WERTHER at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Massenet's masterpiece with Vittorio Grigolo in Richard Eyre's staging.
Review by Neco Verbis ©dibartolocritic
Irresistible Werther by Massenet, impossible not to go to the ends of the world to see it. The important thing is that he is a nice Werther. There are many ugly Werthers around, they have also been seen in illustrious theatres. You have to know how to stage and above all sing. Whoever sings Werther badly falls into bad fortune with the undersigned: it is not a great loss for many, but it is a pact made directly with Jules, in a completely personal moment of confidence.
So al Metropolitan Opera in New York you are almost on the safe side, unless you meet some Werther who thinks he is Cavaradossi and then stamps in the French style the piano and very piano that makes you shiver…But it will be the usual posterity who will issue the arduous sentence. Here we are talking about the February 16, 2017.
With Vittorio Grigolo there is always some risk, I find it almost unpredictable. His mask is strange, often altered by exasperated postures. An expression not always suited to the role, but this time, how Werther, he also worked hard vocally. Even if the pronunciation wasn't perfect, despite the obstinacy to sing even the French r which not even French singers sing (whoever has it, has it by nature and it's beautiful…a little artificial’ less), it must be said that Grigolo was a good Werther, without any outbursts like a runaway colt, "Why wake me" well sung, a very soft mezzo voice, with a nice legate, fairly easy and full high notes.
Everyone is waiting for that, like Pira in Il Trovatore. But Werther is not just this famous aria (which some insist on singing with a Spanish accent!), it is also and above all everything else. And the rest was pleasant, the falsetto French phrases put in only when necessary (assuming it is…), I bring the whole thing with taste and without too much gimmickry. Grigolo studied: good for Werther.
Less convincing, the Charlotte of the New Yorker Isabel Leonard, which vocally, however, is very interesting. Currently also Zerlina, also at the Met, beautiful color, excellent projection, but she was as if she was intimidated by the part, perhaps overwhelmed by Grigolo's energetic impetus. A bit’ cold, not very sympathetic, it must be said. Which is a real shame, because the voice is all there, along with the presence and Leonard can be an excellent Charlotte in every sense. Maybe a moment more of concentration, distracted by the emotion of being lusted after by Vittorio, wouldn't hurt her.
Voice a little’ hen that of Sophie by Anna Christy (debut at the Met with Papagena), but all in all acceptable, authoritative l’Albert by David Bizic, who debuted at the Met in this part in 2014 and who definitely improved it. Albert's "military" vision is perhaps the most inspired idea of the entire staging, because it justifies the presence of guns "on sight" in the house, but locked with a key that only he possesses. These guns lying around the house are always a difficult knot for the director to untie: a good idea, given the temporal transposition to the end of the 19th century.
Equally positive is the feedback for the other interpreters and the children, who are never easy to manage.
But if the king of the evening on the stage was Grigolo, there was a shrewd and very capable player in the hole Concertmaster and Director: M°. Edward Gardner, which held the overflowing Met orchestra in its grip, which, every now and then, had some uncertainty in the brass section. Strange but true…On the other hand, the strings were very respectable.
It was missing a bit’ of French color to the English management, However; some lunges were missing, some Massenetian stabs at the right moments. A bit’ more depth, more excavation into the soul would have also benefited the direction, which however was very in keeping with the spirit of the work. But I'm a Werther fanatic and so I have a comparison in mind for all of them (even two, actually, one of which is quite young) and making comparisons makes you the critic even more unpleasant.…The final line, then, is the thermometer of the performance of the entire Werther: if you get that one wrong, you've done everything wrong. Here she was, but the final lash was too short: she could have been more meaningful.
Fortunately, therefore, overall, the beloved Werther on the move to the States emerged unscathed, without misunderstandings, in the well-tested production by Sir Richard Eyre, traditional and refined but without flights of fancy, within the well-known ones scene sumptuous and beautiful costumes by Rob Howell, which superimposed a thousand spring, winter and autumn colors in a thousand projections, perhaps too many with Il lighting designer Peter Mumford and video designer Wendall K. Harrington; with that little room of Werther at the end placed at the back of the immense stage of the Met. A daring solution, but one that evidently pleases (I personally don't), as does the enormous quantity of blood (too much) that covers the poor suicidal protagonist. In short, the question of "Werther's ideal suicide" always remains open…
Convinced audience and applause for all the protagonists, shower of flowers on the expansive Grigolo on the proscenium; which is nothing new for the Met, but it is still a moment of gratification for a job well done.
Neco Verbis © dibartolocritic
PHOTOS © Metropolitan Opera| Marty Sohl