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La Forza del Destino received twelve performances this season.

Review 1:

Bill Zachariasen in the Daily News
?La Forza del Destino? returns to the Met

Verdi's "La Forza del Destino" returned to the Metropolitan Opera Wednesday night with three major cast changes. Jose Carreras (coincidentally the third Spanish tenor in a row to have the lead role during the [first] week of the Met's 100th season) turned in the most impressive performance as Don Alvaro. He phrased grandly, and proved he could produce the requisite feral volume without forcing ? something he hasn't always done in the past. Moreover, Carreras was unusually convincing in depicting Alvaro's tormented character.

In her first Leonora, Grace Bumbry began well, but by the Convent scene, she sounded hard- pressed and raw of tone. Since her voice fundamentally has the desired heft for the role, it would seem her basic problems are breath control and timing ? maybe she should seek out Zinka Milanov for advice. As Don Carlo, baritone Renato Bruson sang with his customary suavity in the role's lyric passages, but the dramatic ones found him reduced to off-pitch bellowing. The voice of basso Nicolai Ghiaruov, returning as Padre Guardiano, is currently rather threadbare, but he phrased with notable elegance and sympathy. Baritone Renato Capecchi's Fra Melitone remained a delight dramatically, if not vocally.

Mezzo Isola Jones, who?s bush-league PreziosilIa was an embarrassment to the company last season, has obviously reworked her performance completely, to her advantage and Verdi's. She's now vocally and visually just about perfect in the part. James Levine's conducting seemed oddly lacking in pulse this time ? perhaps the grueling rehearsals and performances of "Les Troyens" are taking their toll.

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