In the summer of 1977, Troyanos appeared as Sesto in the Salzburg Festival production of LA CLEMENZA DI TITO under the baton of James Levine. Then, on September 14th Troyanos debuted with the Canadian Opera Company as Eboli although her mezzo soprano was thought by some as too light for the role at that time. Recordings continued with the release of Troyanos's Dido in Purcell's DIDO AND ANEAS under the baton of Raymond Leppard for RCA which put her in competition with herself in an earlier effort recorded under Mackerras for Archiv.
The following 1977-78 Met season saw her Octavian opposite the Marschallin of Gwyneth Jones as well as her Santuzza which I heard on April 18th, 1978 with Gianfranco Cecchele as Turiddu and later in the 1981 SF Opera season opposite Michail Svetlev. Her Santuzza was not the equal of many of her illustrious Met predecessors, i.e., Zinka Milanov, Guilietta Simionato, Fiorenza Cossotto or even Grace Bumbry whom I saw. Later that season, Troyanos repeated her Adalgisa opposite Renata Scotto's NORMA for Houston Grand Opera.
January, 1979 found Troyanos singing Eboli for Miami under Emerson Buckley's baton. Some thought that she was miscast in Verdi's DON CARLO and ‘off'' vocally. By February, she was back at the Met as the Composer to Leontyne Price's and later Johanna Meier's ARIADNE. At the 1979 Salzburg Festival Troyanos repeated her Sesto in LA CLEMENZA DI TITO which was ‘dazzlingly sung', according to accounts. That year also saw the release of a new ARIADNE with Leontyne Price and Troyanos in the role of the Composer under Solti, plus a new WERTHER under the baton of Michel Plasson with Alfredo Kraus. Of her Charlotte, Harold Rosenthal writing in OPERA 'her warm, lush and full-toned mezzo-soprano voice and outgoing personality makes Charlotte into a most convincing character'. Less successful the following year was the recording of NORMA under James Levine's baton featuring Renata Scotto in the title role and Troyanos was deemed ‘a more knowing Adalgisa than is often the case.'
Early in the 1979/80 Met season WERTHER, Troyanos was heard as Charlotte opposite Neil Shicoff in the title role. December found her as Hansel opposite the Gretel of Catherine Malfitano. Her first met Eboli and Kundry followed that season under Maestro Levine.
An extended strike in the 1980/81 season didn't see Troyanos back at the Met until January 9, 1981 when she was an overwrought Brangaene in James Levine's revival of TRISTAN with Gwyneth Jones and Spas Wenkoff. For anyone who remembers these performances--they were a bit of a trial although Matti Salminen's debut as King Mark was impressive.
The l981/82 season saw Troyanos in the opening night cast as Adalgisa to Renata Scotto's NORMA, again under Levine. There must have been some contagion in the air in those early days of autumn. First, Grace Bumbry faltered in her debut with the NYC Opera production of Verdi's NABUCCO by singing under the note as Abigaille which brought on some boos. Within days, Scotto, in the opening night of the Met season in NORMA, received catcalls and shouts of 'Callas,' even before she could sing. Scotto put on a brave front but one could not help but feel that she was unnerved. There was a hardness in the upper range and she seemed to lack agility in the vocal line. However, Troyanos's Adalgisa showed her remarkable technique and suppleness of line. She virtually dominated the ‘Miro, o Norma' duet. According to Donal Henahan of the NY TIMES, ‘Troyanos seemed stifled emotionally but contributed the most sensitive singing [of the evening].' It was a pity that Scotto's vocal technique deserted her when she sang full out. This was a sad experience for one who first saw and admired Scotto in 1959 at LaScala as Amina in Bellini's LA SONNAMBULA when she first appeared at that house and had to win out against the Callas claque in some of Callas's former roles there.
Troyanos next 'created' the role of Jocasta in the Met premiere of Stravinsky's OEDIPUS REX, given by the Met in a triple bill with Stravinsky's ballet LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS and his 60 minute opera, LE ROSSIGNOL. Unfortunately, the Met opted for a static concert style performance of the one act opera oratorio OEDIPUS REX. Troyanos's continued her Hansel opposite the Gretel of Judith Blegen in a revival during the holiday season and she appeared for the first time as Giulietta at the Met on March 8, 1982 in LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN, a new Otto Schenk-Gunther Schneider-Siemssen production under the baton of Riccardo Chailly. Her growing strong stage presence and vocal luster gave weight to the role of the courtesan.
The 1982/83 season had Troyanos's Octavian opposite the Marschallin of Kiri Te Kanawa. At this point, one could truly say that Octavian and the Composer, Strauss's two 'Hosenrollen' had become her two most famous calling cards. Certainly, one could say that her Octavian had become the equal of Kerstin Meyer if not that of Sena Jurinac in Salzburg, or Christa Ludwig as seen at the Met.
Troyanos appeared in her second Handel opera, GIULIO CESARE in the title role opposite the Cleopatra of Gianna Rolandi at Geneva's Grand Theatre, May 18, 1983 under the baton of Sir Charles Mackerras. Andrew Hunziker for British Opera reported that, ‘Tatiana Troyanos was a marvelous Caesar, at once youthfully ardent and authoritative'. It was a borrowed John Copley ENO production originally mounted for Janet Baker which some thought to be ‘superb kitsch'. Jean-Jacques Roth, writing for the Tribune de Geneve said that Troyanos invested the role with an earnest presence--that her bearing was evocative of one of a Shakespearean actor, torn and driven. He went on to say that the agility of her vocal line was without fault, that she achieved a far reaching homogeneity--the timbre comfortable as heard in all the registers.
Opening night, September 26, 1983 at the Met of the 1983-84 season found Troyanos in a new role--that of Dido in Berlioz's epic LES TROYENS under the baton of Maestro Levine. Although Jessye Norman appeared in the role of Cassandra in the opening night performance, Norman later switched to the role of Dido. Although I have to say that Troyanos was impressive, Norman seemed more dominant and through her own artifice managed to give one of her truly great performances that completely overshadowed both Troyanos and even Christa Ludwig or Shirley Verrett, who had sung the role when LES TROYENS was first done by the Met back in 1973 under Maestro Rafael Kubelik. Still, Troyanos gave a high quality performance, nonetheless.
In December, 1983 Troyanos again sang Brangaene to the Isolde of Hildegard Behrens with Richard Cassilly sharing the role of Tristan with Manfried Jung, again under the baton of James Levine. In the opinion of some, Maestro Levine had gained significantly over his past effort with Gwyneth Jones and Spas Wenkoff. Some thought that Troyanos's Brangaene was vocally a bit brusque and hard while opinion was mostly positive towards the other principals but hardly unanimous. On the other hand, there was something very honest and appealing about Troyanos's Brangaene. On February 27th, 1984 Troyanos rejoined the cast of the Met's TANNHAEUSER as Venus and stayed on for the Met Saturday broadcast of the opera.
There was a Charlotte for the Paris Opera at the Palais Garnier on July 3, 1984 again opposite the WERTHER of Neil Shicoff under Georges Pretre. Writing in the French Opera Int'l, Jean Cabourg noted, 'Troyanos did not have the vocal mastery to make an entirely convincing Charlotte and found her diction occasionally "cloudy". Otherwise, there was no mistaking that her interpretation was eminently musical.'
Early in the 1984/85 season, Mozart's LA CLEMENZA DI TITO finally made it to the boards of the Met on October 18, 1984. Troyanos's indisposition obliged her to cancel the first few performances and was replaced by the Sesto of Anne Murray. However, Met audiences later heard Troyanos in the role as well. She created a very sympathetic presence as Sesto and her ardent and secure delivery of her aria, 'Parto, parto' did much to win over Met audiences unfamiliar with this major Mozart score.
By December 1984, Troyanos was at the Gran Teatre del Liceu for an Octavian opposite the Marschallin of Montserrat Caballe but Troyanos's performance was deemed uneven and she withdrew from the last in the run her performances in Barcelona.
Tatiana Troyanos was provided a further opportunity to display her formidable talents as Handel's Cesare opposite the Cleopatra of June Anderson when the Handel Festival Orchestra under Stephen Simon presented GIULIO CESARE in a concert staging on February 23, 1985 at the Concert Hall in the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. This concert performance was tuned to the observance of the 300th anniversary of Handel's birth. Lon Tuck of the Washington Post reported, 'before an ecstatic standing room only audience, Troyanos launched headlong into "Quel terrente che cada dal monte" delivering an incredible cascade of runs, ornaments, embellishments and adornments that left the listener almost more breathless than she'. The audience interrupted Troyanos's aria with a tumultuous standing ovation. He further noted that June Anderson's Cleopatra 'matched sustained cantible lines with marvelous vocal control.' Also in the cast were Maureen Forester's Cornelia, Dominick Cossa's Achilla, Suzanne Marsee's Sextus and Paul Eswood's Ptolemy.
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