A Conductor’s Date With Destiny
BY JAY NORDLINGER [NY Sun, 22 February 2006]
One of Verdi’s best operas is now playing at the Met: “La Forza del Destino,” a stew of arias, duets, choruses, and drama that makes a near-perfect operatic feast. If you don’t like “Forza,” you don’t like Verdi. And you probably don’t like the Italian repertoire. I won’t go so far as to say you don’t like life.
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The Marquis’s Daughter and the Inca Prince Who Loves Her
By ALLAN KOZINN [NY Times, 22 February 2006]
The economics of opera being what they are, there are reasons to worry about a production that the Metropolitan Opera files away immediately after its premiere and leaves in storage for a decade. When it finally returns, it looks as if the company is holding its finger to the wind, trying to sneak it past an audience that either missed or has forgotten the original run, and hoping it’s safe to slip it into the repertory.
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La forza del destino, Metropolitan Opera, New York
By Martin Bernheimer [Financial Times, 22 February 2006]
It looked so promising on paper. La forza del destino, virtually uncut, was returning to the mighty Met on Monday after a decade’s absence, with a cast that seemed elite by current standards. Reality, alas, did not reinforce expectations. For at least one observer this was a sad night at the opera.
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‘La Forza’ may not be with you at the Met
BY MARION LIGNANA ROSENBERG [Newsday, 23 February 2006]
Seas of anguish surrounding islands of bitter humor, lit by the faintest glimmers of grace: Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino” (1869) is volcanic, giddy, pious and among the hardest operas to perform well. The composer had a special fondness for this novelistic work, which he deemed one of his “modern” operas and repeatedly withheld from performance unless an exacting conductor and a theatrically sharp ensemble could be assembled.
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image=http://www.operatoday.com/content/verdi_scarf_medium.jpg
image_description=Giuseppe Verdi