Alcestis' Return

Of the six composers whose names adorn the proscenium arch of the Metropolitan Opera, Christoph Willibald Gluck is the oldest (1714-87), the least honored, the least sung.* Four of his 42 operas have been performed at the Met, but only at very rare intervals. Last week Gluck's Alcestis got a performance that restored some of the proper shine to his name.

In scheduling the first performance of Alcestis in eleven years, General Manager Rudolf Bing had two ideas: !) he wanted to hear Gluck's somberly magnificent music again and 2) he cannily thought that the challenge of the big name part might be enough to induce Kirsten Flagstad to postpone her retirement one more year. He was right. Though she was tired after 23 years of singing Wagnerian roles, she was intrigued with the idea of learning a difficult new role at 56--and singing in English for the first time on the U.S. opera stage.

She proved fully equal to the challenge. The No. 1 Wagnerian soprano of her day, she demonstrated that she could be just as great in a demandingly difficult classic of the 18th century.

The simple story of Alcestis offers nothing too difficult in the way of dramatic movement--indeed, there is little action for anyone, a chief reason the opera is not performed more often. Dying King Admetus is condemned by Apollo to the Styx unless someone can be found to die in his place. None of the citizenry volunteers, so wife Alcestis sacrifices herself. Admetus follows her to the underworld, and Apollo is so impressed by their devotion that he reprieves them both.

Flagstad was statuesque in the white robes of the Grecian queen, yet touchingly human at the same time. As always, her voice filled the cavernous Met with its thrilling power. But it was also rich with an expressiveness that seems to grow more poignant with the years. Tenor Brian Sullivan sang his role of Admetus powerfully, if not always as cleanly as the classical style demands. The staging was a trifle fussy, and the corps de ballet postured like so many figures on a Grecian urn. But alongside the triumphs of the performance, the defects were minor. Top honors: Kirsten Flagstad and Christoph Gluck.

* The other five: Beethoven, Gounod, Mozart, Verdi, Wagner.

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