Kevin Puts
The Hours
Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, Kelli O’Hara; The Metropolitan Opera/Yannick Nézét-Séguin
Erato 5419791052 183:00 mins (2 discs)
The Hours is that rare kind of opera that packs a powerful punch both in the opera house and on album. Based on the 1998 novel by Michael Cunningham (itself inspired by Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway) and the 2002 film, it holds its own as a powerful work of art, exploring issues of time, love and remembrance.
The opera had its stage premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in November 2022, and the present recording – made during that initial run – features the original cast, including Renée Fleming as Clarissa Vaughan, Joyce DiDonato as Virginia Woolf and Kelli O’Hara as Laura Brown. Listening to it is an absorbing, even harrowing, experience. Greg Pierce’s libretto is compelling, and the 20-odd scenes dissolve in and out of each other so effectively that is it possible to visualise the action without actually seeing it.
Puts’s music is tonal, broadly melodic and full of striking orchestral detail. His writing for the three principal female voices – two sopranos (Fleming and O’Hara) and a mezzo (DiDonato) – is highly expressive. The music associated for each of the characters also reflects their individual time and place: lean and spare for Woolf; ironic jazz-pop for Laura; evocative of Barber and Bernstein for Clarissa. There are also touches of minimalism (Philip Glass composed the score for the film version) that act like punctuation marks as the three women attempt to write, read and live through Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway.
There are strong performances from the other singers, especially Kyle Ketelsen as Richard, and Brandon Cedel as Laura’s husband, Dan. The chorus gives effective voice to inner monologues, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the Met orchestra with exceptional sensitivity.John-Pierre Joyce