Stephanie and I saw John Adams's *El Niño* at the Met on May 8, 2024. This show was littered with Met debuts:
The opera itself
Conductor Marin Alsop
Director Lileana Blain-Cruz
Set designer Adam Rigg
Lighting designer Yi Zhao
Projection designer Hannah Wasileski
Puppet designer James Ortiz
Choreographer Marjani Forté-Saunders
Soprano Julia Bullock
Countertenor Siman Chung
Countertenor Key'mon W. Murrah
Bass-baritone Davóne Tines
The story behind the work is interesting. In the late 90s Adams had a commission from the San Francisco Symphony for a work for chorus and orchestra and also a commission from Paris's Théâtre du Châtelet for an opera. He talked to both organizations and talked them into sharing the piece, an opera-oratorio.
Adams's two previous operas were on contemporary topics, *Nixon in China* and *The Death of Klinghoffer.* He wanted to do something different this time and settled on the nativity. He enlisted his frequent collaborator director and writer Peter Sellars and they decided to open it up to become both ancient and contemporary. Sellars and Adams assembled the text, a mixture of the King James Bible, Hildegard von Bingen, the Wakefield Mystery Plays, Martin Luther, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Gabriela Mistral, Vicente Hidobro, Rubén Darío, and Rosario Castellanos. I'd guess that about a third of the opera is in Spanish (the other two thirds are in English).
I'm a big Adams fan, had seen the Théâtre du Châtelet production on DVD, and was very excited to see it onstage at the Met. The audience applauded when the curtain went up because the stage picture was so rapturously beautiful. That tone was consistent throughout the show - - the set design, lighting, and projections were astonishing, not just beautiful but meaningful and engrossing. Stephanie felt that the first act was too dark. She loved the "brilliant red sunrise" when Mary and Joseph arrive in Egypt in the second act.
I had heard soprano Julia Bullock twice before, in recital in 2014 and in the opera *Upload* in 2022. She's a singer on the rise and I was excited for her Met debut. Maybe she had an off night but I was disappointed in her singing. She sounded cloudy and tight. She's playing Cleopatra in Adams's newest opera, *Antony and Cleopatra,* at the Met next year. Hopefully I'll feel better about that performance...
I heard mezzo J'Nai Bridges in *Akhnaten* at the Met twice and wowie wow, that is a voice. Lush and free, she sang and you knew you were at the opera.
I'll say the same about bass-baritone Davóne Tines, gorgeous voice and a strong actor. There were more demands on him in the acting department than on the two women - - he played Joseph but also played Herod, who in this staging was a sort of generalissimo type, full of rage and bluster. He also played God in his opening aria "Shake the heavens," which felt like a direct nod to one of Adams's and Sellars's inspirations, Handel's *Messiah.*
I heard conductor Marin Alsop do Adams's *Nixon in China* in St. Louis many years ago. She knocked me out. She got a huge ovation when she made her entrance before the second act and she was deserving. My date, Stephanie, is a professional musician, a world-class flute player, and she thought the score would be very difficult to play, repetitious and confusing for the individual players. Adams layers things in a sort of sparkling tapestry but each of those layers would be, I imagine, rather tiresome for the orchestra.
The most touching moment of the show was the arrival of the three kings, who were sung by the three counter tenors. They had sung as a unit up to this point, collectively as the angel Gabriel. They each got a solo moment as the kings, introducing themselves to Mary and Joseph and explaining what their gifts are. The thing that made it touching was Mary handed the baby to each of them and they held him as they sang. It was sweet, specific, and surprising, a brilliant touch by director Lileana Blain-Cruz. I want to see more from her at the Met.
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