The Met Gets Biblical with Verdi's Stiffelio

We mean by saying that the Met gets biblical, it presents an opera with a Protestant New Testament theme, Stiffelio by Verdi. We saw it last night.

We always enjoy Verdi because his drama is cleanly structured and his music is steady. We can follow it, and yes it keeps us awake. Now the music critic at the Times gave this production a good review, with a bit more sophistication than ours here.

The soprano Sondra Radvanovsky and the tenor José Cura provided pure joy, along with Plácido Domingo, in the pit conducting now, recalling that he originated the tenor role for the Met in 1993.

The production concludes with a dramatic aria from John 8, as good a resolution as any to an Italian opera about love and betrayal.