat Caballé, Shirley Verrett, Samuel Ramey and Donald Gramm, singers generally approached the very specialized style of early 19th century Italian bel canto opera as they might any Verdi or Puccini work. The Metropolitan Opera premiere production of Gaetano Donizetti’s “Anna Bolena” (1830), which opened the company’s season on September 26, though stirring in its way, represents a throwback to those bad old days. The singing, especially that of Anna Netrebko in the title role, was bel canto in the sense of beautiful singing, but was fairly devoid of the requisite florid flourishes. Perhaps not until Joyce DiDonato and Sondra Radvanovsky join in the Met’s projected ‘Tudor Ring’ will this situation be rectified.
Netrebko, as the doomed second wife of England’s King Henry VIII, sang in dark, liquid lyric soprano tone and added high notes at the ends of many of the numbers. She redeemed herself considerably with her expansive and riveting final ‘mad scene,’ “Al dolce guidami … Cielo, a’ miei lunghi spasimi … Coppia iniqua,” begun by singing with her back to the audience, as Sills so often did in her career, but here, too, ornamentation was minimal. Bass Ildar Abdrazakov made a gruff, snarling Enrico, the Monarch who married Anne Boleyn and then tired of and condemned her. Marco Armiliato presided in the pit.
How should one review the other principals of the October 18 performance, the seventh of the 12 scheduled, when the ones that began the evening were not the ones who finished it and none were heard to their best advantage? Ekaterina Gubanova, as Giovannna (Jane) Seymour, made a stronger impression in her second scene duet with the King than she had as Giulietta in “Les Contes d’Hoffmann,” but Stephen Costello, as Riccardo (Richard) Percy, though holding his own in the ensembles, clearly sounded ill at ease in his more exposed entrance aria and duet with Netrebko, all music that was written for the much higher instrument of Giambattista Rubini, who also created the role of Arturo in Bellini’s “I Puritani” and counted high D, E-flat, E and F in his arsenal. Neither Gubanova nor Costello was announced as suffering from a cold until the protracted intermission’s end, when Katharine Goeldner and Taylor Stayton took over their assignments, without having had the benefit of Act One to warm up with. Goeldner came on cold to sing Giovanna’s big duet with Anna, “Dio, che mi vedi in core … Sul suo capo aggravi un Dio,” and with a slenderer sound than Gubanova’s, matched Netrebko capably in all of their exchanges, and did a no less creditable job with her grand aria, “Per questa fiamma indomita … Ah! pensate che rivolti.” Stayton, singing in a light tenor, found the high music of the trio, with Anna and Enrico, and Tower Scene solo congenial.
Tamara Mumford’s accounts of the page Smeton’s arias were bright spots in the evening. Mumford made a dramatic entrance, bloodied and all but crucified, in Act Two, after the King turned against her character. Keith Miller as Lord Rochefort, Anna’s brother, and Eduardo Valdes as Sir Hervey, Enrico’s insidious toady, made strong contributions. David McVicar directed and Robert Jones (sets), Jenny Tiramani (costumes), and Paule Constable (lighting) were the designers. Henry’s castle is cold, all black, white and gray, without even a Hans Holbein, the Younger portrait adorning the walls. A scarlet bed accuses Anna when she is imprisoned in her rooms in Act Two.
Angela Meade assumes the role of Anna for the remaining October performances, on the 21st at 8:30 p.m., and 24th and 28th at 7:30 p.m. Netrebko resumes the role for the February 1 and 4, 2012 hearings, at 7:30 p.m. and noon respectively. For tickets, priced from $25 to $345, visit www.metopera.org, telephone 212/362-6000, or come to the Met box office in Lincoln Center on Monday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., or Sunday, from noon to 6 p.m.