Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007) was the senior living opera composer and, in my opinion, a largely undervalued one.
Far and away his greatest failing as a composer of operas has been that he persists in writing his own libretti,
which lie in the range between adequate and abysmal.
The plot of "Goya" rates as barely adequate:
Act I: Young Goya, fresh from the provinces, has come to the court in Madrid.
He becomes the butt of a practical joke in which he mistakes the Duchess of Alba for her maid.
Having discovered his error, he nevertheless offers to paint her picture.
By the end of the act, it is clear that the Duchess is more interested in the painter than the painting.
Act II: The Duchess, already on the Queen's black list, indulges in some spiteful infighting with Maria Luisa.
Goya gets entangled between the two and is casually tossed aside by the Duchess.
Approached by the King to be court painter, Goya discovers that he is losing his hearing.
Act III: Sick, the Duchess sends for Goya. Before he can arrive, the Duchess suffers a final unpleasant set-to with the Queen,
deduces that she has been poisoned, and dies. . . . Years pass. . . . The old Goya, deaf, blind and near death, dreams of his past.
The subjects of his paintings seem to come to life around him.
In the end, the Duchess appears and assures him that his art will triumph.
For an opera named "Goya," a lot of focus is placed on Cayetana, Duchess of Alba, perhaps too much.
Goya is never allowed to determine any part of his fate; he merely drifts before the wishes of others.
The time shift in the middle of Act III is heavy-handed, to say the least.
Musically, the opera is mostly written in a good, solid, verismo fashion.
Had it been written in 1896 or even 1906 rather than 1986, it might have come down to us as a minor masterpiece.
The Duchess, in particular, has some passages that sound like they might blossom into Puccini-like gems,
but Menotti chooses to let them fade away in obedience to the imperious demands of his libretto.
The non-verismo portions of the piece are largely concentrated in the dream passages of Act III. There, the broken rhythms and ambiguous tonality of mid-Twentieth Century music take over.
This is the one part of the opera that sounds very, very old-fashioned.
Cesar Hernandez and Susanna Guzman are excellent in the two leading roles, Goya and the Duchess.
Every review I have ever seen of this opera says the same thing, and I do not intend to break ranks:
Hernandez sounds remarkably like Domingo--certainly no bad thing, considering the current drought of tenors.
Ms. Guzman sounds good enough to make me wish to hear her in big arias that give her a chance to take full flight.
The rest of the cast is perfectly competent, as are the conducting, orchestra and chorus.
