More 'Adriana Lecouvreur' links

Shrinking Violet

I must confess now that I attended this performance partly out of morbid curiosity: to hear Placido Domingo attempt Maurizio -- his debut role at the Met in 1968. Amazingly, he can still do it. Domingo has become a walking object lesson in style, musicality and vocal technique and proves that age does not necessarily wither. The squillo -- that wounded animal sound -- still squeezes out of the upper register, the phrasing is indeed more natural than in his salad days, and he's gained the aura of a compelling stage-presence. That was not always at his command.

Metropolitan Opera

A protean singer by any standard, Domingo still has the sizzle and swagger to portray Maurizio, the aristocratic playboy

Recession special: three giants on stage for $15

In his slow decline, Placido Domingo can still convene a worldclass performance... His tours above the staff are understandably calculated, with some top notes on the verge of faltering, but with Domingo there is never fear of total meltdown. Thus, no matter how arduous it seems for him to scale the heights these days, the audience never feels uncomfortable or burdened. A true wonder that it's his 40th year at the Met. In the style department, he remains unmatched, bailing out this artless opera with rare elegance.

Plácido Domingo vuelve a ser el 'rey de Nueva York'

Como coinciden en afirmar todos los cronistas, resulta memorable y épico que un hombre de 68 años sea capaz de hacer suyo el papel con absoluta frescura, derrochando lirismo, emoción y cálculo.

Adriana Lecouvreur

The man is as dauntless as he is sentimental. At an age - 68 - when most divos retire to rocking chairs and puffy memoirs, he carries on stubbornly. On the side, he runs opera companies at both ends of the country. And here he was on Friday, competing with memories of his younger self as the would-be dashing Maurizio. Unfortunately, the younger self won.

Make no mistake. Domingo continues to sing remarkably well. His tone remains mostly strong and mostly steady, his vigour reasonable, his spirit more than willing. Still, the top range, never his greatest strength, has declined to the point where sweeping, disorienting transpositions (semitone, even whole tone) are de rigueur. And, for all his enlightened posturing, his imitation of impetuous youth demands a generous, forgiving eye.

Placido Domingo reunites with the Met and 'Adriana Lecouvreur'

...Forty years later (well, 40 years, 5 months and 6 days... but who’s counting?)

(Can I just interrupt this review to say I can think of someone who will have been counting...)

Applause greeted him, before he even sang a note.  His first aria, “La dolcissima effigie,” was delivered with clarity and vigor, despite some tightness in his voice and was received by more enthusiastic applause.

forty candles

Placido Domingo’s voice remains a steady and well produced instrument with a slight decline in volume and breadth of line and a somewhat more pronounced vibrato. What was once a silver sheen to the voice has bronzed, but by Act 4 when he allowed himself to sing out fully the sound made any of the current crop of rising tenors pale in comparison. Every note he sang was carefully measured and calibrated for maximum impact and it was a strong vocal showing, even in transposed keys.

Controversial to some, his transposition of large sections of music did not bother me. I did find it a bit cruel to make Maria Guleghina sing in an uncomfortably low register in their Act 1 scena, but my opinion is it’s better to have Domingo as Maurizio in a lower key than not to have him at all. The two of them make a very sexy couple and their was a serious passion between them. 

The role doesn’t require much acting from Domingo, and so he did not act much. At least he knows how to carry a performance based on charisma and commitment. He was definitely dignified and involved if a bit surface and stiff (perhaps criticism that could be said of many of his roles). He also received a full standing ovation (at least on Orchestra level) at his final solo curtain call.

And Siggy emailed me on Saturday to say:

Our espanish gentleman was fabulous last evening, BTW, he finally got the voice to open up (the cold is over now) and filled the Met with his glorious sound.