The productions being shown this week feature a mix of openly gay performers (Jamie Barton, Michael Fabiano, David Portillo, Patricia Racette), a conductor (Yannick Nézet-Séguin), a director (David McVicar) and two openly gay composers (Thomas Adés and Benjamin Britten).

Being streamed for the first time is the 1996-1997 season production of Britten’s Billy Budd. You’ll find that opera on Saturday, June 26th.

Since the Met is re-running productions as the bulk of their weekly streaming schedule, I’m going to mix in interviews with the performers and creators in place of clips to avoid the redundancy of showing the same few clips available. Let me know your thoughts!

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 June 14thth, you’ll still have time to see the 2017-2018 season production of Verdi’s Luisa Miller that was part of Happy Father’s Day week.

Here is the full line-up for Week 67 at the Met:

Monday, June 21 – Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel – 4th Showing (Strongly Recommended)

Conducted by Thomas Adès; starring Audrey Luna, Amanda Echalaz, Sally Matthews, Sophie Bevan, Alice Coote, Christine Rice, Iestyn Davies, Joseph Kaiser, Frédéric Antoun, David Portillo, David Adam Moore, Rod Gilfry, Kevin Burdette, Christian Van Horn and John Tomlinson. This Tom Cairns production was from the 2017-2018 season.

British composer Adés’s opera, based on the Luis Buñuel film from 1962, had its world premiere in Salzburg in 2016. Tom Cairns, who directed this production, wrote the libretto.

The Exterminating Angel depicts an elaborate dinner party where all the attendees suddenly and mysteriously cannot leave the room. As the hours turn into days, they lose any sense of privilege and pretense and are reduced to more animalistic tendencies.

If you’ve seen the composer’s The Tempest you know that Adés is one of our most compelling and intriguing composers. 

Feel free to check out Anthony Tomassini’s review in the New York Times. I’ll just give you the last sentence from his review: “If you go to a single production this season, make it this one.” I’ve seen it and wholeheartedly agree.

Tuesday, June 22 – Dvořák’s Rusalka – 3rd Showing

Conducted by Mark Elder; starring Kristine Opolais, Katarina Dalayman, Jamie Barton, Brandon Jovanovich and Eric Owens. This Mary Zimmerman production is from the from the 2016-2017 season.

Rusalka was Antonín Dvořák’s ninth opera and was based on fairytales. Poet Jaroslav Kvapil wrote the libretto. Rusalka had its world premiere in Prague in 1901.

In essence, this is the same story told in Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid. A water sprite, Rusalka, tells her father she has fallen in love with a human prince and wants to join him in his world. He asks her to see a witch who gives her a potion to join the prince, but there are conditions: Rusalka will no longer be able to speak and she loses the opportunity to be immortal. More importantly, if the Prince does not stay in love with her, he will die and Rusalka will be damned for all eternity. This is definitely not a Disney version of the story.

Zimmerman’s production was a certified hit. The director won a Tony Award for her production of Metamorphosesand critics raved about both the look and approach to Dvořák’s dark opera. She didn’t shy away from the darker aspects of the story.

Wednesday, June 23 – Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda – 4th Showing

Conducted by Maurizio Benini; starring Elza van den Heever, Joyce DiDonato, Matthew Polenzani, Joshua Hopkins and Matthew Rose. This David McVicar production is from the 2012-2013 season.

Mary, Queen of Scots, is the central figure in this opera written by Donizetti that had its world premiere in Milan in 1835. The libretto Guiseppe Bardari, was based on Friedrich von Schiller’s play, Mary Stuart, from 1800. 

Elisabetta, the Queen of England, has her cousin, Maria Stuarda, the Queen of Scotland, in prison. Elisabetta is in love with the Earl of Leicester, Roberto, but he wants to help Maria with whom he is in love. His suggestion to Maria that a reconciliation take place between the two cousins only leads to greater animosity and ultimately Maria’s execution.

Of DiDonato’s performance in the title role, Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times said:

“Ms. DiDonato’s performance will be pointed to as a model of singing in which all components of the art form — technique, sound, color, nuance, diction — come together in service to expression and eloquence.”

Thursday, June 24 – Puccini’s Tosca – 2nd Showing

Conducted by Riccardo Frizza; starring Patricia Racette, Roberto Alagna and George Gagnidze. This revival of Luc Bondy’s 2009 production is from the 2013-2014 season.

It is quite likely that Puccini’s Tosca was the first opera to premiere in 1900. Its first performance was on January 14 in Rome. Based on Victorien Sardou’s 1887 play of the same name, Tosca‘s libretto was written by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.

The setting for Tosca is Rome in 1800. The Napoleonic wars were raging and political unrest was omnipresent. The opera takes place over the course of slightly less than 24 hours. Floria Tosca (Verrett) is the object of Chief of Police Baron Scarpia’s (MacNeil) lust. He uses suspicions that her lover, Mario Cavaradossi (Pavarotti), aided a political prisoner who has escaped as an opportunity to get him out of his way which will leave Tosca for himself. After capturing Cavaradossi, Scarpia says that if Tosca doesn’t become his lover, he will have Cavaradossi killed.

Met Opera fans and critics were bitterly disappointed when Bondy’s production replaced the beloved long-standing production by Franco Zeffirelli. Perhaps in an effort to woo over their patrons, the Met revived that production every year since its debut leading up to this revival. Whether it become more embraced or simply tolerated, is in the eye of the ticket holders. Let us know what you think of this production.

Friday, June 25 –Puccini’s Turandot – 4th Showing

Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin; starring Christine Goerke, Eleonora Buratto, Yusif Eyvazov and James Morris. This revival of the 1987 Franco Zeffirelli production from the 2019-2020 season.

Puccini’s opera had its world premiere in 1926 in Milan. The libretto was written by Guiseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. The composer died two years before its premiere and the opera was completed by Franco Alfani.

Set in China, Turandot tells the story of Prince Calaf who has fallen in love with the title princess. She, however, isn’t very interested in him. In order for any man to marry Turandot, he is required to correctly answer three riddles. Should any answer be wrong, the suitor is put to death. Calaf is successful, but Turandot remains opposed to their marriage. He strikes a deal with her that will either lead to their marriage or his death. 

Anthony Tommasini wrote in the New York Times about this production:

“Mr. Nézet-Séguin led an exciting and insightful account of Puccini’s Turandot, a revival of Franco Zeffirelli’s glittering, over-the-top and popular 1987 production. The strong cast was headed by the blazing soprano Christine Goerke as Puccini’s icy Princess Turandot, the ardent tenor Yusif Eyvazov as Calaf, and the plush-voiced soprano Eleonora Buratto as Liù. The chorus, during the crowd scenes, sounded superb.”

Saturday, June 26 – Britten’s Billy Budd – FIRST SHOWING

Conducted by Steuart Bedford; starring Philip Langridge, Dwayne Croft and James Morris. This revival of the 1978 John Dexter production is from the 1996-1997 season.

Herman Melville’s short novel, Billy Budd, left unfinished by the author and published in 1924 (33 years after Melville’s death), serves as the inspiration for Benjamin Britten’s opera. 

Billy Budd, the opera, had its world premiere in London in 1951. Novelist E.M. Forster (A Passage to India) and Eric Crozier wrote the libretto. Billy Budd is a rare opera in that it features no female roles. Even the chorus is all-male.

The opera tells the story of a young sailor who is newly recruited to join the HMS Indomitable. He possess great beauty and charm. The Master-at-Arms, Claggart, finds himself inexplicably drawn to the young man. Uneasy with the feelings Budd instills him, Claggart seeks to do everything he can to destroy him.

In his New York Times review, Anthony Tommasini pointed out the challenges of playing the title character and praised Croft for his performance.

“Hardly anyone in the opera refers to Billy without calling him a ‘beauty.’ The old seaman Dansker, with fatherly affection, even calls him ‘baby.’ So looking right in the role is critical, and Mr. Croft did, youthful and limber, with tousled blond hair.

“Yet Billy cannot be self-consciously sexual. He is innocent of his own attractiveness, painfully awkward and encumbered with a bad stammer. Mr. Croft movingly captured these qualities through his affecting portrayal and warm, robust singing. Matters of rhythm and phrasing were handled with musicianly skill. Since his debut in 1990, Mr. Croft has been increasingly important to the Met. Billy Budd may be his finest work yet.”

Sunday, June 27 – Verdi’s La Traviata – 2nd Showing

Conducted by Nicola Luisotti; starring Sonya Yoncheva, Michael Fabiano and Thomas Hampson. This is a revival of the 2011 Willy Decker production from the 2016-2017 season.

Alexandre Dumas fils (the son of the author of The Three Musketeers) wrote the play, La Dame aux camélias on which Verdi’s opera is based. Francesco Maria Piave wrote the libretto for La Traviata which had its world premiere in Venice in 1853.

In the opera, Violetta, who is in declining health, throws an opulent party. At this party she is introduced to Alfredo by her lover, Baron Douphol. When signs of failing health get noticed by Alfredo, he encourages her to give up her lavish lifestyle. He also admits his great love for Violetta. A love triangle is now in play. From there the opera tells the story of a woman who sacrifices everything to live life on the edge.

Zachary Woolfe raved about Yoncheva in the New York Times after seeing this production.

“Ms. Yoncheva is now the one I’d seek out, no matter what she does. (And she does most everything: This Traviata comes in the wake of both Bellini’s mighty Norma and a Handel album.)

“A few years ago, Ms. Yoncheva had an essentially slender soprano focused enough to penetrate the vast Met. Now she fills the opera house more easily, with a tone that’s simultaneously softer and stronger, less angled and more rounded. New strength in the lower reaches of her voice anchored Addio del passato, the final-act lament of the doomed courtesan Violetta.”

That’s the end of Week 67 at the Met celebrating Pride Week. Next week, with Independence Day falling on Sunday, the theme will be Celebrating American Composers.

Enjoy your week! Enjoy the operas! Happy Pride!

Photo: Michael Fabiano and Sonya Yoncheva in La Traviata (Photo by Marty Sohl/Courtesy Metropolitan Opera)

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They do, however, have great roles for performers such as Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, Elza van den Heever, Jennifer Larmore, Patrice Racette, Sondra Radvanovsky and Nina Stemme.

Since the Met is re-running productions as the bulk of their weekly streaming schedule, I’m going to mix in interviews with the performers and creators in place of clips to avoid the redundancy of showing the same few clips available. Let me know your thoughts!

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 early enough on May 3rd, you’ll still have time to see the 2008-2009 season production of Puccini’s La Rondine which concludes City of Light week.

Here’s the full line-up for Week 60 at the Met:

Monday, May 3 – Strauss’s Elektra STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

Conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen; starring Nina Stemme, Adrianne Pieczonka, Waltraud Meier, Burkhard Ulrich and Eric Owens. This Patrice Chéreau production is from the 2015-2016 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available last year on April 20th, August 31st and November 26th and this year on March 25th.

Richard Strauss’s Elektra had its world premiere in Dresden in 1909. The libretto was written by Hugo von Hofmannsthal and was based on his 1903 drama of the same name.

For a one-act opera, Elektra has a tangled web of intrigue at its core. Simply put, Elektra is enraged by the murder of her father, King Agamemnon. Elektra’s mother, Klytämnestra, convinced her lover, Aegisth, to kill her husband. Once Elektra finds out, she is out for nothing short of total revenge and enlists her brother, Orest, to kill their mother.

When Elektra was first presented, critics were deeply divided. Perhaps none more so than Ernest Newman, then London’s most important former music critic and playwright George Bernard Shaw. Newman found the opera abhorrent. Shaw fiercely defended it. Their argument about the merits of Strauss’s opera were published in a series of letters in The Nation.

Of this production, The New York Times‘ Anthony Tommasini said,

“…nothing prepared me for the seething intensity, psychological insight and sheer theatrical inventiveness of this production on Thursday night, conducted by the brilliant Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mr. Chéreau’s partner in this venture from the start. A superb cast is headed by the smoldering soprano Nina Stemme in the title role.”

Tuesday, May 4 – Handel’s Rodelinda

Conducted by Harry Bicket; starring Renée Fleming, Stephanie Blythe, Andreas Scholl, Iestyn Davies, Joseph Kaiser and Shenyang. This revival of Stephen Wadsworth’s 2004 production is from the 2011-2012 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available last year on June 14th and November 2nd and this year on January 16th.

Handel’s opera had its world premiere in London in 1725. The libretto is by Nicola Francesco Haym who revised Antonio Salvi’s earlier libretto. Scholars have long considered Rodelinda to be amongst Handel’s finest works.

Queen Rodelinda’s husband has been vanquished and she is plotting her revenge. Multiple men have plans to take over the throne, but they have Rodelinda to contend with who is maneuvering herself to prevent that from happening. She is still faithful to her husband who is presumed dead.

Fleming and Blythe appeared at the Met in these role in the first revival of this production in 2006.

James R. Oestreich, in his review for the New York Times, said of Fleming’s return to Rodelinda, “But it would be asking too much of a singer like Ms. Fleming to revamp her technique in midcareer, so there was inevitably some disjunction between stage and pit. Ms. Fleming painted her coloratura in broad strokes, but it was enough that she threw herself and her voice wholeheartedly into the considerable drama.”

Wednesday, May 5 – Thomas’s Hamlet

Conducted by Louis Langrée, starring Marlis Petersen, Jennifer Larmore, Simon Keenlyside and James Morris. This Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser production is from the 2009-2010 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available last year on May 5th and November 25th.

Ambroise Thomas collaborated with librettists Michel Carré and Jules Barbier for this opera. Shakespeare’s play obviously is the inspiration, but they based their libretto on a French adaptation by Alexandre Dumas and Paul Meurice. Hamlet had its world premiere in Paris in 1868.

French composer Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas is not the best known of opera composers. Over a two-year period he wrote the two operas for which he’s best known: Mignon and Hamlet.

Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, believes his Uncle Claudius and his mother, Gertrude, were involved in his father’s sudden death. As Claudius ascends the throne, Hamlet is visited by the ghost of his father asking Hamlet to avenge his murder. This becomes Hamlet’s sole purpose at the expense of other responsibilities. Amongst those responsibilities is his relationship with Ophelia who, convinced these distractions mean Hamlet doesn’t lover her, descends into madness. Will the Prince be able to do as his father’s ghost requests and what will be the price if he does?

Anthony Tommasini, in his New York Times review, raved about Keenlyside in the title role. “The opera is also a star vehicle for the right baritone in this punishing title role. Simon Keenlyside, the Ralph Fiennes of baritones, was the acclaimed Hamlet when this production was introduced, and he dominated the evening here. His singing was an uncanny amalgam, at once elegant and wrenching, intelligent and fitful. Handsome, haunted and prone to fidgety spasms that convey Hamlet’s seething anger and paralyzing indecision, Mr. Keenlyside embodied the character in every moment, and you could not take your eyes off him.”

Thursday, May 6 – 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 previously available last year on April 5th and September 20th and this year on January 20th and March 29th.

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 after she first performed in a 1948 production at Teatro Comunale di Firenze. She gave 89 performances in the part. 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.

Friday, May 7 – Berg’s Wozzeck STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin; starring Elza van den Heever, Gerhard Siegel, Peter Mattei and Christian van Horn. This William Kentridge production, which had its debut in Salzburg in 2017, is from the 2019-2020 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available last year on July 16th and November 22nd.

This first opera by Austrian composer Alban Berg is based on an unfinished play of the same name by Georg Büchner. Berg wrote the libretto as well. Wozzeck had its world premiere in Berlin in 1925.

This dark opera tells the story of the title character who is a soldier. During a conversation about decency with his Captain, Wozzeck is ridiculed for having a child out of wedlock. The mother of that child, Marie, is unfaithful to Wozzeck and that betrayal leads to tragic outcomes for them both.

Anthony Tommasini, writing for the New York Times, said of this production, “…few works look at life with more searing honesty than “Wozzeck.” The issues that drive this wrenching, profound opera are especially timely: the impact of economic inequality on struggling families; the looming threats of war and environmental destruction; the rigid stratification — almost the militarization — of every element of society.

“Those themes resonate through the artist William Kentridge’s extraordinary production of Wozzeck, which opened at the Metropolitan Opera on Friday evening. That it arrives as 2020 beckons feels right.” 

I wonder what Tommasini knew about the year 2020 would have in store for us all when he wrote this review.

Saturday, May 8 – Puccini’s Madama Butterfly

Conducted by Patrick Summers; starring Patricia Racette, Maria Zifchak, Marcello Giordani and Dwayne Croft. This revival of Anthony Minghella’s 2006 production is from the 2008-2009 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously made available last year on April 17th and September 24th

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly is every bit as popular as La Bohéme. Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa wrote the libretto based on John Luther Long’s short story, Madame Butterfly and on the 1887 French novel Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti. David Belasco turned Long’s story into the play Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy in Japan. Puccini saw the play in 1900 in London. His opera had its world premiere in 1904 at La Scala in Milan.

Cio-Cio San falls in love with an Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy named Pinkerton while he is stationed in Japan. They hold a wedding ceremony that Cio-Cio San takes very seriously. When Pinkerton has orders to go back to the States, she awaits his return. Unbeknownst to Pinkerton, Cio-Cio San has gotten pregnant and given birth to a son. When he finally does return with his American wife, Cio-Cio San is devastated. (If this sounds like the musical Miss Saigon, it is because Madama Butterfly served as the inspiration for that musical.)

Steven Smith, writing in the New York Times praised Racette’s performance as Cio-Cio San.

“Returning as Cio-Cio-San, the 15-year-old former geisha of the title, was the soprano Patricia Racette, whose first appearances in this production last season drew resounding acclaim. Her singing was robust, nuanced and passionate, befitting a performer of her skill and experience.

“Even more striking was the dramatic specificity with which she inhabited the role. Her facial expressions, gestures and physical tics were those of an innocent, trusting girl, incapable until the end of accepting abandonment by Pinkerton, her American husband. In every dimension Ms. Racette’s effort was exceptional; hers is a performance not to be missed.”

Sunday, May 9 – Handel’s Agrippina STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

Conducted by Harry Bicket; starring Brenda Rae, Joyce DiDonato, Kate Lindsey, Iestyn Davies, Duncan Rock and Matthew Rose. This David McVicar production is from the 2019-2020 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously made available last year on August 8th and October 27th and this year on March 21st.

George Frideric Handel’s Agrippina has a libretto by Cardinal Vincenzo Grimani. The opera had its world premiere in 1709 in Venice at the Teatro S Giovanni Grisostomo which was owned by Grimani.

Agrippina is the Roman empress who is fixated on the idea of having her highly unqualified son, Nerone, take over the throne. To do that, she will stop at nothing to get her husband, Claudio, to cede it to him.

Though McVicar’s production was first staged in Brussels in 2000, this marked the first ever Metropolitan Opera production of Agrippina. Conductor Harry Bicket lead from the harpsichord and audiences and critics were enthralled.

Zachary Woolfe, in his review for the New York Times said, “Three centuries on, Agrippina remains bracing in its bitterness, with few glimmers of hope or virtue in the cynical darkness. But it’s irresistible in its intelligence — and in the shamelessness it depicts with such clear yet understanding eyes.”

That closes out Week 60 at the Met. Next week’s theme features alumni from the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions.

Do you know who some of their alumni are? Let me know your thoughts in our comments section.

Enjoy your week and enjoy the operas! (Even if some of these mothers are nasty!)

Photo: Kate Lindsey and Joyce DiDonato in Agrippina (Photo by Marty Sohl/Courtesy Metropolitan Opera)

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The week begins and ends with two different operas telling the story of Cinderella – both of which star Joyce DiDonato as the title character. There’s also the first-time streaming of the Met’s 1986-1987 season production of Puccini’s Turandot with Eva Marton, Leona Mitchell, Plácido Domingo and Paul Plishka. (Wait until you read what Donal Henahan had to say about this production!)

Since the Met is re-running productions as the bulk of their weekly streaming schedule, I’m going to mix in interviews with the performers and creators in place of clips to avoid the redundancy of showing the same few clips available. Let me know your thoughts!

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 early enough on April 12th, you’ll still have time to see the 2017-2018 season production of Verdi’s Luisa Miller which concludes From Page to Stage week.

Here is the full line-up for Week 57 at the Met:

Monday, April 12 – Massenet’s Cendrillon

Conducted by Bertrand de Billy; starring Kathleen Kim, Joyce DiDonato, Alice Coote and Stephanie Blythe. This Laurent Pelly production is from the 2017-2018. This is an encore presentation of the production previously made available on June 27th, September 10th and December 22nd.

Charles Perrault’s 1698 version of the Cinderella fairy tale serves as the inspiration for Massenet’s opera. Henry Caïn wrote the libretto. The world premiere of Cendrillon took place in 1899 in Paris.

You may recall that The Royal Opera made its production of Cendrillon available for streaming in late May. This is the same production with Joyce DiDonato and Alice Coote playing the roles of “Cendrillon” and “Prince Charming.”

Zachary Woolfe, in his New York Times review, praised DiDonato for the child-like wonder she brings to the role. 

“Ms. DiDonato does sincerity better than anyone since Ms. von Stade. At 49, she can still step on stage and, with modest gestures and mellow sound, persuade you she’s a put-upon girl. She experiences the story with an open face and endearing ingenuousness, a sense of wonder that never turns saccharine. In soft-grained passages, she is often simply lovely.”

Tuesday, April 13 – Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta / Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle

Conducted by Valery Gergiev; starring Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczała in Iolanta; Nadja Michael and Mikhail Petrenko in Bluebeard’s Castle. This Mariusz Trelinsk production is from the 2014-2015 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on June 9th and November 9th.

Iolanta was the last opera composed by Tchaikovsky. It featured a libretto by his brother Modesto and is based on a Danish play. The opera had its world premiere in 1892 in Saint Petersburg. It was on a program that also included The Nutcracker.

Set in France in the 15th century, Iolanta tells the story of the title character who is blind, but doesn’t know she is blind. Her father, King Rene, brings a doctor who believe he can cure her blindness, but only if she is made aware of it. The King refuses to take that chance. However, when a Count visits and falls in love with Iolanta, he reveals her condition to her. Furious the King vows to execute the Count. What will Iolanta do? What can she do?

This marked the first time Iolanta was performed at the Metropolitan Opera. The second half of the program was Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle.

The Hungarian composer wrote the opera in 1911 and made modifications in 1912 and 1917 before its world premiere in Budapest in 1918. The libretto was written by Béla Balázs based on a French folktale written by Charles Perrault.

Bluebeard’s Castle tells the story of Bluebeard who arrives at his castle with Judith who insists on their being more light in the castle. Bluebeard initially resists, but relents and one-by-one seven doors are opened throughout the castle. What Judith finds as each room gets opened leads to a startling conclusion for the unsuspecting woman.

These two operas are not commonly performed on the same program. Director Trelinsk explained his reasoning to the New York Times in an interview prior to opening night of his productions.

“Judith continues the story of Iolanta. We feel that the happy ending is not an end at all — that often, our addictions are stronger than us. There’s the classic repetition compulsion, where many years later you realize you have to leave normal life in order to relive your childhood trauma.”

Wednesday, April 14 – Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte

Conducted by James Levine; starring Golda Schultz, Kathryn Lewek, Charles Castronovo, Markus Werba, Christian Van Horn and René Pape. This revival of the 2004 Julie Taymor production is from the 2017-2018 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on June 28th, October 1st and March 4th.

Mozart’s opera premiered in September 1791 in Vienna a mere two months before the composer died. It features a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder.

Prince Tamino is asked by the Queen of the Night to free her daughter Pamina from Sarastro. Tamino, however, is impressed with Sarastro and the way his community lives in the world and wants to be a part of it. Both alone and together Tamino and Pamina endure multiple tests. If they succeed, what will happen to them? To the Queen of the Night?

Anyone who has seen Taymor’s work for such shows as Juan Darién and The Lion King knows that she regularly employs puppets and wildly inventive staging. 

Alex Ross, writing for The New Yorker about the original 2004 production said, “The Met stage has never been so alive with movement, so charged with color, so brilliant to the eye. The outward effect is of a shimmering cultural kaleidoscope, with all manner of mystical and folk traditions blending together. Behind the surface lies a melancholy sense that history has never permitted such a synthesis—that Mozart’s theme of love and power united is nothing more than a fever dream. But Taymor allows the Enlightenment fantasy to play out to the end.”

Thursday, April 15 – Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel

Conducted by Thomas Fulton; starring Judith Blegen, Frederica von Stade, Jean Kraft, Rosalind Elias and Michael Devlin. This revival of Nathaniel Merrill’s 1967 production is from the 1982-1983 season. This is an encore presentation of the production previously available on August 23rd.

The Grimm brother’s fairly tale about a brother and sister who are lured to a house with sweets and candies only to find a witch who wants to eat the duo is the basis for this opera that had its debut in 1893 in Weimar. Richard Strauss conducted the premiere. A second production the next year in Hamburg was conducted by Gustav Mahler. Adelheid Wette, Humpderdink’s sister, wrote the libretto.

Hansel and Gretel has the distinction of finding much of its popularity not just through opera houses, but on the radio. It was the first opera broadcast on the radio in Europe when a 1923 Covent Garden production was heard over the airwaves. Eight years later in 1931, it became the first ever opera broadcast in its entirety by the Metropolitan Opera.

The opera is commonly seen and heard during the Christmas season. An odd choice, but librettist Adelheid Wette did soften some of the harsher elements found in the original Grimm tales for her brother’s opera.

Friday, April 16 – Dvořák’s Rusalka

Conducted by Mark Elder; starring Kristine Opolais, Katarina Dalayman, Jamie Barton, Brandon Jovanovich and Eric Owens. This Mary Zimmerman production is from the from the 2016-2017 season. This is an encore presentation of the production previously available on July 31st.

Rusalka was Antonín Dvořák’s ninth opera and was based on fairytales. Poet Jaroslav Kvapil wrote the libretto. Rusalka had its world premiere in Prague in 1901.

In essence, this is the same story told in Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid. A water sprite, Rusalka, tells her father she has fallen in love with a human prince and wants to join him in his world. He asks her to see a witch who gives her a potion to join the prince, but there are conditions: Rusalka will no longer be able to speak and she loses the opportunity to be immortal. More importantly, if the Prince does not stay in love with her, he will die and Rusalka will be damned for all eternity. This is definitely not a Disney version of the story.

Zimmerman’s production was a certified hit. The director won a Tony Award for her production of Metamorphoses and critics raved about both the look and approach to Dvořák’s dark opera. She didn’t shy away from the darker aspects of the story.

Saturday, April 17 – Puccini’s Turandot FIRST SHOWING

Conducted by James Levine; starring Eva Marton, Leona Mitchell, Plácido Domingo and Paul Plishka. This Franco Zeffirelli production is from the 1986-1987 season.

Puccini’s opera had its world premiere in 1926 in Milan. The libretto was written by Guiseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. The composer died two years before its premiere and the opera was completed by Franco Alfani.

Set in China, Turandot tells the story of Prince Calaf who has fallen in love with the title princess. She, however, isn’t very interested in him. In order for any man to marry Turandot, he is required to correctly answer three riddles. Should any answer be wrong, the suitor is put to death. Calaf is successful, but Turandot remains opposed to their marriage. He strikes a deal with her that will either lead to their marriage or his death. 

I’m normally loathe to print harsh comments from reviews of these productions. However, sometimes the comments are so entertaining, I have to make an exception.

If you’ve been reading Cultural Attaché’s opera previews, you know my fondness for the late Donal Henahan of the New York Times. He certainly didn’t mince words in his review of this production:

“Two decades have elapsed since the Metropolitan Opera opened its new house at Lincoln Center with a production of Samuel Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra so ornately designed and overbearingly directed by Franco Zeffirelli that the night went down as an unforgettable fiasco. Since then, Mr. Zeffirelli has gone from excess to excess, most recently giving the Met such glittering shows as his inflated Boheme and his elephantine Tosca, both of which seem to delight Met audiences with their extravagance. In fact, Mr. Zeffirelli’s is one of the great excess stories of our time.

“The newest Zeffirelli, his Turandot, had its premiere Thursday evening and proved to be one of the few operas in the standard repertory that precisely suit his massive style. Turandot can be something more than a gelid fairy tale held together by gaudy pageantry, but Mr. Zeffirelli chooses here to stress razzle-dazzle rather than any emotional substance. As a result, this version of Puccini’s last, unfinished opera has the emotional impact of a night at the Ice Capades.”

Sunday, April 18 – Rossini’s La Cenerentola

Conducted by Fabio Luisi; starring Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Flórez, Pietro Spagnoli, Alessandro Corbelli and Luca Pisaroni. This revival of Cesare Lievi’s 1997 production is from the 2013-2014 season. This is an encore presentation of the production previously available on April 26th.

Gioachino Rossini’s opera of the Cinderella story is based on Charles Perrault’s Cendrillon. The libertto, by Jacopo Ferretti, was based on two previous libretti for operas based on the same story: Charles-Guillaume Étienne’s libretto for Nicolas Isouard’s 1810 opera Cendrillon and Francesco Fiorini’s libretto for Stefano Pavesi’s 1814 opera, Agatina o La virtú premiata. La Cenerentola had its world premiere in 1817 in Rome.

The story is exactly what you expect. After being relegated to chores around the house by her Stepmother and her Stepsisters, Cinderella dreams of going to the Prince’s ball. They mock her before leaving themselves for the event. Cinderella’s fairy godmother appears to make her dream a reality, but only if she returns by midnight.

Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times saw Javier Camarena performing the role of the prince and focused much of his review on the fact that Camarena took over the first three performances for Flórez who was ill. As much as he loved Camarena’s performance, he was also enamored with DiDonato:

“La Cenerentola,” Rossini’s version of the Cinderella fairy tale, is Cinderella’s show. The Metropolitan Opera has a dazzling, plucky and endearingly poignant Cinderella in the superb American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, who triumphed Monday night when the company’s 1997 production, which gives this 1817 classic a 1930s look, returned to the repertory.”

That’s it for Week 57 at the Met. I hope you enjoyed the fairy tales being told this week.

At press time I don’t know what the theme will be for Week 58. Enjoy the operas! Enjoy your week!

Photo: A scene from Turandot. (Courtesy Met Opera Archives)

The post Once Upon a Time: Week 57 at the Met appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

On tap (no pun intended) is a wonderful tap performance from New York’s Joyce Theater by Ayodele Casel; a musical where popular princesses from animated films imagine a different definition of “Happily Ever After;” the return of Tony Award-winner Lena Hall with some new “Obsessions;” a live performance from The Royal Opera House of work by Brecht and Weill; a concert performance of one of Verdi’s least-performed operas and the first of a two-part live performance of a play adapted from Milton’s Paradise Lost.

My top pick this weekend comes from San Francisco Opera. Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher inspired an unfinished opera by Claude Debussy and a newer work by Gordon Getty. Both operas are being streamed this weekend and their rarity easily makes this the most interesting option for the weekend.

I’ll begin with my top pick for the week and the balance of my Best Bets: April 9th – April 12th are listed in the order in which they are available.

Here are my Best Bets: April 9th – April 12th:

*TOP PICK* OPERA: House of Usher – San Francisco Opera – April 10th – April 11th

Conducted by Lawrence Foster; starring Brian Mullian, Jason Bridges, Antony Reed, Jamielyn Duggan, Jacqueline Piccolino, Edward Nelson and Joel Sorensen. This David Poutney production is from the 2014-2015 season.

You know Cultural Attaché covers operas on a very regular basis. So it’s exciting to let you know about two one-act operas that are rarely performed and have not, to my knowledge, been streamed before this offering from San Francisco Opera.

Composers Claude Debussy and Gordon Getty each wrote operas inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. Poe tells the story of Roderick Usher through the eyes of his friend and reveals what may or may not have happened to Usher’s sister Madeline.

Debussy’s work, La chute de la maison Usher, is an unfinished opera that he worked on from 1908-1917. The opera was completed and orchestrated, based on the composer’s draft, by Robert Orledge in 2004. The premiere of the completed opera was in 2014 paired with Getty’s version at the Welsh National Opera. It is this production that came to San Francisco Opera with different casting.

Philip Glass also composed a work inspired by The Fall of the House of Usher. A film, directed by James Darrah, is available for streaming from Boston Lyric Opera for $10. These two one-act operas, our top pick for the weekend, are available for free but only through Sunday, April 11th.

BALLET: Concerto – Royal Ballet – Now – April 25th

This work by legendary choreographer Kenneth MacMillan was one of two pieces that premiered at the first performance after he was named Director of Berlin’s Deutsche Opera Ballet in 1966. For Concerto he used Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concert No. 2 in F as his inspiration.

This new post came after his wildly successful years at Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet where he created nine new ballets.

This Royal Ballet performance is from 2019 and features soloists James Hay, Mayara Magri and Anna Rose O’Sullivan. They are joined by principals Ryoichi Hirano and Yasmine Naghdi.

Sarah Crompton, writing in The Guardian, said of this production: “…a plotless piece of sharp geometric angles and airy leaps, danced to Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No 2. Set by Jürgen Rose against a perfect pale lemon backdrop, with the dancers in orange, russet and yellow, it has a breezy sophistication, with a delicate cross work of steps for soloists and a large corps de ballet. It seems simple but is devilishly complicated.”

The performance is available now for streaming. The price is £3 which equals $3.47.

PLAY READING: Angry, Raucous and Shamelessly Gorgeous – Broadway’s Best Shows – Now – April 12th

Sisters Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad star in the reading of Pearl Cleage’s 2019 play Angry, Raucous and Shamelessly Gorgeous which is being read as part of the Spotlight on Plays series from Broadway’s Best Shows.

After their production of scenes from August Wilson’s Fences ignited a major controversy actress Anna Campbell and director Betty Samson fled to Amsterdam for what they thought would be short-term assignment. 25 years later they are invited back to the United States where their version, nicknamed Naked Wilson, is going to open a women’s theater festival. But the festival wants to work with a much younger actress than Campbell. You don’t think that’s going to go over well, do you?

Also participating in the reading are Heather Alicia Simms and Alicia Stith. Camille A. Brown directs.

Tickets are $15 with proceeds going to the Actors Fund. The show will remain available through Monday, April 12th.

DANCE: Chasing Magic – The Joyce Theater Foundation – Now – April 21st

Fans of tap dance will definitely want to check out Chasing Magic by Ayodele Casel streaming now from The Joyce Theater in New York. I saw the film and it’s simply amazing.

For this world premiere, Casel has collaborated with director Torya Beard, dancer/choreographer Ronald K. Brown, singer/songwriter Crystal Monee Hall, composer/musician Arturo O’Farrill, percussionist Sent Stoney and composer Annastasia Victory.

Viewers can expect both traditional tap and also a contemporary style of tap – both of which will put a smile on your face, just as it does the dancers performing.

Tickets are $25/household.

BALLET: Carmen – State Street Ballet – Now – April 14th

Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen serves as the inspiration for this work by William Soleau (Co-Artistic Director of State Street Ballet). The work had its premiere in 2014 and this is a film from a performance at The Granada Theatre in Santa Barbara from that year.

For those unfamiliar with the opera, here is the synopsis:

Set in Seville, Spain, Carmen is a gypsy who has caught everyone’s eye. A soldier, Don José, plays coy and gives her no attention. Her flirtation causes troubles for both when Don José’s girlfriend, Micaëla arrives. Tensions escalate between the two women and after a knight fight, José must arrest Carmen. When she seduces him it sets off a series of events that will not end well for the gypsy woman.

Leila Drake dances the title role. Ryan Camou dances the role of Don José. Randy Herrera dances the role of the Toreador Escamillo and Cecily Stewart MacDougall dances the role of Micaëla.

There is no charge to watch the performance which will remain available through midnight on April 14th.

CHAMBER MUSIC: Simone Porter and Hsin-I Huang – Soka Performing Arts Center – Now – June 30th

As part of their Signature Encore Series, the Soka Performing Arts Center is making this 2019 concert by violinist Simone Porter and pianist Hsin-I Huang available through June 30th.

Their performance features works by Mozart (Sonata No. 24 in F Major, K. 376); Leoš Janáček (Violin Sonata, JW VII/7); Esa-Pekka Salonen (Lachen Verlent); Ernest Bloch (“Ningun” from Baal Shem); Maurice Ravel (Tzigane) and Sergei Prokofiev (3 pieces from Romeo & Juliet, Op. 64).

This concert is free to watch on both the Soka website and also their YouTube channel.

CLASSICAL MUSIC: The Heart of the Matter – St. Louis Symphony Orchestra – Now – May 8th

Three of the four pieces being performed in this concert by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra are very well known to classical music fans.

Edward Elgar’s Serenade for Strings; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Andante cantabile and Giacomo Puccini’s I crisantemi (The Chrysanthemums). The last work was written originally for string quartet, but is rarely heard in that version.

Less known is the first piece on the program: Within Her Arms by composer Anna Clyne.

This work has been compared to Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings for the depth of its emotion. It’s a composition that inspired violinist Jennifer Koh to tell the New York Times, “Sometimes things reach you and it’s colorful or intricate or structured in an interesting way or the orchestration is wonderful. But the extraordinary thing about Anna’s music is that it is incredibly moving. And I hadn’t had that reaction for a long time.”

Stéphane Denève leads the SLSO in this performance. Tickets are $15.

MUSICAL: Disenchanted – Stream.Theatre – April 9th – April 11th

Cinderella, The Little mermaid, Pocahontas, The Princess Who Kissed the Frog and Snow White are just some of the princesses who are changing the definition of happily ever after in this musical with book, lyrics and music by Dennis T. Giacino.

Disnenchanted opened off-Broadway in 2014 and was the recipient of numerous nominations including Best New Musical. The production that is streaming this weekend is from England.

The cast or women playing the princesses are Courtney Bowman, Natalie Chua, Allie Daniel, Shanay Holmes, Sophie Isaacs, Aisha Jawando, Grace Mouat, Millie O’Connell, Jenny O’Leary, and Jodie Steele. Tom Jackson Greaves directs.

There are only three performances. The show will be streamed at 2:30 PM EDT/11:30 AM PDT on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are £18 (including service charges) which equals almost $25.

OPERA/DANCE: The Seven Deadly Sins and Mahagonny Songspiel – Royal Opera House – April 9th – 2:30 PM EDT/11:30 AM PDT

The Royal Opera House offers its first live broadcast of the year with this double bill of works by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.

The Seven Deadly Sins is called a ballet chanté. That means it is a sung ballet. The work had its world premiere in Paris in 1933. As you might imagine from the title, each of the seven deadly sins (envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, sloth and wrath) is explored through the story of two sisters: Anna I and Anna II. The first Anna (Stephanie Wake-Edwards) is a singer and the second a dancer (Jonadette Carpio).

Also in the company are Tenors Filipe Manu and Egor Zhuravskii; baritone Dominic Sedgwick, and bass Blaise Malaba who are joined by dancer Thomasin Gülgeç.    

This is satire at its best and it was also the last significant collaboration between Brecht and Weill.

Mahagonny Sonspiel premiered in 1927 in Baden-Baden, Germany. A perfect companion piece to The Seven Deadly Sins, Brecht and Weill were offering their opinion on the pursuit of pleasure. Amongst the songs in this work is The Alabama Song which many will know from the version recorded by Jim Morrison and The Doors.

For this performance, mezzo-soprano Kseniia Nkolaieva will sing the role of Bessie.

Choreographer Julia Cheng has kept the streaming experience in mind while creating this production.

Tickets are $11.53. The performance will be available for streaming through May 9th.

COCKTAILS AND CONVERSATION: Virtual Halston – Cast Party Network on YouTube – April 9th – 5:00 PM EDT/2:00 PM PDT

I adore Julia Halston and her Friday soirees have been a staple of my winding down and getting ready for the weekend. So I’m sad that this weekend, her 40th episode, will be her last for the time being.

However, I’m thrilled that she’s going on a hiatus to work on a new theater project.

For this episode Halston will welcome producers Ruby Locknar and Jim Caruso for a look back on those 40 episodes that have featured everyone from Charles Busch to Jane Monheit to Michael Urie and so many more.

The show is free to watch but donations to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation are encouraged.

BROADWAY VOCALS: Lena Hall: Obsessed – April 9th – 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

When Tony Award winner Lena Hall (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) launched her Obsessed series of EPs in 2018, she offered her versions of both well-known songs and deep-tracks of such artists as Beck, David Bowie, Nirvana, Pink, Radiohead, Jack White and more.

Given her voice, it was probably a surprise she didn’t also record the music of Heart – the duo best known for songs like Baracuda, Crazy on You and Magic Man.

But she’s going to be singing their songs in a live concert on Friday night. This video, from a Broadway Sessions performance at the Laurie Beechman Theatre gives you a taste of what she can do with this music (it does contain some profanity):

Does this foreshadow a second Obsessed series? This is a one-time only concert. There will be no streaming if you can’t see it as it happens. And you should. Lena Hall rocks!

Tickets are $20 and $50. The higher-priced VIP tickets allows for interaction with Hall during the concert.

JAZZ: Claudia Villela: The Music of Jobim – SFJAZZ – April 9th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

There are certain artists who can use just one name and you know immediately who it is. Brazilian composer Jobim is one of them. (For the record his full name is Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim).

Amongst his best-known songs are Corcovado, Desafinado and The Girl from Ipanema.

Singer Claudia Villela will pay tribute to Jobim in this concert from 2019. She is joined by special guest guitarist Chico Pinheiro. Her band includes Celso Alberti on drums and percussion; Gary Brown on bass; Gary Meek on saxophone and flute and Jasnam Daya Singh on piano and keys.

There will be an encore presentation Saturday, April 10th at 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT.

This concert is available to digital members of SFJAZZ. Membership is $5 for one month of programs or $60 for one year.

CHAMBER MUSIC: Beethoven Serioso – Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra – Debuts April 9th – 9:30 PM EDT/6:30 PM PDT

As they did with their most recent episode of Close Quarters, the camera moves in and amongst the musicians in this performance of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95 nicknamed Serioso. The orchestration is by Gustav Mahler. Margaret Batjer leads LACO in this performance.

Given the significance the camera plays in this film, I want to give attention to cinematographer Michael Thomas whose deft work breathes new life into ensemble performance. Visual artist Ken Honjo also contributed to this episode.

If you haven’t checked out this terrific series, all previous videos are available for streaming. There’s no charge to watch Beethoven Serioso or any of the other videos.

DANCE: Awakening – Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company – April 10th – 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT

For over 30 years, New Jersey’s Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company has been at the forefront of creating works that express through contemporary dance that long history of the Chinese American cultural tradition.

This program will find the company offering two world premieres (Luminescence and Shadow Force) along with two works from 2019 (Truth Bound and Introspection). The works are united in their exploration of ideas we have all probably faced during the pandemic: identity, information, optimism, outside forces that complicate our lives, truth and more.

Tickets are $10 to watch the performance. If you are a member of the South Orange Performing Arts Center, you can watch for free.

THEATER: From Number to Name – East West Players – April 10th – April 11th

Wednesday afternoon I published an interview with the provocative performance artist Kristina Wong who is helming From Number to Name.

Through a series of interviews and over the course of six-and-a-half weeks, Wong and her collaborators have put together this dramatic show that explores the impact of incarceration on the Asian/Pacific Islander community in America. It is a story filled with shame, regret and finds those who are released from prison rarely having a familial support system to reintegrate into society.

There are two performances of From Number to Name. The first is on Saturday at 10:00 PM EDT/7:00 PM PDT. The second is on Sunday at 5:00 PM EDT/2:00 PM PDT.

Tickets begin at $5 and go up in price based on your ability to include a donation to East West Players.

CHORAL: Amore della Vita, Love of Life – The Verdi Chorus – April 11th – 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT

For those clamoring for all things Italian, this weekend’s virtual concert by The Fox Singers from the Verdi Chorus will delight. They will be performing a program of Italian art songs.

Amongst the composers are Ruggero Leoncavallo (best known for his one-act opera Pagliacci), Pietro Mascagni (best known for Cavalleria rusticana), Gioachino Rossini (best known for the theme song to The Lone Ranger*) and Paolo Tosti (best known for his over 50 art songs).

Featured performers in this concert are sopranos Tiffany Ho, Megan Lindsey McDonald and Sarah Salazar; mezzo-soprano Ariana Stultz; and tenors Elias Berezin and Joseph Gárate. Anne Marie Ketchum leads the ensemble with Laraine Ann Madden accompanying.

If this concert (and perhaps Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy) makes you hungry, The Verdi Chorus is publishing The Verdi Chorus Pandemic Cookbook. How many of the recipes are Italian, I couldn’t tell you. But if they can cook like they sing…. The book is available for pre-order here.

CABARET: Ali Stroker – Seth Concert Series – April 11th – 3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT

Ali Stroker won a Tony Award for her performance as Ado Annie in the 2019 revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical Oklahoma! She became the first performer in a wheelchair to win a Tony Award. (She was paralyzed in an automobile accident when she was two years old.)

This wasn’t her first Broadway performance. She appeared in the 2015 revival of Spring Awakening. This was the Deaf West Theatre production that was first performed at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.

She is Seth Rudetsky‘s guest for this weekend’s concert and conversation.

I saw Stroker in both shows and she is simply amazing. This will be well worth watching.

In addition to the live concert on Sunday afternoon there will be an encore showing Sunday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT. Tickets for either showing are $25.

OPERA: Atilla Highlights in Concert – Lyric Opera of Chicago – April 11th – 3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT

Giuseppe Verdi’s Atilla had its world premiere in Venice in 1846. The opera tells the story of Atilla the Hun (how many other Atillas do you know?) and his ill-fated relationship with Odabella, a prisoner whose father died at the hands of Atilla. Foresto and Ezio, having their own reasons for wanting revenge on Atilla, defer to Odabella who will stop at nothing to see Atilla die.

Atilla is not amongst Verdi’s most popular nor the most commonly-performed. In fact, the Metropolitan Opera only staged Atilla for the first time in 2010. The Lyric Opera of Chicago staged their first production ten years earlier.

On Sunday they will premiere a concert of excerpts from Atilla that will feature bass-baritone Christian Van Horn singing the role of Attila, soprano Tamara Wilson singing Odabella, tenor Matthew Polenzani singing Foresto, and baritone Quinn Kelsey singing Ezio. Pianist William C. Billingham and Jerad Mosbey accompany the singers.

Enrique Mazzola leads the concert which will be available on the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.

CLASSICAL MUSIC: A Tour of Iran – New West Symphony – April 11th – 6:00 PM EDT/3:00 PM PDT

Michael Christie leads the New West Symphony in a performance of work exploring the influence of Iranian poetry and music on the West. Joining the performance are mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and two Iranian instrumentalists: Pejman Hadadi (tombak and dad) and Masoud Rezaei (setar).

The program features a mix of classical works by Mozart (The Magic Flute Overture), Rameau (Suite from Zoroastre), Handel (“Ombra mai fu” from Xerxes) and Gounod(selections from Faust) with works by Iranian composers Khayam (Seven Valleys of Love for Strings), Ranjbaran (Enchanted Garden: Joy) and excerpts from Rezaei’s album Nothingness.

Tickets to stream the concert are $25 per household and will include a post-performance reception with Christie and the guest artists.

CLASSICAL MUSIC/CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL MUSIC: Jennifer Koh Solo Recital – Shriver Hall Concert Series – April 11th – 5:30 PM EDT/2:30 PM PDT

Violinist Jennifer Koh appears in this very intriguing concert which finds her playing two compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach and peppering the concert with twelve new compositions that she commissioned in 2020 for her Alone Together project.

Bach’s Partita No. 3 and the Sonata No. 3 are sharing space with works by Kati Agócs, Katherine Beach, Hanna Benn, Patrick Castillo, Vijay Iyer, Angelica Negrón, Andrew Norman, Ellen Reid, Darian Donovan Thomas with electronics by Layale Chaker, Ian Chang, George Lewis and Cassie Wieland.

Tickets are $15. The recital will remain available through April 18th.

PLAY: Smokefall – Goodman Theatre – April 12th – April 25th

Critics found themselves searching for superlatives when Noah Haidle’s Smokefall opened in 2013. From the writing to the performances and the production, the acclaim was universal.

In Haidle’s play, Violet is pregnant with twins and anticipating a major shift in her life. What she doesn’t know is that her husband is getting ready to leave her.

Adding to her worries is that her daughter has chosen not to speak and her father is suffering from senility. Just what an expectant mother wants in her life as she’s about to give birth to twins.

Starring in Smokefall are Catherine Combs, Anne Fogarty, Katherine Keberlein, Guy Massey, Mike Nussbaum, Eric Slater. (In case you are wondering, two of the actors play Fetus One and Fetus Two). Directing is Anne Kaufmann.

There’s no charge to stream Smokefall, but you do need to reserve your streaming opportunity.

PLAY READING: Paradise Lost – Red Bull Theater – April 12th – 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT

John Milton’s Paradise Lost, an epic poem about temptation and the fall of man seen through the eyes of Adam & Eve and Satan, was probably something you read in college.

It has proven to be catnip for playwrights who want to find a way of putting this extraordinary work on stage.

Enter Michael Barakiva who offered up a 13-hour adaptation in 2013 with Upstart Creatures.

New York’s Red Bull Theater is offering a live reading of the play with the first part on Monday. (I’m betting that the play has been edited since its first presentation eight years ago). The second part will be performed live on Monday, April 26th.

Starring as Satan is Jason Butler Harner. Said Arrika Ekulona is God. The cast includes Stephen Bel Davies, Sheldon Best, Gisela Chípe, Robert Cuccioli, Carol Halstead, Gregory Linington, Daniel José Molina, Sam Morales, Howard Overshown and Cherie Corinne Rice. Barakiva directs.

Tickets are pay what you can. After the initial live performance, the livestream will remain available until 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST the Friday immediately following the live performance.

CABARET AND CONVERSATION: Jim Caruso’s Pajama Cast Party – April 12th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

Joining Jim Caruso for this Monday’s Pajama Cast Party are up-and-coming musical theater performer D’Marreon Alexander, Jackie Burns (Wicked), singer Jacob Daniel Cummings and country singers Chase McDaniel and Emily West.

The show is free to watch and if you can’t make it Monday night, the show (and Virtual Halston for that matter) will remain available for streaming on the Cast Party Network on YouTube.

That’s my official list of Best Bets: April 9th – April 12th. But you know I always have a few reminders:

The Metropolitan Opera continues its From Page to Stage series with their 2013-2014 season production of Shostakovich’s The Nose on Friday; their 2007-2008 season production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette on Saturday and their 2017-2018 season production of Verdi’s Luisa Miller on Sunday.

Monday the Metropolitan Opera begins a series of operas based on fairy tales called Once Upon a Time. They start with the 2017-2018 of Massenet’s Cendrillon. I’ll have the full line-up for you on Monday.

This is your last weekend to watch Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike free on Broadway on Demand. The Lincoln Center Theater production stars Billy Magnussen, Kristine Nielsen, David Hyde Pierce and Sigourney Weaver. If you need a good laugh this weekend, this play will offer you many of them. (Use code VANYAFREE on the BOD website)

Also be sure to check with previous Best Bets to find other options that might still be available. As you can see from this week’s list, there are always shows you can watch well after this weekend is over.

That’s officially a wrap on this week’s Best Bets: April 9th – April 12th. Enjoy your weekend!

Photo: An image from House of Usher (Photo by Cory Weaver/Courtesy San Francisco Opera)

*You don’t think I’m serious do you?

The post Best Bets: April 9th – April 12th appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Amongst the great performers are Hildegard Behrens, Renée Fleming, Mirella Freni, Susan Graham, Marilyn Horne, Jessye Norman, Leontyne Price, Patricia Racette, Golda Schultz and Beverly Sills. One of this week’s productions was directed by two-time Tony Award winner Julie Taymor.

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 1st, you might still have time to catch the 2014-2015 production of Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi that concludes Dmitri Hvorostovsky Week at the Met.

Here is the full line-up of Week 51 at the Met:

Monday, March 1 – Donizetti’s Don Pasquale

Conducted by Nicola Rescigno; starring Beverly Sills, Alfredo Kraus, Håkan Hagegård and Gabriel Bacquier. This John Dexter production is from the 1978-1979 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on July 4th.

Gaetano Donizetti’s opera had its world premiere in Paris in 1843. The composer collaborated with Giovanni Ruffini on the libretto. It was inspired by the libretto Angelo Anelli had written for Ser Mercantonio, an opera by Stefano Pavesi from 1810.

Ernesto is Don Pasquale’s nephew. He wants to marry Norina, but Don Pasquale wants to choose his nephew’s bride. Others conspire against Pasquale and trick him so that ultimately Ernesto and Norina can marry.

With her role as Norina in this production of Don Pasquale, Beverly Sills gave her final performance at the Metropolitan Opera. This was a new production of the opera and was apparently created with Sills in mind.

Harold C. Schonberg, writing for the New York Times said of Sills’ performance, “The role of Norina did not tax Miss Sills’ vocal resources as much as some recent ones she has attempted. It would be idle to claim that she could handle everything in the part, but she paced herself well, avoided elaborate cadenzas or interpolations, and tried to project a clear line. Her work Thursday night was a triumph of experience and professionalism.”

Tuesday, March 2 – Verdi’s Falstaff

Conducted by James Levine; starring Mirella Freni, Barbara Bonney, Marilyn Horne, Susan Graham, Paul Plishka, Frank Lopardo and Bruno Pola. This revival of Franco Zeffirelli’s 1964 production is from the 1992-1993 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on July 24th, October 23rd and February 16th.

Two of Shakespeare’s play served as the inspiration for Verdi’s Falstaff: The Merry Wives of Windsor and sections from Henry IV Parts 1 and 2. Arrigo Boito adapted the plays to create the libretto. Falstaff had its world premiere in 1893 at La Scala in Milan. This was Verdi’s final opera and only his second comedic opera.

Simply put, Sir John Falstaff tries everything he can to woo two married woman so he can assume their husband’s vast fortunes. He’s rather bumbling in his efforts and the machinations in place to thwart his endeavors leave him with nothing short of a major comeuppance.

Edward Rothstein, writing for the New York Times, seemed to thoroughly enjoy the production. And he was very pleased with Plishka’s performance as the title character:

“Mr. Plishka gave the role an almost touchingly human quality. In the astonishing first scene aria, in which Falstaff declares his ambitions, mocks the idea of honor and praises his belly, there were few mannerisms or exaggerations. Mr. Plishka played it straight; he was a Falstaff almost enticingly full of himself. His voice was not often handsome (why should it have been?) but it was large, weighty and in character.”

Wednesday, March 3 – Wagner’s Die Walküre

Conducted by James Levine; starring Hildegard Behrens, Jessye Norman, Christa Ludwig, Gary Lakes, James Morris and Kurt Moll. This revival of the 1986 Otto Schenk production is from the 1988-1989 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available June 30th, October 8th and February 14th.

This is the second opera in Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen (also known as The Ring Cycle.) It had its premiere as a stand-alone opera in 1870 in Munich. The first performance of the entire cycle was at Bayreuth six years later. Wagner wrote the libretto as well as the music.

The son of the god Wotan is a fugitive named Siegmund. When he finds himself taking refuge at Sieglinde’s house, the two fall passionately in love. But Sieglinde is married and in order for her and Siegmund to be together Siegmund must defeat her husband in a battle to the death.

This production marked the first time Norman sang the role of Sieglinde at the Metropolitan Opera. She earned rave reviews. What disappointed Donal Henahan is his New York Times review were the very things that make this film possible.

“The most objectionable feature of the evening, however, was also a technological one. Television cameras worked away throughout the performance from positions at either side of the stage and at the foot of both aisles, distracting what surely must have been hundreds of people seated in line with brightly lighted monitor screens. The machines, one learned, were rehearsing for a later Walkure telecast and making ‘scratch’ tapes that might be needed as backups. This, mind you, from a company that will not employ supertitles because they detract the audience’s attention from the stage.”

With this production you’ll get to see the end result of that distraction.

Thursday, March 4 – Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte

Conducted by James Levine; starring Golda Schultz, Kathryn Lewek, Charles Castronovo, Markus Werba, Christian Van Horn and René Pape. This revival of the 2004 Julie Taymor production is from the 2017-2018 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on June 28th and October 1st.

Mozart’s opera premiered in September 1791 in Vienna a mere two months before the composer died. It features a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder.

Prince Tamino is asked by the Queen of the Night to free her daughter Pamina from Sarastro. Tamino, however, is impressed with Sarastro and the way his community lives in the world and wants to be a part of it. Both alone and together Tamino and Pamina endure multiple tests. If they succeed, what will happen to them? To the Queen of the Night?

Anyone who has seen Taymor’s work for such shows as Juan Darién and The Lion King knows that she regularly employs puppets and wildly inventive staging. 

Alex Ross, writing for The New Yorker about the original 2004 production said, “The Met stage has never been so alive with movement, so charged with color, so brilliant to the eye. The outward effect is of a shimmering cultural kaleidoscope, with all manner of mystical and folk traditions blending together. Behind the surface lies a melancholy sense that history has never permitted such a synthesis—that Mozart’s theme of love and power united is nothing more than a fever dream. But Taymor allows the Enlightenment fantasy to play out to the end.”

Friday, March 5 – Britten’s Peter Grimes

Conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles; starring Patricia Racette, Anthony Dean Griffey and Anthony Michaels-Moore. This John Doyle production is from the 2007-2008 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on May 14th, September 1st, November 13th and December 9th.

Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes had its world premiere in London in 1945. The libretto was written by Montagu Slater who based it on a poem in The Borough by George Crabbe.

In Peter Grimes, the title character is facing intense questioning after his apprentice has died. The townsfolk believe him to be responsible, the coroner rules he was not. Shortly afterward, Grimes recruits another apprentice, John. Ellen, the only person in town who believes Grimes, later finds herself questioning Grimes when she finds that John has intense bruising on his neck. Word spreads quickly about the boy’s injuries and the people in town want an investigation. What follows is tragic on multiple levels.

The title role was written by Benjamin Britten for his partner, Peter Pears. In the mid 60s, Jon Vickers’s performance has been considered definitive for quite some time.

John Doyle, best known for his minimalist productions of Stephen Sondheim musicals, made his Met Opera debut with this production of Peter Grimes. Griffey, having sung this opera a few times before this production, finally found his way into a lead role at the Met.

Anthony Tommasini, writing in the New York Times, found some unique qualities in how Griffey tackled the part: “Mr. Griffey, even though his voice has heft and carrying power, is essentially a lyric tenor. And it is disarming to hear the role sung with such vocal grace, even sweetness in places. Every word of his diction is clear. You sense Grimes’s dreamy side struggling to emerge. The moments of gentleness, though, make Mr. Griffey’s impulsive fits of hostility, his bursts of raw vocal power, seem even more threatening.”

Saturday, March 6 – Dvořák’s Rusalka

Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin; starring Renée Fleming, Emily Magee, Dolora Zajick, Piotr Beczała and John Relyea. This revival of Otto Schenk’s 1993 production is from the 2013-2014 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on April 13th, November 19th and January 17th.

Rusalka was Antonín Dvořák’s ninth opera and was based on fairytales. Poet Jaroslav Kvapil wrote the libretto. Rusalka had its world premiere in Prague in 1901.

In essence, this is the same story told in Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid. A water sprite, Rusalka, tells her father she has fallen in love with a human prince and wants to join him in his world. He asks her to see a witch who gives her a potion to join the prince, but there are conditions: Rusalka will no longer be able to speak and she loses the opportunity to be immortal. More importantly, if the Prince does not stay in love with her, he will die and Rusalka will be damned for all eternity. This is definitely not a Disney version of the story.

Zachary Woolfe, in his New York Times review, asked a question about this opera and relied on Nézet-Séguin to answer it:

“Dvorak’s Rusalka, about a water nymph doomed by her love for a human prince, is a fairy tale. But is it polite and placid, or savage and strange?

“There’s disagreement about the answer at the Metropolitan Opera, where a decidedly mixed revival of the work opened on Thursday evening. The conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, a prime candidate to replace James Levine someday as the Met’s music director, offered a clear vote for savage. He led a fierce orchestral performance, bringing out the symphonic sweep in Dvorak’s score and underlining its most cutting details.”

His comments about Nézet-Séguin proved to be accurate, didn’t they?

Sunday, March 7 – Verdi’s La Forza del Destino

Conducted by James Levine; starring Leontyne Price, Giuseppe Giacomini, Leo Nucci and Bonaldo Giaiotti. This John Dexter production is from the 1983-1984 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on June 18th and 19th, November 6th and February 2nd.

This frequently performed Verdi opera had its world premiere in 1862 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The libretto is by Francesco Maria Piave, based on an 1835 Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino by Ángel de Saavedra.

Leonora is the daughter of the Marquis of Calatrava. She falls in love with Don Alvaro, but her father is dead-set against their getting married. A tragedy befalls all three leaving Leonora to find solace in a monastery.

This was one of Price’s greatest roles throughout her career. Bernard Holland, writing in the New York Times, raved about her performance.

“This was truly Miss Price’s evening. There were some jolting shifts of register, and Miss Price must protect her fragile upper notes with tender care; but her dramatic presence on stage and the overall impact of her singing went far beyond matters of technique. ‘Madre, pietosa Vergine’ had a stunning muted eloquence, and ‘Pace, pace, mio Dio!’ at the end had a sonorous beauty and power of communication that this listener – and I think everyone else in attendance – will think back upon for many years to come.”

That’s all for Week 51 at the Met. Next week’s theme will be Verismo Passions and will include two first-time streaming productions.

Enjoy the operas and enjoy your week!

Photo: Beverly Sills in Don Pasquale (Courtesy Met Opera Archives)

The post Celebrating Women’s History Month: Week 51 at the Met appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

I have to admit, we did sneak in one event that does actually take place live in a parking lot for those in the Los Angeles area. The other 23 are available for streaming from your home. And there’s great stuff, too.

Our two top picks are both holiday-themed, but couldn’t be more different. Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol is an imaginative re-telling of Charles Dickens’ story that is suitable for the entire family. Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce…Pandemic! is truly for adults. (And you might want to have your favorite holiday sauce at your side.)

I also have Shakespeare, jazz, dance, opera, Broadway stars and more for you. So let’s get started.

Here are your Best Bets at Home: December 11th – December 13th:

PLAY: Stratford Festival’s Romeo and Juliet – Center Theatre Group – Now – March 7th

If you were unable to catch any of the streaming productions Canada’s Stratford Festival made available ealirer this year, Center Theatre Group is making a few of them available through their Digital Stage+ program (events that are free to donors/subscribers and $10 for non-subscribers).

The first of five Shakespeare plays being made available is Romeo and Juliet.

Antoine Yared and Sara Farb play the star-crossed lovers in Scott Wentworth’s production from 2017.

The Toronto Star said of this production, “At the production’s heart is the freshness and credibility of the relationship between Sara Farb and Antoine Yared as the title characters. They play them as youthful, impulsive, and vivacious, but far from a perfect hero and heroine. There are tantrums, shrieks, and teenage mood swings aplenty, many of which play as welcome moments of comedy. The usually central scenes of their meeting, marriage, and morning-after-consummation are handled swiftly, as pivot points in the driving forward action.”

PLAY: Who’s Holiday! – Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS – December 11th – December 15th

The insanely talented Lesli Margherita stars in this one-person show that looks at the Dr. Seuss character Cindy Lou Who forty years after she first met The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. The play was written by Matthew Lombardo (Looped) and was written in rhyme to mirror the original story.

Parents should note this is an adult Cindy Lou Who – expect raunchiness and double-entendres.

Margherita won an Olivier Award for her role as Inez in Zorro the Musical. She originated the role of Mrs. Wormwood in Tim Minchin‘s Matilda the Musical. She also appeared in Dame at Sea.

Who’s Holiday! was performed off-Broadway in 2017 and garnered Margherita a Drama Desk Award for Best Solo Performance.

Elisabeth Vincentelli, writing in the New York Times, said of her performance, “More happens, but it is almost besides this hourlong production’s point, which is to watch the brassy, very funny Ms. Margherita strut her stuff in the designer Jess Goldstein’s festive holiday get-up.

She expertly milks the many double entendres and profane limerick-like rhymes, but this cabaret regular is equally comfortable ad-libbing. (After breaking into a rap at the Sunday matinee, she rasped “I’m out of breath” and reached for a cigarette). She also belts a mean ‘Blue Christmas.'”

There is no charge to watch the show. Donations to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS are encouraged.

OPERA: The Five Moons of Lorca – Los Angeles Opera – December 11th – December 25th

Los Angeles Opera launches their digital shorts programs with this new work by composer Gabriela Lena Frank and playwright Nilo Cruz.

The Five Moons of Lorca was inspired by the poet Federico García Lorca’s assassination in the early days of the Spanish Civil War. The short was filmed on the stage at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Choreography and dancing by Irene Rodríguez.

Frank is a Grammy Award-wining pianist and composer who has been commissioned by such artists as the Kronos Quartet, Yo Yo Ma and Dawn Upshaw. Cruz is the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of Anna in the Tropics.

Frank and Cruz have collaborated several times previously including La centinela y la paloma (The Keeper and the Dove), The Saint Maker, Journey of the Shadow and the Conquest Requiem. Their opera, The Last Dream of Frida, was scheduled for its world premiere by the San Diego Opera earlier this year, but that was postponed due to the pandemic.

There is no charge to watch The Five Moons of Lorca. Of course, donations are encouraged.

MUSICAL: Meet Me in St. Louis – Irish Repertory Theatre – December 11th – January 2nd

Vincente Minnelli’s 1944 film, Meet Me in St. Louis, serves as the inspiration for this musical adaptation by Hugh Martin (High Spirits), Ralph Blane (Best Foot Forward) and Hugh Wheeler (Sweeney Todd). The musical made its debut on Broadway in 1989.

Meet Me in St. Louis follows the Smith family in 1903 and follows them through the seasons leading up to the opening of the World’s Fair in 1904.

In addition to the title song, the musical includes The Boy Next Door, The Trolley Song and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Irish Rep in New York has filmed a version of the musical that was adapted and directed by Charlotte Moore who appeared in the Broadway production. She’s assembled a terrific cast that includes Melissa Errico (Amour), Ali Ewoldt (Phantom of the Opera), Jay Aubrey Jones (Porgy and Bess) and Max von Essen (An American in Paris).

There are 31 opportunities to stream Meet Me In St. Louis. The price is listed as “Pay what you can” with a suggested donation of $25.

PLAY: Breathe. – YouTube and Twitch – December 11th – December 13th and December 18th

This one-person show by Philicia Saunders follows her increasing participation in civil rights issues. She was inspired by her mentor, Sweet Alice Harris, a legendary community organizer in the Watts area of Los Angeles and a civil rights tour in Alabama.

In Breathe. Saunders depicts 20 different characters within a show that combines film, live performance, performance art and artistic swimming.

Saunders may be best-known to Star Wars fans for her role as Tabala Zo in The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker.

Departing from a lot of programming available now, Saunders will perform Breathe. live on December 11th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST and on December 12th at 6:30 PM EST/3:30 PM PST. Both performances will be on YouTube.

Encore presentations are taking place on December 13th at 5:00 PM EST/2:00 PM PST on Twitch. This will also feature a TalkBack with Sweet Alice. A second encore takes place on December 18th on YouTube at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST.

Tickets are available from $5-$50 with proceeds going to Sweet Alice’s Parents of Watts and Community Coalition.

PLAY: Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol – The Soraya – December 11th – December 13th TOP PICK

We are all familiar with Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol and its bitter character, Scrooge. But I can assure you you haven’t seen A Christmas Carol like the one Manual Cinema has put together.

Each live performance (and they are live) combines acting, music, puppets and film to create a one-of-a-kind experience with a twist on the story that will surprise you!

There are six performances available over the weekend. Tickets are $20. I strongly recommend Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol.

PAGEANT PLAY – La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin – Latino Theater Company – December 11th – December 20th

For 18 years, Los Angeles-based Latino Theater Company has performed La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin in Los Angeles. The pageant play depicts the story of Juan Diego, a peasant in 1531, who has a vision of the Virgin Mary. Diego’s vision took place in Spanish colonial territory that is now known as Mexico.

Mezzo-soprano Suzanna Guzmán (Hopscotch, Carmen) stars in this 2009 filmed performance at Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles. She is joined by over 100 actors, singers, Aztec dancers and members of the Los Angeles community. This is performed in English and Spanish.

Evelina Fernández adapted The Nican Mopohua (a mid-16th century text) for La Virgen de Guadalupe. José Louis Valenzuela directed. The director first created the work as a thank you to the community after it supported him during a sleep-in he lead protesting the potential closing of the Los Angeles Theater Center in downtown Los Angeles.

There’s no charge to watch the streaming production and it will be available through December 20th.

CABARET: Merry Christmas Darling: Heidi Kettenring Sings Karen Carpenter – Laguna Playhouse – December 11th – December 28th

On October 13, 1978 – when the soundtrack to the film version of Grease and albums by The Rolling Stones, Donna Summer and The Who were topping the Billboard charts, A&M records released A Christmas Portrait, an album of holiday songs by The Carpenters.

That was followed by a television special. The record became very popular and ultimately went Platinum. A second album, using outtakes from that recording session, was released two years after Karen’s death in 1983.

The darling of Downey, California is being celebrated in Merry Christmas Darling: Heidi Kettenring Sings Karen Carpenter. The show is being streamed via the Laguna Playhouse.

Kettenring appeared as Nessarose in the Chicago company of Wicked. She’s toured as Belle in Beauty and the Beast; Anna in The King and I and Penny in Hairspray.

Karen Carpenter had a one-of-a-kind voice. Kettenring sounds terrific even if she’s not Karen. But that doesn’t take away from the pure joy of hearing these songs sung well and remembering everything that made the Carpenters so beloved.

Tickets are $35 can be purchased through December 25th. The show will be available for streaming through December 28th.  

JAZZ: The Klezmatics: Happy Joyous Hanukkah – SFJazz – December 11th – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

Hanukkah has started and what better way to celebrate than with the Grammy Award-winning ensemble The Klezmatics. Their music is so infectious it is impossible not to be filled with joy – particularly in this concert at SFJAZZ from 2015.

This is part of SFJAZZ’s Fridays at Five series. The concert will only stream once at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST. You’ll need either a one-month membership ($5) or an annual membership ($60) to stream the concert. That will give you access to additional concerts for the length of your membership.

JAZZ: Dave Holland – Village Vanguard – December 11th – December 12th – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

Since his start at London’s Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, bassist Dave Holland has made a name for himself in the jazz world. From collaborations with Miles Davis (including Bitches’ Brew), Joe Henderson, Kenny Wheeler through to his work as a bandleader (including the 2005 Grammy Award winner Overtime), Holland is considered one of the best.

His most recent release is this year’s Without Deception which finds him performing with pianist Kenny Barron and drummer Johnathan Blake.

For these two concerts from New York’s Village Vanguard he’ll be joined by Jaleel Shaw on saxophone; Steve Nelson on vibraphone and Obed Calvaire on drums.

Tickets are $10.

CLASSICAL: Stephen Hough Recital – Philharmonic Society of Orange County – December 11th – December 18th

Easily one of the finest classical pianists in the world, Stephen Hough will perform a live recital for the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. Critics long ago ran out of superlatives to describe his playing.

The scheduled program finds Hough performing: Bach/Busoni: Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004; Schumann: Fantasie in C major, Op. 17; Liszt: Funérailles and Mephisto Waltz No. 1, S. 51 and Schumann: Kinderszenen, Op. 15, mvt. 7, “Träumerei.”

The recital debuts at 10:00 PM EST/7:00 PM PST and will remain available for streaming for one week. Tickets are $20.

DANCE/THEATRE: Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man – Center Theatre Group – December 11th – December 13th

Hector Berlioz’s opera Carmen serves as the inspiration for this ballet from Matthew Bourne (all-male swan version of Swan Lake.) Another source of inspiration for Bourne was the novel The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain and its subsequent film versions.

The ballet had its world premiere 20 years ago in Plymouth, England. The Car Man played the Ahmanson Theatre one year later.

Lewis Segal, in his Los Angeles Times review, said of Bourne’s choreography, “Whether he’s evoking the heat, insects and lust of a night when nothing is happening or the surreal frenzy of social dances that barely contain the characters’ primal urges, this is daring, accomplished, uncompromisingly lurid movement theater.

Center Theatre Group and Matthew Bourne have teamed up to make his film of The Car Man available for viewing with five opportunities to see it this weekend. The film of the ballet will stream on Friday at 8:00 PM PST; Saturday at 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM PST and on Sunday at 1:30 PM and 6:30 PM PST.

Tickets are $10 (whether you are a donor/subscriber or not).

Can you believe we’re halfway through Best Bets at Home: December 11th – December 13th? Let’s keep going.

PLAY: The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk – The Wallis – December 11th – December 18th

England’s Kneehigh Theatre originally brought The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk to the Wallis in 2018. Now Kneehigh Theatre, Bristol Old Vic and Wise Children bring a film of the show to The Wallis for one week of streaming.

This highly theatrical show portrays the life of painter Marc Chagall and his wife Bella. Through the use of color and imagery mirroring the master painter’s work and music from the Russian Jewish history, this show offers many of the same delights found in other Kneehigh projects such as their Brief Encounter and Tristan and Yseult. Marc Antolin plays Marc Chagall and Audrey Brisson plays Bella. The show was written by Daniel Jamieson and directed by Emma Rice.

When The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk played The Wallis I spoke to Antolin about the show and his role. You can read that interview here.

This is a wonderful show. I strongly recommend seeing it. Tickets are $21.38 (the current exchange rate with the English pound. But it doesn’t not include any additional credit card fees).

PLAY/DANCE/MUSIC/POETRY: KICKBACK – About Face Theatre – December 12th – January 12th

A collection of short plays, dance, music, and poetry make up this online festival from Chicago’s About Face Theatre. The work centers around Blackness and queerness and where those two worlds meet.

For KICKBACK, About Face reached out to numerous artists to create work. The end result features contributions from Dionne Addai, Ky Baity, Keyonna Jackson, Robert Cornelius, Ben Locke, ShaZa (a collaboration between Zahra Baker and Shanta Nurullah), About Face Artistic Associate Paul Oakley Stovall, Michael Turrentine, Cori Wash, Vic Wynter and Rebuild Foundation resident artists Jenn Freeman and avery r. young.

Rebuild Foundation and their collections were made available to the artists who were asked to use their archives as inspiration for their work.

During our turbulent times, it will be fascinating to see what these artists have to say about where we’ve been, where we are and most importantly, where we might be going.

OPERA: La Bohème – San Francisco Opera – December 12th – December 13th Starting 2:00 PM EST/11:00 AM PST

Conducted by Giuseppe Finzi; starring Michael Fabiano, Alexia Voulgaridou, Nadine Sierra, Alexey Markov and Christian Van Horn. This John Caird production is from the 2014-2015 season.

Easily one of the most popular operas in the world, Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème had its world premiere in Turin, Italy in 1896. The libretto is by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. The opera is based on Henri Murger’s 1851 novel, Scènes de la vie de bohème.

The story centers on four friends who are unable to pay their rent. Successfully getting out of a potentially bad situation with their landlord, all but one go out on the town. Rodolfo stays home and meets a young woman named Mimi. They fall in love, but Mimi’s weakness may be a sign of something far more life-threatening than they know. (If this sounds like the musical Rent, it is because La Bohème served as Jonathan Larson’s inspiration for that musical.)

San Francisco Opera had two casts performing La Bohème. Joshua Kosman, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, said one performance in this production stood out.

“If one singer left a particularly outsize impression from the weekend’s openings, it was Fabiano, whose performance as Rodolfo made good on the promise of his fine 2011 company debut in Lucrezia Borgia and hinted at even more impressive things to come. This was a full-throated, almost heroic depiction of the moonstruck poet, with muscular sound, impeccably placed high notes and an air of romantic ardor that lent weight and power to everything he sang.”

CLASSICAL: Reaching Dreams Through Music – Lang Lang International Music Foundation – December 12th – 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST

Classical pianist Lang Lang and his foundation have assembled an illustrious cast for Reaching Dreams Through Music. Joining Lang Lang and his wife will be Stay Human’s Jon Batiste, ballet dancer Misty Copeland, opera singer Renée Fleming, actor/director Ron Howard, musician Wyclef Jean, jazz pianist/vocalist Diana Krall and pop singer Sam Smith.

The purpose of this streaming event is to celebrate the role music plays in our lives and how it has shaped these artists lives since their childhood. In short, if reading is fundamental, music is instrumental in our lives.

The Young People’s Chorus of New York City will also be making an appearance, along with the LLIMF Young Scholars and Junior Music Camp Music Ambassadors.

There is no fee to watch Reaching Dreams Through Music. There was no information available as to how long this program will be available for viewing at press time.

OPERA: Bryn Terfel in Wales – Met Stars Live in Concert – December 12th – 12:00 PM EST/9:00 AM PST

Bass-baritone Bryn Terfel is what you’d call a cross-over artist. He’s performed in countless opera productions (you should see him in Don Giovanni if you get the chance), he’s portrayed the title character in Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd and he has released albums of songs from his native Wales.

That’s exactly where you’ll find him in this Met Stars Live in Concert performance – specifically Brecon Cathedral.

Joining Terfel are harpist Hannah Stone, pianist Jeff Howard, the Welsh traditional folk group Calan plus soprano Natalya Romaniw and tenor Trystan Llyr Griffiths – two rising young Welsh singers.

The announced program finds a combination of holiday-appropriate songs, music by Gustav Holst, Richard Wagner, Lerner and Loewe and traditional songs.

The show takes place live on Saturday, but will remain available for streaming afterwards. Tickets are $20.

DANCE: Pam Tanowitz Dance – The Joyce Theatre – December 12th – December 26th

Acclaimed choreographer Pam Tanowitz debuts new work live from New York’s The Joyce Theatre on Saturday at 5:00 PM EST/2:00 PM PST. You may recall she is the choreographer of Four Quartets in which she collaborated with Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho and American painter Brice Marden on a presentation of T.S. Eliot’s monumental work.

Finally Unfinished: Part 1 was created during the pandemic (with obvious precautions in place) and is set to new music by composer Ted Hearne. It is a site-specific work that utilizes The Joyce Theatre in all its emptiness.

Gustave Le Gray, No. 2 has its New York premiere in this program. Composer Caroline Shaw‘s music for solo piano serves not just as the score for the dance, but also its inspiration.

The dancers are Jason Collins, Brittany Engel-Adams, Christine Flores, Zachary Gonder, Lindsey Jones, Victor Lozano, Melissa Toogood.

Tickets are $13 (including service charges).

OPERA: La Bohème aka The Hipsters – Pacific Opera Project – December 12th – December 13th

Josh Shaw and Pacific Opera Project are back with another drive-in opera for you: their version of Puccini’s La Bohème (I guess it’s La Bohème week). Only their version, as you would expect, is not going to be traditional.

Several years ago Shaw updated Puccini’s opera to present-day and gave the opera a subtitle, The Hipsters. He’s been reworking it again so that the opera takes place between Christmas Eve 2019 and November 2020. I wonder what significant events might inspire him since Act 3 is in April of 2020 and Act 4 appears timed to the elections.

No longer will you find the bohemian characters Puccini introduced to the world. These hipsters are a graphic designer, a screenwriter, an English major, an indie-rocker and a fashion designer.

The cast includes Arnold Livingston Geis as Rodolfo, Oriona Falla as Mimi, Ben Lowe as Marcello, Maria Dominique Lopez as Musetta, E. Scott Levin as Schaunard, Keith Colclough as Colline, and Luvi Avendano in the roles of Benoit, Alcindoro and Parpignol.

The socially-distanced performances take place in the parking lot of the Camarillo United Methodist Church at 5:30 PM. Tickets are $65-$175 per car (there are sections just as there would be in an opera house).

CABARET: Shoshana Bean – Sing Your Hallelujah – For the Record Live at the Apollo Theatre – 9:00 PM EST/6:00 PM PST

Singer/actress Shoshana Bean sold out New York’s Apollo Theatre the last two years in a row. The pandemic made a trifecta impossible, so what’s a girl to do? Film a special there. That’s exactly what Bean has done with Sing Your Hallelujah which is being streamed on Saturday night.

The show was inspired by the holiday television specials some of us grew up with (or maybe you experienced A Holly Dolly Christmas earlier this week).

Joining Bean for the show are Gavin Creel (Tony Award-winner for Hello, Dolly!), tap dancer Jared Grimes, Jeremy Jordan (The Last Five Years), singer Shayna Steele, Connie Talbot (Britain’s Got Talent Finalest) and Daniel J. Watts (Tony Award-nominee for his performance as Ike in Tina – The Tina Turner Musical). David Cook serves as Music Director.

Tickets start at $30 with various VIP packages also available that will include a Q&A hosted by Sara Bareilles.

PERFORMANCE: Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce…Pandemic! – CAP UCLA – December 12th – 10:00 PM EST/7:00 PM PST TOP PICK

Two years ago, after rocking my world with A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, Taylor Mac returned to Los Angeles to perform Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce. Mac, who prefers judy as the preferred pronoun, brought to CAP UCLA at Royce Hall a holiday concert like no other.

judy is back in a pandemic version of this holiday show which has been safely produced to skewer our world this holiday season. Fans of Mac will know to expect wildly imaginative costumes (by designer Machine Dazzle), uniquely arranged songs (with the assistance of Music Director Matt Ray) and definitely an adult take on everything. This is NOT family friendly material. Unless, of course, you’re “family.”

Mac was the named a MacArthur Fellow and this year became the first American to win the International Ibsen Award. American Theatre Magazine says the award is considered “the Nobel Prize for theatre.”

Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce…Pandemic will only stream once. Tickets require a minimum of $25 with proceeds going to CAP UCLA.

CLASSICAL: Jeremy Denk Recital – 92nd Street Y – December 13th – 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST

If you didn’t get a chance to see pianist Jeremy Denk‘s recital from Caramoor in October, he’s performing the same program from New York’s 92nd Street Y on Sunday.

The program is scheduled to include: Mozart’s Piano Sonata in C Minor, K 457; Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins’s The Battle of Manassas; Joplin/Chauvin’s Heliotrope Bouquet; Tania León’s Ritual; Frederic Rzewski’s Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues and Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No 32 in C Minor, Op. 111.

You’ll get two classical period compositions, ragtime, the work of a young Black man during The Civil War and the work of two contemporary composers. How’s that for diverse?

Tickets are $15.

OPERA: Pasión Latina – Lyric Opera of Chicago – December 13th – 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

Music from Argentina, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Spain is on tap in this concert starring soprano Ana María Martínez that will premiere on Sunday on the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.

Martínez has appeared at LA Opera in the title role of Carmen and in the title role of Madama Butterfly with Lyric Opera of Chicago. Those are just two of her many roles she’s performed around the world.

Joining Martínez in Pasión Latina are Mexican-American tenors René Barbera and David Portillo; Mexican tenor Mario Rojas, Mexican-American bass-baritone Richard Ollarsaba; Mexican soprano Denis Vélez and Puerto Rican baritone Ricardo José Rivera.

The singers will be accompanied on piano by Ryan Opera Center music director Craig Terry and Ensemble pianist Chris Reynolds. The show concludes with a concert segment in which the singers are joined by members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra.

This concert is free.

CHORAL: Broadway Inspirational Voices: A Season of Hope and Inspiration – December 13th – 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

What began as the Broadway Gospel Choir in 1994 has become an acclaimed ensemble that has captured the hearts of all those who hear them sing. Broadway Inspiration Voices is a music group that has members of Broadway and off-Broadway shows – whether singers or musicians – as their members.

Last year BIV was awarded a Special Tony for Excellence in Theatre.

This Sunday they are live streaming A Season of Hope and Inspiration. As it is a live stream, this will only be shown live as scheduled.

You won’t want to miss this concert. Take a look at who’s joining them: guest appearances by Debbie Allen, Gavin Creel, Montego Glover, Celia Rose Gooding, Angela Grovey, Marva Hicks, LaChanze, Telly Leung, Lisa Lynne Mathis, Audra McDonald, Michael McElroy, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Karen Olivo, John Eric Parker, Phylicia Rashad, Angela Robinson, Jeanine Tesori, Leslie Uggams, Schele Williams and Vanessa Williams.

There will also be performances featuring Shoshana Bean, Crystal Monee Hall, Marcus Paul James, Patti LuPone, Leslie Odom Jr., Billy Porter, Daniel J. Watts, and hundreds of guest artists from Broadway, U.S. National tours, London’s West End, and Australia.

You can watch the concert for free, but you do need to register for it. you can also make donations to Broadway’s Inspiration Voices and also purchase a VIP experience that allows for some pre-show fun.

We’ve come to the end of Best Bets at Home: December 11th – December 13th. With so many options from which to choose, I’m not going to add any reminders. If you are curious, check out our This Week in Culture section on the main page or the Now Playing section.

Stay safe. Stay healthy. Have a great weekend and enjoy these Best Bets at Home: December 11th -December 13th.

Photo: Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past from Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol (Courtesy of The Soraya)

The post Best Bets at Home: December 11th – December 13th appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

The composers represented this week are Thomas Adés (who has two operas being streamed), John Adams, Benjamin Britten, John Corigliano, George Gershwin and Kurt Weill. I think there are some really amazing productions available this week.

Each production becomes available at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT on the Metropolitan Opera website. Every opera remains available for 23 hours.

They are heavily promoting their Met Stars Live in Concert series, their New Year’s Eve Gala 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. Schedules and timings may be subject to change.

If you read this column early enough on December 7th, you might still have time to catch the 1978-1979 season production of Tosca by Giacomo Puccini that concludes last week’s Stars in Signature Roles series. 

Here is the line-up for Week 39 at the Met:

Monday, December 7 – Thomas Adès’s The Tempest

Conducted by Thomas Adès; starring Audrey Luna, Isabel Leonard, Alek Shrader, Alan Oke and Simon Keenlyside. This Robert Lepage production is from the 2012-2013 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that streamed on May 12th and September 6th.

The Tempest by Thomas Adés had its world premiere in London in 2004. The libretto, by Meredith Oakes, is inspired by William Shakespeare’s play, but is not slave to it. There are differences.

The Duke of Milan, Prospero, has been exiled and with his daughter, Miranda, they have been set to sea. They ultimately land on an island filled with spirits. Amongst those spirits are Ariel and the monster, Caliban. Prospero, who has magical powers, causes a ship carrying the King of Naples and his son Ferdinand to wreck during a storm Prospero created. Relations both personal and professional collide leaving each of the participants changed and one of the characters alone in the island.

Between its London premiere and its debut at the Met in 2012, there had already been four other productions of The Tempest. Few contemporary operas get that many productions in so short a period of time.

Alex Ross, writing for The New Yorker, said of Adés’ opera (one of at least fifty operas based on Shakespeare’s play), “The Tempest is the opposite of a disappointment; it is a masterpiece of airy beauty and eerie power. As if on schedule, Adès, at thirty-two, is now the major artist that his earliest works promised he would become.”

Tuesday, December 8 – John Adams’s Doctor Atomic

Conducted by Alan Gilbert; starring Sasha Cooke, Thomas Glenn, Gerald Finley, Richard Paul Fink and Eric Owens. This Penny Woolcock production is from the 2008-2009 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on June 23rd.

This John Adams opera had its world premiere in 2005 in San Francisco and features a libretto by Peter Sellars. The main source of inspiration for the libretto was declassified government documents from individuals who worked at Los Alamos on the development of the atomic bomb.

Act one of Doctor Atomic takes place approximately one month before the first test. The second act takes place the morning of that test in 1945. At the center of it all is Robert J. Oppenheimer (Finley).

In his review for the New York Times, Anthony Tomassini said of Adams’s score: “This score continues to impress me as Mr. Adams’s most complex and masterly music. Whole stretches of the orchestral writing tremble with grainy colors, misty sonorities and textural density. Mr. Gilbert exposes the inner details and layered elements of the music: obsessive riffs, pungently dissonant cluster chords, elegiac solo instrumental lines that achingly drift atop nervous, jittery orchestral figurations.”

Wednesday, December 9 – Britten’s Peter Grimes

Conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles; starring Patricia Racette, Anthony Dean Griffey and Anthony Michaels-Moore. This John Doyle production is from the 2007-2008 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on May 14th, September 1st and November 13th.

Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes had its world premiere in London in 1945. The libretto was written by Montagu Slater who based it on a poem in The Borough by George Crabbe.

In Peter Grimes, the title character is facing intense questioning after his apprentice has died. The townsfolk believe him to be responsible, the coroner rules he was not. Shortly afterward, Grimes recruits another apprentice, John. Ellen, the only person in town who believes Grimes, later finds herself questioning Grimes when she finds that John has intense bruising on his neck. Word spreads quickly about the boy’s injuries and the people in town want an investigation. What follows is tragic on multiple levels.

The title role was written by Benjamin Britten for his partner, Peter Pears. In the mid 60s, Jon Vickers’s performance has been considered definitive for quite some time.

John Doyle, best known for his minimalist productions of Stephen Sondheim musicals, made his Met Opera debut with this production of Peter Grimes. Griffey, having sung this opera a few times before this production, finally found his way into a lead role at the Met.

Anthony Tommasini, writing in the New York Times, found some unique qualities in how Griffey tackled the part: “Mr. Griffey, even though his voice has heft and carrying power, is essentially a lyric tenor. And it is disarming to hear the role sung with such vocal grace, even sweetness in places. Every word of his diction is clear. You sense Grimes’s dreamy side struggling to emerge. The moments of gentleness, though, make Mr. Griffey’s impulsive fits of hostility, his bursts of raw vocal power, seem even more threatening.”

Thursday, December 10 – Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel

Conducted by Thomas Adès; starring Audrey Luna, Amanda Echalaz, Sally Matthews, Sophie Bevan, Alice Coote, Christine Rice, Iestyn Davies, Joseph Kaiser, Frédéric Antoun, David Portillo, David Adam Moore, Rod Gilfry, Kevin Burdette, Christian Van Horn and John Tomlinson. This Tom Cairns production was from the 2017-2018 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on June 5th and November 15th.

British composer Adés’s opera, based on the Luis Buñuel film from 1962, had its world premiere in Salzburg in 2016. Tom Cairns, who directed this production, wrote the libretto.

The Exterminating Angel depicts an elaborate dinner party where all the attendees suddenly and mysteriously cannot leave the room. As the hours turn into days, they lose any sense of privilege and pretense and are reduced to more animalistic tendencies.

If you saw the composer’s The Tempest (which opened Week 39 at the Met), you know that Adés is one of our most compelling and intriguing composers. 

Feel free to check out Anthony Tomassini’s review in the New York Times. I’ll just give you the last sentence from his review: “If you go to a single production this season, make it this one.” I’ve seen it and wholeheartedly agree.

Friday, December 11 – The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess

Conducted by David Robertson; starring Angel Blue, Golda Schultz, Latonia Moore, Denyce Graves, Frederick Ballentine, Eric Owens, Alfred Walker and Donovan Singletary. This James Robinson production is from the 2019-2020 season. This is an encore presentation of the production previously made available on September 5th and 6th.

DuBose Heyward’s 1925 novel, Porgy, was the inspiration for a play written by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward. That play served as the inspiration for this opera by George Gershwin with a libretto by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin. Porgy and Bess had its world premiere in 1935 at Boston’s Colonial Theatre.

In the opera, Porgy lives in Charleston’s slums. He’s disabled and spends his time begging. He is enamored with Bess and does everything he can to rescue her from an abusive lover, Crown and a far-too-seductive drug dealer, Sportin’ Life.

If you saw the Broadway version which went by the name The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, that was a truncated version and it was also modified to fit more contemporary times. The Metropolitan Opera production is the full opera as originally written by George Gershwin, Dubose and Dorothy Heyward and Ira Gershwin.

Gershwin’s score features such beloved songs as Summertime, I Loves You Porgy and It Ain’t Necessarily So.

Anthony Tommasini, writing for the New York Times, raved about the production and, in particular, its two stars:

“As Porgy, the magnificent bass-baritone Eric Owens gives one of the finest performances of his distinguished career. His powerful voice, with its earthy textures and resonant sound, is ideal for the role. His sensitivity into the layered feelings and conflicts that drive his character made even the most familiar moments of the music seem startlingly fresh. And, as Bess, the sumptuously voiced soprano Angel Blue is radiant, capturing both the pride and fragility of the character.”

Saturday, December 12 – Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny 

Conducted by James Levine; starring Teresa Stratas, Astrid Varnay, Richard Cassilly and Cornell MacNeil. This John Dexter production is from the 1979-1980 season.

Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny had its world premiere in Leipzig in 1930. The libretto, of course, is by Bertolt Brecht.

Three fugitives and four lumberjacks make their way to Mahagonny. The fugitives are trying to elude the authorities and enjoy themselves in a city where men can get all their needs met. The lumberjacks are looking for opportunity.

A prostitute named Jenny is, at first, attracted by the presence of the fugitives and their money. But she finds herself falling for one of the lumberjacks, Jimmy, who gets more and more in debt as the opera progresses.

As both personal and city financial problems mount, the lives of all eight characters will be changed forever and the shining city will collapse into chaos.

This was the first ever production of this opera at The Met. Harold C. Schonberg, writing in the New York Times, opened his review this way: “The Weill‐Brecht Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny came to the Metropolitan Opera Friday night, and at least one question about the work was answered. There were those who predicted that ‘Mahagonny’ with its cabaret roots, smallish orchestra and jazz elements, would not ‘go’ in a house as big as the Met’s. It does. Whether or not it is an opera, and Weill strongly insisted that it is, it does use voices skillfully, it has a big chorus, and it was not lost on the stage of the big house.”

Sunday, December 13 – John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles

Conducted by James Levine; starring Håkan Hagegård, Teresa Stratas, Renée Fleming, Gino Quilico and Marilyn Horne. This Colin Graham production is from the 1991-1992 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on June 11th and October 31st.

Beaumarchais is the playwright who wrote the plays that inspired Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. His third play in that series, The Guilty Mother, serves as the inspiration for this opera by John Corigliano and librettist William M. Hoffman.

In the opera, ghosts occupy the theatre at Versailles. Marie Antoinette, not too happy about her execution, spurns the advances of Beaumarchais. He offers his new opera, A Figaro for Antonia, as a means to win her love and change her fate. Now an opera appears within the opera, utilizing the familiar Figaro characters.

The Metropolitan Opera commissioned this work for its 100th anniversary in 1983. It wasn’t performed there until eight years after that centennial. This film is from those performances.

I interviewed Corigliano when LA Opera performed The Ghosts of Versailles. Here’s what he told me about how he handled opening night at the Met:

“The premiere of the opera, this is what I did. I sent out for a take-out chicken. I had a bottle of wine and ten milligrams of valium. I ate the chicken, took the valium and wine to the opening. If you’re asking about something that happened at opening night, I was a zombie. It was traumatizing. I’d never written an opera, it was overwhelming. I couldn’t face it without a little help.”

Both this Metropolitan Opera production and the more recent The LA Opera production were amazing and I personally think Corigliano had nothing to worry about. This is a terrific work.

This is also a terrific week of operas. So many great productions. I hope you enjoy Week 39 at the Met.

Photo: Audrey Luna and Simon Keenlyside in The Tempest (Photo by Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

The post In Plain English: Week 39 at the Met appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

You will start the week with two one-act operas, one from 1892; the second from 1918. Then you’ll journey through the 20th century with operas by some of the modern era’s best-known composers. The week will end with a 21st century work that had its debut in 2016.

Each production becomes available at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT on the Metropolitan Opera website. Every opera remains available for 23 hours. They are heavily promoting their Met Stars Live in Concert series and recently announced the cancellation of the full 2020-2021 season, so you’ll have to go past those announcements and promos to find the streaming productions. Schedules and timings may be subject to change.

If you read this column early enough on November 9th, you might still have time to catch the 2014-2015 season production of Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg that concludes the first week of this two-week series. 

Here is the line-up for Week 35 at the Met:

Monday, November 9 – Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta / Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle

Conducted by Valery Gergiev; starring Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczała in Iolanta, and Nadja Michael and Mikhail Petrenko in Bluebeard’s Castle. This Mariusz Trelinsk production is from the 2014-2015 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on June 9th.

Iolanta was the last opera composed by Tchaikovsky. It featured a libretto by his brother Modesto and is based on a Danish play. The opera had its world premiere in 1892 in Saint Petersburg. It was on a program that also included The Nutcracker.

Set in France in the 15th century, Iolanta tells the story of the title character who is blind, but doesn’t know she is blind. Her father, King Rene, brings a doctor who believe he can cure her blindness, but only if she is made aware of it. The King refuses to take that chance. However, when a Count visits and falls in love with Iolanta, he reveals her condition to her. Furious the King vows to execute the Count. What will Iolanta do? What can she do?

This marked the first time Iolanta was performed at the Metropolitan Opera. The second half of the program was Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle.

The Hungarian composer wrote the opera in 1911 and made modifications in 1912 and 1917 before its world premiere in Budapest in 1918. The libretto was written by Béla Balázs based on a French folktale written by Charles Perrault.

Bluebeard’s Castle tells the story of Bluebeard who arrives at his castle with Judith who insists on their being more light in the castle. Bluebeard initially resists, but relents and one-by-one seven doors are opened throughout the castle. What Judith finds as each room gets opened leads to a startling conclusion for the unsuspecting woman.

These two operas are not commonly performed on the same program. Director Trelinsk explained his reasoning to the New York Times in an interview prior to opening night of his productions.

“Judith continues the story of Iolanta. We feel that the happy ending is not an end at all — that often, our addictions are stronger than us. There’s the classic repetition compulsion, where many years later you realize you have to leave normal life in order to relive your childhood trauma.”

Tuesday, November 10 – Strauss’s Salome

Conducted by Patrick Summers; starring Karita Mattila, Ildikó Komlósi, Kim Begley, Joseph Kaiser and Juha Uusitalo. This Jürgen Flimm production is from the 2008-2009 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was streamed on May 31st.

Richard Strauss’ one-act opera had its world premiere in Dresden in 1905. Oscar Wilde’s play of the same name inspired the opera. In fact, the libretto is from Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of Wilde’s play.

During a meal Princess Salome is having with her step-father, King Herrod, she is warned to ignore the screams coming from the prophet Jochanaan (John the Baptist). Concurrently a guard, Narraboth, can’t keep his eyes off Salome. After hearing Jochanaan cursing her mother and being rebuffed in efforts to visit the prophet, she convinces Narraboth to take her to see him. Her attraction to Jochanaan sets off a series of events that won’t end well for anyone.

Film clips from this modern-dress set production proved impossible to find. Perhaps it was because Finnish soprano Karita Mattila ended the Dance of the Seven Veils fully nude. It was controversial when she first did that in 2004. Nonetheless, don’t expect that to be part of this film. The Met Opera did not include her nudity when this production was first aired as part of their Met Opera in HD programming.

Anthony Tommasini, in his New York Times review, raved about Mattila’s performance. “Vocally Ms. Mattila is born to this daunting role, singing with an eerie combination of cool Nordic colorings and raw power. She can spin a Straussian melodic line with sumptuous lyricism. But when Salome erupts in a spasm of twisted desire or childish petulance, Ms. Mattila unleashes chilling, hard-edged top notes that slice through Strauss’s king-size orchestra.

Wednesday, November 11 – Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West

Conducted by Nicola Luisotti; starring Deborah Voigt, Marcello Giordani and Lucio Gallo. This revival of Giancarlo del Monaco’s 1991 production is from the 2010-2011 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was streamed on April 7th and September 22nd.

Giacomo Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West had its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in 1910. It was Puccini’s follow-up to Madama Butterfly. Like that work, this was also inspired by a play by David Belasco. The Girl of the Golden West was adapted by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini.

Set during the Gold Rush era in California, Sherriff Rance is told by a Wells Fargo agent, Ashby, that he is chasing a bandit named Ramerrez. Minnie is the owner of the bar where Rance’s unrequited love for Minnie remains just that. A stranger arrives and successfully flirts with Minnie. He identifies himself as Johnson, but in reality he is the bandit Ramerrez. Can he avoid recognition and capture? Will their love save the day?

If you read the dates carefully, this production was the 100th anniversary of its debut at the Met.

Anthony Tommasini, writing in the New York Times, said this production was the best possible way to celebrate its centennial.

“In spirit, the Met’s current staging is close to the original and allows this remarkable score to come through beautifully. For generations Fanciulla has been patronized as an unlikely melodrama, a prototype for the spaghetti western films from Italy, a pulsing Puccini opera plopped into an implausible California setting where miners sing ‘doo-dah day’ refrains when not spouting Italian.

“But the piece has won a loyal following, and on this night, thanks in large part to the stylish, nuanced and sensitive conducting of Nicola Luisotti, the score emerged as arguably Puccini’s most subtly written and boldly modern music. In place of those typical Puccini melodic outbursts that grab you and won’t let go, this ingenious score folds refined lyrical strands into a nearly through-composed musical fabric.”

Thursday, November 12 – Berg’s Lulu

Conducted by Lothar Koenigs; starring Marlis Petersen, Susan Graham, Daniel Brenna, Paul Groves, Johan Reuter and Franz Grundheber. This William Kentridge production is from the 2015-2016 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on June 2nd and September 3rd.

Alban Berg used two Frank Wedekind plays, Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora, as the inspiration for this opera. The plays were both about the title character, Lulu. The composer died before finishing the final act of the opera. It’s debut in 1937 in Zurich was of the incomplete opera. In 1979 Friedrich Cerha’s orchestration of the act 3 sketches were added to the work Berg had completed and that version is commonly performed.

Lulu is the engineer of her own destruction. She’s a mysterious young woman whose fall from grace is depicted over the course of three acts. 

Kentridge received wide praise from audiences and critics alike. What drew many people to this particular production was that soprano Petersen, who had performed Lulu for nearly twenty years, retired the role after these performances at the Met. She gives a truly staggering performance that must be seen.

Friday, November 13 – Britten’s Peter Grimes

Conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles; starring Patricia Racette, Anthony Dean Griffey and Anthony Michaels-Moore. This John Doyle production is from the 2007-2008 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on May 14th and September 1st.

Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes had its world premiere in London in 1945. The libretto was written by Montagu Slater who based it on a poem in The Borough by George Crabbe.

In Peter Grimes, the title character is facing intense questioning after his apprentice has died. The townsfolk believe him to be responsible, the coroner rules he was not. Shortly afterward, Grimes recruits another apprentice, John. Ellen, the only person in town who believes Grimes, later finds herself questioning Grimes when she finds that John has intense bruising on his neck. Word spreads quickly about the boy’s injuries and the people in town want an investigation. What follows is tragic on multiple levels.

The title role was written by Benjamin Britten for his partner, Peter Pears. In the mid 60s, Jon Vickers’s performance has been considered definitive for quite some time.

John Doyle, best known for his minimalist productions of Stephen Sondheim musicals, made his Met Opera debut with this production of Peter Grimes. Griffey, having sung this opera a few times before this production, finally found his way into a lead role at the Met.

Anthony Tommasini, writing in the New York Times, found some unique qualities in how Griffey tackled the part: “Mr. Griffey, even though his voice has heft and carrying power, is essentially a lyric tenor. And it is disarming to hear the role sung with such vocal grace, even sweetness in places. Every word of his diction is clear. You sense Grimes’s dreamy side struggling to emerge. The moments of gentleness, though, make Mr. Griffey’s impulsive fits of hostility, his bursts of raw vocal power, seem even more threatening.”

Saturday, November 14 – Philip Glass’s Akhnaten

Conducted by Karen Kamensek; starring Dísella Lárusdóttir, J’Nai Bridges, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Aaron Blake, Will Liverman, Richard Bernstein and Zachary James. This Phelim McDermott production is from the 2019-2020. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on June 20th.

Akhnaten is one of Glass’s three biographical operas (the others are Einstein on the Beach and Saturday’s opera, Satyagraha.) The composer also wrote the libretto with the assistance of Shalom Goldman, Robert Israel, Richard Riddell and Jerome Robbins.

Akhnaten was a pharaoh who was controversial for his views on worshipping more than one God. He suggested just worshipping one – the sun. He was husband to Nefertitti and father of Tutankhamun. This opera does not have a linear storyline.

In his New York Times review, Anthony Tommasini praised the leads:

“Wearing gauzy red robes with extravagantly long trains, Mr. Costanzo and Ms. Bridges seem at once otherworldly and achingly real. His ethereal tones combine affectingly with her plush, deep-set voice. Ms. Kamensek, while keeping the orchestra supportive, brings out the restless rhythmic elements that suggest the couple’s intensity.”

I’ve seen this production with Costanzo singing the title role and cannot recommend taking the time to watch Akhnaten highly enough. 

Sunday, November 15 – Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel

Conducted by Thomas Adès; starring Audrey Luna, Amanda Echalaz, Sally Matthews, Sophie Bevan, Alice Coote, Christine Rice, Iestyn Davies, Joseph Kaiser, Frédéric Antoun, David Portillo, David Adam Moore, Rod Gilfry, Kevin Burdette, Christian Van Horn and John Tomlinson. This Tom Cairns production was from the 2017-2018 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on June 5th.

British composer Adés’s opera, based on the Luis Buñuel film from 1962, had its world premiere in Salzburg in 2016. Tom Cairns, who directed this production, wrote the libretto.

The Exterminating Angel depicts an elaborate dinner party where all the attendees suddenly and mysteriously cannot leave the room. As the hours turn into days, they lose any sense of privilege and pretense and are reduced to more animalistic tendencies.

If you saw the composer’s The Tempest (most recently shown on September 5th), you know that Adés is one of our most compelling and intriguing composers. 

Feel free to check out Anthony Tomassini’s review in the New York Times. I’ll just give you the last sentence from his review: “If you go to a single production this season, make it this one.” I’ve seen it and wholeheartedly agree.

That’s not just the end of Week 35 at the Met, but also concludes their From Baroque to the Present: A Two Week Tour of Opera History.

Next week will celebrate conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin in productions from 2010 to 2020.

Enjoy Week 35 at the Met.

Photo: Juha Uusitalo and Karita Mattila in Salome (Photo by Marty Sohl/Courtesy Metropolitan Opera)

The post Week 35 at the Met appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

What’s particularly interesting about this week’s line-up is that there will be two different productions of Le Nozze di Figaro. They are separated by 16 years. Monday’s production, by Richard Eyre from 2014, replaced Friday’s 1998 production by Jonathan Miller.

Each production becomes available at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT on the Metropolitan Opera website. Every opera remains available for 23 hours. They are heavily promoting their Met Stars Live in Concert series and recently announced the cancellation of the full 2020-2021 season, so you’ll have to go past those announcements and promos to find the streaming productions. Schedules and timings may be subject to change.

If you read this column earlier enough on September 28th, you might still have time to catch the 2007-2008 season production of La Bohème that concluded Puccini Week.

Here is the full line-up for Week 29 at the Met:

Monday, September 28 – Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro

Conducted by James Levine; starring Amanda Majeski, Marlis Petersen, Isabel Leonard, Peter Mattei and Ildar Abdrazakov. This Richard Eyre production is from the 2014-2015 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that streamed on July 18th.

Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro is based on the 1784 play La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro (translated: “The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro”) by Pierre Beaumarchais. Lorenzo da Ponte wrote the libretto. La Nozze di Figaro had its world premiere in Vienna in 1786.

Figaro and Susanna are getting married. They are in a room made available to them by the Count who plans to seduce the bride-to-be based on an old law that gave permission to lords to have sex with servant girls on their wedding night. When Figaro gets wind of this plan he enlists several people to outwit the Count using disguises, altered identities and more.

This was a brand new production of Le Nozze di Figaro and served as the opening production of the 2014-2015 season. When James Levine conducted the opening night performance, it marked the first time in four years he was leading the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in a performance on opening night.

Tuesday, September 29 – Mozart’s Così fan tutte

Conducted by James Levine; starring Susanna Phillips, Isabel Leonard, Danielle de Niese, Matthew Polenzani, Rodion Pogossov and Maurizio Muraro. This is a revival of Lesley Koenig’s 1996 production from the 2013-2014 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was streamed on July 8th.

Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte had its world premiere in Vienna in 1790. Lorenzo Da Ponte, who wrote the libertti for The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni, wrote the libretto.

Ferrando and Guglielmo are vacationing with their fiancées, Dorabella and Fiordiligi. They are sisters. Don Alfonso challenges the men to a bet revolving around the women and their ability to be faithful. Using disguise, deception and a wicked sense of humor, Mozart’s opera ends happily ever after for one and all.

What made this particular production memorable for the Metropolitan Opera and its fans is it marked the return of James Levine to the podium after a nearly two-and-a-half year absence due to health issues. (This was, of course, before other issues would force him to leave the Met Opera completely.)

Wednesday, September 30 – Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito

Conducted by Harry Bicket; starring Lucy Crowe, Barbara Frittoli, Elīna Garanča, Kate Lindsey, Giuseppe Filianoti and Oren Gradus. This is a revival of the 1984 Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production from the 2012-2013 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was streamed on June 8th.

La Clemenza di Tito (“The Clemency of Titus”) has a libretto by Caterino Mazzolà who altered Pietro Metastasio’s libretto which had been used by other composers before Mozart turned his attention to this story. The world premiere took place in Prague in 1791.

Roman Emperor Tito has his eyes set on his friend Sesto’s sister, Sevilla. Sesto is in love with Vitellia. She wants to be married to Tito, but he is not interested in her and she recruits Sesto to assassinate the Emperor in exchange for her love. Intrigue, betrayal and mercy are in store for all involved.

La Clemenza di Tito is not considered to be amongst Mozart’s finest works. When this production opened in 2012, New York Times writer Zachary Woolfe made an argument for greater consideration of the opera. You can read his essay here.

Thursday, October 1 – Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte

Conducted by James Levine; starring Golda Schultz, Kathryn Lewek, Charles Castronovo, Markus Werba, Christian Van Horn and René Pape. This revival of the 2004 Julie Taymor production is from the 2017-2018 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that streamed on June 28th.

Mozart’s opera premiered in September 1791 in Vienna a mere two months before the composer died. It features a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder.

Prince Tamino is asked by the Queen of the Night to free her daughter Pamina from Sarastro. Tamino, however, is impressed with Sarastro and the way his community lives in the world and wants to be a part of it. Both alone and together Tamino and Pamina endure multiple tests. If they succeed, what will happen to them? To the Queen of the Night?

Anyone who has seen Taymor’s work for such shows as Juan Darién and The Lion King knows that she regularly employs puppets and wildly inventive staging. Alex Ross, writing for The New Yorker about the original 2004 production said, “The Met stage has never been so alive with movement, so charged with color, so brilliant to the eye. The outward effect is of a shimmering cultural kaleidoscope, with all manner of mystical and folk traditions blending together. Behind the surface lies a melancholy sense that history has never permitted such a synthesis—that Mozart’s theme of love and power united is nothing more than a fever dream. But Taymor allows the Enlightenment fantasy to play out to the end.”

Friday, October 2 – Mozart’s Don Giovanni

Conducted by Fabio Luisi; starring Marina Rebeka, Barbara Frittoli, Mojca Erdmann, Ramón Vargas, Mariusz Kwiecień, Luca Pisaroni and Štefan Kocán. This Michael Grandage production is from the 2011-2012 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was streamed on July 3rd.

The legend of Don Juan inspired this opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto is by Lorenzo da Ponte. Don Giovanni had its world premiere in 1787 in Prague.

Don Giovanni loves women. All women. Early in the opera he tries fleeing Donna Anna. In doing so her father, the Commendatore, awakens and challenges him to a duel. Giovanni kills the Commendatore – an event that will ultimately lead to his own descent into hell.

Michael Grandage, best known for his stage credits including his Tony Award-winning direction of Red, made his Metropolitan Opera debut with this production. His opening night was marked with a major challenge as Mariusz Kwiecień who was announced to sing the title role, had injured his back during the dress rehearsal and was unable to perform. Dwayne Croft sang the role on opening night. Before Kwiecień returned for the rest of the run on the fourth performance, Peter Mattei filled in for the second and third performances.

Saturday, October 3 – Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro

Conducted by James Levine; starring Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Susanne Mentzer, Dwayne Croft and Bryn Terfel. This Jonathan Miller production is from the 1998-1999 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was streamed on May 4th.

Bernard Holland, reviewing for the New York Times, said of this production, “One cannot say enough about the septet ending Act II and the final ensemble of Act IV: episodes in which theater and music merged as they rarely do, and where each player was made exquisitely aware of every other. Mozart operas move on the wheels of their ensembles, and Mr. Miller — with no coups de theatre and many acts of self-effacing care — made them turn.”

Sunday, October 4 – Mozart’s Idomeneo

Conducted by James Levine; starring Nadine Sierra, Elza van den Heever, Alice Coote, and Matthew Polenzani. This revival of the 1982 Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production from the 2016-2017 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that streamed on May 18th.

Mozart’s opera had its world premiere in 1781 in Munich and has a libretto by Giambattista Varesco.

Idomeneo tells the story of Idomeneus, the King of Crete, who in order to survive at sea promises Poseidon he will kill the first man he sees upon being rescued. His son, Idamante, learns that his father is in serious danger and fears he has perished. Mourning his father at the beach, he is overjoyed to see that he has survived. But in doing so becomes the first man his father sees. That’s when the story gets good!

Of Nadine Sierra seen in the clip above, George Grella in New York Classic Review said, “Her voice balanced youthful shine and, just under the surface, deep feeling. She was incandescent all night, singing with great ease and richness, and modulating naturally between moods of loss, love, regret, and pride.”

That is the full line-up for Week 29 at the Met. Next week will be an all-Wagner week and will include the full Ring Cycle.

Enjoy Mozart and have a terrific week.

Photo: Charles Castronovo and Golda Schultz Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte.” (Photo byRichard Termine/Courtesy of Metropolitan Opera)

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If you are a fan of Puccini’s operas, you are in luck. This week there are three different operas by him being presented.

So are great opera stars: Roberto Alagna, Plácido Domingo, Teresa Stratas, Renata Scotto and José Carreras all appear in this week’s offerings.

And if you like your operas on the dark side, there’s one particular opera for you this week!

Each production becomes available on the Met Opera website at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT for a period of 23 hours of free viewing. Schedules are subject to change.

If you act quickly on Monday, you can still watch Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. Give yourself some times, the opera runs just shy of four hours.

Here is the line-up for Week 18 at the Met

Monday, July 13 – Puccini’s Manon Lescaut

Conducted by Fabio Luisi; starring Kristine Opolais, Roberto Alagna, Massimo Cavalletti and Brindley Sherratt. This Richard Eyre production is from the 2015-2016 season.

Puccini’s Manon Lescaut was based on Abbé Prévost’s 1731 novel, Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux, et de Manon Lescaut. The libretto is by Luigi Illica, Marco Praga and Domenico Oliva. Manon Lescaut had its world premiere in Turin in 1893.

This is another opera about an ill-fated couple. Manon is taken by her brother to live in a convent. A local student, Des Grieux, feels it is love at first sight and persuades Manon to run away with him. Poverty doesn’t suit her, nor does a life of having everything she wants when she leaves Des Grieux for Geronte, the man her brother had chosen as a possible husband. Passion cannot be denied, but doesn’t mean Manon and Des Grieux will live happily ever after.

When this production was announced Jonas Kaufmann would be singing the role of Des Grieux. He withdrew due to illness rather suddenly and the Met called on Alagna, who was then appearing in Pagliacci at the Met, to step in. He had slightly more than two weeks to prepare for Manon Lescaut.

Tuesday, July 14 – Verdi’s La Traviata

Conducted by James Levine; starring Ileana Cotrubas, Plácido Domingo and Cornell MacNeil. This Colin Graham production is from the 1980-1981 season.

Alexandre Dumas fils (the son of the author of The Three Musketeers) wrote the play, La Dame aux camélias on which Verdi’s opera is based. Francesco Maria Piave wrote the libretto for La Traviata which had its world premiere in Venice in 1853.

In the opera, Violetta, who is in declining health, throws an opulent party. At this party she is introduced to Alfredo by her lover, Baron Douphol. When signs of failing health get noticed by Alfredo, he encourages her to give up her lavish lifestyle. He also admits his great love for Violetta. A love triangle is now in play. From there the opera tells the story of a woman who sacrifices everything to live life on the edge.

This production also had its share of backstage drama. John Dexter had been hired to direct the production, but soprano Ileana Cotrubas did not like his plans for the production and abruptly quit. When the Met replaced Dexter with Colin Graham, she returned to the production.

Drama aside, Donal Henahan, writing in the New York Times said of her performance, “It is unlikely that there is a better Violetta now on the world’s stages than Ileana Cotrubas. In her first Metropolitan appearance as the pathetic courtesan, she gave a transfixing performance.”

Wednesday, July 15 – Puccini’s Turandot

Conducted by Andris Nelsons; starring Maria Guleghina, Marina Poplavskaya, Marcello Giordani and Samuel Ramey. This revival of Franco Zeffirelli’s 1987 is from the 2009-2010 season.

Puccini’s opera had its world premiere in 1926 in Milan. The libretto was written by Guiseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. The composer died two years before its premiere and the opera was completed by Franco Alfani.

Set in China, Turandot tells the story of Prince Calaf who has fallen in love with the title princess. She, however, isn’t very interested in him. In order for any man to marry Turandot, he is required to correctly answer three riddles. Should any answer be wrong, the suitor is put to death. Calaf is successful, but Turandot remains opposed to their marriage. He strikes a deal with her that will either lead to their marriage or his death. 

Yet more drama! Maria Guleghina was scheduled to sing the title role. She performed at the dress rehearsal, but did not make opening night. Instead, Lise Lindstrom, who had established a strong reputation for her performances of this role, went on. Guleghina, who was making her Metropolitan Opera debut, ultimately recovered. It is she who sings the part in this film.

Thursday, July 16 – Berg’s Wozzeck

Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin; starring Elza van den Heever, Gerhard Siegel, Peter Mattei and Christian van Horn. This William Kentridge production, which had its debut in Salzburg in 2017, is from the 2019-2020 season.

This first opera by Austrian composer Alban Berg is based on an unfinished play of the same name by Georg Büchner. Berg wrote the libretto as well. Wozzeck had its world premiere in Berlin in 1925.

This dark opera tells the story of the title character who is a soldier. During a conversation about decency with his Captain, Wozzeck is ridiculed for having a child out of wedlock. The mother of that child, Marie, is unfaithful to Wozzeck and that betrayal leads to tragic outcomes for them both.

Anthony Tommasini, writing for the New York Times, said of this production, “…few works look at life with more searing honesty than “Wozzeck.” The issues that drive this wrenching, profound opera are especially timely: the impact of economic inequality on struggling families; the looming threats of war and environmental destruction; the rigid stratification — almost the militarization — of every element of society.

“Those themes resonate through the artist William Kentridge’s extraordinary production of Wozzeck, which opened at the Metropolitan Opera on Friday evening. That it arrives as 2020 beckons feels right.”

I wonder what Tommasini knew about the year 2020 would have in store for us all when he wrote this review.

Friday, July 17 – Rossini’s La Cenerentola 

Conducted by Maurizio Benini; starring Elīna Garanča and Lawrence Brownlee. This revival of Cesare Lievi’s 1997 production is from the 2008-2009 season.

Gioachino Rossini’s opera of the Cinderella story is based on Charles Perrault’s Cendrillon. The libertto, by Jacopo Ferretti, was based on two previous libretti for operas based on the same story: Charles-Guillaume Étienne’s libretto for Nicolas Isouard’s 1810 opera Cendrillon and Francesco Fiorini’s libretto for Stefano Pavesi’s 1814 opera, Agatina o La virtú premiata. La Cenerentola had its world premiere in 1817 in Rome.

The story is exactly you expect. After being relegated to chores around the house by her Stepmother and her Stepsisters, Cinderella dreams of going to the Prince’s ball. They mock her before leaving themselves for the event. Cinderella’s fairy godmother appears to make her dream a reality, but only if she returns by midnight.

In Steve Smith’s New York Times review of this production he raved about Brownlee. “As Don Ramiro, the Prince Charming of the tale, the young American tenor Lawrence Brownlee was outstanding, with a sweet sound, impressive agility, ringing high notes and a smile that resonated to the core of his interpretation. Mr. Brownlee’s performance of the prince’s big aria, ‘Si, Ritrovarla Io Giuro,’ drew the evening’s most rousing applause.

Saturday, July 18 – Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro

Conducted by James Levine; starring Amanda Majeski, Marlis Petersen, Isabel Leonard, Peter Mattei and Ildar Abdrazakov. This Richard Eyre production is from the 2014-2015 season.

Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro is based on the 1784 play La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro (translated: “The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro”) by Pierre Beaumarchais. Lorenzo da Ponte wrote the libretto. La Nozze di Figaro had its world premiere in Vienna in 1786.

Figaro and Susanna are getting married. They are in a room made available to them by the Count who plans to seduce the bride-to-be based on an old law that gave permission to lords to have sex with servant girls on their wedding night. When Figaro gets wind of this plan he enlists several people to outwit the Count using disguises, altered identities and more.

This was a brand new production of Le Nozze di Figaro and served as the opening production of the 2014-2015 season. When James Levine conducted the opening night performance, it marked the first time in four years he was leading the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in a performance on opening night.

Sunday, July 19 – Puccini’s La Bohème 

Conducted by James Levine; starring Teresa Stratas, Renata Scotto, José Carreras, Richard Stilwell, Allan Monk, James Morris and Italo Tajo. Franco Zeffirelli production from the 1981-1982 season. 

Easily one of the most popular operas in the world, Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème had its world premiere in Turin, Italy in 1896. The libretto is by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. The opera is based on Henri Murger’s 1851 novel, Scènes de la vie de bohème.

The story centers on four friends who are unable to pay their rent. Successfully getting out of a potentially bad situation with their landlord, all but one go out on the town. Rodolfo stays home and meets a young woman named Mimi. They fall in love, but Mimi’s weakness may be a sign of something far more life-threatening than they know. 

Director Zeffirelli reworked his 1963 production for this “new” production nearly twenty years later. John Rockwell, writing in the New York Times, wasn’t terribly impressed with the revisions.

“Perhaps La Boheme, Puccini’s finest and most innocent opera, works best in a far more intimate house than the Met. Perhaps it is best encountered on a journey, with young, unknown singers playing out its tale of passion and despair in a way that can really be believed. Mr. Zeffirelli’s Boheme is grand and traditional, but it lost its innocence long ago.”

That concludes the line-up for Week 18 at the Met. What do you think might be shown next week? Drop us a comment with your thoughts.

Enjoy your week!

Photo: Kristine Opolais and Roberto Alagna in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut. (Photo by Ken Howard/ Courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera)

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