[Met Performance] CID:353395
Metropolitan Opera Premiere
The Nose {1} Metropolitan Opera House: 03/05/2010., Sirius and XM Broadcast live
Streamed at metopera.org
(Debuts: Paulo Szot, William Kentridge, Sabine Theunissen, Greta Goiris, Urs Schönebaum, Luc De Wit, Catherine Meyburgh, Andrey Popov, Gordon Gietz, Sergei Skorokhodov, Brian Kontes, Grigory Soloviov, Jeffrey Behrens, Vassily Gorshkov
Broadcast/Streamed
Review)
Metropolitan Opera House
March 5, 2010 Broadcast/Streamed
Metropolitan Opera Premiere
THE NOSE {1}
Shostakovich-Zamyatin/Ionin/Preis/Gogol
Kovalyov...................Paulo Szot [Debut]
Police Inspector...........Andrey Popov [Debut]
The Nose...................Gordon Gietz [Debut]
Act I
INTRODUCTION
Scene 1 THE SHOP OF THE BARBER YAKOVLEVICH
Ivan Yakovlevich...........Vladimir Ognovenko
Scene 2 THE HOME OF BARBER YAKOVLEVICH AND HIS WIFE
Ivan Yakovlevich...........Vladimir Ognovenko
Praskovya Osipovna.........Claudia Waite
Scene 3 ON THE EMBANKMENT
Constable..................Grigory Soloviov [Debut]
Ivan Yakovlevich...........Vladimir Ognovenko
Scene 4 INTERLUDE
Scene 5 IN KOVALYOV'S BEDROOM
Ivan, Kovalyov's Servant...Sergei Skorokhodov [Debut]
Scene 6 GALLOP
Scene 7 KAZAN CATHEDRAL
Female Voice...............Erin Morley
Male Voice.................Tony Stevenson
Footman....................Brian Kontes [Debut]
Act II
INTRODUCTION
Scene 1 OUTSIDE THE POLICE OFFICE
Porter.....................Sergei Skorokhodov
A Cabby....................Gennady Bezzubenkov
Scene 2 THE NEWSPAPER OFFICE
Newspaper Clerk...........James Courtney
Countess's Footman.........Ricardo Lugo
Caretakers: Brian Kontes, Kevin Burdette, Philip Horst, David Crawford, Grigory Soloviov, Philip Cokorinos, Christopher Schaldenbrand, Jeremy Galyon
Scene 3 ENTR'ACTE
Scene 4 KOVALYOV'S APARTMENT
Ivan.......................Sergei Skorokhodov
Act III
Scene 1 THE OUTSKIRTS OF ST. PETERSBURG
Policemen: Brian Kontes, Sergei Skorokhodov, Kevin Burdette, Philip Horst, Michael Myers, David Crawford, Brian Frutiger, Tony Stevenson, Jeffrey Behrens [Debut], Grigory Soloviov
Father.....................Philip Cokorinos
Mother.....................Maria Gavrilova
Sons.......................Dennis Petersen, Jeremy Galyon
Pyotr Fedorovitch..........Vassily Gorshkov [Debut]
Ivan Ivanovitch............LeRoy Lehr
Matron.....................Theodora Hanslowe
Pretzel Vendor.............Claudia Waite
Coachman...................Christopher Schaldenbrand
Scene 2 THE DRAWING ROOMS OF KOVALYOV AND MADAME PODTOCHINA
Ivan.......................Sergei Skorokhodov
Doctor.....................Gennady Bezzubenkov
Yaryzhkin..................Adam Klein
Podtochina's daughter......Erin Morley
Mme. Podtochina............Barbara Dever
Scene 3 INTERMEZZO
Gentlemen: Sergei Skorokhodov, Michael Myers, Brian Frutiger, Brian Kontes, Kevin Burdette, David Crawford, Tony Stevenson
Old Man....................Jeffrey Behrens
Newcomers..................Dennis Petersen, Grigory Soloviov
Black Marketeer............Philip Horst
Distinguished Colonel......Vassily Gorshkov
Dandys.....................Philip Cokorinos, Michael Myers
Someone....................Christopher Schaldenbrand
Students: Sergei Skorokhodov, Brian Frutiger, David Crawford, Jeremy Galyon, Tony Stevenson, Jeffrey Behrens, Vassily Gorshkov, LeRoy Lehr
Respectable Lady...........Kathryn Day
Lady's Sons................Kevin Burdette, Philip Horst
Khosrev-mirza..............Vladimir Ognovenko
Scene 4 KOVALYOV'S APARTMENT
Ivan, Kovalyov's Servant...Sergei Skorokhodov
Ivan Yakovlevich...........Vladimir Ognovenko
Scene 5 THE NEVSKY PROSPECT
Kovalyov's Acquaintances: Brian Kontes, Michael Myers, Kevin Burdette
Mme. Podtochina............Barbara Dever
Podtochina's daughter......Erin Morley
Acting Ensemble: Snezhana Chernova, Frank Colardo, Svetlana Kifa, Stass Klassen, Vadim Krol, Alexander Merinov, Erik Parillo, Dan Renkin, Dina Rose Rivera, Tatyana Zbirovskaya
Conductor..................Valery Gergiev
Production.................William Kentridge [Debut]
Set Designer...............William Kentridge [Debut]
Set Designer...............Sabine Theunissen [Debut]
Costume Designer...........Greta Goiris [Debut]
Lighting Designer..........Urs Schönebaum [Debut]
Associate Director.........Luc De Wit [Debut]
Video Compositor & Editor..Catherine Meyburgh [Debut]
The Nose received six performances this season
Production gift of Frederick Iseman
Additional funding by The Richard J. Massey Foundation for the Arts and Sciences and the
National Endowment for the Arts
The Nose is a co-production of the Metropolitan Opera, the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, and the Opéra National de Lyon, France.
Note: Andrey Popov was billed as Andrei Popov until 10/11/2010
Boradcast live on Sirius and XM Metropolitan Opera Radio
Streamed at metopera.org
Production photos of The Nose by Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera.
Review of David Shengold in the June 2010 issue of OPERA NEWS
The Met premiere of "The Nose" proved a great success, thanks largely to the aesthetic vision of director William Kentridge and the dynamism of conductor Valery Gergiev.
Shostakovich's "Nos" ("The Nose"), a musically challenging, linguistically dense piece set by its twenty-one-year-old composer on a famous tale by Nikolai Gogol, seemed a risky proposition for the Met's vast spaces. Yet its company premiere on March 5 proved a great success, thanks largely to the aesthetic vision of South African artist William Kentridge and the dynamism of conductor Valery Gergiev. That Gergiev excels in rhythmic, heavily percussive scores is hardly news in New York, but his achievement with the spiky, at times circus-like score stands among his finest local achievements. (Credit surely must also accrue to the production's six assistant conductors.) "The Nose" presents particular challenges to the brass that were well surmounted.
Kentridge's operatic work has been seen locally at BAM, but this impressive, well-thought-out show marked his Met debut, along with those of his entire production team - associate director Luc de Wit, co-set designer Sabine Theunissen, costume designer Greta Goiris and lighting designer Urs Schönebaum. This collective created a look based on early Soviet Constructivism, with angular, dynamic shapes on set and clothes elements and a white, black and red palette. Above all else, text was placed in the foreground - collages of newspaper articles, lists,
Mayakovskian advertising devices and slogans in Russian (transliterated and Cyrillic), English and some punning combinations ("Another kheppi ending"). Video footage - brilliant transmogrifying pictographs as well as footage of both Shostakovich at the keyboard and Anna Pavlova dancing (her head supplanted by a nose) - was a constant. As in 2008's "Satyagraha" at the Met, it made sense to project the translated text on the set.
Thus, Gogol's Petersburg of the 1830s transmuted largely to Leningrad of the 1920s. This doesn't make "literal" sense, given a story so concerned with the Tsarist Table of Rank (the lead figure, Collegiate Assessor Kovalyov, uses the equivalent military rank of "Major" to impress
women and is startled when his nose becomes not only a separate person but one of higher rank), in which an important scene takes place during a cathedral service. (The Kazan Cathedral, shuttered in 1917, was in fact not pictured, but the service was.) Yet it suited Shostakovich's music and allowed Kentridge to allude to the Stalinist police state - well under way even in the experimental 1920s - soon to befall Russia, hobble Shostakovich and produce a deadlier brand of absurdism than Gogol could ever have foreseen.
"The Nose" bears the imprint of "Wozzeck" and, like Berg's work, has telling music in its interludes, which at times here were overwhelmed by the visuals, as if Kentridge feared that audiences could not just listen. (He may, alas, be right.) But in sum this staging proved an extraordinary vision, very well carried out.
Broadway matinee idol Paulo Szot seemed in advance odd casting for Kovalyov, a jerk who thinks he's God's gift. But Szot, an adroit stage figure, made the character vulnerable and even rather sympathetic, faring reasonably well with the Russian phonetics. By Met standards, his baritone is pleasant rather than remarkable, and he worked hard under heavy orchestration, but his was certainly a commendable house debut.
Another legacy of "Wozzeck" is the screamy, top-of-the-staff tenor writing. Three Russian debutants really delivered - the phenomenal Andrei Popov (Police Inspector), plus Sergei Skorokhodov and Vassily Gorshkov, both in multiple cameos. Adam Klein (Yaryzhkin) kept pace, but debutant Gordon Gietz (the Nose), though phrasing well, sounded rather tired. Those indefatigable bass scene-stealers Vladimir Ognovenko and Gennady Bezzubenkov also enlivened multiple roles: idiomatic Russian makes a big difference in this kind of score. Two promising young singers who have shone elsewhere (tenor Jeffrey Behrens and bass-baritone Brian Kontes) also made their debuts in ensemble parts. Erin Morley - as a girl praying in vocalise and Kovalyov's potential fiancée - offered the loveliest sounds of this rewarding evening.