by usia review

Bel Canto in Close-Up: I Puritani from the Met at Gulbenkian

Seen on broadcast at the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, the Metropolitan Opera production of I Puritani offered Lisbon audiences the chance to revisit one of the most demanding — and dazzling — scores in the bel canto repertoire.

Admittedly, this kind of transmission does not provide surround sound, which slightly reduces the theatrical impact. Even so, the expressive power of Vincenzo Bellini’s music and the exceptional quality of the cast easily overcome any technical limitations.

Inspired by the play Têtes Rondes et Cavaliers, itself based on the novel Old Mortality by Walter Scott, the opera transports us to Plymouth during the English Civil War. Queen Enrichetta, widow of Charles I, is held prisoner by the Puritans. Elvira, daughter of Lord Walton, is in love with Arturo Talbot, a Royalist knight. The plot thickens when Arturo helps the queen escape by disguising her with Elvira’s bridal veil. Believing herself betrayed, Elvira descends into madness, regaining her sanity only upon Arturo’s return — after he is ultimately pardoned by the victorious Oliver Cromwell.

A Staging in Service of the Music

The production, designed by Charles Edwards, favors visual restraint, allowing the music to drive the drama. One of the staging’s most poetic elements is the presence of silent actors portraying the protagonists at different ages, suggesting memory, innocence, and destiny — a discreet but effective device that never distracts from the musical core.

In the pit, conductor Marco Armiliato leads the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra with stylistic assurance and maturity, supporting the singers with broad phrasing and constant attention to bel canto nuance.

A Cast with Stamina and Style

The cast demonstrates notable intelligence in managing vocal resources — evident from the start, as if everyone were conserving energy for the opera’s vocally punishing final stretches.

Lisette Oropesa delivers a benchmark Elvira: technically immaculate, with a luminous timbre, fluid coloratura, and elegantly shaped legato lines. Her interpretation favors lyrical poise and purity of phrasing, revealing refined musical sensitivity.

Alongside her, Lawrence Brownlee tackles Arturo’s formidable demands with bravery and vocal agility.

Baritone Artur Ruciński lends Riccardo Forth a dark, well-focused tone, while bass-baritone Christian Van Horn commands vocal authority as Giorgio Valton.

Mezzo-soprano Eve Gigliotti, as Enrichetta di Francia, brings solidity and noble phrasing. The remaining cast members perform with cohesion and effectiveness.

Memory and Comparison

For many Portuguese opera lovers, I Puritani remains closely associated with the legendary portrayal of Elvira by Edita Gruberová at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos. Without indulging in easy nostalgia, comparisons are inevitable: if Gruberová set the stage ablaze with dazzling virtuosity, Oropesa offers a more lyrical and contained approach — no less successful, simply different in expressive temperature.

The Chorus as Emotional Mirror

Special mention must also go to the chorus, not only for its musical solidity but for its dramatic expressiveness. Faces became true emotional canvases, conveying inner feeling with subtlety and forging a direct emotional bridge with the audience.

Productions like this remind us why Metropolitan Opera broadcasts continue to be eagerly anticipated at Gulbenkian: even at a distance, grand opera retains its full power to move and captivate.

A Metropolitan Opera production at Gulbenkian in live broadcast

António Lourenço

António Lourenço is an opera and cinema enthusiast whose life has been deeply intertwined with the performing arts, both as a musician and as a devoted observer of the world’s great cultural stages.

He received his lyrical training as a singer at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon, where he performed as a tenor with the São Carlos Choir. For more than two decades, he also sang with the Lisboa Cantat Symphonic Choir, dedicating himself especially to the great masterpieces of sacred choral music. Alongside his choral work, he performed solo recitals of Italian opera arias and pursued studies in sight-singing and piano.

He refined his vocal and musical skills in masterclasses in Italy and Spain with distinguished artists, including the legendary soprano Montserrat Caballé and the renowned baritone Renato Bruson, as well as other prominent singers, pianists, and instrumental virtuosos. His repertoire has spanned a wide range of composers, from Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Verdi, Puccini, and Wagner to Fauré, Poulenc, and Gershwin, embracing opera, symphonic-choral works, and sacred music. He has taken part in numerous large-scale works, including more than thirty performances of Carmina Burana, and has sung in eight languages.

Beyond performing, António has spent decades attending opera and concerts in many of the world’s leading venues. Since 1959, he has followed the seasons at São Carlos and has attended performances at houses such as the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Royal Opera House in London, the Palais Garnier and Opéra Bastille in Paris, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, and the Bayreuth Festival. He has also attended concerts in major European halls and at the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, hearing many of the 20th century’s most celebrated conductors, singers, and instrumentalists during what he considers a golden era of performance.

His passion for the arts extends equally to cinema. A dedicated film lover, he has watched thousands of films at the Cinemateca in Lisbon and in Spain, attended masterclasses with filmmakers, interviewed director Costa-Gavras, and taken part in some film productions. His interest in live performance also includes theatre, with memorable experiences attending productions in London featuring actors such as Laurence Olivier, Paul Scofield, and Maggie Smith.

As a critic and commentator, António Lourenço approaches both opera and film with a sensitivity to detail, artistic intention, and cultural context. He listens and watches with the ear of a musician and the eye of a storyteller, always attentive to the dialogue between tradition and innovation, and eager to share that lifelong passion with others.