Last evening the Lyric Opera
of Chicago presented Placido Domingo, Ana Maria Martinez, and the Lyric
Orchestra in concert to a packed house.
Though
Domingo’s voice is not quite what it once was, he is still wonderful to see and
hear, still touring and performing at 74 years old.
Martinez is well-known at the Lyric, and I
had the good fortune in recent years to catch her as Mimi in
La Boheme (link) and at a
Stars of the Lyric late-summer outdoor concert
(link).
The concert was a
bit subdued emotionally and at times a touch perfunctory, but the audience loved
it.
Special was the beautiful
baritone-soprano duet from
La Traviata,
where the thirty or so year difference between the singers perfectly matched the storyline.
Other highlights for me included the love
duet from
The Merry Widow and “Tonight”
from
West Side Story.
The Lyric Opera Orchestra performed a number
of pieces alone, including the rousing overture from Verdi’s
La forza del destino.
Domingo’s solos included
Lehar’s “Dein Ist Mein Ganzes Herz” and Torroba’s “Amor, Vida De Mi Vida”, both
of which he sang long ago in Three Tenors concerts, and arias from
Andrea Chenier and
Macbeth.
Martinez’s program
included an aria from
Ernani and “If
I Loved You” from
Carousel.
They concluded their encore set with a pleasant
surprise, at least to me – a two-part rendering of the De Curtis Neapolitan song “Non Ti
Scordar di Me,” which is as moving and melodic as the composer’s much more well-known
“Torna a Surriento.”
The city is fortunate
to have the Lyric.
In all a wonderful
way to spend a cold winter evening in Chicago.
R Balsamo
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