This is my opinion about the Met's opening night/premiere of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, which at the time of writing just wrapped up. Disclaimer: This is audio impression only.
Anna Netrebko (Regina Anna Bolena): Super! However her singing is a bit uneven. A lot of phrasing was cut right when you expect the phrase to flow on smoothly. Her pianissimo high Cs and Bs were lovely. Her trio with Percy and the King(?) was really good. Take on final scene: love love love the "Al dolce guidami", a few good, real trills earlier on then fake-d trills (up untill Coppia). Hate the "Cielo a miei lunghi spasimi", a lot of phrases got murdered, but good high note (a D in alt I think). "Coppia iniqua" was smashing (fake trills notwithstanding)! Overall a success IMHO.
Ekaterina Gubanova (Donna Giovanna Seymour): She's WILDLY uneven. Some singing was extremely beautiful, some like a student trying to figure out how to sing Fs and Gs. But the consensus is the voice was too weighty for Seymour. The best singing was in her final aria, "Ah pensate che rivolti". Her scenes with the King fell flat, her and Ildar's voices just don't mix well. I was thinking how would Garanca (supposedly the Seymour for this production, but had to skip due to pregnancy) have sung each phrase everytime Gubanova sang.
Tamara Mumford (Smeton): I like her. I like her Smeton very much. Her voice had that fast, tight vibrato which I always adore. Her arias (as such that they were) were well-sung, and the caught-red-handed scene (at the end of act I) was nice. I wished she had traded parts with Gubanova! - there, I said it.
Stephen Costello (Don Riccardo Percy): Oh Costello. The biggest disappointment, for sure. The voice was attractive enough, but sounded suspiciously not warmed up. His pianissimo high notes sounded like falsetto, not a good voix-mixte that's for sure. I wonder if it travelled in the house. Near the end he sounded just plain tired. And he lunged all over the place for his high notes, and in the second act also for the notes which are not exactly the apex (i.e. the hardest to reach) of his phrases. It sounded a bit like groaning springs, sometimes - Il Scoopendo, indeed. His "Vivi tu" was fine, but the cabaletta was deeply disappointing. Sad.
Ildar Abdrazakov (Re Enrico VIII): It's hard to judge Ildar because today is his birthday!! He sounded good, but his bottom notes just mysteriously disappeared. I mean, he's a bass right? Needs to improve his coloratura though - his runs and figures sounded throaty and almost-a-trainwreck-but-not-quite-yet.
Marco Armiliato, Met orchestra and chorus: Nice, but some section lacking in impetus. Marco needs to man up and drive the tempo more, especially when Netrebko begins dragging. But overall, good playing. The English horn solo for "Al dolce guidami" is really good. Chorus: not as good. Off night? Un-sync entrances, tremors (especially the ladies).
Overall impression: 3.5 out of 5, not an ideal performance but a pretty good justification for Anna Bolena's first ever performance at the Met. Shame about Costello (probably nerves), but the opera *is* about Anna. Ah well.
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