Apr 28 2007
Il Trittico
Went all the way out to Walled Lake to see the live satellite hdtv broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Puccini’s Il Trittico this afternoon. The Met does a fantastic job with these broadcasts. The pre-performance and intermission features are very well done, and the camera work during the performance is terrific.
Trittico is really three one-act operas. The first, Il Tabarro, is a dark and claustrophobic tale of faithfulness, jealousy and murder. No one does menace like Puccini, and he was in top form here. Maria Guleghina as the faithless wife, Giorgetta, was an excellent singer, but a real stiff as an actress. Salvatore Licitra as her lover and Juan Pons as her murderous husband were both excellent singers and good actors.
Barbara Frittoli was excellent as Angelica in Suor Angelica. This is a very emotional role, and she brought real pathos to it.
Gianni Schicchi was a hoot.
When I first heard that the Met was doing TV broadcasts to movie theaters, I thought it was a stupid idea - who’d want to go to a movie theater to watch an opera? Well, lots of people it turns out. So many performances were sold out that they are running encore performances of several of the operas. It has been a real success for the Met.
But I wonder about the effect on regional opera theater. It costs all of $18 to see the Met on HDTV at a movie theater, where live performances will run $50 and up (and up). We have decided to cut back on going to the Michigan Opera Theater because of the cost and hassle factor, but plan on seeing more Met broadcasts. So this may benefit the Met, but cost regional theater.