Well Met

Just as Broadway musicals demonstrate an incredibly wide range of directing talent, from the heights of Thomas Kail's In the Heights and Diane Paulus's Hair to the depths of Arthur Laurents's West Side Story and Robert Longbottom's Bye Bye Birdie, so do some Metropolitan Opera productions cause us to exclaim "Excellent direction!" while others make us wonder, "What the $!@!! was he/she thinking?!" Just a couple of months ago, Luc Bondy's take on Puccini's Tosca was roundly jeered, but more recently, the Met has brought us two other productions -- one brand new this season, the other new in 2007 -- that garnered bravos rather than boos.

Leos Janacek's From the House of the Dead, which premiered in 1930, is set in a penal colony in Siberia. If any composer today were to write an opera with that setting, you can bet the farm that it would be atonal (and unlistenable); but the great Janacek uses a gorgeously tonal musical language in this alternately grim and poetic piece. As the prisoners moods shift from hopeful to bitter to despairing, the melodies and hamonies perfectly mirror their feelings. The opera has little if any over-arching plot, but it's peerless in conjuring the world of the prison and exploring the emotions of the men incarcerated therein.

The Met production represents the belated company debuts of Patrice Chéreau, whose 1976 Bayreuth Festival staging of Wagner's Ring cycle is considered a benchmark in operatic history, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, the world-renowned conductor. In collaboration with set designer Richard Peduzzi, costume designer Caroline de Vivaise, and lighting designer Bertrand Couderc, Chéreau has created a stunning physical production that incorporates several coups de theatre, including one in which the ceiling of the prison seems to collapse with jaw-dropping realism.

Salonen leads the superlative Met orchestra in a definitive reading of this achingly beautiful but extremely challenging score, which is sung (and acted) to perfection by a top-flight company including the awesome Peter Mattei as Shishkov, the honored veteran Willard White as Gorianchikov, and the stunning debutant Eric Stoklossa as Alyeya. From the House of the Dead is written in three acts but the complete performance lasts only about 95 minutes, with no intermission. That's an hour and a half of musical theater that you will not soon forget.

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Under its new general manager, Peter Gelb, the Met has been making a concerted effort to recruit directors from the theater world. One of the best is Jack O'Brien, who two years ago came up with a gripping new production of Puccini's Il Trittico. O'Brien's work in the three one-act works that make up this triptych is notable for hundreds of little moments of psychological truth and, in Gianni Schicchi, the kind of expert comedy that until recent years was rarely seen on the operatic stage. He also provides three textbook examples of how to change the time period in which an opera is set in such a way as to enhance, rather than destroy, the effect of the piece.

This season, Patricia Racette is singing the leading female soprano roles in all three operas: the desperately unhappy, unfaithful wife Giorgetta in Il Tabarro; the tragic nun in Suor Angelica; and the relatively carefree, somewhat insipid Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, who nevertheless gets to sings one of opera's biggest hits: "O mio babbino caro." In performances at the Met, the New York City Opera, and elsewhere, Racette has time and time again proved herself a singing actress of the first order, so it's not remotely surprising that she rises to the Trittico challenge and achieves a triumph. (Sorry, make that three triumphs).

The rest of the company is solid throughout, with especially noteworthy contributions from two tenors who are new to me: Aleksandrs Antonenko, a thrillingly masculine and passionate Luigi in Tabarro, and Saimir Pirgu, wonderfully handsome and sweet-toned as Rinuccio in Schicchi. Alessandro Corbelli is hilarious in the title role of Schicchi; Zeljko Lucic broods movingly as MIchele in Tabarro, even if his medium-sized voice is occasionally covered by the orchestra; and the amazing Stephanie Blythe repeats her threefold success of two seasons ago as Frugola, La Zia Principessa, and Zita in Tabarro, Angelica, and Schicchi, respectively.

Conductor Stefano Ranzani displays great empathy for all three scores, each of which is quite different from the others in terms of emotional and musical tone. Puccini was a master orchestrator as well as a supreme melodist, and the sounds emerging from the pit during Il Trittico are as transporting as what's happening onstage. Get your tickets now so you can recoil in delicious horror at the violence in Tabarro, weep copiously at the suicide of Suor Angelica, and laugh your head off at the antics of Gianni Schicchi et al.

Many Thanks

Whew! The fall of 2009 has been an exceptionally active time on and off Broadway, with multiple shows opening each week, aside from all other kinds of special events. Of course, there have been some disappointments among the batch; but now that Thanksgiving Day is upon us, I thought this would be an excellent time to express my appreciation of various productions, artists, etc. that deserve all of our thanks. Carry on!

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The producers of Ragtime
Bravo to anyone who had anything to do with getting this superb revival, first seen at the Kennedy Center, to Broadway. I've always considered Ragtime to be one of the most beautiful musicals of the late 20th-century, but some people are regrettably immune to its glories and are turned off by its largely presentational style. Indeed, peppered among the deserved cheers for this revival have been a few hard-to-fathom critiques of the production and of the show itself. Please don't listen to the naysayers; Ragtime is gorgeous, and this brilliant staging by Marcia Milgrom Dodge is not to be missed by anyone who loves musical theater.

The director and company of Brighton Beach Memoirs
Some big mistakes may have been made in terms of marketing the very short-lived revival of this Neil Simon play (and its companion piece Broadway Bound, which never even opened), but the production itself was just as perfect as anyone could ask for. So here's a tear-stained "thank you very much" to director David Cromer and cast members Laurie Metcalf, Dennis Boutsikaris, Santino Fontana, Jessica Hecht, Josh Grisetti, Grace Bea Lawrence, Allan Miller, Noah Robbins, and Alexandra Socha. (Note: Both Fontana and Hecht have already been snapped up for the upcoming Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge that will star Liev Schreiber and Scarlet Johansson. Good for them!)

Broke-ology
All too often, the new plays that New York's not-for-profit theaters choose to produce are head-scratchers. (The Retributionists, anyone?) So it's both a reward and a relief when a worthy work by an up-and-coming playwright is mounted -- e.g., Broke-ology, the alternately hilarious and moving famiily drama by Nathan Louis Jackson that just ended its limited run at Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. Bravo to Jackson, to director Thomas Kail, and to the entire company.

John Kander
The awesome versatility of this iconic Broadway composer was full demonstrated in a recent "Broadway Close-Up" concert at Merkin Hall in which such stars as Chita Rivera, Debra Monk, Karen Ziemba, and David Hyde Pierce performed only a tiny percentage of the songs that Kander and his late songwriting partner Fred Ebb wrote for such shows as Chicago, Cabaret, The Happy Time, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and Curtains. Here's hoping that the upcoming Vineyard Theatre production of Kander & Ebb's The Scottsboro Boys will be embraced by audiences, and that The Visit -- another of the team's final collaborations -- will also receive a major New York production sooner rather than later, with the amazing Chita starring as she did in productions in Chicago and D.C.

Henry Krieger
I was fortunate enough to speak with Mr. Krieger briefly during intermission of the new production of Dreamgirls that's raising the roof of the Apollo Theater in Harlem prior to beginning a national tour, so I was able to thank him personally for his phenomenal score for this beloved show. In collaboration with lyricist/book writer Tom Eyen and original director/choreographer Michael Bennett, both now deceased, Krieger created a dream of a musical that's more than strong enough to stand up against infelicities of staging -- such as the inability of Robert Longbottom, helmer of the new production, to direct actors. Bless you, Henry!

Theresa Rebeck, Justin Kirk, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, and Julie White
It's true that Rebeck's new play, The Understudy, presents a not entirely realistic view of the way theater productions and rehearsals work. It's also true that this is one of the flat-out funniest and most endearing new comedies I've seen in a long time, due both to Rebeck's writing and the stellar performances of Mark-Paul Gosselaar, a TV star making a very impressive New York stage debut; Justin Kirk, back on the boards where he belongs; and Julie White, brilliant but just a little bit over the top in The Little Dog Laughed, here giving a performance that's just as funny but better calibrated. The combined efforts of these artists, plus director Scott Ellis, have given us one of those relatively rare Roundabout Theatre Company productions that isn't seriously flawed and is well worth seeing.

Warren Carlyle
Whatever was wrong with the short-lived Broadway musical A Tale of Two Cities, it had nothing to do with the efforts of helmer Warren Carlyle. Happily, this talented fellow has recovered from that disappointment to give us two stellar shows within the space of a month: the grandish Broadway revival of Finian's Rainbow, which he both directed and choreographed, and the utterly delighful City Center Encores! presentation of Girl Crazy, expertly directed by Jerry Zaks and excitingly choreographed by Carlyle. Great job!

Jane Houdyshell and Dee Hoty
In the debacle that is the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Bye Bye Birdie, directed and choreographed by Robert Longbottom, almost all of the actors seem to be at sea without a life raft. Two major exceptions are Jane Houdyshell, who nails several big laughs as the overbearing mama-from-hell Mae Peterson; and Dee Hoty, who as Mrs. McAfee looks lovely as ever, retains her dignity, and is just about the only lead who manages to sing on pitch throughout the show. It ain't easy to come up smelling like a rose when an entire production is tanking around you, so these honored theater vets deserve an extra hearty round of applause.

Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman
Need I do much more than invoke their names? Over and above their mesmerizing performances in A Steady Rain, Craig (in his Broadway debut!) and Jackman (returning after his personal triumph in The Boy From Oz) have raised many thousands of dollars for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS by practically selling the shirts off their backs in post-performance auctions. A friend of mine recently wondered, "When someone pays $5,000 for a sweaty T-shirt worn by one of those guys, what do you suppose they do with the thing when they get it home?" My response: I really don't care, as long as the money goes to such a great cause.

Michael McKean and Jon Michael Hill
Tracy Letts's Superior Donuts is an entertaining yet uneven play, certainly a far less satisfying achievement than his award-winning August: Osage County. But this half/sitcom, half/drama is sparked by the veteran McKean as the disillusioned, middle-aged proprietor of a donut shop and super-talented newcomer Hill as his brash, eager, brilliant young employee. It's always a treat to see the former doing his stuff on stage, and it's tremendously exciting to catch the latter in the early stages of what is sure to be a great career.

Jude Law in Hamlet
His performance may not be definitive (as if such a thing were possible), but Law certainly is the hottest Hamlet I've ever seen -- and it's clear that the audience agrees! This is the actor's first time on Broadway since he appeared in Indiscretions 14 years ago, prior to achieving film stardom. Let's hope it won't be anywhere near so long before we see him again.

The Royal Family
Not only is Manhattan Theatre Club's revival of this valentine to the theater wonderful in itself, it also warms the heart because it indicates that, following this show and last season's Accent on Youth, Manhattan Theatre Club is back on track after a series of major disappointments. Rosemary Harris, Jan Maxwell, Reg Rogers, and a dozen other terrific actors in an expertly produced revival of the classic comedy by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber, with absolutely gorgeous scenic design by John Lee Beatty and costumes by Catherine Zuber? Great stuff!

Love, Loss, and What I Wore
Sometimes, there's great beauty in utter simplicity. This show at the Westside Theatre -- written by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron, based on the book by Ilene Beckerman -- consists of a rotating cast of well-known actresses sitting on stools and reading women's vivid reminiscences of how they were attired at key moments in their lives. When I attended, the cast included Tyne Daly, Katie Finneran, and Rosie O'Donnell in the finest acting performance I have ever seen her give.

The David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center
This beautiful new, multi-purpose space, located on Broadway between 62nd and 63rd streets, offers free live music every Thursday at 8:30pm, in addition to day-of discount tickets to Lincoln Center performances, a staffed information desk, restrooms, free Wi-Fi access, and a cafe overseen by Tom Colicchio, chef/owner of the Craft family of restaurants. Check out the two awesome "veritcal gardens," the floor-to-ceiling fountain, and the huge media wall, as well as the 97-foot felt wall art installation composed on 114 panels by noted Dutch textile artisan Cludy Jungstra. For more info, click here.

The Broadway Series at The Town Hall
Created, produced, and hosted by the indefatigable Scott Siegel, this series of concerts has become an essential part of New York City's cultural life. Its most recent presentation was a fabulous Broadway Unplugged concert highlighted by the thrilling, non-amplified performances of such folks as Daniel Reichard, William Michals, Bill Daugherty, Sarah Jane McMahon, Janet Metz, Emily Skinner, Marc Kudisch, and Jeffry Denman. More, please!

Bea Arthur and Marilyn Cooper
One of these ladies was world-famous as a TV star, in addition to her theater work; the other was best known to theatergoers. Both are irreplaceable, as memorial services held this fall -- Arthur's at the Majestic Theater, Cooper's at Sardi's -- reminded us. Dramatic actors are the ones who tend to win most of the awards and attention, but there must be a special place in heaven for those brilliant comedians who bring joy to our lives through the precious laughter they engender. Rest in peace, Bea and Marilyn -- and thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Wonderful Town

The Leonard Bernstein-Betty Comden-Adolph Green musical On the Town has something in common with, of all things, the Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess: Both are classics of the American musical theater but are extremely difficult to do well. So whenever a worthy staging of either of these works comes along, celebration is in order, even if said staging is less than 100% perfect -- probably an unattainable goal at any rate. Which is my rather drawn-out way of saying: All hail On the Town at the Paper Mill Playhouse!

Consider for a moment the enormous challenges in mounting this show about three WW-II sailors on 24-hour leave in New York City. First of all, the gentlemen cast in the leading roles of gobs Ozzie, Gabey, and Chip have to dance well enough that they could be soloists in a world-class ballet company. Additionally, all three of them have to be able to sing well -- exceptionally so in the case of Gabey, who has two gorgeous, nearly operatic solo ballads. On top of all that, they have to be strong enough actors to put their stamp on three very colorful characters and to land the show's humor, which still has the potential to delight but is tough to play because its style is very much that of a bygone era.

At Paper Mill, the most awesome of the three sailors is Gabey in the person of Tyler Hanes, whose dancing is as gorgeous as his million-dollar face. Hanes sings well enough to do justice to the yearning "Lonely Town" and the joyous "Lucky to Be Me," and his acting as the lovestruck Gabey is sincere, natural, and unaffected. Jeffrey Schecter is terrific as Ozzie, bringing a Three Stooges-style delivery to his dialogue and skillfully creating a vivid, engaging personality through specific body language. (Does his name ring a bell? That's probably because Schecter won raves as Mike in the Broadway revival of A Chorus Line.) Finally, although Brian Shepard misses some laughs as the sightseeing-obsessed Chip, he has a Ray Bolger-esque quality that's well suited to the role, and his dancing is first-rate.

These tars are superbly partnered by their gals. Kelly Sullivan brings great comic timing, sparkling stage presence, and a pretty soprano to her turn as Claire DeLoone, while the lovely Yvette Tucker dances like a dream as Ivy Smith. And if you think the tiny powerhouse Jennifer Cody sounds like ideal casting for the part of the man-hungry lady cab driver Hildy, you're right. In a role created by Nancy Walker, Cody knocks her laugh lines out of the park, and her show-stopping rendition of "I Can Cook, Too" is at once sexy and hilarious.

With one exception, the production's excellence extends to the featured roles and the ensemble. Tari Kelly is adorable as Hildy's hapless roommate, Lucy Schmeeler, who just can't stop sneezing. Michael Scirrotto is a stitch as Rajah Bimmy and several other characters whom the sailors and their girls encounter in the midst of their adventures. As Judge Pitkin W. Bridgework, Bill Nolte is the first actor in my experience to actually get laughs from the rather thin running joke that Pitkin "understands" his fiancee Claire's dismissive treatment of him. (It's hard for a doormat to be funny, but Nolte does the trick -- and he sings in a sonorous baritone, to boot!) The members of the chorus dance up a storm in a myriad of styles ranging from ballet to boogie-woogie, and every last one of them oozes personality.

Unfortunately and surprisingly, Harriet Harris -- a hoot in Thoroughly Modern Millie and absolutely fabulous in every other role I've seen her tackle -- shoots wide of the mark as Mme. Dilly. She starts off well with a funny vocalizing bit but then loses control, overplaying the character's drunkenness by slurring her words to the point of unintelligibility, and coming across as pathetic rather than amusing. A rare miscalculation from one of our best actresses.

All this talent wouldn't be enough to make On the Town work if not for the superb choreography of Patti Colombo and the overall excellent direction of Bill Berry, the latter a mainstay of theater in Seattle but hopefully henceforth a player on the New York scene. One huge mistake often made by producers of "dance shows" is to hire director-choreographers who are very good at choreographing but not very good at directing actors. Thank heaven, no such error was made here: Berry keeps On the Town moving briskly and generally exhibits a firm grasp of style required, even if he hasn't been able to help the performers nail every last one of the jokes; and Colombo's dances are thrilling, giving a nod to the immortal work of Jerome Robbins while fully displaying her own vision and extraordinary talent.

Music director Tom Helm expertly leads a large orchestra through Bernstein's iconic score. (Is there a more exciting opening number than "New York, New York" in the canon? I don't think so! And those dream ballets? Divine!) Scenic designer Walt Spanger, lighting designer Tom Sturge, and costumer David C. Woolard do A-list work to complement the efforts of the director, the choreographer, and the performers. I don't even want to think about how much this show would cost if it were on Broadway, but at any rate, that's not where you'll find it.

If ever a train or car ride to Millburn, New Jersey was worth the time and effort, this is the occasion. The Paper Mill Playhouse, which was in great danger of closing its doors forever just a few years ago, has gifted us with a wonderful production of a beloved show that has defeated many other estimable artists. So here are three heartfelt cheers to everyone involved.

Ann Hampton Callaway and Marc Kudisch Do the Good Stuff

As an early Christmas present to me, me, me (and a lot of other people as well), two of my favorite performers in the whole wide world will be doing their stuff onstage in NYC this week: The amazing Ann Hampton Callaway will headline a New York Pops tribute to Johnny Mercer at Carnegie Hall on Friday evening, November 20, while three-time Tony Award nominee Marc Kudisch will be featured in the City Center Encores! presentation of the Gershwin musical Girl Crazy, Nov. 19-22. I mean, really, who could ask for anything more?

Titled Too Marvelous for Words, the Mercer concert is the latest event celebrating the late, great lyricist and sometime composer in his centenary year. Joining the Pops and conductor Steven Reineke, Callaway will perform alongside Broadway vet James. T. Lane, actress and opera singer N'Kenge, and the Camp Broadway Kids in a program that will include such Mercer perennials as "Dream," "Come Rain or Come Shine," and "Moon River."

"I've had a lifelong love affair with Johnny Mercer," Ann says unabashedly. "I love his sense of wit, his humanity, his ability to create poetry and colloquialism at the same time. He has a great talent to make it sound as if the singer is saying something for the first time. His songs always have an 'aha!' moment -- a moment in which the truth is told in an extraordinary way. His lyrics seem natural and inevitable, but they're also surprising at the same time. I think that's what all songwriters aspire to but very few achieve."

When I ask Ann if she has a favorite or favorites among Mercer's creations, she replies: "Well, he wrote the lyrics to a song that has become something of a signature for me, 'Blues in the Night.' You think about him growing up in Savannah, which is kind of a haunted city. The way Mercer he was able to capture the night having this energy, people being haunted by the sounds of the night -- there's something primordial about it.

"I also love 'Skylark.' I don't think there are many songs that more poignantly paint the dialogue we have with nature. The way Mercer was able to strike up a conversation with something outside of himself is really sublime. Then there are the playful songs he wrote, which are just delightful. And one of my all-time favorite Mercer ballads is 'This Will Be My Shining Hour,' which I recorded on my second album. It's one of those songs that, if you only had an hour left to live, you'd want to sing it."

Mercer could and did write the music for some of his songs, most notably "Dream," but he was far more famous and prolific as a lyricist. Ann says she can only speculate as to why he didn't write more music, "but I do know that, sometimes, when you become known for a particular talent, you can sort of get trapped into doing only that one thing. People want the sure-fire power of a Johnny Mercer lyric paired with the sure-fire brilliance of a Harold Arlen melody. The creative process is a mysterious one. Mercer was very upset in the later years of his life that his songs were starting to lose some of their popularity. I think people sometimes do or don't do things our of fear or insecurity. That's a part of Johnny Mercer I'd like to learn more about."

The Mercer concert will mark Ann's fifth appearance at Carnegie Hall -- "if I'm counting correctly," she says. "I love the hall, I love the Pops, I love the songs, and this will be my first time performing with Steven Reineke. I'm very excited about that. It should be a great night!"

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Meanwhile, at City Center -- just two blocks away from Carnegie -- Marc Kudisch and company will be revivifying a show that almost no one alive today has seen in its original form. Make no mistake, folks: This is Girl Crazy as performed on Broadway in 1930, not to be confused with Crazy for You, the '92 revisal that was a hit because of the glorious, augmented Gershwin score and Susan Stroman's terrific choreography, certainly not because of Ken Ludwig's lame rewrite of the book.

The show includes such standards as "I Got Rhythm," "But Not for Me," and "Embraceable You." As described in the press materials, the original plot concerns "a sophisticated New Yorker marooned in a dusty Western cow town with no one who understands him but the Yiddish-speaking cabbie who brought him there and no one to love but the only woman within 50 miles." Real-life couple Chris Diamantopoulos and Becki Newton play the leads, with Seinfeld fave Wayne Knight as the cabbie. And how does Marc fit into the mix?

"I play a character called Slick Follicle. Ana Gasteyer plays my wife, Kate -- the Ethel Merman part. I'm a gambler, and she's a nightclub singer. I only get to sing one song in the show, 'Treat Me Rough.' I gather that's because the guy who originated the role wasn't really a singer. What's fun is that there's a lot of music in this show that many people don't know, like 'Barbary Coast' and 'Sam and Delilah.'"

In his career thus far, Marc has done his share of both revivals and "revisals." So, does he generally feel it's best to present an old show as written when bringing it back to the stage, or to revamp it for contemporary sensibilities? "So often," he replies, "we'll do a revival, and instead of going to the material, we try to make the material come to us. I understand why they did Crazy for You; for one thing, it gave them a way to add more Gershwin songs. But what I love is about Encores! is that they honor the original script. Here, we have Jerry Zaks directing. Nobody does this kind of material better than him. He's old-school; he's Broadway. He's making us respect the material. There's a special style that comes into play with this script and these songs. If you commit to the material, and you don't apologize for it or comment on it, you can rediscover the joy and essence of what made it work to begin with. That's what I'm liking about this; it's a rediscovery of a craft, a remembrance of what was really brilliant."

Given that Crazy for You differs greatly from its antecedent, and that the Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland movie version of Girl Crazy also bears little resemblance to the Broadway show, Marc is happy that the piece will be seen in its original form for the first time since God knows when. "How many people really know Girl Crazy?" he asks rhetorically. "Nobody! I was on YouTube last night, and I found clips from a film that was made in 1932, two years after the show originally opened. It's a much more faithful movie than the Mickey/Judy version, and it was great to watch it, because back then, the piece was contemporary. The actors were playing it with the the perfect style and rhythm. As I was watching it, I thought, 'This is as close as you're going to get to the original Broadway production.' It's fascinating."

Marc feels that producers, etc. make an "enormous mistake" when they assume old shows written in a certain style are so outmoded that modern audiences can't appreciate them. "It's limited thinking to dismiss something just because it happens to be outside of your realm," he says. "It's like operetta, isn't it? A lot of people make fun of operetta because, the truth is, they're afraid to get near it. Nowadays, we're cynical. We question and we criticize constantly, as opposed to really exploring open-hearted values. Life is more complicated today, but that doesn't mean our basic values have changed. Fun is still fun, entertainment is still entertainment, and there is such a thing as love at first sight. Shows like Girl Crazy celebrate that. I think the audience for this show is going to have a ball."

You're Going Out There a Soprano, But You've Got to Come Back a Diva!

Once in a blue moon, the opera world offers its own equivalent of the equally rare Broadway occurrence when an understudy or cover takes on a leading role on short notice and almost immediately shoots to stardom, a la Shirley MacLaine in The Pajama Game.

I had the dumb luck to be there for two such magical events. The first time it happened was in 1991, when I was seated at the Metropolitan Opera, eagerly anticipating a performance of Le nozze di Figaro that would star Felicity Lott as the Countess, only to hear the announcement that the role would instead be played by someone named Renee Fleming in her Met debut. The second time it happened was last week -- Wednesday, October 28 -- when the title role in Puccini's Turandot was sung on about two hours' notice not by Maria Guleghina but by the unheralded Lise Lindstrom, who wasn't scheduled to debut at the Met in this role until mid-November.

Such last-minute substitutions are actually not so unusual in opera, but this one was newsworthy for the fact that Lindstrom gave a vocally superb performance in a role that's generally considered one of the most difficult in the entire repertoire. And, let's be honest: Her surprise debut was also a Big Deal in that Lindstrom happens to be a beautiful, thin, youngish woman, as compared to the MUCH larger and considerably older ladies who are so often cast as Turandot. That's a very significant matter in this case, since one of the major plot points of the opera is that Turandot's extraordinary beauty has driven dozens of men to risk having their heads cut off if they cannot solve the three riddles she proposes as a test for all potential husbands.

Although Lindstrom's voice is not huge, it is so well-focused throughout most of its range that she had no trouble making herself heard through Puccini's gorgeous, often very thick orchestrations. Her soprano is wonderfully bright but never shrill, nor is it hampered by the wobble that often infects the voices of women who sing such punishing dramatic soprano roles. Only in her lower register does Lindstrom sometimes fail to impress; I had the impression that she was going out of her way to avoid using chest voice, a very smart decision in terms of insuring vocal longevity.

As for the rest of the cast: Marcello Giordani sang the role of Calaf beautifully throughout the performance until he got to "Nessun dorma," when he suddenly sounded tentative and began to rush, no doubt due to the nerves engendered by having to put over one of opera's greatest hits. But Giordani pulled himself together and delivered a gorgeous high note to cap the aria, thereby earning an ovation from the audience. Marina Poplavskaya brought an interestingly dark-toned soprano to the role of Liu, and veteran bass Samuel Ramey as Timur sounded in firmer voice than in some of his other recent assignments. Joshua Hopkins, Tony Stevenson, and Eduardo Valdes were delightful as (respectively) Ping, Pang, and Pong, and it was a privilege to see and hear Charles Anthony -- who has been singing at the Met for 55 years -- as the Emperor Altoum.

Conductor Andris Nelsons, also making his company debut, had a little bit of trouble keeping the ensemble together at certain points, but he led a performance that was nonetheless thrilling and moving by turns. All in all, it was a great night at the Met. Once again: Lise Lindstrom. Remember that name!