I understand the original plan was for Kurzak to initially take on Puccini’s potboiler in Europe but those performances were canceled due to the pandemic.
That triumph undoubtedly led to a heady anticipation for her Tosca. Until last week’s Tosca, Kurzak hadn’t brought any of those new challenging roles to the United States however, she did have a resounding success (without Alagna, it should be mentioned) with Violetta in La Traviata at the Met in January 2020. However, in Europe she’s taken on increasingly heavier repertoire like Verdi’s Elisabetta and Desdemona in Don Carlo and Otello, as well as Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana, a part often sung by dramatic mezzos. Since then, they’ve appeared together often at the Met they performed Pagliacci and Carmen, operas in which she excelled in the lighter roles of Nedda and Micaëla. They became a couple, had a daughter and eventually married in 2015. That transition coincided with her meeting superstar tenor Roberto Alagna in 2012 during a run of Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore. Her success in that coloratura role led to her return to the house several years later as Blonde in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, but a recurrent difficulty with that role’s exposed high Es suggested that her career path would lay in more lyric roles like Gilda and Gretel. Kurzak’s big international break came in 2004 at age 27 when she debuted at the Met as the mechanical doll Olympia in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann. Though the Polish soprano displayed many fine qualities, her small-scaled portrayal ultimately suggested she’s not an ideal match for Floria, the beleaguered prima donna. It may have been that many were back at the opera for the first time in a long while as they eagerly gave lusty entrance applause to all three of the principals-a first in my long Met experience! A big, excited crowd was on hand to partake in the fiery theatrics of Puccini’s beloved melodrama which takes place in real Roman locations on a fateful day in June 1800. Saturday evening the Metropolitan Opera presented Tosca for the 991 st time featuring Aleksandra Kurzak in her second-ever performance of the title role.
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