Petra Lang sang her two big solos with style and beauty of voice. The passion and longing of the second of these, D’amour l’ardente flamme, was particularly touching. Alastair Miles Méphistophélès was menacing and attractive as the devil inevitably seems to be on stage. He made his music stand into an effective prop by raising dramatically every time he rose to sing. His voice reminds me of that of José van Dam. A first rate devil.
             As was true of both Romeo and Faust the orchestra was on the stage and the chorus was immobile; alas the chorus in Les Troyens was required to act. Choruses should be heard and not seen. The Met’s chorus which sings better than when I first heard it a long time ago, still acts like they are in a silent movie. They act the same in Les Troyens as in Il Trovatore, i.e. like a bunch of superannuated gypsies from the Bronx. Berlioz’s massive five act opera just didn’t have the same impact under James Levine that Romeo and Faust did under Davis.
               The reasons are many. Its length is not one of them. Don Carlo in its original French five act incarnation is longer, though I prefer it in Italian and in four acts. Parsifal lasts for weeks and many people love it. I’m not one of them, however. The problems began with the locale. The theater with more than 4000 seats is twice as big as the biggest opera house in Europe. It’s just too big for even the biggest operas. Berlioz’s unique sound can’t make the impact at the Met that it does in a smaller house or in a concert hall. Compounding the problem is that the orchestra is in a pit which further dampens the sound. And even worse was that Levine’s conducting showed no feel for Berlioz’s style.
              Maestro Levine is in obvious ill health. I saw him on the street in New York about a year ago and was startled by how ill he looked. A year later he looked even worse. I could venture a diagnosis, but this piece is about music not medicine. Anyway, he conducted sitting down and without energy. The ludicrous staging replete with prancing choristers and a Trojan horse that couldn’t have held even a squad of Greeks served only to provoke smiles. Two refugees from the Cirque du Soleil performed an aerial ballet (during the Royal Hunt and Storm scene) suspended from the rafters each by a single cable had me terrified that a lethal accident must occur at any instant; fortunately they escaped without need of orthopedic surgery. I guess this news wouldn’t make a great headline: “Two aerialists don’t fall at the Met.”
               The sets were nonspecific and could have been used in a half dozen other operas. The staging when not silly was dull. There were too many kids running around the stage. I greatly prefer the version the Met offered 20 years ago and which is available on video. The singing was mostly very good. Deborah Voight was outstanding as Cassandra, but who can stand a woman who is always right. Gino Quilico sang the role of Coroebus and substituted for Dwayne Croft (I attended the performance on Tuesday March 11th). His voice is either completely used up or he had an exceptionally bad night. In the Carthage acts Michelle De Young sang well, but looked more like a soccer mom than a sexy African Queen. Matthew Polenzani (Iopas) sang his solo quite well with a good light lyric tenor voice, but didn’t sound quite as good as he did on the broadcast the previous month. Hylas, yet another tenor, was sung by Gregory Turay. He sounded better singing his homesick song than he had on the broadcast. Much of its effect, however, was obscured by the staging or rather the suspension. He was seated in a chair hanging about 30 feet above the stage and which went from the far right (the audience’s) of the stage to the far left during the song. He then was carried into the wings when the song was over. I know he supposed to be atop a ship’s mast, but the ship was in port and not moving - another bad idea that distracted the audience from the music.
               Ben Heppner sang the long role of Aeneas. His appearance was anticipated with much trepidation given the vocal problems that had curtailed his season last year. When I heard him as Otello in Chicago in October of 2001 he was repeatedly cracking at random intervals. Later at the Met as Walther in Meistersinger he had the same problem. His vocal difficulties became so severe that he cancelled his Spring recital tour. So his return to the stage in a very demanding role was greeted with concern. It was of related interest that he did not sing any of the Otellos mounted this season at the Met. He has Tristan in his date book, but I haven’t see Otello in it. I don’t know if he’s given up for good on the role.
              When he appeared on stage we saw a new man. He appeared to have lost 100 pounds. At first the voice seemed to have shrunk as well, but as the evening progressed it grew stronger and never cracked. There were a few problematic high notes, but basically he gave a very strong performance that suggests he has solved his vocal problem. Time, of course, will tell.
             In summary, the Met has been doing Les Troyens every year that ends in 3 since 1973. That seems to be right. Given the extraordinary demands the work makes on an opera company, it can never occupy more than the fringe of the repertory. I think it would best to perform it as a concert piece the way Davis did it in London in December 2000. Finally, Berlioz’s classical name dropping gets a little tiresome after a while.

In passing: I was walking by Carnegie Hall on Saturday March 8th and noticed that The Vienna Philharmonic was playing that night. I went to the box office and asked if they had any tickets left. My arrival coincided with the release to two house seats which I immediately bought. The program was one the orchestra could play well in their sleep - the Strauss brothers (Johann Jr and Josef) and Beethoven’s 6th symphony. Carnegie Hall’s acoustics remain unsurpassed and the Viennese, under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, were very much awake. There were even two women in the band. The world spins at an ever dizzier pace.