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Music Performance Reviews
Metropolitan Opera House
Lincoln Center, NY
www.lincolncenter.org
11/10/2003
By Chandak Ghosh
LA JUIVE
Music: Fromental Halevy
Libretto: Eugene Scribe
Conductor: Marcello Viotti
Director: Gunter Kramer
Cast
Rachel: Soile Isokoski
Eleazar: Neil Shicoff
Leopold: Eric Cutler
Cardinal Brogni: Ferruccio Furlanetto
Princess Eudoxie: Elizabeth Futral
Prior to this season, La Juive was last performed at the MET in 1936. The current stylistically lackluster production will only hasten this work's slide towards operatic oblivion.
The French Grand Operatic style was defined in the mid 1800's with the operas of Meyerbeer, Halevy, and Auber, and later, Thomas, Gounod, and Berlioz. Usually five acts long and containing a ballet or two, these sprawling spectacles fell out of favor as the more dramatically viable compositions of Verdi and Wagner spread throughout Europe. Despite Halevy and Scribe's attempts to tackle deep social and political issues, La Juive remains stuck in a musical and dramatic period from which modern audiences will only sample infrequently for the sake of historical curiosity.
La Juive concerns the forbidden love of a Jewish woman for a Christian man in 13th century Germany. Halevy introduces the characters and the oppressive times for Jews in a stirring first act. Unfortunately, after that, the story takes on soap opera-like twists which, today, drain any substance from the theme. The man, Leopold, turns out to be married to the Emperor's niece Princess Eudoxie. The woman, Rachel, condemned to die by the Cardinal Brogni, is actually the Cardinal's long-lost daughter who had been adopted by the Jewish goldsmith Eleazar. The Cardinal, in true operatic fashion, discovers the truth as Rachel is burning in a cauldron. The music's "generic dramatic" quality only rarely lifts the story to the inspired.
The MET production team has only catered to the opera's weaknesses with a dreadful set and silly blocking. The two-tiered set seems to divide the royal world (a raked top tier, colored white) and the commoner world (a flat lower tier, colored black). This leads to strange character placement when royals and commoners sing to each other in the same scene. Perhaps the director thought he was being artistically clever when people had to stand on chairs from the lower tier to hand things to those on the upper tier. Perhaps the director thought that he was being artistically brilliant when he solved the problem of moving a large chorus by simply not moving them at all. Perhaps the director thought he was being artistically dazzling by updating the action to from 1414 to...well, no one can really be sure. Whatever vision the director may have had, the physical production remains a mediocre failure.
The singing, at least, was first-rate. Neil Shicoff obviously identifies deeply with the role of Eleazar. Shicoff's voice, somewhat worn and leathery, shone as he lived the character on stage. The fourth act "Rachel, quand du Seigneur" is Eleazar at his most exposed and emotional. Shicoff portrayed the goldsmith and his burdens of oppression, secrecy, and ultimate revenge with radiant intensity. Nearly equal to Shicoff's triumph was Ferruccio Furlanetto's Cardinal Brogni. His warm bass never allowed the character to become the stereotypical villain-making his condemnation of Rachel even more chilling. Soprano Soile Isokoski has a medium-sized instrument touched with soft velvet. A fine actress, Isokoski revealed a Rachel torn between her religion and her heart. The part, however, would have benefited from the heft of a dramatic over the sweetness of the lyric. Elizabeth Futral did some fine coloratura singing as the Princess, and Eric Cutler's charming high tenor made Leopold a sympathetic, yet misguided, prince.
La Juive was borrowed from the Vienna State Opera and was brought to the MET as a vehicle for Shicoff. It is doubtful that this production will lead to any mass movement to revive the French Grand Operas. Certainly the high quality of singing shows that the MET can cast operas from this period successfully and thus, should consider a new Les Huguenots, at least.
The Metropolitan Opera season continues with performances of La Traviata, Il Barbiere di Sivilia, Benvenuto Cellini, and Die Frau ohne Schatten, among many others. Go to www.metopera.org or call (212) 362-6000 for details.
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