BWW Reviews: Without Gypsies or Mistaken Identities, Soprano Meade Wins Four-Sided Tug of War in ERNANI at the Met

Nine years before IL TROVATORE took the prize for Verdi's most outlandish story line--with gypsies, stolen babies and mistaken identities--there was ERNANI, with a different kind of complicated plot to make your head spin. (It was adapted by librettist Francesco Maria Piave from the novel, "Hernani," by Victor Hugo.) With three men making the heroine miserable in disparate ways, Verdi was still experimenting with how to put together an opera--there's one too many leads here, for example--but he certainly knew how to spin out a string of arias and ensembles to gain our admiration.

The Met's current revival of its 1983 production of the opera--created by Pier Luigi Samaritani, with his own sets, costumes by Peter J. Hall and lighting by Gil Wechsler--stars a formidable quartet: soprano Angela Meade, tenor Franceso Meli, bass-baritone Dmitry Belosselskiy and, last but certainly not least, tenor/baritone Placido Domingo.

Meade continues to amaze with her fluidity of voice, showing off her command from top to bottom as Elvira. What a beautiful, sumptuous sound she makes! She triumphed in her very first aria--the opera's best known piece, "Ernani, involami"--and went on from there. The soprano no longer seems quite so placid as in many of her earlier performances--yes, she's no live wire, though that's beside the point--and she showed herself easily capable of pulling off the production's coup de theatre. (Spoiler alert: She commits suicide.) She's a force of nature and we're lucky to have her...even if we want more from her.

Perhaps the evening's most compelling performance came from Ukrainian Belosselskiy as de Silva, whom Elvira is marrying against her will. He was able to make a basically unsympathetic character resonate and make a connection with the audience--at least until the final scene, when no one could make him less than a monster. He brought nuance and style to his singing, even when his role demanded more hairpin turns than the Grande Corniche highway on the French Riviera.

Then there's the tale of two tenors: Meli and Domingo (who's still billed that way on the roster, despite his switch to baritone roles). Meli, as Ernani, a nobleman-cum-bandit on the run, took quite some time settling into the music; it wasn't a matter of warming up, I don't believe, but almost sounded like nerves, with his opening aria, "Come rugiada al cespite"/ "As the flower turns to the sun," filled with odd accents. His performance grew more assured as the evening went on, however, with his duet with Elvira, Ah, morir potessi adesso / "Ah, if I could die now" in Act II and the opera's famous trio "Solingo, errante misero" particularly appealing. He has a good, secure top--nothing to sneeze at, though a bit wiry.

As for Domingo as Don Carlo, well, at 74, he sounds better than any tenor has a right to. Yes, a tenor (without a top), but does it matter? He brings a great deal to any performance he sings--except a baritonal sound that's beyond the one he has always had. That isn't so terrible when he's singing by himself, as in his great Act II aria, "O, de' verd'anni miei," but it puts his ensemble work awry. Oh, well. Never mind.

James Levine and the wonderful Met orchestra--and, of course, the grand chorus--are at their best with Verdi and this night was no exception. They make Verdi sound like their lives depend on it--but it's really ours that gets the boost.

ERNANI will be broadcast live from the Met on the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 1 pm ET, this Saturday's matinee, April 4.

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Photo: Angela Meade as Elvira and Francesco Meli as Ernani. Plácido Domingo as Don Carlo. Dmitry Belosselskiy as de Silva and Francesco Meli as Ernani.

Photo by Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

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