Melody Moore looks ill at ease as the title character, a Maria Callas type in ’70s Paris.
With Anjelica Huston, Parker Posey and Yoko Ono dotting the crowd at BAM Sunday afternoon, the New York City Opera’s premiere of “Prima Donna” offered more diva presence offstage than on.
The boldface names turned out for the composer of the new work, pop icon Rufus Wainwright, a self-proclaimed opera buff.
Unfortunately, everything about “Prima Donna” suggests its 38-year-old composer sees the art form as something quaint and artificial, almost campy.
Written, with Bernadette Colomine in stiff, textbook French — the reason the Metropolitan Opera, which commissioned the work, decided to forgo it — “Prima Donna” is an insider anecdote about a diva, Régine Saint Laurent, who’s considering a comeback years after a mysterious trauma drove her from the stage. Though Saint Laurent’s a fictional character, the 1970 time period and Paris setting recall the lonely last days of Maria Callas, following her breakup with lover Aristotle Onassis.
Wainwright paired this feeble tale with a self-consciously old-fashioned score echoing composers from a century ago, Puccini and Richard Strauss among them. Other moments recall the soundtrack of a ’40s tear-jerker: lush with harps and throbbing horns, but instantly forgettable.
Only Régine’s final aria, “Les feux d’artifice t’appellent” (“The fireworks call to you”) rang true, a gentle ballad in Wainwright’s trademark bittersweet style, as the diva resigns herself to obscurity.
It’s debatable whether a piece like this belongs at NYCO, but the company staged it as if it were a masterpiece. Antony McDonald designed towering walls of tarnished silver for the diva’s decaying apartment, and director Tim Albery kept the static story on its feet. Only an overlong mad scene seemed to drag.
That misfire may also be the fault of the show’s leading lady, Melody Moore. Though her warm, vibrant soprano filled out the soaring lines easily, she lacked any trace of diva mystique. When Régine slipped into her old opera costume and auburn wig, Moore looked dowdy and uncomfortable.
More on point were the supporting artists, especially Taylor Stayton as the journalist André. His tenor hovered around high C with casual ease. Joining him in the vocal stratosphere was soprano Kathryn Guthrie Demos as the diva’s maid Marie, who ended her second-act aria with a high note just shy of dog-whistle territory.
Dramatically, the show belonged to Randal Turner, who portrays the diva’s bitchy butler, Philippe. Though the part’s wide range stretched his light baritone to the limit, his was the only performance that evoked high-stakes passion.
Under Jayce Ogren’s baton, the orchestra sounded rough, frequently swamping the singers. Then again, with music this mediocre, missing a note here and there is no tragedy.