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Opera divas: Ready for their close -ups?

By Kelly Jane Torrance
February 15, 2008

Anna Netrebko as Juliette in Gounod's "Roméo et Juliette."

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Few of the reviews of the Metropolitan Opera's current production of Puccini's "Manon Lescaut" had complaints about star soprano Karita Mattila's voice. The Met is presenting the work that made Puccini's name for the first time in 18 years simply so Miss Mattila can perform the title role.

Some critics, though, wondered whether a 47-year-old woman could convincingly play a young girl. "Youth Is Not Served in Met's 'Manon' " ran the headline in The Washington Post, whose reviewer wrote, "It is a tough job for any actress of a certain age to play a young teenager."

Few of those sitting in Lincoln Center's grand opera house would have noticed. Unless you've got a very good pair of opera glasses, you wouldn't be able to make out much of the singers' faces across the cavernous room.

Miss Mattila's lovely though aging face will be on full display for tomorrow's matinee performance, however: "Manon Lescaut" will be shown on huge movie screens across the country, including at Arlington's Ballston Common and Alexandria's Hoffman Center, as part of the Met's high-definition simulcast series.

With the great success of this series — last month's "Macbeth" by Verdi was sold out in hundreds of venues, including some in New York itself — the question opera critics around the country may be asking is: Are Karita Mattila and other middle-aged opera stars ready for their close-ups?

"HD close-ups are merciless," declares popular blogger Opera Chic, a young, classically trained American who writes pseudonymously from Milan. (New Yorkers can see that city's company tomorrow as well, as La Scala presents a recorded performance of Verdi's "La Traviata" on the big screen. It comes to the Charles Theatre in Baltimore on Wednesday.) "Especially when you consider that the open secret of opera is that a lot of singers use cortisone to ease the various inflammations of the throat and ailments to the vocal chords." Cortisone can bloat a singer's face up.

The Met started simulcasting just over a year ago and says its singers are as enthusiastic as the company. "The singers love the chance to communicate with a global audience in such a direct and immediate way," it says.

But some of them are adding new pre-performance rituals. "Now you see a wonderful singer like Waltraud Meier showing up for her HD premiere performance of 'Tristan und Isolde' at La Scala with obvious Botox injections, all wrinkles chased from her 52-year-old face," Opera Chic comments.

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