'Flying Dutchman' singers sail on
The ovations rang long and loud at the conclusion of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's performance of Wagner's ''The Flying Dutchman" Friday night, and music director James Levine and the cast were repeatedly called back to the stage.
This was a concert, not a semi-staging, but there was drama both onstage and behind the scenes. Reigning soprano Deborah Voigt had canceled earlier in the day, so the British-American soprano Elizabeth Byrne stepped in to sing the demanding role of Senta without any rehearsal with the orchestra. She displayed remarkable composure and delivered a solid, plucky, professional performance under supremely testing circumstances.
She's more of a pumped-up lyric rather than dramatic soprano, so she returned the role to an older German tradition that assigned this part to a lighter voice than we are used to today. Much of the time she sounded agreeably like the reliable German sopranos of the '50s featured in most of the early LP recordings of the opera. She had some lovely moments, especially when singing quietly. She has an attractive presence, but understandably restricted her acting to her voice. If she had had the benefit of Levine's famous coaching she might have sounded more possessed, more liberated, and she needs to get control of her topmost notes if she wants the kind of career her talent merits. Now they are a wobbly struggle for her, and she nearly lost the last, critical one at the end of the opera.
She was safe in the hands of Levine who knows how to safeguard and support a singer, and who has led 20 performances of this opera at the Met since 1979.
Byrne's unplanned debut did go better than a couple of the scheduled performances. As the simple huntsman Erik, Alfons Eberz looked like a serious graduate student, but sang like a beer-and-bratwurst cliché of a Heldentenor. Russian bass Mikhail Petrenko is 15 or 20 years away from being convincing as the gruff, grizzled, and greedy Norwegian sea captain Daland.
On the other hand, tenor Paul Groves sang the Steersman with strength and elegance, and mezzo Jane Bunnell contributed a bustling cameo as the busybody nurse Mary.
