On New Year’s Eve the Met Opera unveiled its first new production of I puritani in half a century. For his company directorial debut, Charles Edwards has created a traditional staging of Bellini’s final opera, a convoluted tale about the love between a fragile Puritan maiden and a Royalist Cavalier caught up in the turmoil of the English Civil War. Edwards’ starkly realistic single set design depicts a Puritan meeting house in 17th-century Plymouth, with boxed pews, raised pulpit and large, multi-paned windows. As the opera’s three acts unfold and the community comes under siege, the structure becomes increasing distressed, with Tim Mitchell’s imaginative lighting designs contributing significantly to the shockingly dramatic effect of the transformation.
Gabrielle Dalton’s costumes garb the Puritans simply and modestly: the women in plain black dresses with big white collars and caps; the men in doublets, breeches and wide-brimmed steeple hats. The more elaborate designs for the Royalist characters – Queen Enrichetta (widow of the executed Charles I) and the Cavalier Arturo – feature colorfully patterned fabrics trimmed with lace.
Though celebrated as a bel canto masterpiece, Puritani is rarely presented, largely due to its extreme vocal demands and Carlo Pepoli’s somewhat obtuse libretto. For the opera to be successful, four truly superb singers who excel in Bellini’s florid writing are needed. For the Met’s first performance since 2017, and the 64th in the company’s 142-year history, it has assembled an inspired cast. In the demanding role of the heroine Elvira – torn between her love for the Royalist Arturo and her arranged marriage to Riccardo, a Puritan colonel in Cromwell’s army – is soprano Lisette Oropesa. Enduring the torments of love and her perceived betrayal by Arturo, Elvira is mentally unhinged for much of the opera, but Oropesa’s singing remained poised and even throughout. This was especially so in Act 2’s long, technically demanding “mad scene”. The main aria, “Qui la voce sua soave” – in which she alternates between moments of pain and playfulness as she hallucinates about her beloved Arturo’s presence – was a superb display of vocal virtuosity.
With his agile, honey-toned tenor Lawrence Brownlee offered a strong and ardent portrayal of Arturo. With a punishingly high tessitura, it is one of the most difficult roles in the whole tenor repertoire and one Brownlee has taken on more than any other living singer. Giving his all from the very beginning, he sang an enchanting rendition of his grand entrance aria, “A te, o cara”, a love song to Elvira in which he expresses his joy about their upcoming wedding. In “Vieni fra questi braccia”, his passionate third act aria leading into an ecstatic duet with Elvira, he remained splendidly robust.
As Riccardo, baritone Artur Ruciński sang with noble phrasing and technical flexibility. His bel canto line and legato were most impressive in his soulful “Ah! Per sempre io ti perdei” in which, after learning that Elvira will marry Arturo, he pours out his sorrows to his officer, Bruno. Ruciński’s voice was especially well-paired with the resonant bass-baritone of Christian Van Horn as Giorgio, Elvira’s sympathetic uncle. Their patriotic and energetic duet, “Suoni la tromba”, preceded by a gorgeously atmospheric horn solo, was one of the evening’s many highlights.
Conductor Marco Armiliato molded a gorgeously melodic, finely balanced account of Bellini’s brilliant score, ensuring that the orchestra provided a secure foundation for the singers but never overwhelmed their demanding vocal lines. The Met Chorus, which plays a vital role, both vocally and dramatically, as the community of Pilgrims, was in magnificent form all night, most notably in the opera’s conclusion as they expressed their collective joy at the news of a general amnesty and the reunion of Elvira and Arturo.
