Aside from the Met’s problematic marketing campaign to advertise Twenty first-century opera, the repertoire introduced by U.S. corporations has these days contracted to essentially the most acquainted works, particularly these by Mozart, Verdi and Puccini. Nevertheless, the biannual Boston Early Music Pageant continues to mount baroque novelties, whereas each summer season Bard SummerScape lavishes appreciable assets on a pair of works not often if ever seen on this aspect of the Atlantic.
As a companion to its Martinů and His World pageant, Bard final month introduced the U.S. stage premiere of Bedřich Smetana’s historic melodrama Dalibor—as at all times performed by college president Leon Botstein, who had in June turned his unstoppable curiosity towards Richard Strauss’s first opera Guntram at Carnegie Corridor.
Generally dubbed “the Father of Czech Music,” Smetana is finest identified for his pleasant comedian opera Prodaná nevěsta (The Bartered Bride) in addition to the symphonic poem Má vlast (My Fatherland). He got here to opera comparatively late; his first, Braniboři v Čechách (The Brandenburgers in Bohemia), premiered when the composer was in his early 40s, with Bride and Dalibor following in fast succession.
Whereas a lot of his 9 stay cornerstones of the Czech Republic’s opera repertoire—I noticed a efficiency of Brandenburgers at Prague’s Národní Divadlo in 1998—they’re occasionally revived outdoors that nation. This season, the Vienna State Opera might be mounting a brand new manufacturing of Bride (in German, after all), however it hasn’t been carried out on the Met since 1996. Juilliard and the Met did collaborate on Stephen Wadworth’s new Bride performed by James Levine in 2011, with an eye fixed towards it transferring throughout sixty fifth Avenue to the Met, however that switch by no means materialized.
Earlier than Bard revived it this summer season, Dalibor had final been heard almost 50 years in the past at Carnegie Corridor with Nicolai Gedda within the title function. That 1977 live performance model by the Opera Orchestra of New York led by Eve Queler was adopted up virtually a decade later by the identical group’s Libuše. I attended that efficiency of Smetana’s grandly ponderous “pageant opera,” which proved singularly memorable for Gabriela Beňačková’s majestically radiant portrayal of the title function.
Like each Brandenburgers and Libuše, Dalibor gives some impressed music in service of oddly uninvolving librettos. Josef Wenzig initially wrote the textual content in German, which was then translated into Czech by Ervín Špindler, and it options one of many extra puzzling heroes of Nineteenth-century opera.
Dalibor, a insurgent knight, has been imprisoned for a current raid on Ploskovice throughout which he killed its ruling Rely. The opening refrain ramps up Dalibor’s curious heroic status by acknowledging his guilt whereas forgiving his murderous act. When Dalibor seems, he ignores the roiling political upheaval brought on by his actions and as an alternative muses plaintively on his all-consuming love for his slain male buddy Zdeněk, a gifted violinist. Throughout an earlier skirmish, Zdeněk was killed by the Rely, his decapitated head displayed on a spear’s level. Dalibor’s fury propels a bloody revenge for which he stays proudly unrepentant as King Vladislav condemns him. Whereas imprisoned within the deepest dungeon, Dalibor desires of Zdeněk who, embodied by actor Patrick Andrews, haunts Jean-Romain Vesperini’s modestly efficient staging all through, each in individual and in Etienne Guiol’s looming projections.
Throughout his trial, Dalibor is vehemently denounced by Milada, the Rely’s bereaved sister; nonetheless—in a kind of quintessential “solely in opera” reversals—she instantly falls in love with him upon encountering him in courtroom. She then hatches a scheme through which she is going to disguise herself as a boy as a way to enter the jail and facilitate his escape. As soon as she is taken on as helper, Beneš, the benevolent jailer who can be gained over by Dalibor, finds an previous violin for Milada to offer to his prisoner so he can whereas away the lonely hours conjuring Zdeněk. After Milada descends into his cell, she reveals her true identification and declares her love, which is—you guessed it—instantaneously reciprocated throughout their surprisingly passionless duet.
Dalibor, who beforehand longed to hitch Zdeněk in loss of life, joyously embraces the prospect of life with Milada. He takes up the previous violin to have a good time when a string snaps: is {that a} unhealthy signal, he wonders? Most undoubtedly—Milada is quickly mortally wounded main a failed escape and dies in Dalibor’s arms. This flip of occasions has Dalibor as soon as once more wishing for loss of life, a now much more interesting prospect as he imagines a heavenly three-way with Zdeněk and Milada. In Vesperini’s putting last tableau, Dalibor eagerly provided himself as much as Budivoj’s raised sword.
Whereas Libuše builds memorably to its heroine’s spellbinding prophecy, Dalibor finally goes nowhere. The central character’s “heroism” is questionable at finest, his destiny predetermined. Smetana’s opera is usually known as the “Czech Fidelio,” a deceptive comparability as Milada’s jail disguise doesn’t result in the liberation of Dalibor who, not like Beethoven’s Florestan, is justly imprisoned. No redeeming last-minute rescue for anybody!
Dalibor did, nonetheless, give Botstein and his massive forces ample alternatives to shine. James Bagwell’s at all times keen Bard Pageant Refrain reliably excelled in a number of rabble-rousing scenes. As Jitka, Dalibor’s adopted daughter who joins with Milada in escape planning, Erica Petrocelli turned a minor function into a significant one with a boldly clarion soprano that gleamed because it rose. Firstly of the second act, she joined lyric tenor Terrence Chin-Loy’s ardent Vitek in an thrilling conspiratorial duet that made one remorse that the pair had so little to do in the course of the the rest of the opera.
Bass-baritone Alfred Walker urgently conveyed King Vladislav’s indecision over agreeing to the individuals’s cry for Dalibor’s freedom or rightly condemning the responsible man. Vesperini’s frequent placement of Vladislav on the high of Bruno de Lavenère’s putting central chainmail-covered spiral staircase allowed Walker’s simple authority to dominate his scenes. Because the jailer Beneš, Wei Wu’s deep bass resounded throughout his scenes, together with an unnecessarily prolonged vignette through which he complains about Milada’s deception.
Botstein had initially forged Polish soprano Izabela Matula and Czech tenor Ladislav Elgr as Milada and Dalibor, however each artists bumped into insurmountable visa difficulties. With out a lot time to recast these uncommon and demanding Czech roles, Botstein nonetheless succeeded admirably. Cadie J Bryan, who had initially been employed to cowl, took over Milada and threw herself into the opera’s most compelling character with a vivid physicality and vibrantly pulsing excessive notes. Whereas she generally appeared like a lyric pushed to her limits slightly than the spinto soprano wanted, she passionately embraced Milada’s complicated actions with daring enthusiasm. If her shocking love duet with John Matthew Myers didn’t rise to hoped-for heights, blame Smetana, not its performers.
Myers, who sounded underpowered in Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder with Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra final 12 months at Carnegie Corridor, redeemed himself splendidly once more with Botstein within the title function of Guntram. Getting into Smetana’s title function, Myers as soon as once more made unusually difficult music sound simple together with his tireless, but sweetly plangent tenor. His slightly introverted portrayal elicited extra sympathy for the self-absorbed Dalibor than he might have deserved.
Botstein, his forged and the hard-working ASO made a best-case effort to rehabilitate Dalibor, however I concern that its slightly static drama and fewer than inspiring rating will maintain it a curiosity unlikely to seek out a lot consideration outdoors of the Czech Republic. Nevertheless, SummerScape will flip its consideration on August 17 to Bohuslav Jan Martinů’s unique Julieta with Petrocelli within the title function. It’s one other probability to expertise a captivating work by an underrated composer that Botstein and the ASO memorably carried out at Carnegie Corridor in March 2019.
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