After 130 years, you’d think the Met has done everything at least once. But Tuesday was a night full of firsts — the premiere of a Verdi opera, the debut of a legendary conductor, and the first appearance on the Met stage of costumes by Prada.
“Attila,” an 1846 melodrama about the assassination of the notorious Hun, was chosen by Riccardo Muti for his first (and, he says, only) appearance at the Met. The Italian maestro won a standing ovation for his masterful, thrilling reading of this uneven score. His unflashy style makes the music sound so natural and inevitable that you can’t imagine it being played any other way.
The nonmusical buzz of the night centered on Miuccia Prada’s extravagant costumes. As Attila, Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov might have been a fashion-forward Romulan in his distressed leather trench and LED-studded helmet. Full-figured soprano Violeta Urmana rocked a stratospheric beehive wig and a ball gown of metallic silk in a gold so intense it seemed radioactive.
She and the other singers bloomed under Muti’s baton. So pedestrian in “Aida” a few months ago, here Urmana sounded fiery, vulnerable and grandiose as the vengeful Odabella’s music demanded. Even the jagged coloratura of her opening aria “Santo di patria” rang out with confidence.
As her lover Foresto, tenor Ramón Vargas offered elegant legato, if wimpy top notes. Giovanni Meoni, replacing an ill singer on 36 hours’ notice in the role of General Ezio, made a promising debut with his warm, compact baritone. Veteran bass Samuel Ramey, a world-famous Attila in the 1980s and ’90s, boomed out the cameo part of Pope Leo, who dons Prada loafers to repel the barbarian menace.
As the Hun, Abdrazakov looked properly menacing and sang in a handsome, rich bass. What he lacked was star quality, both in personality and vocal color.
A few boos greeted director Pierre Audi, who avoided even a hint of camp in this lurid epic. Unfortunately, he could do little more than line up his singers in front of the tall, brooding architectural sets by Met first-timers Herzog & de Meuron, best known for the “Bird’s Nest” stadium at the Beijing Olympics.