“You’re No Good.” “Your Cheating Heart.” “Torn Between Two Lovers.” Those are all popular songs that deal with two-timing and deceitful partners. But the idea of love triangles was mastered by Bellini, Donizetti, Massenet, Strauss, Verdi and Wagner well before those songwriters. And their works are all on display in Week 55 at the Met where the theme is Love Triangles.
Two productions stand out to me this week. The first is the third streaming of the 2016-2017 season production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde with Stuart Skelton and Nina Stemme. This happens to be my favorite opera, but this production is powerful. The second highlight is the first-ever streaming of the 2012-2013 season production of Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore.
All productions become available at 7:30 PM EST/4:30 PM PST and remain available for 23 hours. Schedules and timings may be subject to change.
The Met is heavily promoting their Met Stars Live in Concert series and the planned resumption of performances in the 2021-2022 season, so you’ll have to go past those announcements and promos to find the streaming productions on the Metropolitan Opera website.
If you read this column early enough on March 29th, you might still have time to catch the 2019-2020 season production of Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer that concludes a week celebrating Myths and Legends.
Here is the line-up for Week 55 at the Met:
Monday, March 29 – Bellini’s Norma
Conducted by Carlo Rizzi; starring Sondra Radvanovsky, Joyce DiDonato, Joseph Calleja and Matthew Rose. This David McVicar production is from the 2017- 2018 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on April 5th, September 20th and January 20th.
Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma had its world premiere in Milan in 1831. The libretto was written by Felice Romani based on Alexandre Soumet’s play Norma, ou L’infanticide (Norma, or The Infanticide).
The opera is set during Roman occupation of Gaul. Norma, the Druid high priestess, has been abandoned by the Roman consul, Pollione, the father of her two children. He has fallen in love with his wife’s friend, Adalgisa. Norma is devastated when she learns of his betrayal and his plans to marry Adalgisa. This leaves Norma in the position of having to figure out what to do with her children and whether or not to exact revenge on Pollione.
Maria Callas made Norma a signature role for her after she first performed in a 1948 production at Teatro Comunale di Firenze. She sang the part in 89 performances. The role is considered the Mount Everest of opera.
James Jorden examined what makes this role so challenging in a 2017 article for the New York Times that ran just before this production opened. You can read that story here.
Tuesday, March 30 – Strauss’s Capriccio
Conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, starring Renée Fleming, Sarah Connolly, Joseph Kaiser, Russell Braun, Morten Frank Larsen and Peter Rose. This revival of the 1998 John Cox production is from the 2010-2011 season. This is an encore presentation of the production made available on May 7th and January 15th.
As the Countess, Fleming must make one decision that resonates in a second way. Does she prefer words or music? And by extension, does she prefer the poet or the composer that make up the love triangle in this opera.
When Fleming decided to do the role of the Countess in this opera by Strauss in 2011, it was the first time she had performed the full opera at the Met. Anthony Tomassini of the New York Times was impressed:
“The role suits her ideally at this stage of her career, and she sang splendidly. The performance over all, sensitively conducted by Andrew Davis and featuring a winning cast, made an excellent case for this Strauss curiosity, his final opera, which had its premiere in Munich in 1942 in the midst of World War II.”
Wednesday, March 31 – Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux
Conducted by Maurizio Benini; starring Sondra Radvanovsky, Elīna Garanča, Matthew Polenzani and Mariusz Kwiecień. This David McVicar production is from the 2015-2016 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on April 29th and October 17th.
Roberto Devereux had its world premiere in Naples in 1837. François Ancelot’s Elisabeth d’Angleterre was the main inspiration for Salvadore Cammarano’s libretto. It is believed he also used Jacques Lescéne des Maisons’ Historie secrete des amours d’Elisabeth et du comte d’Essex as inspiration as well.
This opera tells the story of the title character who is the Earl of Essex. Queen Elizabeth I is secretly in love with him. In the very late 16th century (1599 to be exact), she sends him with an army to quash an uprising in Ireland. He is unsuccessful and, despite instructions to do otherwise, he returns to England. He is deemed to be a deserter. This being opera, it isn’t just a political tale nor one of history. There are conflicted relationships that ultimately lead to tragedy.
This was the Metropolitan Opera’s first production of Roberto Devereux. When Radvanovsky sang in this production, she had also performed the two previous Donizetti operas in this informal trilogy in the same season at the Met.
This is how the audience responded on opening night to Radvanovsky’s accomplishment as reported by Anthony Tommasini in the New York Times:
“The applause and bravos for the soprano Sondra Radvanovsky were so frenzied at the end of Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux at the Metropolitan Opera on Thursday night that she looked overwhelmed, almost a little frightened.The audience members knew, it seemed, that they had just witnessed an emotionally vulnerable and vocally daring performance, a milestone in the career of an essential artist.”
Thursday, April 1 – Verdi’s Il Trovatore
Conducted by James Levine; starring Éva Marton, Dolora Zajick, Luciano Pavarotti and Sherrill Milnes. This Fabrizio Melano production is from the 1988-1989 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on July 7th and January 1st.
Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore is based on the play El trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez published in 1836. The libretto was written by Salvadore Cammarano with additions by Leone Emanuele Badare. The opera had its world premiere in Rome in 1853.
The setting is Zaragoza, the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon, circa 1412. To offer up a quick synopsis here would be a fool’s game to play. Several stories happen simultaneously and sometimes share the same characters. The opera has rarely been hailed for its story, but it certainly ranks as one of Verdi’s finest compositions.
When this production first opened that season at the Metropolitan Opera, Joan Sutherland sang the role of Leonora and Richard Bonynge was conducting. Pavarotti sang the role of Manrico throughout.
While critics were not so keen on Melano’s direction, Donal Henahan, writing for the New York Times, liked much of Pavarotti’s performance.
“Mr. Pavarotti was in good vocal health, immediately making ears prick up with his offstage song in the duel scene. Later, his ‘Ah, si, ben mio’ was meltingly ardent and unmistakably the work of a genuine lyric tenor. In the opera’s most famous aria, ‘Di quella pira,’ his voice simply lacked the bite and thrust required for this showpiece of the Italian robust tenor.”
Friday, April 2 – Massenet’s Werther
Conducted by Alain Altinoglu; starring Lisette Oropesa, Sophie Koch, Jonas Kaufmann and David Bižić. This Richard Eyre production is from the 2013-2014 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available May 11th and September 13th.
Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther was the inspiration for this opera which had its world premiere in 1892 in Vienna. It is not the first opera inspired by Goethe’s novel: Rodolphe Kreutzer wrote one in 1792 as did Vincenzo Pucitta in 1802.
Werther tells the story of a young man who spends some of his time writing poetry and imagining life as he thinks it should be. He falls in love with the daughter of a man who manages a large estate. Things don’t always measure up to his ideal of the world and the title character contemplates suicide. That’s just the first half.
In his New York Times review of this production, Anthony Tomassini said:
“To be a great Werther, a tenor must somehow be charismatic yet detached, vocally impassioned yet ethereal. Mr. Kaufmann is ideal in the role. He sings with dark colorings, melting warmth, virile intensity and powerful top notes. There is a trademark dusky covering to his sound that lends a veiled quality to Mr. Kaufmann’s Werther and suits the psychology of the character.”
Saturday, April 3 – Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore FIRST SHOWING
Conducted by Maurizio Benini; starring Anna Netrebko, Matthew Polenzani, Mariusz Kwiecień and Ambrogio Maestri. This Bartlett Sher production is from the 2012-2013 season.
Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore had its world premiere in Milan in 1832. The libretto by Felice Romani. L’Elisir d’Amore was inspired by Eugène Scribe’s libretto for Daniel Auber’s Le philtre.
In this opera, Adina and Nemorino are the couple at the center of the story. Nemorino is madly in love with Adina, but she toys with his love. In an act of desperation he purchases an “elixir” that he believes will make her fall in love with him. He pretends not to love her anymore which leads, of course, to the planning of their wedding. But will it take place? It’s a comic opera, of course it will!
In his New York Times review, Anthony Tommasini said this production was a much-needed upgrade from the Met’s previous production:
“What mattered on Monday was that the Met, having junked its 1991 production of Elisir, a cutesy show with cartoonish sets, now has a handsome and insightful new staging. The cast, which also stars the tenor Matthew Polenzani as Nemorino, the poor villager who pines for Adina, is terrific. Maurizio Benini conducts a stylish and zesty performance. And Mr. Sher delves beneath the surface of this frothy, tuneful opera to highlight its tale of two young people incapable of facing their mutual attraction.”
Sunday, April 4 – Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Conducted by Simon Rattle; starring Nina Stemme, Ekaterina Gubanova, Stuart Skelton, Evgeny Nikitin and René Pape. This Mariusz Trelinski production is from the 2016-2017 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on March 23rd and October 5th.
Richard Wagner wrote the music and the libretto for Tristan and Isolde. Gottfried von Strassburg’s novel, Tristan, from the 12th century, serves as his inspiration. The opera had its world premiere in Munich in 1865.
It is a bit of oversimplifying to say that the story in Tristan und Isolde is about two lovers whose passion for each other is so strong, it can only truly thrive in the afterlife. But frankly, in a nutshell, that’s the essential premise. But don’t be mistaken, this is pure drama and glorious music.
Anyone who saw Nina Stemme in Richard Strauss’s Elektra that has streamed a few times know how fully-committed she is to the characters she sings.
Anthony Tommasini, writing in the New York Times, hailed her performance:
“Her Isolde is just as outstanding. Her voice has enormous carrying power without any forcing. Gleaming, focused top notes slice through the orchestra. As Isolde went through swings of thwarted fury, yearning and despair, Ms. Stemme altered the colorings of her sound, from steely rawness to melting warmth. And it is not often you hear a Wagnerian soprano who takes care to sing with rhythmic fidelity and crisp diction.”
Those are the productions available during Week 55 at the Met. I’m not sure what next week has in store – yet! Enjoy the operas and enjoy your week!
Photo: Stuart Skelton and Nina Stemme in Tristan und Isolde (Photo by Ken Howard/Courtesy Metropolitan Opera)