On this day in 1999 the Metropolitan Opera presented its premiere of Carlisle Floyd‘s Susannah. Renée Fleming, Samuel Ramey and Jerry Hadley starred.

Martin Bernheimer in Opera:

As the victimized heroine who depends on the kindness of preachers, Renée Fleming sang exquisitely – ah, those high pianissimo flights. Unfortunately, she overdid the nasal twang and settled for wan interpretative generalities until the finale, in which she compromised sympathy by interpolating a mad scene. Samuel Ramey underplayed the magnetic hysteria of the revivalist Olin Blitch, but offered sombre and seductive vocalism as compensation. Jerry Hadley sounded like a hero and acted like a bumpkin as an all-too-alcoholic Sam Polk. John McVeigh focused the innocence behind the cruelty of the mentally challenged Little Bat.

The hypocritical townsfolk, solo and choral, performed with zeal. Joyce Castle as Mrs. McLean earned the usual unwanted laugh, however, with the line at the church supper signaling Susannah’s doom: “I wouldn’t tech them peas o’ her’n.”  Operatic melodrama is a fragile thing.

Happy 87th birthday tenor John Mitchinson.

Happy 81st birthday bass-baritone Jozsef Dene.

Happy 79th birthday soprano Olivia Stapp.

Happy 73rd birthday soprano Christine Weidinger.

Happy 67th birthday soprano Nelly Miricioiu.

Happy 65th birthday tenor Dénes Gulyás.

Happy 64th birthday tenor Robert Gambill.

Happy 58th birthday composer Jake Heggie.

Happy 52nd birthday baritone Matthias Goerne.