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Opera has the power to make us delight in other peoples suffering.
With all those visual distractions, its a wonder we can hear anything at all.
He painted portraits in music of each of these ageless human foibles.
You cant miss the thrill of a character hurtling toward some disastrous new misjudgment.
None of it gets any extra poignancy from a few smears of graffiti on subway tile.
And most of all, Davidsen gets it.
Not all that awesomeness translates into Italian.
How, in other words, to save an opera from the directors clomping.
Trelinski makes his mark even before the overture begins.
We get films of slo-mo helicopters and a stubble-chinned soldier pushing through wintry woods.
Set designer Boris Kudlicka keeps things nice and gloomy with plenty of barbed wire and hospital beds.
or the fussy stage business.
La Forza del Destinois at the Metropolitan Opera through March 29.
