Heartfelt as Siegmund at the Met

New Zealand veteran heldentenor Simon O’Neill plays Siegmund in the Metropolitan Opera season of Wagner’s Die Walküre. However, on the evening of The New York Times review, the first of two performances, “O’Neill’s normally strong, clarion voice sounded tight and patchy” due to an allergy. According to the New Yorker however, O’Neill began “with stirring, heartfelt vocalism.” Another New Zealander, O’Neill’s cover tenor Andrew Sritheran, took over the role in his Met debut: “Sritheran’s singing, over all, was dark-hued and burly. He managed to save the day,” New York Times’ reviewer Anthony Tommasini wrote. Die Walküre, and O’Neill, returns to the Met stage on 6 May. O’Neill was born in Timaru. He studied at New York’s Juilliard Opera Center.