Ken Howard

The end of the 2024-2025 Metropolitan Opera season has brought some interesting role debuts. The Spring season revivals of The Queen of Spades and La bohème have ushered in the return of two sopranos who have been off the roster for two years in one case, 14 in the other.

Sonya Yoncheva abandoned a run of Norma in 2023 after a poor reception from the press and opera fans. Missed shows and some nasty comments on her social media saw Yoncheva go from house (and management) favorite to something of a pariah before her return as Liza in The Queen of Spades on Friday. Corinne Winters did four performances of Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto back in 2011, then never returned until this Sunday in a much bigger role: Mimì in La bohème. This was after establishing herself as a leading international soprano in the title roles of Kát’a Kabanová, Jenufa, Madama Butterfly, Suor Angelica, and Rusalka at Covent Garden, the Bayerisches Staatsoper, and Liège et al. during that 15-year absence, a feat she discussed at length with the box last week.

By opening night on Friday, May 23rd, The Queen of Spades ultimately offered a fine performance of a masterpiece with a very promising, vocally impressive cast that delivered unevenly – lack of rehearsal? We were presented with the third Hermann, a last-minute addition to the company who was making his Met debut with little rehearsal. Nevertheless, the performance gained in force over the evening and promises to improve over the run.

Ken Howard

The Queen of Spades is a haunting study of obsession, betrayal and despair. The 30-year old production by the late Elijah Moshinsky has done good service over the years, though it is finally showing some wear and tear. Certain effects don’t come off as convincingly as they did when artists like Leonie Rysanek and Karita Mattila did them originally in 1995.

Keri-Lynn Wilson led a firmly delineated orchestral reading with evident knowledge and good baton technique. However, certain scenes had a rather matter-of-fact kind of stasis and her musical sophistication didn’t always result in dramatic energy. This changed in later scenes like the final gambling scene which crackled with excitement then turned on a dime to a mournful final dirge. I think her work will improve.

The Armenian dramatic tenor Arsen Soghomonyan made his house debut in a calling card role he has performed many times. This time Soghomonyan replaced Brian Jagde who had trouble mastering the Russian and Brandon Jovanovich whose departure was more mysterious, but lately he has been going through a bad patch of ill health and vocal troubles. Hermann drives the plot and is in almost every scene – it’s a long grueling role. Soghomonyan has a dark, vibrant tenor that has abundant presence in a huge auditorium like the Met.

However, the debut nerves and lack of a long rehearsal period caught up him quickly. Hermann’s big solo outburst at the end of the first scene concluded with a high B that splayed and his top was brittle later on. Soghomonyan seemed to be settling in in Act II but came to grief in several places in Hermann’s nihilistic Act III final aria “Shto nasha zhizn? Igra!” (What is our life? A game!) breaking on every note above high A. He finished the performance on bad footing. As for his acting, it was a dour, sullen one-note interpretation that lacked mania and sexual magnetism. Maestro Wilson must have admired Soghomonyan’s performance in rehearsal, but live performance is a crap shoot. I wish him better luck in later shows where I am sure he will relax and improve.

Yoncheva, on the other hand, sounded considerably refreshed with a voice that was steadier and fuller than when we last heard her. There was some fleeting tonal wear with hints of unsteadiness when the vocal line expanded in the upper third, but mostly she sounded wonderful — a dark, voluminous soprano with an overlay of gleaming silver and barely any of the wobble that was threatening to take over a few years ago. Her voice now sounds like a genuine lirico-spinto, not a pushed lyric soprano manufacturing qualities she was not born with.

Liza’s final aria by the Winter Canal in Act III “Akh! istomilas ya goryem” (I am worn out by grief) was a highlight of the evening. This was a role debut for the Bulgarian diva and musically and stylistically she was on top of it. Dramatically, Yoncheva missed the naïveté and insecurity of the character, seemingly too mature, self-possessed, and sophisticated. The soprano and tenor lacked chemistry and failed to ignite much passion in the Act I seduction scene; she seemed too knowing and unperturbed and he seemed too self-absorbed onstage.

Ken Howard

As for the mysterious, decrepit Countess, former mezzo- and dramatic soprano Violeta Urmana was a powerful yet overly sturdy and robust stage presence. Her voice sounded rather wan but she scored with the Countess’s nostalgic Grétry solo “Je crains de lui parler la nuit” sung with line and elegance. No successor to Rysanek has ever recreated the business of pulling the black lace shawl over herself when she dies, as if the Countess is suddenly tiny and covered in cobwebs, or the terrifying spectral emergence from the floorboards, bathed in lurid light from below, in Act II’s barracks scene.

Alexey Markov as Count Tomsky/Plutus was vocally resplendent and high energy with a suavely debonair stage manner. The Muscovite baritone scored a home run with his Card Aria (Tri Kartï). Igor Golovatenko as Prince Yeletsky sounded a bit gruff and bluff in his big Act II aria “Ya vas lyublyu” (I love you beyond measure), which is still owned by the late Dmitri Hvorostovsky. It is a major voice but lacks elegance and legato in this role which cannot just be belted.

As Polina, mezzo Maria Barakova looked and sounded lovely, but she is a dusky mezzo, not a plummy contralto, and some dips into chest lacked impact. She delighted as Daphnis in the Mozart pastiche Act II pastorale in tandem with bright-voiced newcomer Ann-Kathryn Niemczyk as Chloe.

Again, major performers failed to consistently deliver but there was enough quality onstage and in the orchestra pit that the performance added up to more than the sum of its parts. I highly recommend catching a later show.

Evan Zimmerman

Everyone seemed more connected and buoyant in Bohème which premiered at the Sunday matinee 25 May. The audience yet again cheered the curtain opening for Act II with a split-level panorama of a Paris block with the Café Momus tucked away in a stage right corner. The cast had very few important voices but striking ensemble teamwork by a vivacious, young-looking, engaged, and engaging cast of ‘non-stars’ (though she has been profiled in the New York Times and sung all over the U.S. and Europe, Winters hasn’t as much of a profile locally).

In the pit was Yannick Nézet-Séguin in his sole outing leading the Puccini warhorse this Spring – Giacomo Sagripanti is finishing out the final weeks of the run. Sir Thomas Beecham, no stranger to Bohème, said there are two kinds of conductors: those who conduct too fast and those who conduct too slow – there is no third! The Montreal maestro started out in his early seasons in the first category, but zippy, buoyant and detailed. He recently has evolved (or devolved) into the second category of expansive or enervated slowness. The orchestra did play beautifully for him, but I suspect some of the smaller voiced soloists might have benefited from more speed. At least Yannick finally knows how and when to keep the orchestra down and doesn’t drown out singers.

None of the singers, with the exception of the Musetta, have massive instruments but they knew how their parts worked, gave detailed and spirited acting performances and were all on the same page. They also know that there is lots of comedy in Acts I and II.

Corinne Winters is an experienced, intelligent singer whose voice is about one or two sizes too small for the Met. She specializes in tragic heroines and her Act III “Donde lieta uscì” aria and Act IV death scene showed interpretive insight, expert handling of text, and dramatic intelligence. She is an artist and she got by on intelligence and experience, but the voice had little impact in the house though the audience gave Winters a huge ovation at her final bow.

Marty Sohl

Ukrainian tenor Dmytro Popov has a bright, plangent, rather cool tenor that isn’t large, and his top (which cannot take pressure, but he didn’t push it) is reliable enough. He is a delightful stage animal full of personality with excellent reactions and cleverly performed business. As Marcello, Anthony Clark Evans, who has been doing comprimario roles at the Met, showed he is capable of bigger things. (He does Scarpia, Rigoletto and Sharpless in other regional houses.) His Marcello was a lovable burly bear who could be warm and fuzzy or prickly depending on circumstances – his baritone is also burly but warm toned.

The Romanian bass Alexander Köpeczi, tall and youthfully handsome had a fine debut as Colline – relaxed onstage and pleasing in line and tone in “Vecchia zimarra.” House regular Gabriella Reyes, a friendly warm Musetta, unfurled a lush, smoky soprano which is large and lovely with no shrillness. She was earthy and joyous rather than vulgar and annoying. Sean Michael Plumb seized every moment available to Schaunard with added comic bits while his blank despair in the final scene was touching. He returns to the role next season along with his baritone colleague Evans.

La bohème is ever popular and so is the Franco Zeffirelli production, though Zeffirelli and the production are unpopular around here. The Zeffirelli production is still a panoramic spectacle  which works in some moments but is detrimental elsewhere for what is basically an intimate story about ordinary people. The best moment is Act III where the stage is wide but the action is focused downstage. Acts I and IV has Paris rooftops which put the garret upstage and lifted up, so we feel like the singers are half a block away and not in the same room with us. Act II is a knockout spectacle but hundreds of supers and animals compete for focus with our bohemians who are back in a stage right corner further upstage. It impresses the audience, especially opera newcomers. Stage director Sara Erde made it play like a newish production with precise and surprising bits of Personenregie instead of a 40-year-old production returning for the umpteenth time.

What made this cast work in this old production without voices like a Freni and Pavarotti, Alagna and Gheorghiu? You believed they were young, you believed they were friends, and you felt their pain. So, they did not get lost in the vast streets and rooftops of Zeffirelli’s Paris.