Friday, October 21, 2016

Guillaume Tell

Superb singing hits the target in Met’s stolid “Guillaume Tell”

Wed Oct 19, 2016 at 1:33 pm
Gerald Finley (left) and Bryan Hymel in Rossini's "Guillaume Tell" at the Metropolitan Opera. Photo: Marty Sohl
Gerald Finley (left) and Bryan Hymel in Rossini’s “Guillaume Tell” at the Metropolitan Opera. Photo: Marty Sohl
Constructing a canon is a peculiar process. In the operatic repertoire especially, history has been fond of plucking out and exalting excerpts while leaving their sources to languish in semi-obscurity.
One prime example has been Rossini’s final opera, Guillaume Tell, which has been especially absent from American stages. Tuesday’s season premiere at the Metropolitan Opera was the first performance by the company in eighty-five years, and the first in its original French libretto.
Alas, the new production by Pierre Audi is no great argument for the piece. For the first two acts, Rossini’ s swan song feels impossibly static, presenting a series of mystifying tableaux and failing to string them together into any kind of forward-moving drama. In Audi’s defense, a major challenge has been built into the piece: the chorus is ever present, playing a major part in the score and remaining always on the periphery of the action and forcing the director to find a place to put its singers. His solutions are unimaginative, offering up scenes of half-hearted clashes between Tell’s Swiss rebels and their Austrian oppressors, in which one mob and then the other pushes forward ever so slightly in what feels like a very low-stakes tug-o-war.
Andrea Schmidt-Futterer’s costumes, drawn from very historical eras, at least help the audience understand what’s going on through their elementary-school visual shorthand: with all the good guys in white and all the bad guys in black, Audi’s production gives us a battle between the wholesome peasants and their evil steampunk overlords.
Guillaume Tell is a little convoluted to begin with, a romance-cum-revenge-epic lashed to a patriotic founding myth. As Austrian oppression moves William Tell to unite the Swiss cantons under one banner, the lovers Arnold and Mathilde find themselves on opposite sides of the ensuing conflict. The murder of Arnold’s father, Melcthal, provides the impetus for the revenge saga while the twisted cruelty of the Austrian governor Gesler sets up the famous trick crossbow shot that serves as the opera’s climax.
The director makes matters more difficult for himself by trying to outsmart the libretto. In macho displays of his rule-breaking prowess, Audi has the Austrian soldiers rough up the Swiss peasants while they continue to sing happy wedding hymns, or dims the stage lights the moment anyone starts singing about what a beautiful sunny day it is. Only the third act, in which Gesler’s dominion reads as a personality cult, shows any kind of robust internal logic. The extended ballet in which the captive peasants are forced to participate becomes an erotic dance-off led by two glamorous women with riding crops; the idea of these poor people being forced to engage in a series of progressively manic dances is oddly compelling. Kim Brandstrup provides elegant, evocative choreography throughout.
In musical terms, Tuesday’s performance excelled, though the stolid staging put the entire onus of carrying the drama on the musicians. While high-lying, the romantic lead Arnold does not quite feel like a classic Rossini leggiero role, requiring a great deal of vocal weight. Bryan Hymel was more than up to the task, his bright, ringing tenor fitting the part beautifully and reaching up to its highest points with relative ease. He intermittently struggled to be heard, but his Act IV aria, “Asile héreditaire,” was a brilliant highlight, a keen expression of grief that showed off his lyrical qualities and his trumpeting top.
Appearing as his love interest Mathilde, Marina Rebeka was also superb. Her bright sound has a slightly hard edge to it, but cuts effortlessly through the orchestra and gives her vocal characterization a fierceness that served as a strong counterbalance to her reserved dramatic performance. A pair of belle-époque dresses, one in white, one in black, made her come across as rather matronly, but she managed to find moments of intense emotional depth nonetheless. Her gorgeous lament in Act III, “Pour notre amour, plus d’espérance,” was given with desperate passion.
Rossini’s opera calls for an enormous supporting cast, which the Met was able to fill with superb singers all the way down. Among several standouts was Janai Brugger, whose crystalline brightness gave Jemmy a lovely, youthful vigour. John Relyea, though lost in a few of his low notes, made an imposing Gesler, employing his gravelly voice with firm authority. Sean Panikkar’s Rodolphe sounded overly lean, but he made up for it with brazen, imperious swaggering. Marco Spotti made an excellent debut as Walter Furst, sporting an enormous, oaky bass. Michele Anghelini, also making his bow, impressed early on, flashing a clear, pealing tenor in Ruodi’s love song.
The vocal star, appropriately enough, was the man in the title role, Gerald Finley. His silk-smooth baritone, full in body and rich in color, was positively luxurious. The deep heartache of his character was constantly apparent, nowhere more than in his emotional embrace of his son Jemmy just before the fearful apple shot. Audi’s direction, which presented Tell in the robes of a Jedi Master, made Finley’s a rather gloomy representation of the hero of legend, but he carried himself nobly enough that his sober charisma could be understood as a kind of weary-eyed wisdom.
It was a banner night for Fabio Luisi and the Met Orchestra. The familiar overture, from its warm, cooing start to its thrilling gallop, was brilliantly read and received a long ovation of its own. The entire score came through with remarkable clarity, and Luisi’s deft management of the large ensemble numbers wove a tight mesh of their intricate layers, aided by the superb singing of the Met chorus.
In his time as the Met’s principal conductor, Luisi has been a boon to the company, leading all of his assignments with tremendous skill and providing much-needed ballast during the uncertain years of James Levine’s various ailments. His official tenure will come to a close at the end of this season, making this run of Guillaume Tell his last assignment in that post. One hopes that his close association with the company will continue in some form.
Guillaume Tell runs through November 12 at the Metropolitan Opera. John Osborn sings the role of Arnold on November 2. metopera.org

Photo

John Relyea in “Guillaume Tell” at the Metropolitan Opera. It is being performed at the Met for the first time since 1931 and the first time ever here in the original French. CreditSara Krulwich/The New York Times

It sounded like a good idea.
In a recent interview, the director Pierre Audi described his new production of Rossini’s “Guillaume Tell” for the Metropolitan Opera as an “abstraction” rather than an updating. This monumental opera, Rossini’s final masterpiece, spins a tale of the legendary Swiss folk hero William Tell, a renowned archer who fought to liberate his homeland from Austrian rule. Though set in the Middle Ages, the opera explores timeless themes: How do people balance patriotic loyalty with personal freedom? What does it mean to foster a national culture? How does a rural community live in harmony with nature?
The challenge in opting for abstraction as a production concept is that atmospheric imagery can come across as vague, even blank. Add surreal touches to an abstract setting, and the staging can feel contrived. Mr. Audi’s production, which opened on Tuesday at the Met, falls into these traps.
But it’s a major statement for the Met to take on this long and challenging work, performed for the first time at the house since 1931 and the first time ever here in the original French. (How long is it? With two intermissions, the evening lasted nearly five hours, almost as long as “Tristan und Isolde,” which the Met had performed the previous evening.) And musically, there is much to celebrate, starting with a strong cast headed by the elegant bass-baritone Gerald Finley in the title role.

Video

Pierre Audi on His ‘Guillaume Tell’

An excerpt from Rossini's opera — with commentary from Mr. Audi, who directed this new production for the Metropolitan Opera.
 By JOSHUA BARONE and THE METROPOLITAN OPERA on Publish DateOctober 18, 2016. . Watch in Times Video »

The conductor Fabio Luisi brought insight and adroit technique to Rossini’s ambitious score, drawing fleetness, breadth and refinement from the excellent Met orchestra. “Tell” is rich with big, stirring choral scenes for Swiss peasants, valiant volunteer fighters from three Swiss cantons, as well as hunters and guards of the occupying Austrian governor. As usual, the Met choristers (prepared by the chorus master Donald Palumbo) were faultless.
In the libretto, the opera opens in a village on the shores of Lake Lucerne, where Tell lives in a tight-knit community under Austrian occupation. Working with the set designer George Tsypin and the lighting designer Jean Kalman, Mr. Audi, who has recently begun his tenure as artistic director of the Park Avenue Armory, tried to create stage imagery that suggested the infinity of nature, the way that rural people might almost blend into their environment.
A mirror-like backdrop offers a hazy mingling of pale-blue, grayish swirls and streaks of clouds. The hulking frame of a ship hangs above, since crossing the lake is a daily and, during storms, treacherous activity. Big gray boulders and rocks slide on and offstage. In later scenes, Mr. Audi recalls Robert Wilson, suggesting forest trees with tall vertical tubes of light that pierce floating slabs of rock and sprout branches at the top. Rather than conjuring nature, these surreal elements distract you from the characters as you ponder what Mr. Audi’s point may be.
The murky costumes, by Andrea Schmidt-Futterer, make matters worse. The Swiss villagers wear fairly similar robes, all of the same pale grayish coloring, making the performers seem to disappear into the background. When the threatening Austrians appear, it’s melodramatic and obvious to costume these villains in black.
Photo

Marina Rebeka and Bryan Hymel in the opera “Guillaume Tell” at the Metropolitan Opera.CreditSara Krulwich/The New York Times

Mr. Audi stages several choral scenes with strangely stylized formality. At the opening of Act I, the libretto describes villagers decorating chalets with boughs to celebrate a triple wedding, singing a wistfully beautiful homage to God. Here the villagers stood motionless, faces forward, as they sang. Mr. Audi wants to hit home the fact that oppression never ceases for these people, even during joyous occasions. We get it.
The production is lucky to have lead singers with standout vocal charisma. Productions of “Tell,” once rarities, are starting to crop up internationally, and Mr. Finley has made the title part a signature. He may not have abundant vocal power, but he has something better: penetrating vocal presence. His voice is rich, warm and beautiful through its range. This score shows Rossini balancing the florid Italianate bel canto style with pioneering dramatic grandeur, setting the stage for the French grand opera era.
Mr. Finley sings filigreed lines with finesse, smoothly folding in embellishments. He vividly conveys the declamatory thrust and poignancy of the music, bringing affecting dignity to his portrayal. Ordered by the maniacal Austrian governor Gesler to shoot an apple off the head of his beloved son, Tell sings the wrenching, sublimely eloquent aria “Sois immobile,” which Mr. Finley performed with magnificent gravity and burnished colorings.
The tenor role of Arnold, a young Swiss conspirator who has fallen in love with the Austrian princess Mathilde, is an arduous workout combining soaring lyrical effusions and heroic fervor. Bryan Hymel brings youthful impetuosity and impressive vocal stamina to the part. His sound is slightly nasal, but in an expressive way: more a vocal characteristic than a flaw.
Photo

The opera includes the soprano Janai Brugger, center, and the baritone Gerald Finley, right.CreditSara Krulwich/The New York Times

Still, his top notes have ping. And Mr. Hymel dispatched with exciting fervor the brilliant cabaletta in Act IV when Arnold vows to avenge his father, killed by the Austrians, and rally the Swiss resistance, nailing all the high C’s.
The soprano Marina Rebeka’s plush, ardent sound is ideal for Mathilde. She makes every note count in the dizzying vocal roulades, giving dramatic point to the passagework and suggesting the vulnerability and confusion of a young woman who has fallen for an enemy and come to realize the inhuman oppressiveness of her own people.
The bass-baritone John Relyea makes a stentorian, menacing Gesler; the bass Kwangchul Youn wins your heart as old, patriotic Melcthal, Arnold’s father. As Hedwige, Tell’s devoted wife, the mellow-voiced mezzo-soprano Maria Zifchak sings with tender earnestness. In his Met debut, Marco Spotti, a sturdy Italian bass, was forthright as Walter, Tell’s loyal ally.
The radiant young soprano Janai Brugger was wonderful as Jemmy, Tell’s brave and obedient son. In this instance, the overall sameness of the costuming actually had a benefit: No extra tinkering was involved to make Ms. Brugger look boyish; she just sang beautifully and really seemed to become the character.
At times I thought Mr. Luisi, who is also conducting the Met’s revival of “Don Giovanni,” went too far in striving to highlight the refinement of Rossini’s score, allowing undulant passages to lose lift and urgency. Still, the greatness of the opera came through. Why Rossini, just in his late 30s, quit the opera business after its 1829 premiere remains a much-debatedquestion. But it’s rewarding to have “Tell” finally back at the Met, whatever the frustrations of the staging.
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Guillaume Tell [William Tell] {32} Metropolitan Opera House: 10/21/2016., Metropolitan Opera Radio Sirius XM channel 74 Broadcast live
Streamed at metopera.org

(Debuts: Klaus Bertisch, Michele Angelini, Ross Benoliel, Marco Spotti
Broadcast/Streamed)

Metropolitan Opera House
October 21, 2016

New production


GUILLAUME TELL [WILLIAM TELL] {32}
Gioachino Rossini/Etienne de Jouy, Hippolyte-Louis-Florent Bis,
Armand Marrast, Adolphe Crémieux, Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

Guillaume Tell ...............Gerald Finley
Mathilde...........................Marina Rebeka
Arnold.............................Bryan Hymel
Walter Furst.......................Marco Spotti [Debut]
Gesler.............................John Relyea
Melcthal...........................Kwangchul Youn
Hedwige............................Maria Zifchak
Jemmy..............................Janai Brugger
Ruodi [Fisherman]..................Michele Angelini [Debut]
Leuthold...........................Michael Todd Simpson
Rodolphe...........................Sean Panikkar
Huntsman...........................Ross Benoliel [Debut]

Conductor..........................Fabio Luisi

Production.........................Pierre Audi
Set Designer.......................George Tsypin
Costume Designer...................Andrea Schmidt-Futterer
Lighting Designer..................Jean Kalman
Choreographer......................Kim Brandstrup
Dramaturg..........................Klaus Bertisch [Debut]

Performed in the original French

The production a gift of The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.
Additional funding gift of The Walter and Leonore Annenberg Endowment Fund

Co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and Dutch National Opera

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

‘L’Italiana in Algeri,’


Photo

From left, Ildar Abdrazakov, René Barbera and Marianna Pizzolato in the opera “L’Italiana In Algeri,” at the Metropolitan Opera. CreditSara Krulwich/The New York Times

There came a point during Tuesday’s performance of Rossini’s “L’Italiana in Algeri” at the Metropolitan Opera when I vowed I would stop laughing at the sophomoric spectacle in front of me.
I think it was when the chorus of masked, rubber-bellied eunuchs started whipping a row of twerking harem girls, in sync with the music. I had already cringed at the extravagant black-tufted wigs that covered the chest and back of the bass Ildar Abdrazakov in a scene showing his character, the Algerian bey Mustafà, in his bath. And I had stared, with alarmed bemusement, at Mr. Abdrazakov’s soft-shoeing, air-guitar-playing, floor-pounding performance, which seemed to grow more unhinged as the evening wore on.
But my resolution came to naught. Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s 1973 staging of this battle of the sexes, framed by Rossini and his librettist as an abduction drama, may be the silliest and most stereotype-laden production in the Met’s repertory. But it’s still very funny — irresistibly so, as I found out.
This revival is conducted by James Levine, making his first appearance in his new role as music director emeritus. He conducted this effervescent music with a steady hand, sure pacing and an eye for instances of opulent instrumental color, which are tucked in among the otherwise briskly efficient score.

Video

Excerpt: 'L'Italiana in Algeri'

James Levine conducts the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in the Overture of Rossini’s opera.
 By METROPOLITAN OPERA on Publish DateOctober 5, 2016. .

The opera’s female lead is Isabella, a feisty Italian captive who uses charm, wit and mountains of pasta to spring free her lover, Lindoro, who was taken into slavery some months earlier. The vocally challenging Isabella — requiring nimble coloratura and a certain earthiness in the form of a grounded low register — had been planned for the American mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong. But illness forced her to withdraw, leaving the Italian mezzo Marianna Pizzolato to take over, in her Met debut.
The froufrou production, with its over-the-top performances, proved a fine foil for Ms. Pizzolato’s matronly, no-nonsense presence and her dark-toned, coolly assured singing and crystal-clear diction. Marshaling all the matter-of-fact bossiness of an Italian mama, she disarmed the vainglorious Mustafà.
René Barbera, also in his first Met appearance, brought a light, urbane tenor to the role of Lindoro, the somewhat colorless object of Isabella’s affections and intrigue. The suave baritone Nicola Alaimo was almost miscast as the hapless Taddeo, singing with elegance and richness of tone.
The sunny-voiced soprano Ying Fang perfectly inhabited the part of Elvira, Mustafà’s jilted, ditsy wife. The vibrant Canadian-Tunisian mezzo Rihab Chaieb, as Elvira’s slave, Zulma, and the solid baritone Dwayne Croft, as the put-upon pirate captain Haly, offered strong support.
But the evening belonged, for better or worse, to Mr. Abdrazakov. His eye-rolling, pantomiming performance sometimes grew exhausting, but vocally, he remained focused and resonant in every angle and turn of the sometimes preposterous coloratura passages Rossini assigned to him.
At the end of the opera, his character collapses into gluttonous silence. When Mustafà realizes that in the meantime, the Italians have made their escape, there is little left for him to do except throw fistfuls of spaghetti after them.
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Opera Review: Rossini’s ‘L’Italiana in Algeri’ at the Metropolitan Opera

Ildar Abdrazakov as Mustafà in Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri. Photo by Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera.
Ildar Abdrazakov as Mustafà in Rossini’s “L’Italiana in Algeri.” Photo by Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera.
This second week of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2016-2017 season brings the welcome returns of Rossini’s “L’Italiana in Algeri” (“The Italian Girl in Algiers”) and James Levine.  A presence for most of the 50 years that the Met has been at Lincoln Center, Music Director Emeritus Levine was rapturously cheered by the near-capacity audience.  In addition to conducting the silly romantic comedy, he oversaw the impressive debuts of mezzo-soprano Marianna Pizzolato as Isabella, the titular Italian Girl, and American tenor René Barbera as her true love Lindoro.
Rossini depicts the ensuing chaos in innovative ways. 
Returning to the repertory after a 12-year absence, the 1973 Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production doesn’t look dated.  Ponnelle (1932-1988), an innovative director/designer, never shied from questioning content.  Perhaps if the opera was “The French Girl in Algiers,” he would have.  As Rossini wrote the opera in 1813, “L’Italiana” takes place two decades before the French Occupation of Algeria.  Therefore, the dreamy, pastel painted sets and costumes copied from illustrations by nineteenth-century adventurers and fairy tale illustrators are appropriate.  Still, Rossini did make a political statement about Italian unification, which Isabella expresses in “Pensa alla patria” (“Think of your homeland”), front and center.
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Isabella’s declaration comes after a wild ordeal.  She, along with the love-struck Taddeo (baritone Nicola Alaimo), are captured after their ship is wrecked on the orders of the Bey Mustafà (bass-baritone Ildar Abdrazakov).  Mustafà isn’t technically interested in treasure, but wants an Italian wife to add to his harem, which includes the loyal Elvira (soprano Ying Fang).  His plan to marry off Elvira to Lindoro (Barbera), another Italian in captivity, so he can marry Isabella is easier to decree than implement…Lindoro is Isabella’s long-lost fiancé!
Rossini depicts the ensuing chaos in innovative ways.  Unlike other Romantic-era composers, his score is never pseudo-Oriental.  The Act 1 finale has each of the main characters expressing their confusion by mimicking clocks ticking.  Lindoro and Taddeo finally dupe Mustafà by initiating him into the Order of Pappatachi, requiring him to “See and not see” – foreshadowing Italian Futurism by a century.
The cast made both excellent singing and stage partners.  Marianna Pizzolato’s Isabella is the smartest, most mature character.  Many of the musical motifs in the “Overture” are sung by Isabella, which Pizzolato did splendidly.  Being her actual “slave,” René Barbera instinctively deferred to her by combining a strong balance of physical comedy, choreography, and the singing of two long arias.  (Unfortunately, a cellphone went off during the first one.)  Even baritone Dwayne Croft, a normally serious artist, let loose as Haly the pirate captain, reveling in chasing Taddeo back and across the stage and being tricked by servants into washing the floor.
The Italian Girl is in the title, but Mustafà is the catalyst.  Ildar Abdrazakov made sure everyone had a good time at his expense.  The only things the Bey is good at is selecting his wardrobe (Doctor Who would envy his fez), dancing, and, of course, singing.  Abdrazakov never stood still and didn’t sacrifice his resonant voice doing so.  A neat acoustics test for aspiring bass-baritones would be if they can yell “Pappatachi,” and then measure it against Abdrazakov’s booming delivery.
Running Time: 3 hours and 15 minutes, including one intermission.
Rossini’s “L’Italiana in Algeri” runs through October 29, 2016 at the Metropolitan Opera.  For more information and tickets, click here.

Rossini’s Comic ‘L’Italiana in Algeri’ at the Met

NEW YORK—The Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production of Rossini’s “L’Italiana in Algeri” (The Italian Girl in Algiers) has been a crowd pleaser at the Metropolitan Opera since 1973. With witty additions by stage director David Kneuss and with music director emeritus James Levine conducting and a fine cast, the opera still delights.
Rossini’s 1813 opera deals with captivity and a rescue, but the resourceful title character is the one who wins freedom for herself and her lover. 
The setting is the seaside palace of the Bey (chieftain) Mustafà in Algiers in the early 19th century. His wife Elvira suspects that her husband’s affection for her has waned and she turns out to be right.
Like many rich and powerful men, he feels he is entitled to trade in his spouse for a newer model, even though he has a harem on the premises to keep him amused. Mustafà decides to marry his wife off to Lindoro, a young Italian man who had been captured by pirates. The ruler orders his henchman Haly to find an attractive Italian woman for him. 
Meanwhile, Lindoro’s lover Isabella is shipwrecked and falls into the clutches of Haly’s band of pirates. The Turks want to sell Isabella’s traveling companion Taddeo into slavery, but he talks them out of it by claiming he is her uncle.
Actually, Taddeo wants Isabella for himself but has not had any success. The pirates decide that Isabella is the right woman for their leader.
Mustafà promises to grant Lindoro his freedom and to allow him to return to Italy if he will take Elvira off Mustafà’s hands. Elvira, in turn, is still in love with her faithless spouse.
The Ponnelle production is old-fashioned in the best sense.
Mustafà is overjoyed when he learns of the captive Italian woman. When the ruler, dubbed “the scourge of women” by his eunuchs, meets Isabella, he is immediately smitten. On her part, she is confident she can outsmart him.
When Isabella is reunited with Lindoro, they have a couple of rocky moments because naturally she thinks he is running off with Elvira.
But the lovers are soon reconciled, and Isabella tells Mustafà that she wants Lindoro to remain as her servant. She also toys with the ruler, making him wait for her and then frustrates him by insisting that Elvira join them for coffee.
Lindoro convinces Mustafà that Isabella desires him but to win her over, he must take part in a ritual in which he eats, drinks, and sleeps while not paying attention to what is going on around him.
The Bey revels in his plate of pasta while the lovers make their getaway.  At the end, Mustafà learns what happened and good naturedly makes peace with Elvira.
The opera begins with a buoyant overture, one of Rossini’s special talents. The cast is up to the musical challenges of Rossini’s music while maintaining a steady stream of laughs.
Portraying Mustafà, Ildar Abdrazakov seems to be having the time of his life as the egotistical womanizer. While the bass has distinguished himself in a wide range of roles at the Met, this one reveals a flair for zany comedy. Some of his funniest moments occur when he isn’t even singing, such as his attempts to fling a bouquet into Isabella’s window. He also excels more demanding singing, as evidenced by his challenging Act I aria, “Gia d’insolito ardore” (An unusual ardor).
Elizabeth DeShong was originally scheduled to play the title character but had to withdraw for health reasons. The Met came up with an excellent replacement, mezzo-soprano Marianna Pizzolato.
The cast is up to the musical challenges of Rossini’s music.
Pizzolato has made a specialty of the part in European opera houses and is at home with the comedy as well the deep feelings that Isabella expresses in her aria “Cruda sorte!” (cruel fate). This is her debut at the Met and she will return in Rossini’s “Guillaume Tell” in November.
Another notable debut was by the romantic lead, American tenor René Barbera, who contributed some of the most impressive singing, with striking high notes.
The effective supporting cast included baritone Nicola Alaimo as Taddeo, soprano Ying Fang as Elvira, mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb, as Elvira’s slave, Zulma, and baritone Dwayne Croft, as the pirate captain Haly.
The Ponnelle production is old-fashioned in the best sense. It conveys the composer’s intentions without imposing a visual style that is inconsistent with the content. 
The packed house responded enthusiastically to the performance. Because of the colorful set, visual comedy and bouncy score, “L’Italiana in Algeri” is also a good choice for children, assuming they are old enough to sit through an opera. The Met should consider an abridged version for its Christmas holiday performances.
‘L’Italiana in Algeri’
Metropolitan Opera House 
30 Lincoln Center Plaza
Tickets: 212-362-6000 or MetOpera.org
Running Time: 3 hours, 5 minutes
Closes: Oct. 29
Barry Bassis has been a music, theater, and travel writer for over a decade for various publications.


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[Met Performance] CID:356494
L'Italiana in Algeri {74} Metropolitan Opera House: 10/12/2016., Broadcastlive on Metropolitan Opera Radio Sirius XM channel 74

(Broadcast)

Metropolitan Opera House
October 12, 2016 Broadcast


L'ITALIANA IN ALGERI [74]
Giaochino Rossini-Angello Anelli/Luigi Mosca

Isabella...................Marianna Pizzolato
Lindoro....................René Barbera
Taddeo.....................Nicola Alaimo
Mustafà....................Ildar Abdrazakov
Elvira.....................Angela Mannino
Zulma......................Rihab Chaieb
Haly.......................Dwayne Croft

Harpsichord................Bryan Wagorn

Conductor..................James Levine

Production.................Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
Designer...................Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
Associate Designer.........David Reppa
Stage Director.............David Kneuss

Broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio Sirius XM channel 74