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Opera Review

Tempering His Strut, a Peacock Soars Without Overpowering

The tenor Vittorio Grigolo, here performing in "Les Contes D'Hoffmann" with the soprano Erin Morley, returned to the Metropolitan Opera to star in this revival of a 2009 Bartlett Sher production through Feb. 5.Credit...Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Tenors, as a group, are notorious for supposed musical bad behavior. They add in high notes where none exist and sit for hours on the ones actually in the score. They are said to ignore their colleagues and milk the crowd.

In his first couple of productions at the Metropolitan Opera, where he returned on Monday to star in a revival of Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann,” Vittorio Grigolo was guilty of all manner of tenorial misdemeanors. As Rodolfo, in Puccini’s “La Bohème,” in 2010, and the Duke, in Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” in 2013, he showboated; he crooned; he sang loudly when he wasn’t supposed to, because, well, why not?

But like a chastened miscreant on probation, Mr. Grigolo arrived for “Hoffmann” seeming eagerly reformed. He sang with (relative) restraint. While in “La Bohème” and “Rigoletto” he’d been hyperactive, he was now (more or less) calmer and focused. When he was singing with someone, he (most of the time) genuinely acknowledged her existence.

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Mr. Grigolo, center, in "Les Contes d’Hoffmann."Credit...Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Mr. Grigolo remains an “even if” kind of artist. His high notes are strong and clear, even if they sound muscled out rather than freely ringing. His voice has a pleasant, sunny basic color, even if it doesn’t move with ideal fluidity. He has an engaging presence, even if he doesn’t act with much specificity or phrase with much artfulness.

The women displayed more artfulness in this revival of Bartlett Sher’s 2009 production, a flimsy-looking mash-up of images from Kafka, Fellini and Magritte. The soprano Erin Morley was a remarkable Olympia, bringing rounded tone, dynamic variety and dramatic flair — showing both humor and pathos — to a literally robotic role often cast solely for facility with stratospheric high notes.

Representing the other two facets of Hoffmann’s ideal woman, Hibla Gerzmava sang the pathetic Antonia with a soprano that was soft-grained yet penetrating, and the mezzo-soprano Christine Rice was dignified if a bit sour-toned as the courtesan Giulietta. The elegant mezzo Kate Lindsey was Hoffmann’s friend Nicklausse, her voice silvery with a hint of cream, though too light for her soaring solo in Act 2.

The opera’s four villains, collectively a role for a true bass-baritone, dragged the veteran baritone Thomas Hampson well below his comfort zone, into a low part of his voice that lacked fullness and power. He struggled to stay coordinated with the conductor, Yves Abel, who led a graceful, agile orchestral performance but tended to either push the singers or pull them. At least Mr. Grigolo, newly obedient, seemed happy to be led.

“Les Contes d’Hoffmann” runs, with this cast through Feb. 5 and returns from Feb. 28 through March 21 with different singers and the conductor James Levine, at the Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center; 212-362-6000, metopera.org.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section C, Page 5 of the New York edition with the headline: Tempering His Strut, a Peacock Soars Without Overpowering. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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