Reviews/Photos: Critics Sound Off On The Met Opera's LA FORZA DEL DESTINO

Critics have now weighed in on The Met's new production of La Forza Del Destino. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Mariusz Treliński’s new production of Verdi’s epic tale of ill-fated love and deadly vendetta. The production is a co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and Teatr Wielki–Polish National Opera.

Check out the reviews and all-new images of the production below!

Maestro Nézet-Séguin opens the spring season on February 26 when he conducts Mariusz Treliński's staging of Verdi's La Forza del Destino, the Met's first new production of the work in nearly 30 years. With soprano Lise Davidsen, one of the most sought-after sopranos of her generation, starring as Leonora, Treliński relocates this grand tale of ill-fated love, deadly vendettas, and family strife to contemporary America.

The distinguished cast also features tenor Brian Jagde as Leonora's forbidden beloved, Don Alvaro; baritone Igor Golovatenko as her vengeful brother, Don Carlo; mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk as Preziosilla; bass-baritone Patrick Carfizzi as Fra Melitone; and bass Soloman Howard as both Leonora's father and Padre Guardiano.

The Met's La Forza del Destino Reviews

Zachary Woolfe, NY Times: Weary and noble, with filament-thin floated high notes and a warlike curse at the end, it set off an ovation so long that Davidsen, visibly moved, finally broke character, putting her hand on her heart and bowing her head. As she returns next season in Beethoven’s “Fidelio” and Puccini’s “Tosca,” we should be grateful for an artist like her — in any and every repertoire.

Rick Perdian, NY Classical Review: For all of the hype surrounding Nézet-Séguin and the Met’s increasing turn toward contemporary works, this Verdi performance showed him at his best. He is at one with the expansive emotions in Verdi’s score whether drawing the most delicate sounds from the string or digging into the powerful chords which resonate  throughout the opera. His sense of timing and balance were well nigh perfect. 

Justin Davidson, Vulture: The conductor Yannick Nézét-Seguin gets it, deftly piloting cast, chorus, and orchestra from one calamity to the next, balancing rhythmic propulsion with the leisure to savor all those velvety chords and roiled melodies. Tenor Brian Jagde gets it, fortifying the role of Don Alvaro with unquenchable intensity and a voice that vaults to a trumpeting clang. He may not have all the character’s shades of feeling and vocal nuance, but he does command the extremes, and he’s convincing in the final act, struggling between monkish meekness and big-lunged, murderous ire. So does Patrick Carfizzi, leavening Act Four with fine-tuned grumpiness as Fra Melitone, resentfully handing out food to the poor.

Francisco Salazar, Opera Wire: Trelinski’s production deserves credit for aiming to use Verdi’s propulsive and urgent work to explore the dangers of a very immediate concern in our world. Unfortunately, while Verdi’s opera explores the warring complexities of hope and despair; of finding unity or of seeking loneliness; of finding solace in religion or of finding that inevitability of doom is near; of finding friendship only to discover your enemy; this production seems to only despair in the aftermath of tyranny.

How To Get Tickets

Tickets are on sale online.

Rush Tickets

$25 rush tickets are available for every performance and go on sale for Monday through Friday evening performances at noon, for matinees four hours before curtain, and for Saturday evenings at 2:00PM. Learn more about the Met's rush ticketing program here.

Photo Credit: Karen Almond / Met Opera

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