Opera in NYC: Mefistofele at the Met Opera

Splendid and colorfully rich production of Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele at the Met Opera until December 1, 2018

A revival of Robert Carsen’s the 1999 production of Boito’s Mefistofele brings all the elements of grand opera to the Met Opera stage. Omnipresent and vicious devil whistling and steering havoc, magnificent chorus scenes mightily delivered by the members of Met chorus and ballet, vibrant costumes and powerful singing are all in evidence throughout the performance.

Regarded as a showpiece for basses with Samuel Ramey famously singing Mefistofele with all the demonic charisma in place, Christian Van Horn, a bass-baritone, commands a formidable presence. Faust, his counterpart, played by young tenor Michael Fabiano, is reasonably sensual if restrained at times. Yet, both make an impressive leading pair going through all the ups and downs of Boito’s illustrious masterpiece.

 

The set and costume design by Michael Levine adds a strong visual component to the production and sometimes competes for attention with the music and the main characters. With sensitive and penetrating soprano Angela Meade as Margherita and Carlo Rizzi conducting, the opera is a fantastic treat for the spectators reminding us of vices and virtues in a truly theatrical way.

Click here for dates and discounted tickets with a code TNTIX

 

Arrigo Boito, an Italian composer, and librettist, was working alongside the grand masters of the Italian opera world Verdi and Ponchielli. He is well known for writing librettos for such masterpieces by Verdi as Otello and Falstaff and later Simon Boccanegra. Boito’s aesthetics and literary tastes bent towards bohemian settings, so it’s not surprising that he put Goethe’s play Faust at the base of his opera Mefistofele. For it, Boito wrote both the music score and the libretto. Aiming for a novelty in artistic expression, the stress was put on the devil which was rather an unusual move at the time.

The opera premiere at La Scala Theater in 1868 was a fiasco, which led to its extensive revisions and additions. It re-premiered in Bologna in 1875, and from that time Mefistofele had achieved its tremendous success and earned itself an eternal place in the repertoires of every Opera House around the world.

While the score includes sensual love arias and highly emotional departing scene for Margherita and a soul-searching one for Helena, its the devil with his raspy and dissonant notes, its unabashed stance and its defiance together with the witches and other underworld kinds that rule the stage. This is particularly evident from the start of this production which opens with the flames of hell projected onto the disturbingly red curtains for a Prologue. Mefistofele mischievously appears from the orchestra pit sneaking in his shoes in a red violin case. The mood and the stage are set in a literal sense.

Met Opera chorus mighty performance, exuberant costumes by Michael Levine and theatricality of Carsen’s production are transforming Boito’s transactional scenario into a “lively cross-chronological carnival” in the words of the New York Times review.  And if Van Horn’s Mefistofele at times appears too timid and Fabiano’s Faust somewhat tamed, its the chorus scenes and Angela Meade’s superb singing that are scoring lots of points from the audience.

Memorable appearances in the role of Mefistofele on the Met stage were by Samuel Ramey in 1999-2000 and by Fyodor Chaliapin in 1907-1925.

This production running time is 3 hours and 29 minutes with two intermissions.

 

 

 

 

Dates and discounted tickets with a code TNTIX:

Friday, November 16, 2018, at 7.30 pm

Monday, November 19, 2018, at 7.30 pm

Saturday, November 24, 2018 at 8.00 pm

Tuesday, November 27, 2018, at 7.30 pm

Saturday, December 1, 2018, at 1.00 pm

Venue: Met Opera, Lincoln Center, NY

With the New York Pass your can enjoy a free tour of the historic Lincoln Center and much more.