Soprano back — in fine form

NEW YORK -- One might have thought cheers would greet Deborah Voigt when the soprano made her entrance at the Metropolitan Opera House in "A Masked Ball."

Voigt made her first appearance since she revealed that she had undergone gastric bypass surgery last June to lose weight.

But the audience was silent, perhaps because her head was covered by a hooded cape as she stepped on stage as Amelia in Verdi's dark opera or because they didn't recognize her: She has shrunk from a size 30 to size 14 after losing more than 100 pounds.

They were anything but quiet at the end, giving her a boisterous ovation -- and deservedly so.

Same for the rest of the fine cast in the season's first of nine performances of the opera, known in Italian as "Un Ballo in Maschera."

In particular, Marcello Giordani was a compelling King Gustav III. His smooth tenor climbed the emotional peaks as he portrayed the amorous Swedish monarch, who resists his love for Amelia but is assassinated by her husband. As the jealous Anckarstrom, baritone Carlos Alvarez also gave a strong performance. He brimmed with feeling as he expressed regret for killing his friend.

It took some time for Voigt's voice to open to its full power in the role in which she made her Met debut in 1991. At one point, it caught on a high note. But she opened up as the night progressed. She got well-deserved cheers after she sang of her torment while sprawled on the floor.

Voigt, 44, underwent her operation several months after the Royal Opera House dropped her from a production of Richard Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos" because the casting director decided the American singer wouldn't look right in the black evening dress selected for the part. A couple of weeks later, she received an unusually rousing welcome from a Carnegie Hall audience when she walked on stage at recital.

The Met production of "Ballo" by Piero Faggioni uses the original Swedish names for the characters rather than the more common Italian ones. This production was first staged in 1990 and still looks marvelous. The vast ballroom had no less that 17 chandeliers.

Performances run through May 3. Voigt is in all of them except the final one, which features Aprile Millo.

On the Net: www.metopera.org

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