VIEWPOINTS – SAMSON ET DALILA & MARNIE: A look at this fall’s new productions at the Metropolitan Opera

This fall, the mighty Metropolitan Opera unveiled two new productions. The first was its 2018-2019 season opener, Darko Tresnjak’s new staging of Camille Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila; the second was Nico Muhly’s new opera Marnie, a co-production with the English National Opera. As many Broadway fans know, both Mr. Tresnjak and Mr. Mayer hail from the world of theater (each won a Tony for their direction of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder and Spring Awakening, respectively), bringing with them a more overtly stylized and theatrical approach – which they’ve honed developing new musicals – that diverge from the lavish, naturalism-driven grand opera aesthetic that the Met, under the encouragement of general manager Peter Gelb, has gradually moved away from, for better or worse.

Roberto Alagna and soprano Elīna Garanča in Camille Saint-Saëns’s "Samson et Dalila" at the Metropolitan Opera.

Roberto Alagna and soprano Elīna Garanča in Camille Saint-Saëns’s “Samson et Dalila” at the Metropolitan Opera.

The new production of Samson et Dalila (SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED) marks Mr. Tresnjak’s first time directing an opera on the grand stage of the Met. Unfortunately, I found the production to be both visually drab and dramatically inert, at great odds with Saint-Saëns’s fragrant, alluring score (oh, to hear the French language wrapped around that music!). It’s both a shame and a bewilderment that the director has essentially bypassed pretty much every opportunity to capitalize on the opera’s exotic – some would say campy – biblical setting, as well as the plot’s melodramatic, histrionic central love affair, opting instead for a vaguely-set, characterless staging that’s neither stylish nor chic. Only in the opera’s sensational final act does the production somewhat appeal to our starved senses, but it’s a case of too little, too late. Luckily, choreographer Austin McCormmick was at least able to inject a little life into the production with his suggestive and amusingly kitschy choreography (he had previously made the dances for the Met’s excellent new production of Dvorak’s Rusalka, helmed by Mary Zimmerman). The night I attended, tenor Roberto Alagna and soprano Elīna Garanča were in just okay voice, uncomfortably pushing their voices as if to compensate for the lack of drama around them. However, I’m happy to report that the mighty Met orchestra, under the baton of Sir Mark Elder, sounded exultant (sonically, the tempestuous Bacchanale ballet was downright cataclysmic stuff).

Isabel Leonard leads Nico Muhly's "Marnie" at the Metropolitan Opera.

Isabel Leonard leads Nico Muhly’s “Marnie” at the Metropolitan Opera.

Now to Mr. Mayer’s production of Nico Muhly’s newly-commissioned Marnie (RECOMMENDED), which is based on the novel by Winston Graham, which was in turn later made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock. Stylistically, the production takes many of its cues from Hitchcock’s filmic oeuvre. Its intangibly menacing atmosphere, brooding yet vibrant color schemes, and claustrophobic yet smoothly-framed visuals (the opera is presented as if filmed through a camera lens) all pay homage to the master film director. Indeed, as necessitated by the episodic libretto – effectively penned by British playwright Nicholas Wright to maximize the story’s foreboding tension – Mr. Mayer’s staging is cinematic in its fluidity, flowing smoothly from one scene to the next with the heavy use of video projections. In soprano Isabel Leonard, Mr. Muhly has the perfect muse to bring the enigmatic title character to taut life. Dramatically, her deceptively bright-voiced performance was completely captivating, superbly capturing the character’s duplicity, vengeful anger, and vulnerability. Her nuanced portrayal lifts the new opera from the realm of serviceable new opera to smashing theater. In ways, I felt that maybe the Met’s cavernous auditorium was too large to optimally take in the many sophisticated shadings of her very fine acting (I was situated in the front of the orchestra level). Mr. Muhly’s accomplished, expressionistic score, at once film noir-inspired and mysteriously veiled – qualities that seem just about right for the opera – was brought to vibrant life by the Met Orchestra (under the baton of Robert Spano) and Chorus.

 

SAMSON ET DALILA
Opera
The Metropolitan Opera
3 hours, 20 minutes (including two intermissions)
In repertory resuming March 13 through March 28

MARNIE
Opera
The Metropolitan Opera
2 hours, 30 minutes (including one intermissions)
Through November 10

Categories: Opera, Theater

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