Dolora Zajick triumphs again in “Il Trovatore,” in a role she sang 24 years ago. (Marty Sohl)
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Two generations of gypsy women dominated the first weekend of the Met’s new season.
Saturday afternoon, the company welcomed Dolora Zajick back to the role of the vengeful Azucena in Verdi’s “Il Trovatore,” the part in which she debuted here back in 1988. Now 60, the mezzo-soprano remains a powerhouse, showing easy command over more than two octaves.
In this melodramatic tale of Azucena’s obsession with revenge for the death of her mother — burned at the stake for witchcraft — Zajick triumphed in her second act aria “Condotta ell’era in ceppi.”
Recalling the grisly details of the execution, she rocketed to a steely high B-flat, then plunged into a thundering chest register.
Another big-voiced mezzo, Anita Rachvelishvili, took the stage Friday night as Carmen, Bizet’s alluring antiheroine. Though only 28, this native of the republic of Georgia wields a throbbing, sinfully rich mezzo.
She also radiates the magnetism of a seasoned superstar.
From the first act’s ironic, smirking “Habanera” aria, she surged to white-hot intensity for the finale, when Carmen defies death as boldly as she did her castoff lovers.
True, along the way a phrase or two turned harsh, but she was never less than compelling as a woman who could inspire both love and murder.
As Don Jose, the soldier whose obsession with Carmen wrecks both their lives, Yonghoon Lee flung out his muscular dramatic tenor with almost frightening abandon. This is the kind of passionate performance opera buffs describe as “leaving blood on the stage.”
Generating extra interest in “Trovatore” was the surprise debut — on less than 24 hours’ notice — of the Chinese soprano Guanqun Yu in the prima donna role of Leonora. Her creamy lyric voice offered deft agility and smooth legato, despite a muted lower register.
Less pleasing was hulking tenor Gwyn Hughes-Jones, who made the fiery troubadour Manrico croon like Vic Damone.
The two productions share a visual concept — weathered walls reconfigured on a revolving stage — though David McVicar’s stark direction of “Trovatore” felt more vital than Richard Eyre’s fussy “Carmen.”
Were the conductors of these two operas competing to see who could make the Met orchestra play faster? Debuting maestro Michele Mariotti reduced the overture to “Carmen” to a dizzy blur, but for sheer frenzy, the prize went to Daniele Callegari’s “Trovatore,” in which the singers hardly drew breath from beginning to end.