The Land of Smiles
This production was presented, not by the Met, but by the Zurich Opera. My cousin Brigitta told me that their website is also offering a couple of free, streaming performances. The Met was doing an entire week of ponderous Wagner operas, so this seemed like a more pleasant alternative. "The Land of Smiles" is an operetta written in 1929 by composer Franz Lehar (best known for "The Merry Widow"). The flimsy plot is a thread along which to string a series of melodious, romantic tunes. The "big hit" of the operetta was "You Are My Heart's Delight", a song which was familiar to my ear.
What I found most interesting was that the plot must have been somewhat controversial in those days shortly before the rise of Nazism. It deals with an interracial romance... an Austrian countess and a Chinese prince fall in love. However, in the end the countess breaks off the relationship, so I guess the message was that interracial romance does not work after all.
Tannhäuser
Although I had deliberately skipped the presentations of Wagner's four operas that make up the 14 hour long "Ring Cycle", I gave Wagner another try before the week was over by watching "Tannhäuser". I watched mainly because the opera includes a number of melodies such as the "Pilgrims' Chorus" and the "Fest March" that I really like. The work portrays the story of a legendary German knight who is torn between his pure love for the noblewoman Elisabeth and sensual delights in the cave of the goddess Venus. Like most of Wagner's works it is too long, and there are slow stretches, but it was better than the grim, depressing production of "Tristan and Isolde" that I had seen the week before.
The Barber of Seville
After Wagner week was out of the way, I was looking forward to seeing Rossini's most famous comic opera, and it did not disappoint. The story of the barber Figaro and his attempts to help Count Almaviva win the hand of the lovely Rosina is a silly, delightful romp. The comic elements were played up with outright slapstick humor, and I found myself laughing out loud. The music is wonderful, and I marvel at how the performers are able to sing the super fast paced lyrics of many of the songs. There was barely a dull moment!
Dialogues of the Carmelites
I wasn't sure if I was going to like this one. It was written by French composer Francis Poulenc in 1956. There are a lot of modern serious compositions that simply sound more like noise than music to my ears. However, Poulenc turned out to be a fairly traditional composer, and his music was generally melodious. I had a hard time keeping track of a couple of the characters (the majority are all dressed in nun's habits), but the plot held my attention most of the time. The story deals with the members of a Carmelite convent and how the French Revolution intrudes upon their lives. There are a couple of very dramatic scenes which definitely make it worth watching.
Nixon in China
Well, I made it through Poulenc's opera, so I thought that I would give another modern opera a try. "Nixon in China" was written by American composer John Adams, and premiered in 1987. Obviously, it deals with Nixon's historic trip to China in 1972. It has been called one of the most important American operas ever written. Well, I turned it off after about twenty minutes. The music was not especially appealing, and the lyrics seemed inane. I know I didn't give it a fair chance, but I felt like I had better things to do.
Don Carlo
This epic work by Giuseppe Verdi, the master of Italian opera, is not as well known as some of his others and does not contain as many familiar songs. However it is considered one of his masterpieces. Its length (nearly four hours long!) rivals the works of Wagner. But I made it through the whole thing, and I generally enjoyed it. It deals with Prince Carlos, the rebellious son of King Felipe II of Spain, and his love for his stepmother Elizabeth of Valois. The drama is compelling, but historically speaking, it is a mess. It is true that the King of France originally offered his daughter's hand in marriage to Carlos, and but then later had her wed Felipe as part of a peace treaty. But there was never any love affair between Carlos and Elizabeth. In fact Carlos was mentally unstable (too much royal intermarriage?), and was imprisoned by his father. He died, probably of natural causes, in confinement, but Spain's enemies concocted all sorts of conspiracy theories about what had really happened. "Don Carlo" is junk history, but good opera.
The Pearl Fishers
The French composer Georges Bizet is best known for "Carmen". This is his "other opera", written when he was only eighteen years old. The story takes place in a fishing village in Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka). The thin plot deals with two guys who have been friends since childhood, but who now find themselves rivals for the forbidden love of a Hindu priestess. The recurring "friendship duet" between the two male leads is the opera's only familiar song. The production was interesting, and the music was pleasant, but it will never replace "Carmen".
Aida
On the Metropolitan Opera website, there were no more operas listed after April 5th. But then on Monday they scheduled another week of free streaming performances. First up was my favorite opera of all, Verdi's "Aida". This is the grandest of all grand operas. The monumental stage settings and sumptuous costumes conjure up the glory of ancient Egypt. The scene with the Triumphal March, complete with horse-drawn chariot on stage, is the epitome of opera as spectacle, as spectacular as Cecile B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments". Woe to any producer who should ever try to stage a pared down, modern-day setting of this work!
The tragic love story tells of the Ethiopian slave Aida and her lover, the Egyptian commander Radames. However the pharoah's daughter Amneris wants Radames for herself. I used to have a recording of this opera which I listened to countless times. I could have hummed along to the music throughout most of the production. I loved it!
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