Iolanta / Bluebeard's Castle

The Met

A double bill!

It's an odd pairing at first sight, for sure. But, the do make some sort of sense together. Iolanta is about a girl who can't see and does not really want to see or need to see and Bluebeard's Castle is about a woman who desperately wants to see and is doomed by what she sees in the castle.

Both were new to me. Iolanta I had never heard of and Bluebeard I was familiar with from rumor, but I had never heard either.

The draw here is not only the odd pairing, but Anna Netrebko as Iolanta and then a fancy production on both, to boot.

I thought most everything worked the first half of the night. Iolanta is actually quite lovely. Probably the only thing keeping it from more performances and a regular rotation in the opera canon is its length. The libretto is interesting, the action is quick, the music is beautiful.

I've heard Netrebko twice now, and recently, too. The first time, La Boheme, was breathtaking. The second, here - it was nice. She didn't settle until a bigger aria farther in. There weren't any great showstopper arias to showcase that immense talent. It was an odd fit, quite frankly. The orchestra was too loud the whole way through, which is the greatest sin an opera orchestra can make. The sets were gorgeous, but perhaps a little too minimal for the amount of action, the story, the time period of the story, etc. Overall, I am delighted I heard it, but mainly because it introduced me to something lovely, something I'd like to grab on CD or mp3 when the opportunity presents itself.

Intermission, and then on to Bluebeard, which was just damn strange. After the elegance of the first part of the evening, the libretto was bad, like very bad. I think if you are reading the story it is one thing, but to try and push that into an opera without varying the words, which came down to something like "Give me the key, give me the key" and "Open the door, open the door." repeatedly - it was a killer. I know all the rage here is the specialness of the Bartok music - personally this is one I had always wanted to see, but after having seen it if never again, oh well!

We had the runner-up soprano, as the first string soprano was not on the calendar for our evening. Perhaps it would have made a difference. Perhaps not. Our soprano certainly did not redeem the opera.

As theater, I thought it was effective with these speaker haunted house noises, the beautiful sets, the screen between scenes with the dark, moving projection on it. I can understand how it would be irresistible to try.

It made for a strange evening. I'm still glad I went. Curiosity may have killed the cat on this one, but at least my curiosity was satisfied and at the very least I was introduced to the pretty and psychologically rather complex Iolanta.