Last seen at the Met in 2019, Mark Morris’ dance-intensive production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice is back for its fifth revival, looking and sounding as fresh as ever. Based on the composer’s 1762 Vienna version of the score, the spirited staging, which Morris choreographed as well as directed, blends captivating choreography with superb singing in librettist Ranieri de’ Calzabigi’s happy-ending retelling of the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. Updated to the present, the action is surrounded by nearly 100 Met Opera choristers who – each elaborately costumed by Isaac Mizrahi as a different historic character, from antiquity (Moses, Nefertiti, Plato) to the modern era (Bob Dylan, Mother Teresa, Princess Diana) – visually reaffirm the timelessness of the ancient tale as they watch the story unfold from a triple-tiered semi-circle of balconies overlooking the main playing area.
This opening night performance was dazzling, both vocally and dramatically. Leading the three-character cast was Anthony Roth Costanzo as Orfeo, the grieving husband who ventures into the underworld to retrieve his deceased bride, Euridice. The opera is very nearly a one-man show as the main character sings almost all the arias and is on stage for most of the 90-minute running time. Costanzo did justice to the part at every moment. Clad in a black western style shirt and pants, with a guitar strapped to his back, he presented a captivating mix of sensitivity and bravery in his elegant portrayal of the mythic hero. His flawless pitch and perfectly controlled countertenor with its powerful fortissimos and exquisite pianissimos conveyed all the emotional nuances in every line of his music. The chorus’s sorrowful opening chorus, “Ah! se intorno”, became increasingly moving as his haunting cries of “Euridice” interrupted its melancholy course. “Chiamo il mio ben cosi”, his Act 1 lament of Euridice’s passing, was literally a showstopper, interrupted after the first of its three verses by vociferous applause from enthusiastic audience members. “Che puro ciel”, his greeting to the Elysian landscape, was nothing less than stunning, but his most marvelous singing came near the end of the opera, in his sublime and stunningly plangent rendition of Gluck’s most famous aria, “Che faro senza Euridice?”
In her two brief appearances, Elena Villalón, making a company debut as Amore, the God of Love, was a scene-stealer. Dressed in khakis, sneakers and a t-shirt fitted with tiny wings, she made a spectacular, giggle-inducing first entrance as she descended (on wires) from 90 feet above the stage to give Orfeo the chance to restore his ill-fated bride to life. Her vibrant soprano and playful demeanor made the aria “Gli squardi trattieni’ – in which she spelled out the ground rules for Euridice’s resuscitation to Orpheus – perfectly sweet and charming.
Dressed in a flowing white gown, Ying Fang was a lovely Euridice, singing with wonderfully refined feeling in her limited time on stage. Her gorgeous soprano and superb acting skills were well-matched with Costanzo’s mellifluous instrument and keen dramatic instincts in “Vieni, apagga il tuo consort”, their agitated duet of confrontation in the labyrinth. Her ensuing aria, “Che fiero momento”, in which she declares she would rather die that lose Orfeo’s love, was tremendously affecting.
Replacing conductor Christian Curnyn, who withdrew because of illness, J David Jackson – a member of the Met Music Staff who made his company debut in 2008 leading Hansel and Gretel and has since conducted several other operas for the company – had no trouble keeping the forces on the stage and in the pit fully synchronized. He elicited a fresh and invigorating account of Gluck’s irresistible score, while the always reliable Met Chorus, an integral part of the drama, sang with soft and sumptuous sound throughout the night as they commented on the action.
Dance is an essential component of Gluck’s opus, and Morris’ captivating choreography highlighted details in the score one might otherwise not have noticed. Two dozen dancers (most of them members of the Mark Morris Dance Group) clad in contemporary streetwear, variously represented nymphs, shepherds, demons, furies and happy spirits in the ballet sequences and evoked everything from the darkest shades of Hades in the mourning scenes to boundless jubilation in their suite of celebratory dances at the final reunion of Orfeo and Euridice.
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