[Met Performance] CID:327220
I Puritani {41} Metropolitan Opera House: 01/28/1997.
(Review)
Metropolitan Opera House
January 28, 1997
I PURITANI {41}
Bellini-Pepoli
Elvira..................Ruth Ann Swenson
Arturo..................Stuart Neill
Riccardo................Thomas Hampson
Giorgio.................Alastair Miles
Enrichetta..............Diane Elias
Gualtiero...............Hao Jiang Tian
Bruno...................Charles Anthony
Conductor...............Edoardo Müller
Production..............Sandro Sequi
Stage Director..........David Kneuss
Set designer............Ming Cho Lee
Costume designer........Peter J. Hall
Lighting designer.......Gil Wechsler
Review of Martin Mayer in Opera (UK)
The most immediately satisfying of our British visitors was the bass Alastair Miles, who had quite a lot to do as Giorgio in Bellini's "I puritani," and did it very well, in a rich voice that had the same gorgeous texture and support throughout its range. His "Sorgea la notte" remained in my ear for days, demonstrating Noël Coward's line about the power of cheap music. Otherwise, January 28 was not a very successful evening at the Met, Thomas Hampson as Riccardo fought so hard to go all the way down that he wound up a little short on top. Young Stuart Neill as Arturo has a pretty voice from F to F, but pinches dangerously up top into that squeezed sound Europeans find exciting but, basically, we don't. And he doesn't even pretend to act.
Our Elvira was Ruth Ann Swenson, who had done the dress rehearsal after spraining her ankle, had sung the prima to uncertain trumpets in the press, and then had missed the next two performances with the flu. She seemed tentative, working her way into the role, and this opera is dumb enough without that. The production, 20 years old, all paper and paint, is not much help.
Herbert Weinstock in his biography of Bellini commented on "Qui la voce" that
"The desperately delicate, perilous balance of this entire scene requires of the soprano not only extremely agile, supple and intelligent dramatic singing, but also acting of intensity among constantly shifting velleities [OED: "The fact or quality of merely willing, wishing or desiring"]. Without both, it can easily become "pinnacl'd dim in the intense inane," a meaningless festival of melody." That's what happened. Four days later, however, I must admit, Swenson sang the role, especially "Qui la voce," much more confidently and effectively in the broadcast performance.