Cut-down `The First Emperor' returns to Met Opera

When the ambitious opera was given its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in December 2006, there were many interesting elements, both musically and theatrically. But overall, it was a mixed night, done in by tedious pacing, especially in the first act.

It returned for its first revival of Saturday night, with Placido Domingo again in the title role, and the running time was cut to 2 hours, 50 minutes (including intermission), down a half-hour from the original. The cuts by the Academy Award-winning composer, especially during the first act, left a tauter work with faster pacing and greater dramatic flow.

In its original version, the first act scene with Princess Yueyang and Gao Jianli -the musician hired by Emperor Qin to compose a national anthem -seemed endless. By the time the crippled princess miraculously regained the use of her legs, the audience's attention span had wandered. The scene was far more flowing in the revival.

The libretto by Tan Dun and Ha Jin has Qin promise his daughter to General Wang if he captures Jianli, his childhood friend. Jianli and the princess naturally fall in love and the princess kills herself. Qin kills Jianli, then hears the anthem for the first time and learns it is a lament of all the suffering inflicted by the emperor.

"I had three essential aims in mind when making changes," Tan Dun said in a statement released by the Met. "I wanted to enlarge the traditional Chinese elements: the Peking Opera-style scenes and the character of the Shaman. Secondly, I aimed to make the story more cinematic, more sensual, particularly the love scene where Princess Yueyang regains the use of her legs. And, finally, I ... added an aria for Yueyang's mother in which she goes right to the heart of the emperor's dilemma. She sings 'You have power again, but I have lost my daughter. You will conquer the world, but you will lose your humanity.' I feel that the color, philosophy, and story are in much better balance."

Domingo, a marvel at 67, is well suited to the emperor, a commanding vocal and physical presence in golden robes who is given music that shows off his lower register. He sang this between performances of Bajazet in Handel's "Tamerlano" at the Washington National Opera, a tandem no other tenor likely would take on in a short span at any age.

Paul Groves (Jianli), Hao Jian Tian (Wang) and Susanne Mentzer (Mother of Yeuyang) repeated their roles from the world-premiere performance, while Sarah Coburn took over from Elizabeth Futral as Yeuyang and Ning Liang replaced Michelle DeYoung as the Shaman. Coburn, who had sung the final two performances of the original run, was affecting as Yeuyang and managed its difficult vocals leaps well.

Tan Dun again conducted and brought out wonderful color from the orchestra and superb chorus, with Oriental sound interspersed with Puccini-like melody. The gigantic production by Zhang Yimou overwhelms the love story. The costumes by Emil Wada are among the most colorful you could ever see.

This revival was inserted into the schedule in spring 2007 -replacing the return of Tobias Picker's "An American Tragedy" -in anticipation of a China tour by the Met that never materialized. There are just two more performances, on Wednesday night and Saturday afternoon.