"What a wonderful, unforgettable night!" was the mood among the viewers of the Met at-home-gala online last saturday, after four hours of A-level singing, which rose many emotions in their hearts. As any opera house during these difficult times by the Coronavirus, the Metropolitan Opera has been closed for many weeks, and also has cancelled its remaining season. Meanwhile, many of its vast video archives are being streamed online.
To give the audience some emotion of live performance, the Met announced an online Gala with 40 opera stars singing from their homes throughout Europe and America, as well as the orchestra and chorus, despite of being in the middle of a scandal issue about cancellations of contracts and salaries.
With the slogan "The voice must be heard", the Gala was presented by the General manager Peter Gelb and the musical director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, both hosting from their respective homes. Every artist presented the next one to sing, but sometimes there were some pauses, in which the orchestra and chorus took part.
It's difficult to talk about each one of the forty singers, but we will try to talk about the highlights of this evening. There were some great names absent like Juan Diego Flórez, Sondra Radvanovsky, Eric Owens, or even, despite the big scandal which has made impossible any appearance, Plácido Domingo.
The first singer was Peter Mattei, who sang Don Giovanni's Deh vieni alla finestra accompanied by an accordeon. He was followed by Roberto Alagna and his wife Aleksandra Kurzak, who sang a hilarious version of the duet Caro Elisir from L'Elisir d'Amore. Alagna made surely everyone laugh with his sense of humor, despite not being very suitable for Nemorino anymore. Renée Fleming, the Met diva, sang a moving, spiritual-like version of Otello's Ave Maria, and she was visibly moved after singing. Anita Rachvelishvili sang a powerful, beautiful Mon Coeur s'ouvre à ta voix. Jonas Kaufmann and Helmut Deutsch performed the famous aria Rachel from La Juive. Kaufmann is in a phase of maturity of his voice, and despite his big effort and nice singing, high register is a bit difficult now. As a result, Deutsch shone better than him. Michael Volle represented Wagner with his liederistic style singing the Star Song from Tannhäuser.
Elīna Garanča gave one of the great moments of the evening with her beautifully sung Habanera from Carmen, reinforced with her flirt, seductive performance which confirms her as the best Carmen of our time. Jamie Barton amazed with her powerful, tragic performance of Verdi's O Don fatale, with astonishing high notes. René Pape sang a rendition of In diesem heiligen hallen with a calm, nice and serene singing. Joyce DiDonato sang an intimist version of Serse's Ombra mai fu. Sonya Yoncheva sang a delightful version of Rusalka's Moon Aria. Diana Damrau and her husband Nicolas Testé sang La cì darem la mano from their kitchen, with their kids joining them in their final greetings. Bryn Terfel and his wife Hannah Stone at the harp sang a traditional song
The three pauses in which the orchestra and chorus took part were a marvellous performance of the Intermezzo from Cavallleria Rusticana, the Act 3 Prelude from Lohengrin and maybe the most moving moment of the night: The Va Pensiero chorus from Nabucco, showing the orchestra and chorus members in their homes in a big panel, performing at the same time. In addition, Nézet-Séguin at the piano and David Chan at the violin, played Thais' Meditation.
The young generation of singers gave amzing surprises: Erin Morley singing La Fille du Régiment and playing the piano at the same time, Anthony Roth Costanzo sang a soulful, beautiful version of Haendel's Pena Tiranna, with his great counter-tenor, contralto-like voice; or Lisette Oropesa with her great high notes and coloratura singing an aria from Robert Le diable. Golda Schultz, Angel Blue, Nadine Sierra and Isabel Leonard showed the great level of the new generation of sopranos on stage at the Met.
Tenors were chosen to end this mega concert: Stephen Costello and his wife at the violin performed Faust's Salut demeure chaste et pure, Lawrence Brownlee singing A te, o cara from Puritani with a beautiful voice and great high notes, and the last one being Javier Camarena (who even adressed to Mexican people in Spanish), singing a superb rendition of Nel furor delle tempeste from Il Pirata, including the Caballetta. He has sung this opera in Madrid on last December with a great acclaim.
Many other singers completed the 40-stars list. The announced Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov finally cancelled at the last moment, so the Met provided two clips from the Vienna Opera Gala at studio, who was recorded recently.
The gala ended with Gelb and Nézet-Séguin saying goodbye and the title credits played Cavalleria's Intermezzo, and a dedication to the audience.
The famous Met galas are usually lavish and crowded. In this case the luxury of the Lincoln Center has been forced to be replaced by the informality of the artists' living rooms. However, this exceptional circumstances have not detracted any emotion, and for this reason the "at-home" gala will go down in history at the same level of the previous ones on its stage.
My reviews are not professional and express only my opinions. As a non English native speaker I apologise for any mistake.
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