Caitlin Oldham

Even though three of the four initially announced principals were missing in action, some strong substitutions and effective Verdi from Maestro b made this an enjoyable evening nonetheless.

Since Luisa Miller’s revival in the middle of the 20^th century, this immediate precursor to Verdi’s big middle period hits has steadily hung around the standard rep, appearing at the Met as recently as 2018 with Yoncheva, Beczala and pre-cancellation baritone-era Domingo in the leads. While the musical commonalities between Luisa and those works are clear, its central heroine is a different prospect.

Adapted from a Schiller play by Salvatore Cammarano, Luisa has little agency in the libretto’s squalid tale of a simple country girl who falls in love with a nobleman on the down low and becomes a pawn in the scheming of the Tyrolean petty nobility. Even poor Gilda gets to make her choice in the end, but Luisa is caught in the jaws of the plot the whole evening.

Towards the end she meekly tries to exit the soprano death carousel, offering to scrap suicide plans and just walk away with her father. But the plot is relentless, and her lover’s extreme gullibility and hasty decision to poison them both gets her in the end. In a way the title character’s powerlessness makes Luisa Miller a much rawer tragedy than its more famous neighbors, but it doesn’t quite offer the satisfaction of the complete dramatic arcs of those other marquee female roles.

Caitlin Oldham

American soprano Amanda Woodbury, a 2014 Met Council Audition finalist, took over for the scheduled Angel Blue here, bringing a pleasing depth of sound to Luisa’s music. Silvery high notes just as pure as the character’s unblemished soul were a major feature, whether killer floated B’s towards the end of Act II lament “Tu puniscimi, O Signore”, or soaring out of the male-dominated ensembles. Elegant articulation and a sure hand enlivened the light coloratura material, like her first act “Lo vidi e’l primo palpito.”

Woodbury leaned into Luisa’s supreme naïveté and bewilderment, a dramatically valid take that probably makes the ending feel even more cruel and senseless, but could also be a bit inert at times. The concert format and her late addition to the cast were certainly factors here too, but sneaking in a bit more red-blooded drama, especially in the Act II pressure cooker sequence, may be necessary to make this a complete assumption.

Kang Wang, a highlight of Washington National Opera’s fall production of Macbeth, impressed again here as Rodolfo with an ardent, throwback style and big notes that opened up with a delicious ping. Wang showed restraint with all that firepower, however, reserving some thrilling surprises for the audience as he revealed additional gears in Act I’s climax and the final depths of despair in Act III. He also earned the biggest applause of the night for his handling of the show’s breakout number, “Quando le sere al placido,” using subtle gradations between mezza voce and full voice effects to create an irresistible sense tension and release. Wang’s ability to generate real pathos with arguably one of the dumbest tenor characters in the Verdi library (c’mon dude, she did not leave you for your dad’s henchman “Wurm”) was no small feat.

Caitlin Oldham

Baritone Ricardo José Rivera, in for George Gagnidze, took on Miller, one of Verdi’s signature girldad creations. The sound is just enormous yet very consistent, able to maintain a sense of core and presence while effortlessly expanding in the cavernous Lisner auditorium. Rivera had a bit of a slow start in corralling that impressive raw material into a deeper performance, with a sameness creeping into his Act I “Sacra la scelta è d’un consorte” that seemed to also suggest some of the limitations in younger singers tackling these authority figure roles. Yet Rivera found much more to unearth with Miller’s return in Act III, delivering power and a devastating clarity in a final scene with Woodbury that featured some of the tightest two hander passages of the evening.

Bass Oren Gradus, an abiding presence at the Met, joined the cast in place of Morris Robinson, as Rodolfo’s scheming father. Gradus was headed in the right direction with his portrayal of Walter’s hollow grasping for power, but a pervasive wooliness in the sound prevented him from realizing the Count as a credible threat. Already challenging exposition dumps, like a laborious Act I scene with Wurm, came off as a chore, and Gradus wasn’t able to take advantage of his opportunity to portray additional complexity in Act II’s big solo statement, “I mio sangue la vita darei.”

Mezzo Kate Jackman’s imposing chest voice was the biggest vocal takeaway from her Duchess Federica, especially in a bracing Act I scene with Rodolfo, though at times she seemed a little too comfortable in the depths and couldn’t connect smoothly to the rest of her sound. Her haughty stage presence did much to raise the stakes during Luisa’s fateful Act II interrogation. Rounding out the supporting cast were bass-baritone Samuel Weiser, who brought a surprisingly seductive sound and gleeful sadism to Wurm and Erin Ridge’s warm soprano in the role of sympathetic friend Laura.

Maestro Antony Walker’s ability to pluck choice moments out of a score and add some extra precision or intensity to make them memorable did much for this Luisa. An infectious oompah energy and fine wind solos elevated the somewhat routine potboiler overture, while Walker’s handling of Act I’s finale was a master class in the effects Verdi uses to increase tension in climactic ensembles.

There’s little room for entertainment in that Act III finale, and Walker didn’t shy away from the bleak turn, introducing the final duet with savage figures in the strings and doggedly increasing the pace as everything falls apart. (The parterre box podcast Chris’s Cache recently offered five versions of Act III for your comparison pleasure.) The WCO chorus offered detailed support throughout, particularly in stretches like the sensitively articulated opening ensemble of Act II.

In exciting news for 2025-2026, WCO announced that it will again offer an expanded season of three operas, doing its part to make up the D.C. opera deficit as slimmer seasons at WNO continue (which could of course get even slimmer if the Kennedy Center Opera House needs to host an extended Cats residency). Like this season as well, the emphasis is less on rarities and more on known if not ubiquitous works: Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride, Bizet’s Pearl Fishers, and Mozart’s Idomeneo. Highlights from the announced personnel so far include Ben Bliss in the title role of Idomeneo, Will Liverman and Duke Kim as the Pearl Fisher guys, and Kate Lindsey as Iphigénie.