The house was full tonight for Rolando Villazon's return to the MET
after almost a year and a half, as Edgardo in Lucia, and for Anna
Netrebko's first MET Lucia, but whatever drama is in the libretto and
music was overtaken rather quickly by Mr. Villazon's vocal
difficulties with the role, and with the apparent state of his voice,
at least at this moment and in this role in a house as large as the
MET. From his entrance, warmly applauded, including by me (I'd heard
him last a few months ago in Hoffman at Covent Garden), the voice was
simply not in good repair. There was a real bleat throughout the
range, and it was pretty clear that anything above a G was going to
get short shrift. Most of the upper notes (and the first scene is a
difficult one - high and wide ranging) were at best sketched in or
touched in passing (and hardly in tune), and he and Miss Netrebko (who
is obviously quite supportive of him) cut short the final Bb of the
duet to something that barely got them into the tonic barline. My own
perception had been that, earlier in the duet, he'd actually exchanged
with her the two lines, taking the 'lower' line and not the upper line
as written, but it may be that he was singing some of what was written
was was simply inaudible.I thought that even the size of the voice was
a bit limited from what I'd last heard in the house, although that's
somewhat more difficult to tell.

The second-act, however, held a moment of heart-stopping disaster. He
lauched into the curse quite convincingly, I thought - he'd been good
enough in the sextette, but I thought had cheated a bit on phrases -
and nailed the initial high As, but you could here that he was
throwing eveything he had into them, and really driving the voice up
from below unmercifully. Then, he got the the  key phrase, "Ah, ma di
Deo la mano irata", where the tenor picks up the A (again) that the
soprano's been singing along with him, sustains it with contempt and
anger, and though it's not written into the score, rises to a Bb,
holds it and plunges down to an e in the staff on vi disperda (if you
don't think you know the music of the words, it's the moment when he
typically casts Lucia down in disgust just before the final chorus of
the act). In any case, there's no orchestra underneath the tenor at
this moment - he's all alone - and after holding the A for a few
seconds, and just before he'd rise to the Bb, Rolando just stopped
singing. The entire entire stage, orchestra, and for that matter
audience was frozen for perhaps  7 or 8 seconds in total silence. It
was obvious he'd lost the note, and his voice, he couldn't rise to the
Bb, and it wasn't clear whether he'd walk off stage, speak the final
few words, or whether the orchestra would just be signaled to come in
and finish without him.

In the event, he resumed on the A (briefly), went down and the act
finished, although obviously he was almost inaudible in the final
concertato and Miss Netrebko somewhat flustered. I don't have the
impression he cracked - I think he just didn't have the note and knew
it, and at least he had the courage to find it again and finish.

The third act (there was speculation he would not sing, but Mr. Gelb
came out and announced not just that he was sick but would continue,
asking our indulgence (which would have been the tactful way to handle
it) but said something like, "As you can hear tonight, Mr. Villazon is
not feeling well...." which I thought unnecessary) at the MET involved
the duet with the baritone, the most martial music of the opera, and
then of course the great final scene. Oddly, or happily, some of the
beat in the voice seemed to disappear in the duet, and he actually
sang more of the notes - he still sketched in the upper quarter of the
voice, but he was really pushing and setting himself and with that
kind of effort - but the duet isn't quite as high, and I don't think
rises above one or two As.

The tomb scene one wanted to go well for him, but I thought the beat
was back in the voice. Still he managed a sustained Bb just before the
Fra Poco, and sang this music very well, quite remarkable considering
what mental state he had to be in. I thought things were still going
well, but as he got to the very final phrases of the Tu che a Dio
(there are two virtually identical phrases (il Nume in ciel) that rise
to a G at the top of the staff) he completely dropped the second
phrase - completely obvious here because there's no doubling in the
instruments for it - I presume to manage the Bb at the end, which he
did in a fashion.

I feel for this man - he is incredibly engaging on stage -
particularly when he's not manic - has a real sense of the words, and
wants to give 100%, and coming back to the MET tonight, with the
telecast two weeks away, had to be tremendous pressure. Perhaps he was
genuinely ill, but I don't think the vocal estate was much different
than what I heard at Covent Garden a few months ago - our house is
much larger, the role is more exposed in a funny way, and even at
Covent Garden there were vocal problems, although the nature of the
character of Hoffman let him act them  away. Far be it from me, or
from any of us, to second guess a professional singer's career, or to
sit in judgment, but while I simply felt for him in the second act, I
thought that the cheating in the third was unacceptable and there is a
legitimate question, I believe, about whether Mr. Villazon will put
his voice at the service of those roles, perhaps circumscribed in
number, which he can still do well, or whether he is going to continue
to engage, as he has in the past, in a kind of wrestling match with
roles for which he is simply not suited, and to which no amount of
stubborness, intelligence and manic energy can let him serve properly.
Tonight was perhaps simply a matter of 'getting through', and he's to
be applauded coming back for the risks of the third act - I suppose
from a career point of view, withdrawing from the third act could have
been calamatous. But the longer term pattern of behavior has not
reassured me that he thinks his role is to serve the music, rather
than bully it, and were I he, I would withdraw from the rest of these
performances and return for the Nemorinos later in the season.

For those who crave Miss Nebtrebko, I will only say that I thought
this was her best showing ever in the house - although that, to me,
isn't quite the compliment it would be coming from others. In the
second act in particular I thought her very fine, with a real view of
the character, a beautiful sense of line, and if she could
consistently sing at this level musically and artistically I would be
happy indeed. She is good enough in the coloratura - it is not ideally
fleet, but it doesn't sound labored to me - and she tends to go flat,
above a B - the two Ebs were both strikingly bad, each perhaps a
quarter tone (the first a little more) shy of the note - but I thought
that the beauty of the voice really is in legato singing, and she
seems increasing able to convey (at least to me) a sense of repose and
care of phasing when he is not pushed by the music. I find her most
disturbing feature to be a tendency to start many, many phrases behind
the beat - is this something which she learned watching Makarova in
St. Petersburg? - but the voice itself is lovely and a real lyric
size, at least in the upper octave. She'd make, I think, a very fine
Magda in Rondine, if only in a slightly smaller house. I also found,
oddly, that her pronunciation, which never seemed to me very Russian,
now sound much more so, particularly in some of the 'oo' vowels, and
wonder if that's her or me. Still a fine if not a spectacular evening
for her.

Ildar Abdrakakov ws a fine Raimondo and Mariusz Kwiecien, though with
a lovely sound, still seems to me to hector at the upper end of his
range. Marco Armilato conducted well enough, but surely deserves
praise and respect for seeing Mr Villazon through his difficult
moments.