[Met Performance] CID:350424

Metropolitan Opera Premiere, New Production, American Opera

A View from the Bridge
Metropolitan Opera House, Thu, December 5, 2002

Debut : Dale Travis, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Frank Galati, Wendall K. Harrington




A View from the Bridge (1)
William Bolcolm | Arnold Weinstein/Arthur Miller
Alfieri
John Del Carlo

Louis
Dale Travis [Debut]

Mike
Tony Stevenson

Eddie
Kim Josephson

Catherine
Isabel Bayrakdarian [Debut]

Beatrice
Catherine Malfitano

A Woman
Lynn Taylor

A Man
Glenn Bater

Tony
Charles Reid

Rodolpho
Gregory Turay

Marco
Richard Bernstein

An Old Woman
Carole Wright

First Officer
Patrick Carfizzi

Second Officer
Anthony Laciura


Conductor
Dennis Russell Davies


Production
Frank Galati [Debut]

Designer
Santo Loquasto

Lighting Designer
Duane Schuler

Projection Designer
Wendall K. Harrington [Debut]





A View from the Bridge was commissioned and originally produced by Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Joining the company for curtain calls was Arthur Miller, author of the play, "A View from the Bridge".
A View from the Bridge received seven performances in one season.
Production photos of A View from the Bridge by Marty Sohl / Metropolitan Opera:

FUNDING:
The production a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Wilmer J. Thomas, Jr.
Additional funding by AT&T.

Review 1:

Review of Leighton Kerner in the March 2003 issue of OPERA NEWS

William Bolcom's second full-scale opera, "A View from the Bridge," opened at the Met on December 5 in the same strong production that was mounted for its world premiere at Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1999. Chicago commissioned "View," as it had commissioned Bolcom's first opera, "Mc Teague" (1992), and his next, "A Wedding" (a comedy after Robert Altman's film, slated for 2004), as well as another, subject and date to be announced.

"View" is famous as one of Arthur Miller's strongest tragedies, and certainly his most operatic (in a non-accusatory sense). First produced on Broadway in 1955 as a one-act play, later expanded to two acts, it became a vivid Sidney Lumet film (1961) and a short-lived, diluted-Puccini opera by Renzo Rossellini (also 1961). Arnold Weinstein, Bolcom's longtime lyricist and librettist, is also a friend of Miller, and the Chicago Lyric commission easily got itself a creative triumvirate, with Weinstein plunging into the adaptation and Miller suggesting changes and, at certain points, contributing fresh words.

The story takes the form of a Greek tragedy, transported to 1950s Brooklyn. The drama's wide span of references - from ancient Mediterranean atavism to modern New York waterfront realities, from mid-twentieth-century Sicilian poverty to U.S. opportunism in the same period - invites a veritable casserole of musical styles, a mixture that Bolcom's wide training and performance experience in popular and art music have put within his reach and grasp. The opera's very [beginning] has the orchestra pounding out hard-edged, marching chords - dissonances within simple lines - that evoke the tensions hidden in the regular routine of the docks. Using Johnny Black's 1915 song-that-never-died, "Paper Doll" as Miller did in his play to illustrate the immigrant Rodolpho's enthusiasm, Bolcom rings in suitable changes on it, orchestrating it lushly and stretching it in Italian pop style, later giving it an early-rock throb, as naivet? turns to youthful defiance. The obsessiveness of the protagonist, Eddie, makes his declamatory arias almost indistinguishable from his explosive recitatives. His wife, Beatrice, on the other hand, sings in expansive, often soaring phrases of torment. For the Met, Bolcom extended her octave-spanning, "When am I gonna be a wife again?" into a full aria, with new words by Miller, just as he added an angry solo for Eddie about the years of sacrificing to raise Catherine, Beatrice's niece and the object of his obsession. The illegal immigrant Marco's monologue ("A ship called Hunger") and his challenges to Eddie are set to music like iron. The attorney Alfieri, conscience of the community, sings in gentle but firm lines of tonal sanity, and the community's chorus ranges from sympathetic, soft chords to ominous mutterings and shouts.

The production and performance gained strength in the move from Chicago to New York. Director Frank Galati (Met debut) made the individual action more nuanced and ensembles cleaner. Santo Loquasto's streets and bridge-ramps made scenic transitions unobtrusive and fluid. Duane Schuler's lighting and Wendall K. Harrington's projections (from several prestigious photographic sources) were dramatic in themselves.

Dennis Russell Davies conducted with brilliant insight into all moods and styles. Baritone Kim Josephson, as Eddie, had gained vocal strength and theatrical punch. Catherine Malfitano's Beatrice was movingly pathetic but never maudlin, and her climactic accusation of incest against Eddie, with an invincible triple forte high C, was riveting. Isabel Bayrakdarian's lyric-soprano Catherine, also a Met debut, was a bit feistier but just as touching as in Chicago, where she sang three performances in 1999. Tenor Gregory Turay was once again an audience darling, especially in Rodolpho's delicate but fervent aria about "New York lights." Bass-baritone Richard Bernstein, new to the show, made Marco a pillar of intense song and white-hot emotion. Another newcomer, baritone John Del Carlo, offered an Alfieri vocally secure and of towering moral strength and physical form. Raymond Hughes's Met chorus was, as usual, perfect.



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