A Day of Gifts or Le Comte Ory at the Met

On some days, life becomes generous to us and suddenly lets us have just a little more than we expect from it.


Those “days of gifts” (that’s what I like to call them), beautiful and rare due to their unusual nature, stay in my memory for years and make me incredibly grateful.

Saturday, April 9th was a day of multiple gifts, and if you are patient enough to bear with me till the end of this entry, you will learn why.

Pour yourselves some strong coffee, my friends – it is not going to be a short post, and I do prefer that you are still awake by the time it ends.

On this happy note, off we go to the Day of Gifts.

At the crack of dawn my mom and I were at Penn Station, Baltimore to take a train to New York. Hit the Pause Button // for Gift 1 right here.

Traveling with mom and going to the opera with her is a true gift for me. If you have been reading this blog for a while, you probably remember that my mom played the key role in my musical education, having started me on this fascinating journey years ago. So going to the opera with her (just like in the good old days) is a real treat and an experience to cherish.



The train ride was smooth and pleasant, the time flew and before we knew it, we arrived in Penn Station, New York.

Having left the nasty drizzle and high 40-s back home, we were happy to embrace a gorgeous sunny morning of low 60s!

Pause // for Gift 2. Great weather in New York on the day of your trip? That’s a real gift, my friends.

We had brunch at my favorite Arpeggio, located in the same building as Avery Fisher Hall. Because its main section was closed until lunch time, we were offered a lovely table at the glass wall overlooking Columbus Avenue.

Being there, on Lincoln Plaza, steps away from the Met and just one hour away from Le Comte Ory, it only seemed natural to toast this happy occasion with a glass of Marquis de la Tour in honor of Rossini and his sparkling music.

My mom is not a big fan of champagne, so we just ordered one glass to share. No sooner than we each took a sip, when Gift 3 arrived. Pause//.

The server approached us with another glass of champagne, placed it on the table and said: “Here you go – I just opened a new bottle.”



Brunch at Arpeggio

“Thank you, but we just ordered one glass, I said

“Oh, I know, - continued the server, - but this one is fresh. You can keep the other one too if you like, but this one tastes so much better”.
A free glass of champagne before seeing a Rossini opera at the Met? Could there be a better fit for the occasion? Rossini and champagne… a match made in heaven.
After the fabulous brunch topped with pear croustade and a chocolate dome (as hard to bite on as a real dome has to be), we headed to the Met.

Our next stop was typical for an every-once-in-a-while Met-visitor: the Met Shop!

The best time and place to get a gift for my little music lover. And what else did I get for him but La Cenerentola book + a card with Gluck’s portrait and a card with Mozart’s portrait. With deep satisfaction I noticed that the best musical books and DVDs for kids featured in the shop’s display have been in our home collection for a while. Apparently, I happen to have everything I need to teach my child music appreciation..

And then it was time to enter the temple of vocal arts and enjoy the opera.

Pause// right her for Gift 5.

Le Comte Ory, the opera, is a gift on its own. And I am not even talking about Bartlett Sher’s brilliant production. The opera itself is a gift.

We all know how quickly Rossini composed. We all know how passionate he was about food and wine. Well, my friends, this head-spinning opera sounded like it had been composed in the state of moderate to severe intoxication, before Rossini had the slightest chance to get sober. Don’t take me wrong – I mean it in a good way.

The opera was hilarious, silly, beautiful and charmingly chaotic in a purely Rossinian way. As a matter of fact it sounded a lot like Il Barbiere, except that it lacked its catchy highlights. Every once in a while one wished it didn’t, because the singers obviously had much more to offer than the score allowed them… but overall it was great. Except that at times it would get so crazy that I was almost ready to jump up from my seat and cry out: Can anybody tell me what is going on here for goodness sake?

However, one thing was a true revelation to me.

Remember the famous lovely trio from Act 2 of Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment, sung by Tonio, Marie and Sulpice?

Guess what? Act 1 of Le Comte Ory ends in an insane commotion and exactly the same trio, except that it’s sung by everyone on stage, i.e. every character in the opera. Donizetti wrote his opera in 1840, and Rossini – his opera in 1828. Does that ring the bell?

In 10 years or so, when women of my age start lining up in front of plastic surgeons’ offices, I’ll just go see Le Comte Ory with Juan Diego Florez, Joyce DiDonato and Diana Damrau and no doubt will be instantly rejuvenated – and, mind you, sans scalpel.

This production was a spiritual blood transfusion, which poured strength and happiness right into our veins. How amazing is it that great music and great artists can actually do that much for us, audience members?

The production looked a lot like Sher’s Il Barbiere, more so because it was staged and designed by the same team. It even had the same character, an old deaf servant, called Ambrogio in Il Barbiere. Ory’s long coat in Act 2 looked a lot like Almaviva’s and the costume designer’s preference for pink that we saw in both Sher’s Il Barbiere and Le Contes, was still in place.

And now to the best and the biggest of all gifts – the stellar trio: Juan Diego, Joyce and Diana.

Pause// and enjoy it. Three major opera stars sharing the same stage to sing Rossini on an HD transmission day. It does not get better than that!





Juan Diego at the curtain call



Juan Diego was an incomparable Ory. We loved him as a lust-hungry hermit, who never missed a chance to grace pretty ladies with his “healing” touch. Yet, at that point we had seen nothing yet. The best was still to come in Act 2, when together with his 25 very merry friends, he came out on stage, disguised as Sister Collette, the nun. On the same mission, clad in a nun’s habit, he now had more liberties, and lord, did he use them! Nothing seemed to give him more pleasure than playing this uber-comic role: trotting across the stage while sending passionate vibes to the object of his affections, spinning numerous fouettes in the middle of the stage and dancing with other “sisters” after secretly feasting on wine from the castle cellar. With the role being a very frivolous one, Juan Diego’s Ory was anything but vulgar. The edge between funny and vulgar is sometimes insignificant, but much to the artist’s credit, he never slid off to the other side.

Much could be said about the vocal quality of Juan Diego’s performance. But for those of you, familiar with this artist’s voice, one word would suffice – breathtaking. Those of you who know the name, most likely know the voice. Those of you who know the voice, are aware of its power. It sounds just as good as on your CDs and DVD-s, except for when it’s live its perfection is even more appalling.

As in the beginning of Act 2 “the nuns” entered the castle, their choir sounded very beautiful in the a-capella rendition of simple, but ah… such a genius Rossini’s song. And, just like one of my Bachtrack colleagues wrote in her review, Juan Diego’s voice “never blended”. Much higher than the rest, his voice was like the sunlight in an old Italian painting – the gold of the piece. Twice it went into the most exquisite falsetto of such harmony and taste, that for a moment the opera stopped being hilarious. Listening to those impeccable high notes, one just knew: not even the sky was the limit.

Joyce as Isolier at the curtain call

Joyce is an artist of a magnetic stage presence. When she is on stage, your eyes are glued to her. This was my third time (2nd this year) to see her live, but now in a pant role of a page in love. The energy that Joyce brought on stage was worth the energy of all the crusaders in the opera. Drinking countless cups of wine and being thrown around the stage by his master, her Isolier was manly and funny, yet had a softer, more lyrical side to his character. And her singing, as always, was way beyond praise. It was amazing! My mom, who saw Joyce live for the first time, thought that she was the strongest of the three. She also told me something that I wrote on this blog after seeing Joyce live for the first time: no CD or DVD can really do justice to her voice. You have to listen to her live!

Clad in all shades of pink, from magenta, to fuchsia to porcelain, adorned in plumage, ribbons and rhinestones, Diana Damrau was a sight to behold, way before she even sang the first note. And that tiny waist just six months after having a baby??? Unbelievable!

Her Adele was a lady of few thoughts and even fewer right ones and a walking proof of why oaths of chastity were so popular in the times of crusades.



Diana Damrau at the curtain call

Moments after she started singing, it became obvious why Diana wears the title of one of the best sopranos of our time. Not only was her flawless voice effortless in every note of its enormous range (truly, one could think that the higher the note, the easier it was for Diana to sing it). Along with silvery light that voice had color and deeper undertones. It was beautiful beyond words!

Having seen Diana live (the first time for both of us) we agreed that just like in Joyce’s case, Diana’s recordings do not do her enough justice.

And then there was that most controversial scene of the whole production – the Bedroom Scene. Don’t mean to sound like a prude or anything, but I have to be honest: I was not 100%comforatble seeing what was going on the stage. Neither am I too sure that the three artists were always 100% comfortable doing what they had to do. But hey, that’s what makes them great artists: they pulled it off without a hitch.

And yet, just out of curiosity, if Countess Adele, tied up by her oath of chastity, went that far, how far would she go if her brother did not force that oath out of her? One may only wonder…



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the Met, the Mekka of vocal arts - ahhh...



After the opera, which ended in a grandiose curtain call, mom and I crossed Columbus Avenue for an early dinner at Café Fiorello, the dining place of opera lovers. Besides, Fiorello was the name of Count Almaviva’s servant, remember? Thus, in a way, it was a theme dinner that continued our Rossini Day.

Thanks to the adrenalin rush from the show, we were not really that hungry. So we shared seafood risotto and profiteroles loaded with vanilla gelato and the thickest warm chocolate sauce for dessert.



The service was top notch, which I considered another gift. Honestly, there is nothing more annoying than a slow negligent service, especially when you’ve got a bus to catch later in the evening.

To cut the story short, we were out of Café Fiorello 50 minutes later. Needless to say, we hated to leave… but one got to do what one got to do. It was a beautiful warm evening, and after another farewell look at the Met across the way, we headed towards Rockefeller Center, our bus pick-up location.

Because we arrived early, we spent some time at the Met Museum Shop, where I got a tiny souvenir Stradivari violin for Troy, and fairly thought it to be the last gift of the day. Little did we know at that time….Oh, those days of gifts – sometimes their generosity goes overboard.



The only pic in this post, not taken by me

We, audience members, being at the Met, knew much less than those of you who attended the HD transmission in the theaters. So the good news caught up with me 5 minutes before 10:00 p.m. as I was parking my car near my house. It arrived in my cell phone in the shape of a tweet from Joyce. Of course, by now it’s old news, but here is what the tweet said: Congrats to the new father: Juan Diego!! Baby arrived just in time for the curtain!!! Auguri!!!!!



The birth of Juan Diego’s son Leandro, just 35 minutes before the curtain, made this performance kind of historical. And how lucky were we to have been there!

Congratulations to the new parents. Of all the people who got gifts on April 9th, you two got the most precious one!

Cheers!