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Review: A ‘La Donna del Lago’ With Melting Tenderness at the Met
For years, the superb mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato has sung “Tanti affetti,” the final showpiece aria from Rossini’s “La Donna del Lago” (The Lady of the Lake), as a surefire encore in recitals. But on Monday night on the Metropolitan Opera stage, vocal display seemed the last thing on her mind.
Ms. DiDonato, playing the heroine Elena in the Met’s premiere production of this rich, tuneful Rossini melodrama, sang the opening of the aria with melting warmth and tenderness, supported by the sensitive playing of the Met orchestra under Michele Mariotti.
Elena explains that with her coming marriage, she is a bundle of emotions (“Tanti affetti”). On Monday, as the subdued first section of the aria began, the wondrous Ms. DiDonato and Mr. Mariotti, the fast-rising young Italian conductor, seemed almost in competition to see who could make music with more delicacy. Ms. DiDonato sang Rossini’s beguiling phrases with soft yet penetrating richness, subtly folding ornaments and runs into the long melodic arcs. And Mr. Mariotti drew hushed gentle and transparent playing from the inspired Met orchestra.
The aria eventually breaks into joyous bursts of dazzling coloratura passagework, with rousing exclamations from the chorus, and Ms. DiDonato delivered. There was plenty of fiery singing earlier in this performance, and the Met had a cast that could dispatch the bel canto challenges, especially the tenor Juan Diego Flórez, here singing the demanding role of Giacomo V (James V), who spends most of the opera in disguise.
To unravel the plot of this opera, based on a poem by Sir Walter Scott, Elena is the daughter of Duglas d’Angus, a nobleman in 16th-century Scotland and a former tutor to James V, who has turned against the king and found protection among the rebel highlanders. Duglas has promised Elena’s hand to their imposing chief, Rodrigo. But Elena loves the earnest, ardent Malcolm. By the end, everything works out beautifully and Elena’s marriage to Malcolm is blessed by the king, who, disguised as Uberto, had fallen in love with her.
This staging by the Scottish director Paul Curran, a co-production with the Santa Fe Opera, was introduced there in the summer of 2013, starring Ms. DiDonato. Opera fans with little patience for updated productions will probably enjoy the staid traditional approach that Mr. Curran, in his Met debut, working with the set and costume designer Kevin Knight, has taken here.
The period costumes mostly eschew bright colors to suggest Scottish clansman living in the chilly, damp region of Loch Katrine. The action is played atop a large floor that, depending upon lighting and props, suggests mossy lake banks or grayish fields. Mr. Curran lends some contemporary touches by using video projections (designed by Driscoll Otto) on a screen at the rear of the stage to suggest misty waters and cloudy skies. The sides of the stage are bare, black walls with portals.
The production is not ambitious but does the job, allowing for fluid scene changes. To indicate that the rebel highlanders could be ruthless and brutal, Mr. Curran has them rally in the climactic scene of Act I, holding flame crosses as they denounce a king they consider tyrannical.
The king they despise, however, as presented by Rossini and as sung by Mr. Flórez, seems a sympathetic, dashing figure. After we first meet Elena, who arrives from her daily crossing of the lake amid the beguiling songs of shepherds, the king bursts upon the scene and encounters the young woman he has only heard about, the lovely lady of the lake.
He announces himself as Uberto and says that he has been separated from his fellow hunters and needs some help. Elena brings Uberto home with her. During two long scenes together, the king falls hopelessly in love. And Ms. DiDonato, singing with glowing sound and affecting sweetness, makes clear that she is, for a moment, romantically aflutter.
It was hard not to root for Elena to choose Uberto. Mr. Flórez makes a youthful, charming and impassioned king. Vocally he was at his best. He has always brought impressive technical skill and boundless energy to his singing. He tossed off runs and roulades effortlessly and dispatched exciting high notes. For some (including me), his sound can sometimes seem pinched. But on this night his voice was open, relaxed and even throughout its range. And he affectingly conveyed the emotions of a monarch who finds himself discombobulated by his yearning for a winsome, modest young woman.
Malcolm, written for a contralto, is a pants role, though here those pants are kilts. The Italian mezzo-soprano Daniela Barcellona, with her tall figure and dignified bearing, acted the role convincingly. But it was her noble, mellow-toned and ardent singing that won your sympathy, especially her aching account of the Act II aria “Ah! si pera,” when Malcolm, in despair that Elena is about to marry Uberto, longs for death. Here was one of many moments during the performance when Mr. Mariotti, who excels in the bel canto repertory, demonstrated how to breathe with singers while maintaining the shape and impetus of the music.
As Rodrigo, the rebel leader, another challenging tenor role, John Osborn, though occasionally shaky and overwrought, sang fearlessly, with big, bright sound, and fully conveyed the feistiness of this character. The bass Oren Gradus brought an earthy, though somewhat constrained voice and dignity to the role of Duglas, Elena’s father. In smaller roles, Olga Makarina as Elena’s confidante, Eduardo Valdes as a servant to Duglas, and Gregory Schmidt as a servant to the king, completed an admirable cast.
In the final scene, the stage platform separates to reveal the red floor of the king’s throne room. A chorus of courtiers in gold-tinged white robes looks resplendent and sings gloriously. The stage is bathed in radiant light. Yet, this shift in production style seems to come out of nowhere.
Still, it provided a fitting background for the resolution of the opera: Elena discovers that Uberto is the king, and the king, seemingly transformed by the experience of falling in love, forgives his former tutor and blesses the marriage of Elena and Malcolm.
It was good to have the stage so bright for Ms. DiDonato’s triumphant performance of “Tanti affetti.” Besides adding an important Rossini opera to the Met’s repertory, this production gives those who have only heard her sing that aria as an encore a chance to get to know the long opera that precedes it.
Correction: February 17, 2015
An earlier version of a picture caption with this review described incorrectly one of the men who falls in love with Elena. He is the man she chooses to marry, not the tutor.
An earlier version of a picture caption with this review described incorrectly one of the men who falls in love with Elena. He is the man she chooses to marry, not the tutor.
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