GIORDANI GLEAMS IN THRILLING “WILLIAM TELL” UNDER QUELER Carnegie Hall, N.Y.; November 13, 2005 Presented complete, Rossini’s final opera, Guillaume Tell, clocks in at just under four hours of music; the French audiences of the day adored long, filled evenings. The plot concerns Swiss patriots rebelling against the Austrians in the 13th century and is not compelling; Rossini’s music, on the other hand, reaches both mind and heart. There are grand arias for tenor, soprano, baritone and a lesser one for mezzo, a gorgeous soprano-tenor duet, tenor-baritone duet, a tenor-baritone-bass trio that can bring the house down, and superb ensembles. The work’s real problem – besides its length – is the difficulty of the tenor role, Arnold: Writing in 1929, the great James Joyce, having studied the score, calculated that the role contains “456 Gs, 93 A-flats, 54 B-flats, 19 Cs and 2 C-sharps;” in other words, it is brutally high. The first Arnold, in 1829, was Adolphe Nourrit, a tenor who, as was customary, took the high notes in a type of head voice; when, in 1837, Gilbert Louis-Duprez, a “new” type of tenor, debuted at the Paris Opéra in the role, he sang the notes from the chest – a big, bold sound that Rossini likened to the “squawk of a capon having its throat cut.” The competition, and the knowledge that his way of singing was becoming passé, was too much for Nourrit – he jumped out of a window in 1839. About the plot little can be done, but for Sunday evening’s performance of the opera at Carnegie Hall, the problem of the opera’s length was solved by some judicious cutting, reducing the music presented to a manageable three hours. Purists may complain about the cuts in repeated passages and ensembles, but few missed the lengthier recitatives and the ballet music in this context, and besides that, we have recordings to remind us of the entire score. What Eve Queler and her Opera Orchestra of New York offered was a tighter version of the work designed to please lovers of great singing and of Rossini’s sometimes intricate, sometimes lush music. And as far as the tenor is concerned, it was a knockout. Sunday’s performance was clearly a showcase for Marcello Giordani, who has proven himself a favorite with OONY audiences in past seasons (“Les Huguenots” in 2000, “Adriana Lecouvreur” in 2002, “La Gioconda” in 2004) and has recently starred in the Metropolitan Opera’s “Il pirata” and “Benvenuto Cellini” – two operas also known for their high-flying vocal lines. Mr Giordani surpassed expectations as Arnold. The voice is a bright, true Italian tenor with plenty of heft, and the top notes seem more easily produced than ever. After a long, strenuous evening, in which Mr Giordani proved himself both an heroic and sensitive Arnold, sometimes scaling the voice back to an intimate piano, he tackled his last act aria and cabaletta with passion and great magnetism. The long, legato lines of the aria were handsomely sung and the cabaletta, with men’s chorus (a call to arms), with its high Cs picked out of the air and final, long-held C were met with such thunderous applause that Mr Giordani repeated the cabaletta to roaring approval. I dare say New York has heard nothing like it since Pavarotti first dazed the Met in Donizetti’s "La fille du regiment," 35 years ago. New York-born soprano Angela Maria Blasi sang Mathilde (Arnold’s love interest – an Austrian princess) superbly and as a star, she too, was born. Ms Blasi has been singing in Europe for years and has sung at the Met but this may as well have been her New York debut. Her voice is clear, she can float lovely pianissimi phrases, she dispatches Rossini’s florid music with ease, and she can ride over an ensemble. And her understanding of the text was most welcome. With all the attention the soprano and tenor get, it might be easy to overlook the baritone of the title role, but Marco Chingari, who impressed greatly in last season’s “La fanciulla del west,” is simply too good a singer to disregard. As noted last year, his voice is grand and he has style; as Tell, he dominates many ensembles and Mr Chingari sang his third act aria with care and warmth. As his wife, Hedwige, Heather Johnson exhibited a nice-sized lyric mezzo; Jemmy, his son, was sung with feeling by Ellie Dehn. Others in the cast included Paul Mow, a huge tenor with a mighty voice as the villainous Rodolphe; Stephen Costello was graceful as a fisherman who sings a lovely serenade in the first act (with its own pair of high Cs!), and Patrick Carfizzi, who was properly evil as Gesler, the Austrian governor. The New York Choral Society, with plenty to do, made a fine group of soldiers, townfolk, ladies in waiting, etc. Miss Queler, as usual, led a performance filled with broad lines and excitement, and her OONY responded well, its wind section particularly splendid in its winds-only accompaniment to a trio of female voices in the final act. The type of opera-loving, voice-loving thrills Miss Queler invariably offers is what keeps audiences coming back year after year. Sunday was her 91st performance at Carnegie Hall – keep them coming! Robert Levine