NEW YORK—American soprano Ailyn Pérez has made the transition from promising young artist and award winner—including the 2012 Richard Tucker Award—to established star. This season, she has the leads in three operas at the Metropolitan Opera. The first is the title role in Jules Massenet’s 1894 “Thaïs,” and she demonstrated why she has achieved that artistic stature.
The Plot
“Thaïs” has a ludicrous storyline even though it is based on a respectable literary source: a novel by Nobel Prize winner Anatole France (1844-1924).The opera begins in Egypt in a monastic community in the desert during the fourth century A. D. A monk named Athanaël has returned from Alexandria to warn everyone that the city has succumbed to sin. The key perpetrator is a courtesan/actress named Thaïs. Athanaël admits that he had been attracted to her but now wants to convert her to Christianity. Although he is warned that monks are not supposed to get involved in such endeavors, he has an erotic dream about the party girl and resolves to go after her.
