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In spring 2011, the first-ever performances at New York's Metropolitan Opera of Rossini's Le Comte Ory brought standing ovations and critical-acclaim. The spectacular trio of Juan Diego Florez, Diana Damrau and Joyce DiDonato ignited vocal and theatrical fireworks. Le Comte Ory tells the story of a libidinous and cunning nobleman who disguises himself first as a hermit and then as a nun ("Sister Colette") in order to gain access to the virtuous Countess Adele, whose brother is away at the Crusades. The 2011 Met production was directed by the Tony Award-winning Broadway director Bartlett Sher, who in recent years has also staged Il barbiere di Siviglia and Les Contes d'Hoffman for the Met. Sher presented the action as an opera within an opera, updated the action by a few centuries and giving the costume designer, Catherine Zuber, the opportunity to create some particularly extravagant headgear. Juan Diego Florez starred as the title role while Diana Damrau plays his love interest, Countess Adele, and Joyce DiDonato was in breeches as his pageboy Isolier. The trio had appeared in Sher's production of Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia.



The New York Times praised "the terrific cast", citing Damrau's "lustrous, agile coloratura soprano voice, and charisma galore" and describing how DiDonato, "who sang with plush sound and impeccable passagework, sent top notes soaring and conveyed all the swagger of a smitten page."

The Financial Times named Florez, "a bel-canto paragon virtually without peer. He attacks and/or floats top tones with laughing ease, phrases with slender grace and exudes charm even when impersonating a singing nun". The Wall Street Journal said: "It was a treat to hear Mr. Florez navigate the vocal extremes of the role, popping out high C's while adopting a rascally but winning demeanor."

Conducted with verve and finesse by Rossini specialist Maurizio Benini, the production also features the stylish French baritone Stephane Degout as Ory's bibulous conspirator Raimbaud (quite a change from his previous Met role - Debussy's gentle Pelleas), charismatic Italian bass Michele Pertusi as the Count's long-suffering Tutor, and, formidable as Adele's housekeeper Ragonde, the Swedish dramatic mezzo Susanne Resmark.

REVIEW
Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

First seen in 1828 at the Paris Opera, Le Comte Ory was Rossini’s penultimate opera and his last comedy. Six numbers were “borrowed” from Il viaggio a Reims, which had been rather a private, limited-run affair from three years prior composed to celebrate the coronation of Charles X, but the re-cycled material translated well to Ory. Along with the new numbers the composer wove a tight, just-over-two-hour comic masterpiece out of a flimsy plot: A randy young Count, hearing that all of the men at a castle have gone off to fight in the Crusades, arrives with his men to seduce the women; he is disguised as an ascetic hermit. Just as he is getting somewhere with the melancholy Countess, his tutor comes and unmasks him. The second act finds the Count and his men back at the castle, disguised as nuns—a funny enough image just to imagine—and late in the opera the Count, his Page, Isolier, and the Countess all wind up in bed together. The music is endlessly witty, rhythmically ever-changing, unexpectedly mellow at times, and spicy with woodwinds.

This is the Met’s first-ever production of the work. Recorded in April, 2011, it is a blaze of colors (costumes by Catherine Zuber). Bartlett Sher, by now an old Rossini hand (his Barbiere of a few seasons ago is charming) directs on Michael Yeargan’s sets, which for some reason suggests that we are watching a troupe perform an opera: we can see the ropes and pulleys that move the backdrops and chandeliers, and there’s a crooked old man (more a stage manager than the “prompter” he’s referred to in the program) who gives orders and operates the thunder sheet. There’s nothing in Ory that suggests such a stage-within-a-stage approach, but it does allow for a smaller playing area, and perhaps making the story more intimate was the point. You get the feeling Sher could have allowed for some more imaginative blocking late in the opera, but it’s all in good fun and rarely stoops to conquer.

And what a cast the Met has put together! The title role is taken by Juan Diego Florez, handsome, sly, and tonally shiny, tossing off high notes as if they were easy. Rossini writes high Cs in mid-phrases here: they’re just part of the vocal décor rather than show-stoppers, and so Florez’s ease with them is doubly welcome. He can’t keep his hands off the Countess, here played by Diana Damrau, who acts with just the right oxymoronic ladylike lust. And while her vocal embellishments are occasionally over the top, she’s so secure and charismatic that they never spoil the line. The amazing mezzo Joyce DiDonato sings Isolier (who is enamored of the Countess and vice-versa); there seems to be nothing her voice cannot do and she moves as if she owns the stage. When these three leads wind up in bed near the opera’s close for their 10-minute trio, (“À la faveur de cette nuit obscure”), we don’t care that such a confusion could never take place in Sher’s odd staging of the piece, we’re just grateful to hear such subtle, glorious Rossini singing.

Stéphane Degout, as the Count’s energetic friend Raimbaud, is splendid in the big number in which he and his cronies, still dressed as nuns, discover a cache of wine; his patter and coloratura alternate with bawdy outbursts and then sudden returns to pious music-making from his pals to fool the castle’s women. Michele Pertusi is weak as the Count’s Tutor, and Susanne Resmark, as the Countess’s companion, Ragonde, has trouble with the coloratura but adds a nice, Mistress Quickly-like dark tone to the ensembles.

Maurizio Benini manages to keep the many disparate parts together and leads with great consideration for the singers. He understands that this opera is stylistically different from, say L’Italiana… or Barbiere, and refuses to make a ruckus. Ory became an instant audience favorite at the Met and this DVD will help spread the good word. The clear subtitles are in all major European languages, and a bonus feature allows us backstage at the Met and features shallow interviews with the cast. There is no track listing in the accompanying booklet: this is becoming the norm, and it’s a bad idea. There is only one competing DVD, a 1997 performance from Glyndebourne on Kultur, but this one is way ahead of it.

Works on This Recording
Le Comte Ory by Gioachino Rossini
Performer: Michele Pertusi (Bass), Stèphane Degout (Baritone), Juan Diego Flórez (Tenor), Joyce DiDonato (Mezzo Soprano), Diana Damrau (Soprano), Susanne Resmark (Alto)
Conductor: Maurizio Benini
Orchestra/Ensemble: Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1828; Italy