I went to the Met's NOZZE DI FIGARO last night. The marvelous Jonathan Miller production has been restaged yet again and this time the life's been drained out of it. Some of the singing was nice - notably Lisette Oropesa's Susanna and Luca Pisaroni's Figaro - but some of it was lacklustre. The conducting was fast but lacking in wit or sparkle.
UPDATE: Some people have e-mailed me asking for more details about the singing. Aside from Lisette and Luca (who are NOT married to each other, by the way, despite an interesting typo on the Met's website...now corrected) there were no really attractive voices in the cast. I did very much enjoy Ann Murray's crusty (and loud!) Marcellina and Greg Fedderly's foppish (and loud!) Don Basilio. Ludovic Tezier was a good Count though over-emphatic at times at the expense of the vocal line. Beyond that, I feel discretion is warranted.
NOZZE is a masterpiece (and my favorite Mozart opera) but last night it was really something of a trial.
Midway thru the evening I began to wonder if I should stop going to the opera altogether.