There being no garden or loggia, when Arturo returns to his native land and Elvira’s environs amid the storm and must evade the patrols, he is obliged to enter an unaccommodating cubicle that has mysteriously sprung up in the meeting-house, where he cowers under his cloak. It was embarrassing to watch.

In the Met’s pre-production promotion, this littered mess was touted as “traditional,” being set in period. Which reminds us that sets and costumes are of far less importance than the behavior of the onstage personae. The conductor, Marco Armiliato, at times caught some of the work’s atmosphere and pace, but as the reality of the production set in, could not do much to make the music seem important, and this was reflected in the progressively lessened audience response, despite the shouters’ and whoopers’ best efforts. The chorus, very important in this opera, sang well, but even if they had not, they and the orchestra would still have been the least of our problems.

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NEXT TIME: Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, in a new production directed by Yuval Sharon and starring Lise Davidsen and Michael Spyres, is the next Met offering on my schedule. That’s not till March 25. Meanwhile, I am considering two ideas: a piece on some new formulations I’ve arrived at on vocal technique, and a long-intended article on opera singers singing Lieder. One or the other will see the light of day ere Tristan.

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