Because the score evokes the soundworld of  L.v.B.’s symphonies, especially the Third and Ninth, with all its aesthetic, dramatic, and spiritual referents, plus that of the Missa Solemnis, we always hope for a master conductor of that oeuvre to transport us with the greatest of symphonist’s lone opera. On recordings, we have a generous selection of modern maestros, Toscanini to Klemperer and on through to Furtwängler and Knappertsbusch, and if we care to listen back on Met broadcasts we meet up with Bruno Walter and Artur Bodanzky. Susanna Mälkki has plenty of high-level conducting experience, both symphonic and operatic, but a repertory revival with less than greatvoiced singers is not the same as a studio recording or a live performance headlined by Nilsson and Vickers or Flagstad and Maison. Her conducting did not push the singers in either a good or bad sense. It was well-proportioned and well-paced, and the orchestra played up to its best current form. The reading was pleasurable but not quite inspiring, and she did not have the Leonore No. 3 to pull out all the stops with, if inclined to do so.

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NEXT TIME: As announced in my last update, I will be exploring the longstanding question of how the building of a lasting American repertory, for which much has been claimed of late, is coming along. I’ll take a look at a few of the proposed candidates via recording, and do some digging into two recently published reports from Opera America. And I will take advantage of my early completion of this article to keep the announced posting date of April 4. And beyond: a report on the Met’s new production of Salome, and finally my annual Met allotment of contemporary opera with John Adams’ Antony and Cleopatra.

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