Entertainment

Regal cast in Verdi work about European royalty

A flawed Verdi masterpiece inspired a superb performance Monday night when the Met unveiled its new, richly cerebral production of “Don Carlo.”

Spanish history inspired this saga of the 16th-century French princess Elizabeth, who loves Prince Carlo but agrees to marry his father, King Philip II, to end a war between their countries. Verdi grudgingly made heavy cuts to his music at the 1867 premiere, then tweaked the work for the next two decades, without ever arriving at a definitive version.

Towering over a regal cast was Roberto Alagna, in his first performance of the revised Italian version of this opera. As the Hamlet-like prince, the tenor offered perhaps his finest Met performance to date, sweetly poetic in lyrical moments and rocketing to thrilling high notes. Equally impressive was Ferrucio Furlanetto’s conflicted King Philip. At 61, the Italian bass still commands a vast range and thundering vocal power.

Less ideally cast was Anna Smirnova, who, in her Met debut, flung her ferocious mezzo in the general direction of the king’s scheming mistress, Eboli. More satisfying was Simon Keenlyside, who finessed a slender baritone into a heartfelt portrayal of the prince’s idealistic friend Posa.

The enigma at the center of the epic was Marina Poplavskaya’s Elizabeth. The tall Russian blonde recalled the young Meryl Streep as she commanded the stage, but, though she sang with passion and imagination, her smoky soprano veered from ethereal beauty to off-pitch shouting.

Leading the 4½-hour blockbuster was Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, coaxing from the Met orchestra the precision and passion usually reserved for music director James Levine. His brisk tempos and transparent textures both flattered the singers and propelled the tragic drama.

The elegance of his approach was echoed in the imposing staging by Nicholas Hytner, artistic director of Britain’s National Theatre, who illuminated the characters’ tormented relationships with a myriad of subtle acting details. Bob Crowley’s sets and costumes suggested the tense grandeur of Philip’s court in a restricted palette of red, gold and black.

The restrained visuals rightly threw focus on the singers, particularly Poplavskaya. Shortcomings aside, she has that indefinable something that elevates opera singing into high art. In “Don Carlo,” she’s as fascinating as the imperfect masterpiece she performs.