We had dinner with friends Ina and Marcel at Café Fiorello beforehand. We ate inside, but out on the street next door, people were dining outside—in December. Dante Park, across Ninth Ave. from Lincoln Center Plaza has a pretty spruce tree, I think, decorated for the season.
Sir Walter Scott’s poem, The Lady of the Lake, was Rossini’s source for the opera. It is set in the Scottish Highlands, during a rebellion against Scottish King James V, son of Mary Queen of Scots. The plot is too banal to discuss further. The Met’s sets are dreadful, dark and dreary. The only light is at the end of the opera in the palace scene denouements.
The music, conducted by Michele Mariotti, is magnificent and the singing of Joyce DiDonato, Elena, alone is worth the ticket price. Elena’s love is Malcolm, sung by Daniela Barcellona, in a ‘trouser’ role. Of the other two suitors, Rodrigo, John Osborne, dies in the insurrection and Giacomo, the king, is well sung by Lawrence Brownlee. Elena clearly missed a bet turning down the king’s suit.
New blooms: forsythia, vinca minor. [pix next post]
People dining outside across the street from Lincoln Center on December 15.
Lincoln Center Plaza.
Dante Park xmas tree. [The park is between 9th Ave and Broadway at Lincoln Center.]
Intermission at the Met Opera.
Bows after the finale. Joyce DiDonato is in the blue dress and red hair.
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