One of the things I like most about experiencing an extraordinary musical performance is that its impact can linger on in a way that does not happen with- for instance- a magnificent meal. I can still remember what it felt like to sit in Orchestra Hall (in the Twin Cities) and listen to the Luther College Orchestra reach the soaring climaxes of Respighi’s Pines of Rome. I can still feel my head pounding with excitement (I thought I might have a stroke) and – more unbelievably – I can still hear the sound in my head …. even though the performance in question happened back in the spring of 1980! When an uncommonly wonderful performance penetrates our souls, it penetrates us and remains with us like almost nothing else in life can.
It’s perhaps premature for me to speak in such terms about a performance I just heard within the last week, but I’m quite certain that for many years to come I will vividly remember the Metropolitan Opera’s October 3rd performance of Verdi’s Il Trovatore (which means “The Troubadour”) transmitted in an HD simulcast to movie theaters around the world. This was the kickoff to the Met’s 10th season of HD simulcasts, so they obviously wanted to pull out all of the stops, but I seriously doubt that they could have foreseen of the kind of world-shaking excitement that would be generated on that famous stage.
For one thing, the Met seems to have taken seriously the comment of legendary Enrico Caruso, who when asked what one needs to put on a good performance of Verdi’s Il Trovatore was quoted as saying “all you need are the four greatest singers in the world.” And to some extent he’s right. Il Trovatore is one of those operas where the plot is quite complicated and at several points even ludicrous; it is an opera which, in effect, can only be redeemed by four superb singers who can deliver Verdi’s challenging music with superb flare. But when you have that…. an operatic Four Tops on your stage …… hang on to your hats!
The Met not only assembled a spectacular quartet of principal singers – including soprano Anna Netrebko, mezzo soprano Dolora Zajick, and tenor Yonghoon Lee (who I saw sing his role at the Lyric Opera) but also folded into the mix (if inadvertently) one of the most extraordinary backstage dramas that the Met has seen in decades. As many opera fans surely know, baritone Dimitri Hvorstovsky, one of the world’s most admired operatic baritones, was diagnosed earlier this year with a brain tumor and suspended his performance schedule in order to undergo a rigorous gauntlet of chemotherapy. For this vibrant, strapping guy to be cut down by something like that was almost too much to comprehend, and his many fans were left wondering if they had seen or heard the last of him. Fortunately, he has responded well to his treatments and – in a move that astounded and gratified the opera world – he agreed to interrupt his treatments long enough to fly from London to NYC in order to sing three performances of Il Trovatore at the Met. It was a courageous thing for him to do, but one can well understand how anxious he was to be back on the stage, doing what he loves most. Needless to say, he was greeted with delirious acclaim at his first performance (much of which I got to hear on Sirius XM) and he sounded remarkably strong and secure. (One would really never guess that there was anything amiss.) And by his third Trovatore performance – the one which was simulcast – he was still sounding great, singing out with all of the passion and intensity we have come to associate with him. His first entrance in act one was greeted with a flood of cheering – and his big aria (“Il balen,” one of the toughest baritone arias in the repertoire) touched off a similar sort of frenzy. But it was when he took his solo bow at the final curtain calls – and then a second solo bow instigated by his cast mates – that the audience seemed ready to blow the roof right off of the opera house. They clapped and cheered and roared- giving him the kind of ovation that one only hears when a beloved superstar (like Leontyne Price or Joan Sutherland) has just sung their final performance. And who knows- maybe some of the people in the audience realized on some level that there was no guarantee that Dimitri would be back after this. One certainly hopes that he will in fact be back, but cancer can be a most cruel adversary. So the audience wrapped its collective arms around this beloved baritone as though it might be their last chance to show him how much they loved him. And it was clear from the beaming smile on his face how much he loved them right back. I cried buckets! (And there was even an extraordinary moment during those curtain calls when the Met orchestra, on cue, lofted up on to the stage a flood of white roses- their own tribute to the beloved baritone – and something that, as far as I know, has never happened at the Met before. And the cameras caught those same orchestra members joining in the ovation of the audience. Clearly they were as delighted as anyone that Dimitri was back where he belonged- onstage.)
But I also cried buckets over the performance of the great Dolora Zajick, one of my all-time favorite singers. 25 years ago, she made her Met debut singing this very same role, the crazed gypsy Azucena. Back then, she was quite unconvincing theatrically or visually (you didn’t for a moment believe that she was an old woman) but she sang up a storm. A quarter of a century later, she IS Azucena, and I can’t imagine anyone singing the role better than she does. In Act 2 (right after the famous Anvil Chorus) Azucena recounts the horrific story of how her own mother was accused of being a witch and was burned at the stake, crying out to her young daughter (who witnessed the terrible scene) to avenge her. In a state of ferocious anger and grief, she kidnaps the young baby of the Count who has ordered her mother’s execution, with the intention of delivering him into the same sort of fiery death. But then, in a brutal twist, she realizes to her utter horror that in her crazed state, she has mistakenly thrown her own baby into the flames. Can you imagine anything more terrible? Composer Giuseppe Verdi sets this with searing, heart-wrenching music- the likes of which the world had never heard before. (I like to say that the era of Bel Canto- where opera was all about “beautiful singing” and nothing more- ended quite decisively with this moment in Il Trovatore.) And Zajick is absolutely overwhelming; it is as though Azucena’s all-consuming anguish courses through your own veins. Her sorrow somehow becomes your own.
I should note that NPR’s Terry Gross, the long-time host of “Fresh Air,” has become a huge opera fan. And the opera and the singer that made the difference for her was Il Trovatore and Dolora Zajick. Terry Gross went to an HD simulcast of this opera several years ago at a movie theater in Philadelphia (after seeing an excerpt from the opera in a film titled “Margaret”) and she has been hooked ever since. Here’s a link to the Fresh Air interview which Terry Gross did with Zajick, and it includes an excerpt from this incredible aria, which Zajick sings better than anyone else in the world- and maybe better than anyone has EVER sung it.
http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/2015/09/25/443410
And if that weren’t enough, Zajick was in the company of Anna Nebtrebko, perhaps the world’s most famous and admired soprano, an absolutely mesmerizing artist ….. and Yonghoon Lee, a tenor with a thrilling voice and dramatic intensity to match ….. plus the Metropolitan Opera’s orchestra and chorus, which are among the best in the world. That was an incredible amount of greatness packed on to one single stage!
As I watched this the other day, I couldn’t help but feel immense gratitude that I could witness a performance of such towering greatness- especially brought to life so thrillingly on the big screen. And it was especially gratifying to see one of those all-too-rare performances where you had this array of superb singers in a brilliantly conceived production, captured so flawlessly by the HD cameras and beamed all over the world. Sitting in that movie theater seat, I felt like the luckiest guy in the world.
And as usual, the HD cameras took viewers behind the scenes – both before the opera and during intermission. What happened in this instance that is a bit more uncommon is that the cameras also took us behind the curtain once it had come down after the curtain call had finished. We got to see the members of the cast and various crew and staff members hugging each other, clearly knowing that they had all been part of something incredibly special.
And so had we.
Information about upcoming Metropolitan Opera HD Simulcasts can be found at metopera.org. This season continues on October 17th with Verdi’s “Otello.” Wagner’s “Tannhauser” and Puccini’s “Turandot” are among the operas to be experienced.