Nico Muhly: Marnie

OPERA
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2018
1:00 PM 

Metropolitan Opera
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan

$30-$300
https://www.metopera.org/season/2018-19-season/marnie/

You never can tell.  Missy Mazzoli, whose (excellent) instrumental writing gave no particular indication of any innate dramatic instinct, has turned out to be a born musical dramatist.  Nico Muhly, on the basis of three operas now, hasn't.  Which is not to say that his new grand opera, his second for the Met, isn't worth seeing.  Based on the chiller novel that was made into what might beAlfred Hitchcock's most perverse film, it has a compelling plot (even if that plot could have been better dramatized).   The production -- especially the costuming -- is a knockout.  And the cast of young (a relative term:  this is opera) stars is very strong, with Isabel Leonard (who, with her natural froideur, couldn't be more perfect to play a part played on screen by Tippi Hedren -- and who gives what must, so far, be the performance of her lifetime), Iestyn Davies, Christopher Maltman, and Denyce Graves (now playing the mom role -- yikes!) (well, there are flashbacks). Former Young Conductor Robert Spano makes his long-overdue Met debut -- and absolutely aces it.

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT:  One feels that Marnie and her husband Mark would go to Bar Boulud for a post-show drink and snack.  (Actually, now that I think of it, really they'd go to P.J. Clarke's for Martinis, oysters, and burgers.  Your choice.)