Review: Spectacular Nadine Sierra Shines in Villazon’s Somnambulant SONNAMBULA by Bellini

Sometimes great singing can save a bad production.

It happened with the Met’s previous attempt at Bellini’s LA SONNAMBULA (The Sleepwalker), which had been DOA at its premiere despite a star cast but rose like a phoenix when it was revived with other stars a year later. This time around, in the misguided, often silly take under the direction of the former tenor Rolando Villazón, soprano Nadine Sierra tried her considerable best as Amina to bring it to life but Villazón was a problem that her great singing couldn’t totally surmount.

Making his Met directorial debut, Villazón supposedly explores the opera's themes of love and loss, while making it look like a period piece in its original Swiss Alps setting, adding the element of wildness that, perhaps, Amina was suppressing.

He did this by inserting a nonspeaking body-double dancer (Niara Hardister) to interact with the heroine, to show off this wild-and-crazy aspect of the young woman. It may have worked for a moment or two but then just seemed to get in the way of Amina and became an annoyance, distracting from Sierra’s performance.

One might have thought that a one-time star singer like Villazón might have been useful to the evening’s tenor, Xabier Anduaga, in making the role of Amina’s husband-to-be, Elvino, more appealing. One would have been wrong. This was the first time I’d heard Anduaga and they say his portrayal of Nemorino in L’ELISIR D’AMORE was considered a notable success.

This time around, he gave one of those “park and bark” performances for most of the evening—showing off what seemed to be an appealing instrument, though no particular acting skills—only coming alive pretty far along in the proceedings, though he did some notably fine work in Act II.

The other principals did well for themselves under the circumstances. Soprano Sydney Mancasola, as Amina’s friend Lisa who wanted Elvino for herself, sounded lovely and carried her character’s disappointment while remaining attractive. (She first impressed me a dozen years ago as one of the finalists in the Met’s Council Auditions.) 

As Count Rodolfo, a mysterious figure who identifies Amina’s odd behavior as that of a sleepwalker (sonnabula), bass Alexander Vinogradov showed off a luxurious voice and a command of the stage, though I thought there was more to the role than was exhibited at the Met. Bass-baritone Nicholas Newton, in his house debut, was appealing as the thwarted love interest for Lisa and persuasive mezzo Deborah Nansteel brought a force-of-nature attitude to Teresa, Amina’s adoptive mother.

Conductor Riccardo Frizza and the Met orchestra kept the engaging score moving along, giving strong support to Sierra in the famed sleepwalking scene in Act II, while the Met chorus, under Tilman Michael, was a key element in the action.

Though I don’t find the score in the same category as Bellini’s NORMA or I PURITANI, there’s certainly enough to relish considering how little Bellini left for us when he died at 33. (Of course, there's that wonderful sleepwalking scene in Act II!) On the other hand, the libretto by Felice Romani—not a comedy, not a drama—would have tried even a more practiced composer.

As for the setting, a two-level affair, the background of the alps from set designer Johannes Leiacker, with Donald Holder’s lighting and Renaud Rubiano’s projections didn’t do much to move things along. The part of the set that interacted most with the singers, looked like a series of meat lockers, which I’m sure was not the intention. The grim-looking costumes from designer Brigitte Reiffenstuel didn’t help much either, though supporting the plot description that the heroine was part of a conservative community.

The October 18 performance of SONNAMBULA will be broadcast as part of the Met’s Live in HD series to cinemas worldwide and the opera will be in the company’s repertoire through November 1. See the Met’s website for more information and tickets.

Caption: Nadine Sierra.

Credit: Marty Sohl/Met Opera