Speranza
When it comes to nymphs and princes, water and earth don’t mix.
A ‘Rusalka’ s
hows two sides at the Metropolitan Opera.
Dvorak’s “Rusalka,” about a water
nymph doomed by her love for a human prince, is a fairy tale.
But is it polite
and placid?
Or is it ravage and strange?
There’s disagreement about the answer at
the Metropolitan Opera, where a decidedly mixed revival of the work opened on
Thursday evening.
The conductor, Nézet-Séguin, a prime candidate to
replace James Levine some day as the Met’s music director, offers a clear vote
for savage.
The conductor led a fierce orchestral performance, bringing out the symphonic
sweep in Dvorak’s score and underlining its most cutting details.
Taking the
opposite view — that the opera is essentially mild — was the prim prima donna
Renée Fleming.
The role of Rusalka has long been a trademark of Fleming's.
Fleming sang
the soaring “Song to the Moon” at the National Council Auditions Winners
Concert, her first appearance on the Met stage.
Twenty-six years later, Fleming
returns to it yet again, her status as the most prominent singer of
her generation cemented by the recent news that she will perform the national
anthem at the Super Bowl on Feb. 2.
As in Verdi’s “Otello” at the Met, Fleming paced herself cannily, ending the evening with only a slight hiccup
obscuring the final floated high note.
But Rusalka, with her most irresistible
music coming at the start, showcases fewer of Fleming’s strengths than did
the slower-burning Desdemona.
And the role highlights the vocal and dramatic
cautiousness that was once masked by the sheer plushness of her soprano.
Fleming's
neutral presence is particularly limiting during Act II, when Rusalka’s
power of speech has been stolen to make her mortal.
Silenced, Fleming
radiates vague discomfort rather than desperation or pain.
When her voice is
returned in Act III, for every clear, creamy phrase, there was another — often
in the middle or low range — that is faint and characterless.
There was no
such blandness in Nézet-Séguin’s conducting.
Each act had its own arc and
mood, yet he located the ominous door-knock rhythm from the introduction
constantly, even in the most seemingly lyrical passages.
The playing was superb,
from the shining brasses and sharp bite of the woodwinds in the first act, to
the eerie shifts of tempo in the prelude to the second, and, in Act III, the
slashing double basses and somber focus of the accompaniment to the Kitchen
Boy’s story.
This is not to say that the performance was without vocal
interest.
The tenor Pietro Beczala was wonderful as the Prince, his voice elegant and
impassioned.
Strained by the end of his extended Act II monologue, the
bass-baritone John Relyea, as the Water Gnome, elsewhere summoned strength and
steadiness.
As the Witch, Jezibaba, the mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick was steely
but without much personality.
Making her Met debut as the enigmatic Foreign
Princess, the soprano Emily Magee sounded potent but a bit distant, like a
forest fire viewed from far away.
Smaller parts were well cast, including Alexey
Lavrov (Hunter), Vladimir Chmelo (Gamekeeper) and the vibrant Julie Boulianne
(Kitchen Boy).
This drearily picturesque production, with sets by Günther
Schneider-Siemssen, was originally directed by Otto Schenk in 1993.
After the
evocative opening image — a haunting pond amid a rocky forest — it becomes clear
that there is no perspective on the characters or plot strong enough to guide
the audience through a long, static evening.
Particularly given brilliant,
contemporary-minded recent interpretations of “Rusalka” by directors like Stefan
Herheim (who made it a twisted carnival) and Martin Kusej (who connected it to
recent cases of abuse and captivity), Schenk’s empty-headed, Magic Kingdom
realism feels limp and unambitious.
The production is dated not just
aesthetically but also in the vision of opera it represents.
“Rusalka” runs
through Feb. 15 at the Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center; 212-362-6000,
metoperafamily.org.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
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