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Review: ‘L’Italiana in Algeri,’ a Comedy With Coloratura and Pasta
There came a point during Tuesday’s performance of Rossini’s “L’Italiana in Algeri” at the Metropolitan Opera when I vowed I would stop laughing at the sophomoric spectacle in front of me.
I think it was when the chorus of masked, rubber-bellied eunuchs started whipping a row of twerking harem girls, in sync with the music. I had already cringed at the extravagant black-tufted wigs that covered the chest and back of the bass Ildar Abdrazakov in a scene showing his character, the Algerian bey Mustafà, in his bath. And I had stared, with alarmed bemusement, at Mr. Abdrazakov’s soft-shoeing, air-guitar-playing, floor-pounding performance, which seemed to grow more unhinged as the evening wore on.
But my resolution came to naught. Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s 1973 staging of this battle of the sexes, framed by Rossini and his librettist as an abduction drama, may be the silliest and most stereotype-laden production in the Met’s repertory. But it’s still very funny — irresistibly so, as I found out.
This revival is conducted by James Levine, making his first appearance in his new role as music director emeritus. He conducted this effervescent music with a steady hand, sure pacing and an eye for instances of opulent instrumental color, which are tucked in among the otherwise briskly efficient score.
The opera’s female lead is Isabella, a feisty Italian captive who uses charm, wit and mountains of pasta to spring free her lover, Lindoro, who was taken into slavery some months earlier. The vocally challenging Isabella — requiring nimble coloratura and a certain earthiness in the form of a grounded low register — had been planned for the American mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong. But illness forced her to withdraw, leaving the Italian mezzo Marianna Pizzolato to take over, in her Met debut.
The froufrou production, with its over-the-top performances, proved a fine foil for Ms. Pizzolato’s matronly, no-nonsense presence and her dark-toned, coolly assured singing and crystal-clear diction. Marshaling all the matter-of-fact bossiness of an Italian mama, she disarmed the vainglorious Mustafà.
René Barbera, also in his first Met appearance, brought a light, urbane tenor to the role of Lindoro, the somewhat colorless object of Isabella’s affections and intrigue. The suave baritone Nicola Alaimo was almost miscast as the hapless Taddeo, singing with elegance and richness of tone.
The sunny-voiced soprano Ying Fang perfectly inhabited the part of Elvira, Mustafà’s jilted, ditsy wife. The vibrant Canadian-Tunisian mezzo Rihab Chaieb, as Elvira’s slave, Zulma, and the solid baritone Dwayne Croft, as the put-upon pirate captain Haly, offered strong support.
But the evening belonged, for better or worse, to Mr. Abdrazakov. His eye-rolling, pantomiming performance sometimes grew exhausting, but vocally, he remained focused and resonant in every angle and turn of the sometimes preposterous coloratura passages Rossini assigned to him.
At the end of the opera, his character collapses into gluttonous silence. When Mustafà realizes that in the meantime, the Italians have made their escape, there is little left for him to do except throw fistfuls of spaghetti after them.
“L’Italiana in Algeri” runs through Oct. 29 at the Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center; metopera.org.
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