Deborah Voigt takes on the title role in Ponchielli's grand, passionate drama, La Gioconda, for the first time in the United States and only the second time in her career. She is joined by Olga Borodina as her rival, Laura, and, in the role of La Cieca, Polish contralto Ewa Podleś, who returns to the Met for the first time since 1984. The cast also includes Aquiles Machado as Enzo, Carlo Guelfi as Barnaba, and, in his Met debut, Orlin Anastassov as Alvise. Conductor Daniele Callegari makes his Met debut. Performances run from September 24 through October 9, 2009.
Voigt sang her first Gioconda at Barcelona's Teatre Liceu in 2005. Last season she sang her acclaimed first performances with the Met of another pinnacle of the dramatic soprano repertory: Isolde in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. Best known for her interpretations of powerful heroines of Wagner and Strauss, she has recently broadened her repertory into Italian verismo roles with Puccini’s Tosca which she sang at the Met in 2006. A finalist at the Met's 1985 National Council Auditions who made her company debut in 1991, she has sung in five new production premieres: as Chrysothemis in Strauss’s Elektra (1992), Elsa in Wagner’s Lohengrin (1998), the Empress in Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten (2001), Cassandre in Berlioz’s Les Troyens (2003), and the title role in Strauss’s Die Ägyptische Helena (2007). Voigt has sung what is perhaps her most famous role, the title character in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, in four Met seasons including a 2003 telecast. She has also enhanced her reputation as a versatile artist with several major Verdi roles. She will host The Met: Live in HD performance of Salome on October 11 this year and served as the program’s backstage interviewer for the HD transmission of Il Barbiere di Siviglia in 2006.
Olga Borodina reprises the role of Laura, which she sang two seasons ago at the Met, and later this season adds the role of the Principessa in the Italian verismo classic, Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur. The Russian singer is among the handful of mezzo-sopranos on international stages today whose repertory covers the wide spectrum from dramatic Verdi parts (Eboli in Don Carlo, Amneris in Aida), to lyrical seductresses by French composers (Dalila in Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila and the title role in Bizet’s Carmen), to bel canto characters (Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri and La Cenerentola), and the powerful heroines of her native Russia (Marina in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and Pauline in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades), all of which she has performed in past Met seasons.
Ewa Podleś has earned a reputation as one of the world’s most exciting and versatile contraltos. While she is particularly known for her performances of baroque music, her deep, rich voice is equally suited to such repertory standards as Azucena in Verdi’s Il Trovatore, Adalgisa in Bellini’s Norma, Klytämnestra in Strauss’s Elektra, and Erda in Wagner’s Ring cycle. This is Podleś's first appearance at the Met since she her 1984 debut, when she sang the title role in Handel's Rinaldo.
Aquiles Machado sings the role of Enzo Grimaldo, as he did in the 2006 revival at the Met. The Venezuelan tenor made his Met debut in 2003 as Rodolfo in Puccini's La Bohème. A former student of the great Spanish tenor, Alfredo Kraus, he has also sung at La Scala, Milan, the Vienna State Opera, Rome Opera, Barcelona’s Teatre Liceu, and, in this country, at the Los Angeles Opera and Washington Opera.
Italian baritone Carlo Guelfi is Barnaba, a role he also performed under the baton of Daniele Callegari in Barcelona. Guelfi made his Met debut in 2002 as Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca, and sang Iago in Verdi’s Otello at the 2004 Opening Night performance. He has also sung the title role of Verdi's Rigoletto with the company.
Orlin Anastassov makes his Met debut this season as Alvise. The Bulgarian bass received first prize in Plácido Domingo’s 1999 Operalia competition and made his operatic debut at the age of 20. He has since sung Attila and Méphistophélès at Covent Garden, King Philip in Verdi’s Don Carlo in Geneva and Valencia, Boris Godunov and Méphistophélès in Monte Carlo, and Don Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Timur in Turandot at La Scala.
Milanese-born maestro Daniele Callegari makes his debut on the Met podium. He has been chief conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic since 2002 and was previously the principal conductor of the Wexford Opera Festival. He conducted La Gioconda, with Deborah Voigt, at the Teatre Liceu in Barcelona, and has led other works in such leading opera houses as the Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Rome Opera, Teatro Communale in Bologna, and La Fenice in Venice. He has often conducted rarely heard Italian operas such as I Cavalieri di Ekebù by Riccardo Zandonai, and I Quattro Rusteghi by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari.
This production of La Gioconda was last seen at the Met in 2006. Peter McClintock is the stage director of the Margherita Wallmann production, with sets and costumes by Beni Montresor. Christopher Wheeldon’s choreography for the dance sequences from the 2006-07 revival is again used this season. Principal artist costumes designed by Holly Hynes are also from the 2006-07 revival, and lighting design is by Wayne Chouinard.
