She’s back. Anna Netrebko, the world’s most hyped soprano, has given birth to one of the world’s best publicised babies, completed an extended maternity leave, survived a troubled try-out at the Mariinsky and returned to New York. Her lofty vehicle: Lucia di Lammermoor.

Rolando Villazón and Anna Netrebko

The fans packed the cavernous Met, capacity 4,000. Unfortunately, there were problems. Donizetti’s tragic heroine demands special ease in the stratosphere plus florid brilliance. Neither quality is a Netrebko speciality. She shrieked both climaxes in the Mad Scene without coming close to the intended E-flat, fudged the trills and chose downward alternatives in many a decorative passage. She moped in a daffy daze long before her fatal insanity loomed, and, as is her showy wont, spent much time singing while lying or rolling on the floor.

However, she floated a lot of lovely soft tones and savoured legato virtue wherever possible. She looked exquisite and exuded frail pathos. Ignoring the choreography prescribed in Mary Zimmerman’s fussy-business production, she ventured occasional indulgences that may have revealed more about the prima donna’s ego than the character’s plight. Still, she magnetised attention against the odds.

It may be worth noting, by the way, that Diana Damrau sang a more dazzling, more consistent Lucia earlier in the season. But the German soprano could not sell out the house.

The hero on Monday should have been Rolando Villazón, cast for the first time here as Edgardo. He has endured some sort of crisis in the recent past, however, and clearly was not well. Peter Gelb, general manager of the company, came before the third-act curtain to offer a rather tactless remark about the tenor’s indisposition and ask the audience’s indulgence. Under the circumstances one had to admire Villazón’s sensitivity, fervour and impetuosity, if not his sound.

Mariusz Kwiecien repeated his incisively villainous Enrico, Ildar Abdrazakov his sonorously sympathetic Raimondo. Colin Lee made a promising debut as Arturo. In the pit, Marco Armiliato did his indulgent best to support the disparate cast without distorting the looney tunes.

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