Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the MET ORCHESTRA shows off its range in an operatic program of unsettled love

• By drediman
• June 18, 2024
• No Comments

This past weekend, the mighty orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera returned to Carnegie Hall to perform an off-season concert informed by a trio of distinctive operas with overarching themes of unsettled love. More specifically, these operas were Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer, Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, and  Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle. Led by the Met’s very busy music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin (who also happens to be the music director of both the Philadelphia Orchestra and Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal), the evening showed off the ensemble’s impressive range across various modes of musical expression.

The bill commenced with a sweeping, maximalist rendition of the Overture from Der fliegende Holländer, complete with swirling strings and blaring brass. If not the most nuanced interpretation, maestro Nézet-Séguin and his players muscled through the piece with forcefulness and purpose, as if a ship navigating a stormy night (an approach which actually makes complete sense within the context of Wagner’s thickly Romantic opera). In a jarring change of pace, the evening continued with Erich Leinsdorf’s encapsulating suite of Pelléas et Mélisande, Debussy’s dreamy, singular opera about a troubled love affair. Unfolding seamlessly in a single movement, the orchestra here proved that it was just as comfortable basking in the often hushed, sensitive waves of feeling that course through the opera’s gorgeous orchestral writing, which was especially evident when heard through the lens of the Hall’s famed acoustics (not always the case in the pit of the mammoth opera house).

The closer — and arguably the centerpiece of the program — was Bartók’s hourlong expressionistic opera Bluebeard’s Castle (is there a creepier opera out there?), which was played in its entirety on Friday night. Here, both conductor and orchestra brought it all together with a performance notable for its color, subtlety, and power — all-in-all a highly theatrical tour de force that proved that the orchestra still had plenty of gas in the tank even after the conclusion of its marathon season. Both mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn were in robust voice, their voices effortlessly rising above and penetrating through the swaths of sound generated by the players.

RECOMMENDED

THE MET ORCHESTRA
Classical Music
Carnegie Hall
Approximately 2 hours (with one intermission)
One night only on June 14