AT the Metropolitan Opera’s opening per formance of “La Son nambula” Monday night, the most vigorous vocalism emerged from the wrong side of the footlights. Hundreds of the capacity audience erupted in loud boos when director Mary Zimmerman took her curtain call – clearly displeased with the Tony winner’s postmodern take on Bellini’s wispy plot.
In his 1831 opera “La Sonnambula,” small-town virgin Amina (Natalie Dessay) loses her reputation after waking up in a strange man’s bed. Even her boyfriend Elvino (Juan Diego Florez) rejects her, until he realizes she is, as the title implies, a sleepwalker.
Zimmerman attempts to add a layer of sophistication to this naive tale by setting the action in a modern-day rehearsal hall. A soaring SoHo-like loft space designed by Daniel Ostling, the room is scattered with folding chairs, music stands and costume racks, ready for a run-through of “La Sonnambula.”
The “villagers” are now choristers in jeans, sweaters and casual skirts, and the drowsy ingenue has become a bitchy diva complete with cellphone and oversize sunglasses. As Amina sings delicately of nature and the joy of first love, she tries on shoes and trashes a half-dozen wigs.
Stranger concepts have succeeded in the opera house, but Zimmerman’s ideas lacked both conviction and consistency. Why, for example, did the chorus tear its music into confetti during the first-act finale?
The audience, unsure of what was happening onstage, tittered nervously. Even the finale, with the entire company decked out in glitzy Swiss costumes for a campy “Springtime for Hitler” production number, puzzled more than it pleased.
The worst opera staging can be redeemed by great singing, and in Florez, the Met can boast one of the world’s most stylish tenors. His light, tangy voice alternated between sweetness in the lyrical sections and sheer adrenaline when he skyrocketed into the stratosphere around high C.
Dessay was less happily cast as Amina. Her manic mugging couldn’t camouflage a worn voice that left Bellini’s elegiac melodies sounding threadbare.
The strong supporting cast featured Michele Pertusi, who unfurled a suave bass as a mysterious count.
Conductor Evelino Pido showed consideration in keeping the Met orchestra down, never overwhelming the light voices of his cast. But an opera about sleepwalking needs someone more alert in charge or else the audience is likely to doze.
LA SONNAMBULA
Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center; 212-362-6000. Through April 3.