La Donna del Lago, Metropolitan Opera, review: Colm Toibin on a night of masterful singing

La Donna del Lago, based on a poem by Sir Walter Scott, is one of the nine serious, dramatic operas that Rossini wrote for Teatro San Carlo in Naples between 1815 and 1822. At the time the opera was produced he had at his disposal not only a great soprano, for whom he wrote with considerable flair, but two expert tenors and a contralto taking the part of the young male lover. In the first-ever production at the Met in New York that has just opened, the colours move from the sultry sky of Scotland in the first act to the starkness of a field after battle and then the sumptuous golds in King James V’s palace in the second act. Something like this happens too in the vocal writing, which ranges from the stunningly beautiful to tones that are darker and more restrained.

The heroine, Elena, is sung by Joyce DiDonato, whose voice here has extraordinary range and displays the most subtle attention to colour and detail. In the first act, she meets the King (Juan Diego Florez) who is in disguise. At war with Elena’s father, he becomes smitten by her during this encounter; the problem is that Elena’s father has promised her to one of his supporters, and there is also another suitor, Malcolm, with whom she is really in love.

Juan Diego Florez, one of the most handsome men in the world, is made for longing. His voice is filled with boyish and melancholy desire; the plaintive zeal with which he sings the high register evokes the most exquisite kind of need tinged with a sense of how sad loss will make him. The scenes between him and DiDonato are pure show-stoppers, even when some of the music is close to formulaic and banal.