Samuel Barber, Antony and Cleopatra (1966)

This was commissioned for the opening of the Met's new location in 1966.  It was not a critical success.  The production was considered overdone and vulgar (charges that the Met is certainly not always innocent of in my experience), and people were lukewarm about Barber's score--this was very disillusioning to him, and possibly why he never wrote another opera, though he did extensively revise its score.  I was able to see it via this Chicago Lyric Opera production from 1991.

I must admit, before seeing this I was totally unfamiliar with the Shakespeare play.  About all I knew about it was that it's the source of the phrase "salad days" (which, tragically, it not in the opera).  But the plot (of the opera, at least; I don't know whether it diverges from the source in any wise) is basically what you'd expect: Antony is carrying on with Cleopatra, but is called back to Rome, where he marries Octavius' sister to cement peace.  But he just cannot resist the Egyptian siren song, and soon he's back there with Cleo.  This leads to battle with Rome.  He's losing, and worst comes to worst when Cleopatra, to make sure of his love, decides to send word that she's killed herself.  This great idea backfires when he decides to kill himself in turn.  And what happens to Cleopatra?  Aren't you glad you asped?

I've gotta be honest with you: I thought this was pretty darned fantastic.  Beautiful music, and a lot of great set-pieces: the leads' death scenes, and also Caesar's lament at his former friend's demise.  The only criticism I could level at it, really, is that there's less actual material between the leads than you might expect, but it's no biggie.  Dunno if Barber's revisions actually made a difference, but in spite of not necessarily expecting much from this, I was greatly rewarded.  It's a fine tradition production, and Catherine Malfitano and Richard Cowan in the title roles are both very pretty with great stage presence.  This is a bootleg recording of a TV broadcast; it has subtitles and everything, and the fact that it's never officially been released is a shame and a puzzlement.  Three cheers for Barber!