Angela Meade's Glorious Anna Bolena at the Met Opera
Comparisons to Joan Sutherland
By: Susan Hall - Oct 25, 2011
Anna Bolena
Metropolitan Opera
New York
October 24, 2011
Angela Meade has assumed the role of Anna in Gaetono Donizetti’s Anna Bolena at the Metropolian Opera. She undertakes a role that uber star Anna Netrebko opened in. Perhaps because Meade is one of the world’s great bel canto sopranos, she is brave and gutsy in her role selection. Comparisons with Netrebko are inevitable because they sing during the same season and the same role. If you love the human voice, Meade’s is the performance to treasure.
Meade entranced Tanglewood audiences in her performance of arias from Norma and Verdi’s I Lombardi at last summer’s opening concert in July. The year before she had made an indelible mark at Caramoor in a full concert production of Norma.
Meade inarguably has one of the great bel canto voices of our time. Her vocal line may sound easy, but only because she has great gifts. She is seamlessly flexible and smooth even when she is executing ornate embellishments. Her lines are full of feeling and settle naturally into an emotional story arc.
As listeners respond to the details of her singing, we note stunning dynamic control. Meade often sings her highest notes with a house-numbing quiet, the light tone in the higher registers one of the marks of the bel canto style. Meade’s tone remains rich, her attacks clean and her diction perfect.
The supporting cast is terrific. Stephen Costello gets better with each outing, and in this break through year performs also at Covent Garden as Alfredo in La Traviata and then on to L’elisir d’amore at the Vienna State Opera. He has a ringing tone and a poignant lyricism that compliments Meade perfectly. His stand alone arias were riveting.
Only one more performance at the Met on Friday, October 28th.
Look for Meade in the Met HD performance of Ernani in the spring. She will be at Caramoor next summer in concert.