The Enchanted Island

I saw my first Metropolitan Opera production, The Enchanted Island, a few weeks ago, and I enjoyed it a lot. I'm normally not the biggest fan of Baroque opera, but it was fun to watch a pastiche opera that mixed the music of several Baroque composers with an original libretto. The premise of The Enchanted Island is essentially a retelling/mashup of "The Tempest" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

The plot, as related by the New York Times, "centers on Prospero, the brooding hero of “The Tempest,” an exiled duke of Milan who lives on a remote island with his devoted daughter, Miranda, and spends his days immersed in books containing formulas for potions and magic spells. Here the sorceress Sycorax, only mentioned in Shakespeare, is Prospero’s former lover and a central character. Prospero has banished Sycorax to the dark realm of the island, stolen her spirit servant, Ariel, and forced her savage son, Caliban, into servitude. Hoping to ensure Miranda’s future and end his exile, Prospero conceives a plan to have Ariel create a storm that will wash ashore a passing ship bearing Prince Ferdinand, whom Prospero hopes to match with Miranda. But the spell is sabotaged by Sycorax, and another ship, bearing the four Athenian lovers from Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” is beset. A matrix of mismatched romantic pairings ensues on the island, due to Ariel’s hapless applications of love potion"

So all-in-all, a pretty ingenious mash-up of "The Tempest" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream". The production pulled various pieces from Baroque composers and wrote new lyrics to fit the music in a pastiche style. The staging was beautiful. There were intricately built sets, scenes with a a large number of extras, and some pretty eye-catching moments, such as mermaids suspended from midair during the "Neptune" scene. It's very fitting for a Baroque opera, which is meant to eschew minimalism for spectacle. I also liked the plot. Sort of. At intermission, somebody said that they couldn't tell if it was a comic opera, or a satire of a comic opera, and I agree. However, bringing in the four lovers from "Midsummer Night's Dream" via the storm that was supposed to bring Ferdinand in was a pretty clever way to merge the two story lines together. I also liked Sycorax being involved in the plot, and turning out to be a surprisingly sympathetic (and central) character. Also, the orchestra was amazing. They were stylistically spot-on and the quality of their ensemble playing was incredible. Also, I got to hear Placido Domingo live for the first time.

On the flip side, I'm not the biggest fan of Baroque opera. (I'm firmly a fan of Romantic and modernist opera, so I liked both "Wozzeck" and "Werther" much better as a matter of personal choice). Also, I thought the mash-up was clever, but I don't know how I felt about it. I get that it's just supposed to be a fun, light-hearted romp through Shakespearean comedy and Baroque music, with fantastic singers and stunning set and costumes, but I don't know.... I just couldn't get into the plot. (Basically, I either need to be invested in the characters, or the plot has to be very, very funny). I wasn't invested in the characters, and the plot wasn't really funny enough to make up for it.

This was a good first Met production to see, though. It hit all the right spots: good staging, gorgeous sets, star power, amazing singing, amazing playing from the orchestra, and it was overall a lot of fun to see live.