In ChatGPT’s defense, I must concede, first,  that I don’t really disagree with anything in its response to Task No. 1, vague and anonymous though it is; second, that it can write only about what it’s been asked (I wonder what would have emerged if my friend had simply assigned two paragraphs on the current state of Wagner singing?); and third, that it probably has not been fed enough samplings of C.L.O. to regurgitate any mimicry of style. In any case, my “style,” while it assuredly contains an element of craft and some awareness of the identity of “C.L.O., writer,” is for the most part the direct expression of all I’ve heard, seen, and felt. ChatGPT, for all its texty technique, has shared none of that. So at least for the present, we are thrown back on merely human assessment, in this case mine. The protagonist roles of Lohengrin have all been sung by an unusually wide selection of voice types, from those customarily associated with the “heavy” vocal characters of Tristan and Der Ring to decidedly lyrical ones. Of the tenors in question, Piotr Beczała weighs in on the lighter side, though hardly in the precedent-setting way implied by some of the press coverage. In fact, many AustroGerman and Central European Lohengrins have approached the Jugendlich fach via the operetta/lyric tenor route. Even with the fading of the operetta culture since WW2, we’ve had (to name the most prominent) Rudolf Schock, René Kollo, Sándor Kónya, Roberto Ilosfalvy, and Nicolai Gedda making their way to Lohengrin and/or Stolzing with Lehár, J. Strauss, et al. along the way.

By all reasonable professional measurements, Beczała sang the role admirably. His voice’s timbre, more suggestive of a pleasing beige-ish fabric than of any metal, but woven tightly enough to keep tone together and line steady, was consistently appealing, the amplitude sufficient, and the softer dynamics (though occasionally taken down to the crooning level) easily available. His musical and stylistic inclinations were always “within the frame,” though never particularly imaginative. In short, he offered the same virtues he has displayed in the more favorable of his previous outings at the Met, and since the role does not challenge the top above A, the thinning of tone that has sometimes detracted from his effect in climactic moments was avoided. By current standards, he is a Weltklasse Lohengrin, perhaps the best on offer.

Becała’s listenability and dependability made him the vocal star of the show. His protagonist partner, Tamara Wilson, showed a voice of potential for an Elsa in the middleweight class for the role, but in as-yet unfinished condition. Her soprano had clarity and purity when singing piano, and from time to time cleared away for forte high notes of fullness and quality. But her lower range is undeveloped, and at least on the evening I attended a persistent buzz nagged the mid-to-upper midrange at all but the softest dynamics. (At first I suspected miking, and bad miking at that, but since I detected no traces of that elsewhere, I doubt that was the case.) She had some good moments late in the Bridal Chamber Scene, but the touchstones “Einsam in trüben Tagen” and “Euch Lüften” went past with little of their wonted effect. The Ortrud was Christine Goerke. This is a better role for her than last season’s Turandot, but in truth only the middle octave of her voice, at full volume, can now be counted on. The top continually frays, and at the bottom she has only a shallow cackle that might be employed for children’s theatre witchery, but forecloses not only the completeness of tone needed for low notes, but the ability to mold and color her scornful pronouncements (e. g., “O Feiger!“, just rammed out there) or to fill in the wonderfully suggestive ascending octave portamenti at, for examples, “dass meines Jammers trüber Schein” or “Ha! dieser Stolz“—basics of the Wagnerian vocal grammar.