At a time of life when most opera singers can barely re member their glory days, 70-year-old Placido Domingo is still giving performances singers half his age could be proud of.
The legendary tenor returned to the Met Saturday night in one of the newest of his more than 100 opera roles, Oreste in Gluck’s 1779 “Iphigénie en Tauride.” This relatively short part, written in the baritone range, showed that more than five decades of singing has left but a soft patina on his vocal bronze.
True, the grandfather of eight is a visual mismatch for this character, a youthful Greek prince who’s fleeing justice for the revenge murder of his mother. When Oreste and his friend Pylade reach the barbaric land of Tauris, they’re condemned to be sacrificed to the goddess Diana by her high priestess — who turns out to be Oreste’s long-lost sister Iphigénie.
From Euripides’ melodramatic plot, Gluck concentrated on the human tragedy, crafting elegantly simple arias and duets moving in their noble restraint. This no-frills approach shifts the opera’s focus from vocal display to expressive delivery of the poetic French text, music in service of drama.
Yet it’s not so easy to sing, particularly the central role of the conflicted princess Iphigénie, her vocal lines sustained on the cusp of the mezzo-soprano range. Susan Graham sang the part with cool dignity, the beauty of her middle register lending the character a lovely vulnerability. A few strained high notes didn’t detract from one of this singer’s finest Met roles.
Also excellent was tenor Paul Groves as the devoted Pylade. His bright tone contrasted well with Domingo’s in their duets, and he was up for most of the heavy lifting in their emotional scenes as the older singer settled for a generalized attitude of mild distress.
Conductor Patrick Summers kept the texture light and the tempos animated, playing to the strengths of his artists, but director Stephen Wadsworth encrusted the simple action with everything from hand-jiving priestesses to a band of bloodthirsty warriors fluttering silk scarves.
Nevertheless, Diana’s climactic appearance — swooping from 40 feet above the Met stage — was achieved with an aplomb Julie Taymor’s Spider-Man might envy.