The Enchanted Island

The Enchanted Island, the new pastiche opera at the Met, was striking, gorgeous, magnificent, totally enchanting, indeed, over the top. . . as a pastiche. But a pastiche it was, though the pieces were well put together, musically and theatrically, by the masterful hands of Jeremy Sams, with no unsightly seams in sight. Moreover, the production featured a parade of topnotch singers -- awesome David Daniels, powerful and beautiful Joyce DiDonato and Danielle De Niese, venerable Placido Domingo, and other impressive talents, and peerless William Christie directing. The use of the video projection of the 59 Productions was truly magical; and the lavish set and costume design was dazzling. The music drawn from Handel, Vivaldi, and Rameau, among others, was interminably a delight. Yet. . .and yet . . . it was a fragile contraption, a fairground festivity, a bouquet of tissue paper flowers, marvelous fireworks. It had little substance and got boring after the initial uplift; it was a marvel while it lasted but left very little after it was over.

Given all the splendor, it took me a while to determine the fundamental flaw, and I diagnosed it to be the excess of visual opulence. I’m no purist, and I understand pastiche as a legitimate creative style in the 18th century. and fantasy as a promising artistic form; and I know well that Baroque in art aspired for the splendiferous, even the stupendiferous. But the stage spectacle was overwrought to the point it was no longer an opera but a circus show at the expense of everything else -- the orchestra and, most of all, the contribution of beautiful singing talents. There was already an excess in wedding Shakespeare’s The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream; the effort undermined the depth of both plays and made us long for one or the other in its integrity. Ariel doubling as Puck is fun but no more than that. A show so rich and so cheap! A Baroque opera of more credible splendor was demonstrated by Lully’s Atys performed at BAM last September under the direction of the same William Christie -- a recreation of the 1987 production at Opéra Comique, Paris. No doubt The Enchanted Island was a great show, a masterpiece of its ringmaster, Peter Gelb. But if he thinks this project, surely costing a fortune, is going to create future opera fans, he might think twice because, most likely, any opera novice returning to the Met after this razzle-dazzle enchantment will only see any true opera pale as a spectacle and most likely disenchanting.