Thursday March 22, 2007 - The New York City Opera's production of Rossini's LA DONNA DEL LAGO ('The Lady of the Lake') played to many empty seats on Thursday. Maybe when word gets out about some very exciting vocalism on offer there will be a surge in ticket sales.
Grey brick walls and a couple of boulders - and later a tree trunk - formed the stage picture. Elena's cottage refuge was out-of-doors and filled with straight-backed chairs. Snow fell from time to time, reminding me of City Ballet's Snowflakes and how they hate getting the yucky stuff on their lips - an added peril for a singer. The men wore kilts, the women homespun. In the final scene, at Stirling Castle, the courtiers appeared in tuxedos and 'Vienna Waltz' creamy gowns. George Manahan conducted dutifully and the chorus did well.
The fantastical plot, set amid the wars of James V's Scotland and filtered thru Sir Walter Scott's romantic vision, involves three men (Rodrigo, Malcolm and Uberto) suitors all for the hand of Elena, daughter of the Highland rebel chief Douglas D'Angus. Elena loves Malcolm; her father wants her to marry Rodrigo so as to cement the bond between the rebel factions; and Uberto is James V incognito. When Elena spurns Uberto, he generously gives her a ring that will get her access to the king should she ever need his favor. When Rodrigo is killed and her father & Malcolm captured, Elena takes the ring to Stirling Castle and is astounded to find that James V is actually the man she knows as Uberto. The prisoners are freed; happy ending; cabaletta.
The music varies from inventive to formula in the twinking of an eye; when Act I seems set to end with a jaunty stretta, we instead have a hymn with offstage harp. The vocal demands for the principals are strenuous indeed, with pages of coloratura and the extremes of range to be dealt with. I still recall the brilliant performance of this piece at Carnegie Hall in the 1980s with Frederica von Stade and Marilyn Horne.
Daniel Mobbs, tall and handsome, sang strongly as Douglas and cut a fine stage figure. The inimitable Barry Banks (Uberto/James V) has made a career out of singing these fiendish, high-lying roles and he was very impressive here as he spiraled upward and cascaded thru the waves of fiorature. It is not a sweet voice, but he can make it terribly tender (in the gorgeous 'O fiamma soave'). One or two minor blips seemed insignificant in the face of the onslaught of remarkable singing he delivered.
As Elena, Alexandrina Pendatchanska has all the right instincts; her singing is expressive and she flies thru the passagework undaunted. Unfortunately the voice itself is rather edgy and the tone can lose focus. Also it is a couple of sizes too small to make the kind of effect that her temperament would suggest. Her interpolated high notes were metallic and unpleasant. A valiant effort, but I can imagine there must be other sopranos around who could have made a finer vocal impression in this role. Her best moments came in the softly wondrous 'Tanti affetti' where she did not put pressure on the tone; but the final cabaletta was overwrought and sometimes strident.
Robert McPherson (Rodrigo) and Laura Vlasak Nolen (Malcolm) were surprise treats for the audience. {They are pictured above, culled from the Playbill}. McPherson was making his NYCO debut and showed off a large, clear and warm voice with undaunted forays to the top. He is a strapping young guy with a handsome face and a broad 'masque' that says: "I am a singer". The audience took to him at once, and I imagine he will only get better in the run of performances now that debut nerves are past. Were I running NYCO I would have been waiting offstage with a contract for him for several future roles.
I heard Ms. Vlasak Nolen a couple years ago in a smallish role in the Dukas ARIANE where she made a disproportionately big vocal impression. Who could have guessed she would pull off this sort of Rossini triumph but that's just what she did. Her voice is free-wheeling as she sent the runs and turns flying out into the house; she can ascend to the high range with clarity and force while her full-toned deep notes show a smouldering warmth that put me in mind of Shirley Verrett's success in ASSEDIO DI CORINTO. During the intermission I heard the Horne comparisons wafting about on the Promenade and they seemed apt. She and Mr. McPherson went on my list of singers to follow; it's a short list these days, but these are two voices I'll want to hear again.
It's too bad that the audience was so small: the gallery was sparsely populated and swatches of empties in the orchestra and on all levels. Some people found the super-titles riotous and there were loud guffaws at a couple of points in Act II. I guess that laughing to oneself is no longer in fashion.
I wish you had commented on the production, which was as dreary as can be, until the final scene. The scenes in the forest had no trees. The colors were all dark gray, black, brown - not even the one kilt (was that really Scotland?) had any color. The set was spare to a fault, leading one to believe the City Opera was short on cash. None of this helped the extended scenes where no action took place on stage; often a lone singer was reduced to pacing back and forth in an futile effort to breathe some life into the scene. If not for the dazzling singing, I would have walked out.
Posted by: Miriam (Siegmeister) Koren | April 06, 2007 at 07:05 PM
Basically I did not say much about the production because there was not much of a production to speak of...
Posted by: philip | April 06, 2007 at 10:14 PM