Saturday Evening, October 27th, 2001

Norma

The new production by John Copley consisted of a single set, an acrylic floor held at 45 degrees (in a slope) and the backdrop a projection of a huge moon or sometimes trees depending on the scene. It did not look very good but it was certainly cheap if that's what the MET wanted. The direction of the singers were good though, there were nice touches such as Norma looking firmly at Oroveso when demanding she be left alone with Pollione. The costumes were good for the main characters but the chorus got some weird clothes. Neither the sets nor the costumes reflected the time the story took place anyway.

Jane Eaglen was a good Norma, after a lot of harsh critiques on her performance, I was prepared for the worst but in the end it was not that bad at all. She was infinitely superior to her disappointing Turandot last season. Her voice is huge and beautiful, it has a velvet quality to it in the middle register and the low register is quite powerful too. But the top is the big problem, the voice thins out and looses quality. She had a lot of problems with "Casta Diva" unable to hold on to the high notes and the sound that came out was painful and not evenly produced. She was good in the Act 1 duet with Adalgisa, and surprisingly she is capable of trinados and coloratura something very unusual for such a large voice. In Act 2, in the scene where she thinks about murdering her children she failed to grasp the drama (most Norma's except Callas do) and her duet with Adalgisa then was less efective maybe because she lacked any piano or pianissimo. Her final duet with Pollione was very good and there she was really into the role and the size of the voice did help. Her final closing scene was effective.

Dolora Zajick was a superb Adalgisa, by far the best I've seen so far. Her voice is also large but she has full control over it. In her first scene in Act 1 she went from piano to forte every time, seamlessly. In her duet with Pollione she spawn a high note and then held it down to pianissimo. Amazing! Her acting was also good and in her Act 1 duet with Eaglen she had no problem tackling the high C (again forte to pianissimo). Her  "Mira o Norma" should serve as a lesson to Eaglen on how to be able to sing forte and then piano. What a remarkable singer!

Richard Margison was a very good Pollione, he hit the unwritten high C in the first act aria with no problems and even sang piano with Zajick in their duet. A real treat! Most Pollione's tend to bark their way through the role, but Margison sang it lyric and heroic when required.

Hao Jian Tian was a good Oroveso but sometimes his singing was a bit rough and unpolished. He was replacing Carlo Colombara who I've seen in this role and is a better Oroveso.

The comprimarios were good.

Carlo Rizzi after a good Boheme, disappointed in Norma. There was no Bellinian sense of style or line, the orchestra sounded like a band, the tuttis had too much emphasis. Bellini is difficult to conduct, and maybe only Muti can do it justice nowadays. The MET orchestra was not on a good night unfortunately (maybe because of the conducting). The MET Chorus was good.