You might be asking why six operas when there are seven days in the week. This celebration of Strauss begins and ends with Der Rosenkavalier, but two different productions.

The 1982 production that opens this week is being streamed for the very first time. As is the 2002-2003 season production of Ariadne auf Naxos and the 1994-1995 season production of rarely-performed Arabella.

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 July 5th, you’ll still have time to see the 2019-2020 season production of Glass’ Akhnaten that concludes Celebrating American Composers week.

Here is the full line-up for Week 69 at the Met:

Monday, July 5 – Der Rosenkavalier – FIRST SHOWING

Conducted by James Levine; starring Kiri Te Kanawa, Tatiana Troyanos, Judith Blegen, Luciano Pavarotti, Derek Hammond-Stroud and Kurt Moll. This revival of the 1969 Nathaniel Merrill production is from the 1982-1983 season.

It was in Dresden in 1911 that the world was first introduced to Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier. The libretto was written by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Two sources served as inspiration for the opera: Moliere’s Monsieur de Pourceaugnac and the novel Les amours du chevalier de Fabulas by Louvet de Courvai.

Several relationships are tested in this comic opera. The Marschallin, having an affair with Octavian, a much younger count, feels that her age is becoming an issue not just for him, but for her. Baron Ochs is engaged to Sophie and he asks Octavian to deliver the customary silver rose to his bride-to-be. She, however, falls in love with Octavian. What will it take to sort out real love and who will find themselves together and who will be alone at the end of the opera?

Donal Henahan, writing in the New York Times, singled out Te Kanawa for praise

“Miss Te Kanawa, portraying the Princess von Werdenberg for the first time at the Met, gave an emotionally restrained and inward performance that put one in mind of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s similarly studied Marschallin. Miss Te Kanawa, whose voice is neither the largest nor the most opulent in the soprano world, is nonetheless a singer of exquisite taste and delicate sensibility. A beauty of extraordinary bearing, she held the audience in her hand with her mirror monologue at the close of the first act and commanded the stage regally in the great closing trio.”

Tuesday, July 6 – Elektra – Sixth Showing

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.

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.”

Wednesday, July 7 – Ariadne auf Naxos – FIRST SHOWING

Conducted by James Levine; starring Deborah Voigt, Natalie Dessay, Susanne Mentzer and Richard Margison. This revival of the 1993 production by Elijah Moshinsky is from the 2002-2003 season. 

Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos had its world premiere in Stuttgart in 1912. The libretto is by Hugo von Hofmannsthal.

This is really an opera-within-an-opera. Two different sets of performers have been brought together at the home of a rich man. One group is a serious ensemble of opera singers who embrace the highest of dramatic operas. The other is a group of comedians who are set on acting out an Italian comedy. Their host, seeing that time is quickly running out, asks them to perform their separate works together.

In 1998 Voigt, Dessay and Mentzer all performed this opera in the same production. Critics and fans were overwhelming in their praise. Three years later the trio reunited in hopes of filming their performances, but Dessay was having voice issues and withdrew. On this, the third production with the trio, they were able to capture the performance.

In his New York Times review, Anthony Tommasini gave high praise to Dessay:

“With breezy confidence, Ms. Dessay dashed off Zerbinetta’s coloratura flights, pushed to comic excess in her daunting showpiece aria. Though hers is a light, lyric voice, Ms. Dessay’s warm and focused sound carried easily throughout the house. A poised and natural actress, she has this character nailed. Explaining herself to the composer, Zerbinetta protests that she is not just some coquette, but a thoughtful soul puzzled by the mysteries of the heart. Yes, she enjoys the attentions of men. But what can she do when they come in such variety? By taking these sentiments seriously, Ms. Dessay makes Zerbinetta humane and achingly funny.

Thursday, July 8 – Capriccio – 3rd Showing

Conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, starring Renée Fleming, Sarah Connolly, Joseph Kaiser, Russell Braun, Morten Frank Larsen and Peter Rose. This revival of the 1998 John Cox production is from the 2010-2011 season.

As the Countess, Fleming must make one decision that resonates in a second way. Does she prefer words or music? And by extension, does she prefer the poet or the composer that make up the love triangle in this opera.

When Fleming decided to do the role of the Countess in this opera by Strauss in 2011, it was the first time she had performed the full opera at the Met. Anthony Tomassini of the New York Times was impressed:

“The role suits her ideally at this stage of her career, and she sang splendidly. The performance over all, sensitively conducted by Andrew Davis and featuring a winning cast, made an excellent case for this Strauss curiosity, his final opera, which had its premiere in Munich in 1942 in the midst of World War II.”

Friday, July 9 – Salome – Third Showing

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. 

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.

If you’ve read these previews before we have been unable to find any performance clip from this production. Do you have a link to share with us? If so, please send it our way!

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.

Saturday, July 10 – Arabella 

Conducted by Christian Thielemann; starring Kiri Te Kanawa, Marie McLaughlin, Helga Dernesch, Natalie Dessay, David Kuebler, Wolfgang Brendel and Donald McIntyre. This revival of the 1983 Otto Schenk production is from the 1994-1995 season.

Arabella had its world premiere in 1933 in Dresden. It marked the sixth and final collaboration with his librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal.

Though the Waldners are a Count and Countess, they have fallen on hard times. They are trying to find a suitor for the title character, Arabella, but come up with a plan to have their youngest daughter, Zdenka, dress up like a boy to save money. She’s actually in love with one of Arabella’s admirers, Matteo. Arabella is convinced she’ll know the right man when she sees him and has promised to make a decision by the end of the Coachmen’s Ball. Poverty, disguise, mistaken identity and bizarre promises lead this comedy to its inevitable happy ending.

Edward Rothstein, writing for the New York Times, said this opera seems like a relic from a past that pre-dates its creation:

“Arabella, after all was the authors’ attempt to recapture the success and spirit of their triumph from a quarter-century earlier, Der Rosenkavalier. Only in this work, completed just before the Nazis came to power, there is no Marschallin to represent nobility of spirit as well as birth; the jesting, meant to recall the Vienna of Die Fledermaus, is also forced. Arabella seems to yearn for a past when one could healthily yearn for a past. It is an image of an image, leaving behind a feeling that by 1933, when the opera was first performed, even nostalgia wasn’t what it used to be.”

Sunday, July 11 – Der Rosenkavalier – Third Showing

Conducted by Sebastian Weigle; starring Renée Fleming, Elīna Garanča, Erin Morley, Matthew Polenzani, Marcus Brück and Günther Groissböck. This Robert Carsen production is from the 2016-2017 season.

No need to repeat the history of the opera and its synopsis here. We’re going straight to the clip!

With this production, Fleming retired the role of Marschallin from her repertoire as she gradually made her exit from full productions. Anthony Tommasini, writing in the New York Times, closed his review by stating:

“Der Rosenkavalier is not just about the passage of time and aging, but also about the importance of knowing when to let something, or even someone, go — in all stages of life. Ms. Fleming may be letting go of opera productions. We’ll see. Predictability is not a significant component of diva DNA. But she can look forward to many years of concerts and other artistic projects. And she sang beautifully on this milestone night for her, and for opera.”

That’s the complete line-up for Week 69 at the Met. We don’t have any word just yet as to what the next week has in store of us. Stay tuned!

Enjoy your week! Enjoy the operas!

Photo: Deborah Voigt in Ariadne auf Naxos (Photo by Marty Sohl/Courtesy Metropolitan Opera)

The post Richard Strauss – Week 69 at the Met appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

The highlights this week include the first-ever streaming of a 2000-2001 season production of Beethoven’s Fidelio. If my memory is correct, this is the first time they have streamed any production of this opera. There’s also the first-ever streaming of the 1984-1985 season production of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra.

Additionally there are two productions I think are worth seeing for a first, second or even third time: The 2011-2012 revival of Philip Glass’ Satyagraha and the 2018-2019 season production of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites. Both are powerful works featuring amazing performances.

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 19th, you’ll still have time to see the 2013-2014 season production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola which concludes Once Upon a Time week. How’s that for contrast with this week’s theme?

Here is the full line-up for Week 58 at the Met:

Monday, April 19 – Wagner’s Lohengrin

Conducted by James Levine, starring Eva Marton, Leonie Rysanek, Peter Hofmann, Leif Roar and John Macurdy. This is a revival of the 1976 August Everding production from the 1985-1986 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was available last year on May 19th and December 15th.

Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin had its world premiere in 1850 in Weimar. It is one of his few romantic operas.

The setting is Antwerp in the 10th century. Elsa is accused by Friedrich von Telramund of killing her brother in an effort to prevent Telramund from assuming the dukedom. The dispute is to be resolved by combat. In an answer to her prays a mysterious knight named Lohengrin appears. He agrees to help Elsa as long as she never asks who he is or where is from. When Lohengrin defeats Telramund in battle, but spares his life, revenge is foremost on Telramund’s mind.

In John Rockwell‘s New York Times review of this production he praised Eva Marton as Elsa saying, “Eva Marton, who last year sang the villainous Ortrud in this production, returned for her first Elsa with the company, and she was really superb. The best singing this writer has heard from her has come not in the loud, blasting parts that have won her renown (like Ortrud), but in the controlled, high-soprano utterances of the Empress in Richard Strauss’s Frau ohne Schatten.

“Elsa, too, is not a dramatic soprano part. Miss Marton has a big voice, but it’s not a real trumpet, like Birgit Nilsson’s. Instead, she makes her best impression in ecstatic, lyrical music.”

Tuesday, April 20 – 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 available last year on June 8th and September 30th.

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.

Steve Smith, in his New York Times review, said of this production: “If Friday’s fine rendition ultimately failed to illuminate heretofore unsuspected depths, it handily confirmed that even in a rush job with recitative handed off to a protégé, Mozart could not fail to be Mozart.

“In an alert, engaged performance with a well-balanced ensemble, what’s best in Clemenza cuts to the quick with the elegance and efficacy found in all of Mozart’s finest works. Happily, it was just that kind of account that Harry Bicket, an English conductor closely associated with early-music groups and period-instrument players, elicited from the Met cast, chorus and orchestra.”

Wednesday, April 21 – 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 available last year on April 7th, September 22nd and November 11th. 

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, April 22 – Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra FIRST SHOWING

Conducted by James Levine; starring Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Vasile Moldoveanu, Sherrill Milnes and Paul Plishka. This Tito Capobianco production is from the 1984-1985 season.

Giuseppe Verdi’s opera is based on a play by Antonio García Gutiérrez, the same playwright whose work inspired Il Trovatore.  Francesco Maria Piave wrote the libretto. Simon Boccanegra had its world premiere in its first version in Venice in 1857. Verdi re-worked the opera and the revised version (with assistance from Arrigo Boito) was first performed at La Scala in Milan in 1881.

Simon Boccanegra is the Doge of Genoa. As the opera begins politics surround him and threaten to envelop him as rumors about his past follow him. But they are not just rumors. Twenty-five years ago Maria, his lover, died and their daughter disappeared.

Maria’s father and his adopted daughter are plotting to overthrow Boccanegra. Simultaneously the Doge is going to finally discover the whereabouts of his missing daughter. But will his enemies and the rising political storm make him another casualty?

Donal Henahan, in his New York Times review, said of this production: “Of all the mature Verdi operas, Simon Boccanegra is the hardest to come to grips with, both for performers and audiences. It has never taken the place in the standard repertory that by rights it should, although it contains some of the most powerful music the composer ever wrote. There are just too many drab stretches along the way. However, despite its unremitting gloom, the opera grows on one and a respectable performance such as the Metropolitan Opera put on last night always seems to win over a few new converts.”

Friday, April 23 – Philip Glass’s Satyagraha

Conducted by Dante Anzolini; starring Rachelle Durkin, Richard Croft, Kim Josephson and Alfred Walker. This is a revival of Phelim McDermott’s 2008 production from the 2011-2012 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was available last year on June 21st.

This Philip Glass opera had its world premiere in 1980 in Rotterdam. The libretto was written by Glass and Candace DeJong. The title means “insistence on truth” in Sanskrit.

The life of Gandhi is depicted in a story that goes backwards and forwards through time as a way to examine his life in South Africa and leading to his belief in non-violent protests. Sung in Sanskrit with projected titles on the stage itself, this is one unique opera that is staged beautifully and powerfully.

James R. Oestreich, writing in the New York Times, said of this revival (which took place during a celebration of the the composer’s 75th birthday), “The singers were exceptionally fine and well matched, starting with the tenor Richard Croft, strong yet vulnerable as Gandhi. Like Mr. Croft, Rachelle Durkin as Gandhi’s secretary, Miss Schlesen; Maria Zifchak as his wife, Kasturbai; and Alfred Walker as his Indian co-worker Parsi Rustomji were veterans of the 2008 premiere, and all were excellent except for a bit of strain in Ms. Durkin’s sustained high work in the newspaper scene. Kim Josephson was also strong as Gandhi’s European colleague Mr. Kallenbach.”

I challenge anyone to get to Satyagraha‘s final aria, “Evening Song,” and not be utterly moved.

Saturday, April 24 – Beethoven’s Fidelio FIRST SHOWING

Conducted by James Levine; starring Karita Mattila, Ben Heppner, Falk Struckmann and René Pape This Jürgen Flimm production is from the 2000-2001 season.

The only opera ever composed by Ludwig van Beethoven had its premiere in 1814 in Vienna. This was the third version of the opera. Beethoven went through several librettists and made multiple changes until the opera we all know was finally presented to the world.

Leonore gets a job in a prison disguised as a man who goes by the name Fidelio. She’s there because her husband, Florestan, has been imprisoned by a political rival, Don Pizarro. Even with a burgeoning relationship with Rocco who runs the jail, Leonore might not have time enough to rescue her husband as Pizarro is set on executing Florestan just as an investigation into prison cruelty is launched.

In his review for the New York Times, Bernard Holland commented on how topical this production was nearly 21 years ago.

“Current events play into the hands of the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Fidelio. Gone is the tatty eyesore that limped regularly on and off the Met’s stage. In its place, Jurgen Flimm’s grim update of prison walls, cellblocks and civil unrest: stage pictures that would fit credibly on the screens of television news.”

“…Florestan, its hero, and Leonore, its heroine, battled judicial wickedness dressed not in tights but three-piece suits and combat fatigues. The Glock replaced the dagger as sidearm of choice; spears became shotguns. National identities are coyly anonymous in Florence von Gerkan’s costumes, with khakis and billed caps that would fit most of the world’s armies and police forces. Mr. Flimm’s prison yard, with its high gray walls and junk-filled basement, might sit on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Jerusalem, Lima or places closer to home.”

Sunday, April 25 – Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites

Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin; starring Isabel Leonard, Adrianne Pieczonka, Erin Morley, Karen Cargill, Karita Mattila, David Portillo and Jean-François Lapointe. This revival of John Dexter’s 1977 production, directed by David Kneuss, is from the 2018-2019 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was available last year on March 30th and November 20th.

Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites had its world premiere in 1957 at La Scala in Milan. The composer wrote the libretto based on a rejected screenplay by Georges Bernanos.

The setting is France during the French Revolution. Blanche de la Force, who is impossibly shy and fragile, wants to retreat from all that is going on in the world and chooses a Carmelite monastery. The prioress tells her that a monastery is a place for devotion to God, not escape from the world. Blanche convinces her to let her stay. What happens to Blanche and the other nuns proves not to be the escape she was hoping for.

Anthony Tommasini, writing in the New York Times, concluded his review of this production by saying, “The final scene, in which the nuns, one by one, walk to the guillotine singing Poulenc’s forlornly beautiful setting of the Salve Regina, felt more horrific than ever. And moving — perhaps because artists of a new generation have taken over this great work, this classic production and, in a way, the Met, starting with Mr. Nézet-Séguin.”

That’s the complete line-up for Week 58 at the Met. Next week all the operas will take place in Paris for City of Light week.

Enjoy your week and enjoy the operas!

Photo: Isabel Leonard and Karita Mattila in Dialogues des Carmélites (Photo by Ken Howard/Courtesy Metropolitan Opera)

The post Moral Authority: Week 58 at the Met appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Amongst the women starring in these productions are Hildegard Behrens, Natalie Dessay, Joyce DiDonato, Anita Hartig, Anna Netrebko, Lisette Oropesa, Anita Rachvelishvili, Sondra Radvanovsky and Deborah Voigt.

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 January 18th, you might still have time to catch the 2013-2014 production of Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák that concludes Renée Fleming week.

Here is the full line-up for Week 45 at the Met:

Monday, January 18 – Bizet’s Carmen

Conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado; starring Anita Hartig, Anita Rachvelishvili, Aleksandrs Antonenko and Ildar Abdrazakov. This revival of the 2009 Richard Eyre production is from the 2014-2015 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on July 2nd.

Georges Bizet collaborated with librettists Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy on this immensely popular opera. It was based on Propser Mérimée’s novella of the same name. 

When Carmen was first performed in Paris in 1875 it was considered both shocking and scandalous. 

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.

In his New York Times review of this production, Zachary Woolfe came to a new realization about the characters in this opera. 

“Watching Ms. Rachvelishvili stare stonily at the tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko, as Don José, I was aware as never before of the opera’s conceit that these characters have been thrown together, mostly miserably, by fate. They love each other without ever much liking each other.”

Tuesday, January 19 – Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor

Conducted by Marco Armiliato; starring Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczała, Mariusz Kwiecień and Ildar Abdrazakov. This revival of the 2007 Mary Zimmerman production is from the 2008-2009 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on March 21st and October 12th

Sir Walter Scott’s novel The Bride of Lammermoor was the inspiration for Gaetano Donizetti’s opera, Lucia di Lammermoor. Salvadore Cammarano, who collaborated with the composer on seven operas, wrote this libretto. This opera had its world premiere in Naples in 1835.

The opera, set in Scotland in the early 18th century, is a truly tragic love story. Lucia and Edgardo are secretly in love. They keep their love a secret as they are from opposing families. Her brother keeps them from getting married by lying to Lucia about Edgardo having married another woman. So deep is her despair that she turns to murder and ultimately devolves into madness.

When this production first opened, Rolando Villazón sang the role of Edgardo. On opening night, just prior to the final act, Peter Gelb, General Manager of the Met, announced that Villazón had been singing the performance in spite of being ill. That illness got the best of him and thus Piotr Beczala replaced him and is the Edgardo of this performance.

Wednesday, January 20 – Bellini’s Norma

Conducted by Carlo Rizzi; starring Sondra Radvanovsky, Joyce DiDonato, Joseph Calleja and Matthew Rose. This David McVicar production is from the 2017- 2018 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on April 5th and September 20th.

Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma had its world premiere in Milan in 1831. The libretto was written by Felice Romani based on Alexandre Soumet’s play Norma, ou L’infanticide (Norma, or The Infanticide).

The opera is set during Roman occupation of Gaul. Norma, the Druid high priestess, has been abandoned by the Roman consul, Pollione, the father of her two children. He has fallen in love with his wife’s friend, Adalgisa. Norma is devastated when she learns of his betrayal and his plans to marry Adalgisa. This leaves Norma in the position of having to figure out what to do with her children and whether or not to exact revenge on Pollione. 

Maria Callas made Norma a signature role for her after she first performed in a 1948 production at Teatro Comunale di Firenze. She sang the part in 89 performances. The role is considered the Mount Everest of opera. 

James Jorden examined what makes this role so challenging in a 2017 article for the New York Times that ran just before this production opened. You can read that story here.

Thursday, January 21 – Verdi’s La Traviata

Conducted by Fabio Luisi; starring Natalie Dessay, Matthew Polenzani, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. This Willy Decker production is from the 2011-2012 season. This is an encore presentation of the production made available on April 24th.

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.

Dessay was ill when this production started and missed the opening night performance. She recovered and sang the role starting with the second performance.

Anthony Tommasini, writing in the New York Times, said of Dessay’s performance, “This was her first time portraying the touchstone role of Violetta at the Met. And before she uttered a note, Ms. Dessay, who had originally intended to be an actress, made a wrenching impression as the fatally ill courtesan…Dragging her feet, she walked unsteadily, a woman with no doubt that her life is slipping away. But when she heard the bustle of guests approaching, she shook out the wrinkles from her dress, took a whiff of a white camellia, and put on her party face.”

Friday, January 22 – Puccini’s Tosca

Conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli; starring Hildegard Behrens, Plácido Domingo and Cornell MacNeil. This Franco Zeffirelli production is from the 1984-1985 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 is the object of Chief of Police Baron Scarpia’s lust. He uses suspicions that her lover, Mario Cavaradossi, 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.

This production was brand new to the Met. It also marked the first time Behrens had sung Tosca at the Met.

Donal Henahan, as only he could, was less than kind about Zeffirelli’s work in his New York Times review.

“Miss Behrens, it is generally acknowleged, is one of the more astute and intelligent actresses on the opera stage today. Why, then, did her Tosca make so little impact? Perhaps Mr. Zeffirelli’s unimaginative and often clumsy direction got in her way – it is difficult to believe, for instance, that the ”freeze-frame” attitude she struck upon first seeing the murder knife on Scarpia’s dining table was her idea. This was silent-movie posturing that took the place of any genuine dramatic idea at the crucial moment when Tosca must make up her mind to knife her prospective rapist.”

Saturday, January 23 – Massenet’s Manon

Conducted by Maurizio Benini; starring Lisette Oropesa, Michael Fabiano and Artur Ruciński. This is a revival of the 2011-2012 Laurent Pelly production from the 2019-2020 season. This is an encore presentation of the production made available on June 25th.

Massenet’s opera was composed in 1883 and had its world premiere in January of 1884 in Paris. The libretto is by  Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille. They based the opera on the 1731 Abbé Prévost novel, L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut.

A young woman from a small town has an intense desire to lavish herself with all the riches and pleasures life has to offer her. But life doesn’t always work out the way we want. Sounds like a story that could be written today.

The main attraction of any production of Manon is the performance of the soprano singing the title role. Oropesa certainly didn’t disappoint.

Joshua Barone, writing for the New York Times, said of Oropesa’s performance, “With a voice by turns brightly crystalline and arrestingly powerful, she persuasively inhabits the role of this chameleon coquette. When she blows a kiss at a crowd of men in Laurent Pelly’s often stylized production, their heads whip backward, as if feeling a sudden gust of wind. The audience can’t avoid catching a bit of the gale, too.

“Ms. Oropesa’s performance, her first at the Met since winning its Beverly Sills Artist Award as well as the prestigious Richard Tucker Award this spring, is alone worth the price of admission.”

Sunday, January 24 – Wagner’s Die Walküre

Conducted by James Levine, starring Deborah Voigt, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Stephanie Blythe, Jonas Kaufmann, Bryn Terfel and Hans-Peter König. This Robert Lepage production is from the 2010-2011 season. This is an encore presentation of the production streamed on March 25th.

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.

In his New York Times review, Anthony Tommasini, was very impressed by Voigt’s performance.

“Among the cast Ms. Voigt had the most at stake. A decade ago, when she owned the role of Sieglinde at the Met, she seemed destined to be a major Brünnhilde. Her voice has lost some warmth and richness in recent years. But the bright colorings and even the sometimes hard-edged sound of her voice today suits Brünnhilde’s music. I have seldom heard the role sung with such rhythmic accuracy and verbal clarity. From the start, with those go-for-broke cries of “Hojotoho,” she sang every note honestly. She invested energy, feeling and character in every phrase.”

That concludes Week 45 at the Met. Next week’s theme is The Antiheroes with one composer being represented with three operas. What do you think they will be?

Enjoy the opera and enjoy your week!

Photo: Lisette Oropesa in Manon (Photo by Marty Sohl/Courtesy Metropolitan Opera)

The post Opera’s Greatest Heroines: Week 45 at the Met appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Russian, Italian, French and German composers all take their turns with operas that come from biblical stories, that involve the Holy Grail, that take place in Troy and involve classic literature. All are being presented.

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 14th, you might still have time to catch the 1991-1992 season production of The Ghosts of Versailles by John Corigliano that concludes last week’s In Plain English series. 

Here is the line-up for Week 40 at the Met:

Monday, December 14 – Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila

Conducted by Sir Mark Elder; starring Elīna Garanča and Roberto Alagna. This Darko Tresnjak production is from the 2018-2019 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously made available on June 24th.

The biblical tale of Samson and Delilah serves as the inspiration for Saint-Saëns’s opera. With a libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire, Samson et Dalila had its world premiere in Weimar in 1877. Franz Liszt, who previously served as the Music Director at Weimar, was instrumental in getting the opera its world premiere there.

When the governor of the Philistines, Abimelech, belittles the Hebrews into believing that they are helpless to his power and that of the temple of Dagon. Everyone believes him except Samson, who leads a rebellion against Abimelech and kills him. He meets Dalila who tells Samson that his accomplishments have wooed her and that she’s in love with him. Though others try to warn him about Dalila, he succumbs to her charms. But is she truly in love with Samson or does she have other ideas in mind?

This production marked the Metropolitan Opera debut of director Tresnjak who is best known for his work on Broadway with such shows as A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder (for which he won a Tony Award) and the musical Anastasia. He directed LA Opera’s award-winning production of John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles.

Tuesday, December 15 – Wagner’s Lohengrin 

Conducted by James Levine, starring Eva Marton, Leonie Rysanek, Peter Hofmann, Leif Roar and John Macurdy. This is a revival of the 1976 August Everding production from the 1985-1986 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously made available on May 19th.

Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin had its world premiere in 1850 in Weimar. It is one of his few romantic operas.

The setting is Antwerp in the 10th century. Elsa is accused by Friedrich von Telramund of killing her brother in an effort to prevent Telramund from assuming the dukedom. The dispute is to be resolved by combat. In an answer to her prays a mysterious knight named Lohengrin appears. He agrees to help Elsa as long as she never asks who he is or where is from. When Lohengrin defeats Telramund in battle, but spares his life, revenge is foremost on Telramund’s mind.

In John Rockwell‘s New York Times review of this production he praised Eva Marton as Elsa saying, “Eva Marton, who last year sang the villainous Ortrud in this production, returned for her first Elsa with the company, and she was really superb. The best singing this writer has heard from her has come not in the loud, blasting parts that have won her renown (like Ortrud), but in the controlled, high-soprano utterances of the Empress in Richard Strauss’s Frau ohne Schatten.

“Elsa, too, is not a dramatic soprano part. Miss Marton has a big voice, but it’s not a real trumpet, like Birgit Nilsson’s. Instead, she makes her best impression in ecstatic, lyrical music.”

Wednesday, December 16 – Berlioz’s Les Troyens

Conducted by Fabio Luisi; starring Deborah Voigt, Susan Graham, Bryan Hymel and Dwayne Croft. This Francesca Zambello production is from the 2012-2013 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously made available on May 28th and September 12th.

If you though only Wagner wrote long operas, let me introduce you to this over 5-1/2 hour opera by Berlioz.

Les Troyens was inspired by Aeneid, an poem by Virgil. Berlioz wrote the libretto. The opera had its world premiere in Parisin 1863.

Set in the ancient city of Troy, where the Greeks have “gifted” their enemy with a wooden horse. Cassandra had feared there was a threat and when the Greeks ransacked the city, she and the woman of Troy choose suicide over surrendering.

Prince Aeneas, able to flee Troy, sets sail with his fleet for Italy. Circumstances force him to land at Carthage where Queen Dido falls in love with him. Will their love win out or must Aeneas be faithful to the Gods?

Because it is so long, many opera companies do not regularly perform Les Troyens. Nonetheless, this lengthy work is considered by many critics to be amongst the greatest operas ever written.

Thursday, December 17 – Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini

Conducted by James Levine; starring Renata Scotto, Plácido Domingo and Cornell MacNeil. This Piero Faggioni production is from the 1983-1984 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously made available on August 18th.

Riccardo Zandonai is not the best known of composers nor are his works regularly performed. Francesca da Ramini is his most popular work. The opera had its world premiere in Turin in 1914. The libretto was written by Tito Ricordi. Gabriele d’Annunzio’s play Francesca da Rimini was the source material that inspired this opera.

The title character, Francesca, is set to marry Giovanni (who is known by his nickname, Gianciotto.) When she is introduced to his brother, Paolo, she believes this man to be her groom. He falls in love with her, but has conspired to take Francesca away from his brother. Sibling rivalry significantly intensifies when Gianciotto’s youngest brother, Malatestino, gets involved.

The only clip I could find is, unfortunately, the finale. So if you don’t know the opera and don’t want to see how it ends, I’d advise you bypass this clip.

This production marked the first time Zandonai’s opera had been performed at the Metropolitan Opera in 66 years. It also marked the debut of Piero Faggioni (who also helmed Thursday’s production of Un Ballo in Maschera.)

Donal Henahan, my favorite of all New York Times opera critics had fun with this one. In particular he sharpened his pen for his comments about Scotto’s performance:

“To succeed even on its own modest level, the work needs a Francesca of irresistible stage presence and a voice to match. Renata Scotto is at a point in her career where the voice is colorless and often downright shrill. Her acting powers were stretched beyond their limits by a heavily padded scenario and heavy-handed direction by Piero Faggioni in his Met debut. The problem was not that she indulged in silent-movie histrionics, which cannot and should not be avoided in a period production of this sort, but that she seemed to have only half a dozen poses to draw upon. Her idea of showing desire for Paolo did not extend much beyond kneading her loins and clutching her thighs, which she did at tiresome length.”

Friday, December 18 – Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov

Conducted by Valery Gergiev; starring Ekaterina Semenchuk, Aleksandrs Antonenko, Oleg Balashov, Evgeny Nikitin, René Pape, Mikhail Petrenko and Vladimir Ognovenko. This Stephen Wadsworth production (taking over from Peter Stein who quit a few months prior to opening) is from the 2010-2011 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously made available on April 14th and October 30th.

This opera by Modest Mussorgsky had its world premiere in St. Petersburg in 1874. The libretto, written by the composer, was based on Aleksandr Pushkin’s Boris Godunov. Mussorgky completed an earlier version of the opera in 1869, but it was rejected. He revised the opera and included elements from History of the Russian State by Nikolay Karamzin to gain approval and ultimately a production in 1874.

In the opera, a retired and very reluctant Boris Godunov assumes the throne as Tsar. He is bedeviled by a constant foreboding and hopes his prayers will help him navigate what lies ahead. An old monk named Pimen discusses the murder of Tsarevich Dimitri with Gregory, a novice. Had he lived, Dimitri might have ascended to the throne. Godunov was implicated in his murder years ago. What follows is one man’s pursuit of forgiveness, his being haunted by the Dimitri’s ghost and the Russian people who demand justice.

Anthony Tommasini, writing in the New York Times, spent a considerable amount of his review discussing Pape in the title role.

“With his towering physique and unforced charisma, Mr. Pape looks regal and imposing. Yet with his vacant stare, the haggard intensity in his face, his stringy long hair and his hulking gait, he is already bent over with guilt and doubt. Mr. Pape has vocal charisma as well, and his dark, penetrating voice is ideal for the role. Not knowing Russian, I cannot vouch for the idiomatic quality of his singing. But his enunciation was crisp and natural. And in every language, Mr. Pape makes words matter.

“During the coronation there is a soul-searching moment when Boris removes his crown and voices his remorse to himself. Some great Borises have conveyed the character as beset with internalized torment. Mr. Pape’s anguish is always raw, fitful and on the surface. But the volatility is balanced by the magisterial power he conveys.”

Saturday, December 19 – Verdi’s Nabucco

Conducted by James Levine; starring Liudmyla Monastyrska, Jamie Barton, Russell Thomas, Plácido Domingo and Dmitry Belosselskiy. This revival of Elijah Moshinsky’s 2001 production is from the 2016-2017 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously made available on May 17th.

Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco had its world premiere in 1842 at La Scala in Milan. The libretto, by Temistocle Solera, is based on four books from the bible as well as a play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornu. It is believed that a ballet of the play by Antonio Cortese was also an inspiration for this opera.

The title character is the King of Babylon. Just as he has assumed control of Jerusalem in a battle with the Israelites, his daughter has fallen in love with Ismaele, who is an Israelite. Her half-sister Abigaille, plots revenge on her sister after the sister has released Israelite prisoners. Nabucco announces he is a god. After he’s struck by lightning the real storms begin brewing.

The composer said of his work, “This is the opera with which my artistic career really begins. And though I had many difficulties to fight against, it is certain that Nabucco was born under a lucky star.”

Though the story is a mix of history, love story and politics. But what most people remember about this particular Verdi opera is the work of the chorus, as evidenced by Zachary Woolfe’s review in the New York Times. “Nabucco is defined by its choruses, much as Rossini’s Guillaume Tell, at the Met earlier this season, is. The company’s ensemble, under the direction of Donald Palumbo, rose to the occasion with massed yet transparent, shimmering singing.”

Sunday, December 20 – Wagner’s Götterdämmerung

Conducted by Fabio Luisi; starring Deborah Voigt, Wendy Bryn Harmer, Waltraud Meier, Jay Hunter Morris, Iain Paterson, Eric Owens and Hans-Peter König. This Robert Lepage production is from the 2011-2012 season. This is an encore presentation of the production previously made available on March 27th.

The final opera in Der Ring des Nibelungen had its world premiere in 1876 in Bayreuth as part of the first-ever performance of The Ring Cycle.

Alberich’s curse placed on the ring and its owners comes to haunt the characters in this final opera in the Ring Cycle. Siegfried, having fallen in love with Brunnhilde, is convinced to consume a potion that renders him without memory. That lack of remembering finds him proposing to another woman, Gutrune. Her brother consents as long as Siegfried will allow him to marry Brunnhilde. The ring changes hands and with Alberich’s son, Hagen, manipulating the action, ruin comes to all, including the gods whose glory has come to an end leaving Valhalla in flames.

This was the final production of Lepage’s new Ring Cycle that sharply divided critics and audiences for its massive undulating set of 24 planks. When Anthony Tommasini reviewed this production in the New York Times he raved about Morris in the role of Siegfried.

“The American tenor Jay Hunter Morris, who took over the title role in Siegfried on short notice in October, was again impressive here. He has found his own way to sing this heldentenor role with a lighter yet athletic and youthful sound. His clarion top notes project nicely over the orchestra. With his barrel chest and limberness, he inhabits the headstrong young Siegfried.”

He also added a pithy comment in the final paragraph of his review. “Part of me wanted to see the machine collapse into a heap of smoldering planks at the end of the Immolation Scene, which would have been appropriate. Still, this is Mr. Lepage’s best work in the $16 million Ring production.”

That is the full line-up for Week 40 at the Met. Next week’s theme is Holiday Fare. Enjoy your week and enjoy the operas.

Photo: A scene from Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov with René Pape as the title role. (Photo by Ken Howard/Courtesy Met Opera)

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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.

It would probably be unnecessarily obtuse to say they chose the composer’s third, fourth, fifth, six, seventh, eighth and tenth operas for this week’s streaming productions. Or to say, you’re not going to see Le Villi, Edgar or Il trittico. But absent those three, you are sure to have realized you’ll get to see and hear all of his most popular works.

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 so you’ll have to go past those promos to find the streaming productions. Schedules and timings may be subject to change.

If you read this column earlier enough on September 21st, you might still have time to catch the 2017-2018 production of Bellini’s Norma from last week’s Bel Canto Classics.

Here is the all-Puccini line-up for Week 28 at the Met.

Monday, September 21 – Puccini’s La Rondine

Conducted by Marco Armiliato; starring Angela Gheorghiu, Lisette Oropesa, Roberto Alagna, Marius Brenciu and Samuel Ramey. This Nicholas Joël production is from the 2008-2009 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was streamed on April 15th.

Puccini’s La Rondine had its world premiere in Monaco in 1917. The libretto, based on a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and Heinz Reichert, was written by Giuseppe Adami.

Multiple people collide in this opera about love. Magda is Rombaldo’s kept mistress. While entertaining friends, including the poet Prunier, she realizes how much she misses being in love. Prunier is in love with Lisette, who is Magda’s maid. A young man enters their group, Ruggero, who falls in love with Magda. Could he possibly provide the true love she so desperately desires? Who will end with whom and will they all live happily ever after?

Gheorghiu and Alagna were the hottest couple in opera when this production happened. They first met in 1992 while performing in La Bohème together. They were married four years later while also doing a production of the same opera. In late 2009 they separated. They reconciled two months later, but did end up divorcing in 2013.

But the chemistry was still very much alive in this production. Anthony Tomassini wrote in the New York Times:

“…in this sensitive staging, thanks to the expressive performances of Ms. Gheorghiu and Mr. Alagna, this excess of Italianate emotion just makes “La Rondine” more appealing.”

Tuesday, September 22 – 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.

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.”

Wednesday, September 23 – 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. This is an encore presentation of the production that streamed on July 13th.

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.

Thursday, September 24 – 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 streamed on April 17th.

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.”

Friday, September 25 – Puccini’s Tosca

Conducted by Emmanuel Villaume; starring Sonya Yoncheva, Vittorio Grigolo and Željko Lučić. This David McVicar production is from the 2017-2018 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was streamed on April 21st.

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 is the object of Chief of Police Baron Scarpia’s lust. He uses suspicions that her lover, Mario Cavaradossi, 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.

This 2018 production of Tosca was a troubled one. The two announced stars pulled out of appearing. Two conductors, for very different reasons, also left the production. This McVicar production was new and it replaced the previous production by Luc Bondy that sharply divided Met Opera audiences. Bondy’s production had replaced the beloved production by Franco Zeffirelli. Yoncheva and Grigolo sang these roles for the first time.

Saturday, September 26 – Puccini’s Turandot

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. This is an encore presentation of the production that streamed on May 21st.

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.”

Sunday, September 27 – Puccini’s La Bohème

Conducted by Nicola Luisotti; starring Angela Gheorghiu, Ainhoa Arteta, Ramón Vargas, Ludovic Tézier, Quinn Kelsey, Oren Gradus and Paul Plishka. This revival of Franco Zeffirelli’s 1981 production is from the 2007-2008 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that streamed on March 17th.

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.)

I know this is opera, not sports, but one important statistic is central to this production. March 29, 2008, marked the 347th performance of Zeffirelli’s production of La Bohème at the Met. That didn’t just make it the most performances of a single production of La Bohème to play the Met, this was the most performances of a single production of any opera in the Met’s history.

There you have it. A complete diet of Giacomo Puccini for Week 28 at the Met. Enjoy the operas and have a great week!

Photo: Patricia Racette in Madama Butterfly. (Photo by Ken Howard/Courtesy Metropolitan Opera)

The post Week 28 at the Met appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

The operas were written by Jules Massenet, Charles Gounod, Hector Berlioz and Georges Bizet. Amongst the performers you’ll see are Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczala, Diana Damrau, Vittorio Grigolo, Susan Graham, Joyce DiDonato, Jonas Kaufman and Matthew Polenzani.

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 so you’ll have to go past those promos to find the streaming productions. Schedules and timings may be subject to change.

If you read this preview early enough on Monday, September 6th, you might still have time to catch the 2012-2013 season production of Thomas Adés’s The Tempest. 

Here is the line-up for Week 26 at the Met:

Monday, September 7 – Massenet’s Manon 

Conducted by Fabio Luisi; starring Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczała, and Paulo Szot. This is the Laurent Pelly production from the 2011-2012 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that previously streamed on May 24th.

A young woman from a small town has an intense desire to lavish herself with all the riches and pleasures life has to offer her. Sounds like a story that could be written today.

Massenet’s opera was composed in 1883 and had its world premiere in January of 1884 in Paris. The libretto is by  Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille. They based the opera on the 1731 Abbé Prévost novel, L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut.

There is always one main reason why this opera gets produced and the same reason that audiences love it. The soprano title role.

In this production, Anna Netrebko sings Manon.Anthony Tommasini, writing in the New York Times, made all of this abundantly clear in his review of this production and singled Netrebko out for praise:

“The best parts of Massenet’s score are its inspired arias, especially for Manon. In places Ms. Netrebko’s low-range singing had an earthy, almost breathy quality that seemed Russian in character. But when she needed to, she sang melting phrases with silken legato and shimmering beauty, especially her poignant performance of ‘Adieu, notre petite table’ in Act II. Though she does not have perfect coloratura technique, she ably dispatches the roulades and runs, folding them deftly into extended melodic phrases. And she can send top notes soaring.”

Tuesday, September 8 – Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette

Conducted by Gianandrea Noseda; starring Diana Damrau, Vittorio Grigolo, Elliot Madore and Mikhail Petrenko. This Bartlett Sher production is from the 2016-2017 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was streamed on April 10th.

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet served as the inspiration for this five-act opera by Charles Gounod that had its world premiere in Paris in 1867. The libretto was written by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré.

The opera closely follows Shakespeare’s play about two star-crossed lovers from warring families. Their love only inflames the animosity between the Montagues and the Capulets. No matter what the young lovers do to be together, fate always seems to find a way to make their love impossible. When that happens, tragedy follows.

Director Sher’s production was new to the Metropolitan Opera and had its debut on New Year’s Eve 2017. It was highly anticipated because the chemistry between Damrau and Grigolo had proven to be particularly palpable when they appeared together in Massenet’s Manon in 2015.

In Anthony Tommasini’s review in the New York Times he agreed:

“In scene after scene, these exciting and charismatic artists disappeared into their characters, emboldening each other to sing with white-hot sensuality and impassioned lyricism.”

Wednesday, September 9 – Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust

Conducted by James Levine; starring Susan Graham, Marcello Giordani and John Relyea. This Robert Lepage production is from the 2008-2009 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was streamed on May 25th.

Hector Berlioz composed this work in 1845. He never envisioned La Damnation de Faust to be staged as an opera, but rather as a concert work. The first time it was performed as an opera was in 1893. The Metropolitan Opera first performed it as a concert in 1896. It would be ten more years before The Met would present it as a fully-staged opera.

Once again Goethe’s work serves as the inspiration for this story about the deal one man makes with the devil to save the woman he loves.

With Le Damnation de Faust, Lepage made his Metropolitan Opera debut. His extensive use of video in this production was one of the many points of both interest and discussion in 2008. Critics at the time wondered if this was a sign of what his then-upcoming Ring Cycle might be like.

Thursday, September 10 – 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 that was streamed on June 27th.

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.”

Friday, September 11 – Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles

Conducted by Gianandrea Noseda; starring Diana Damrau, Matthew Polenzani, Mariusz Kwiecień and Nicolas Testé. This Penny Woolcock production is from the 2015-2016 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that streamed on April 3rd.

Les Pêcheurs de Perles (best known to many as The Pearl Fishers) had its world premiere in 1863 in Paris. Bizet’s opera has a libretto written by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré.

The setting is the island of Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) and two men find that their plan to be friends forever regardless of circumstances is threatened when they both fall in love with the same woman. She, too, is conflicted as she has sworn to be a priestess, but finds herself falling in love with the men.

Director Woolcock’s production was new to the Met when it debuted on New Year’s Eve 2015. The production was first staged at the English National Opera in 2010. The last time Les Pêcheurs de Perles had been performed at the Met was 1916.

Saturday, September 12 – Berlioz’s Les Troyens

Conducted by Fabio Luisi; starring Deborah Voigt, Susan Graham, Bryan Hymel and Dwayne Croft. This Francesca Zambello production is from the 2012-2013 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that streamed May 28th.

If you though only Wagner wrote long operas, let me introduce you to this over 5-1/2 hour opera by Berlioz.

Les Troyens was inspired by Aeneid, an poem by Virgil. Berlioz wrote the libretto. The opera had its world premiere in Parisin 1863.

Set in the ancient city of Troy, where the Greeks have “gifted” their enemy with a wooden horse. Cassandra had feared there was a threat and when the Greeks ransacked the city, she and the woman of Troy choose suicide over surrendering.

Prince Aeneas, able to flee Troy, sets sail with his fleet for Italy. Circumstances force him to land at Carthage where Queen Dido falls in love with him. Will their love win out or must Aeneas be faithful to the Gods?

Because it is so long, many opera companies do not regularly perform Les Troyens. Nonetheless, this lengthy work is considered by many critics to be amongst the greatest operas ever written.

Sunday, September 13 – Massenet’s Werther

Conducted by Alain Altinoglu; starring Lisette Oropesa, Sophie Koch, Jonas Kaufmann and David Bižić. This Richard Eyre production is from the 2013-2014 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that streamed May 11th.

Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther was the inspiration for this opera which had its world premiere in 1892 in Vienna. It is not the first opera inspired by Goethe’s novel: Rodolphe Kreutzer wrote one in 1792 as did Vincenzo Pucitta in 1802.

Werther tells the story of a young man who spends some of his time writing poetry and imagining life as he thinks it should be. He falls in love with the daughter of a man who manages a large estate. Things don’t always measure up to his ideal of the world and the title character contemplates suicide. That’s just the first half.

In his New York Times review of this production, Anthony Tomassini said, “To be a great Werther, a tenor must somehow be charismatic yet detached, vocally impassioned yet ethereal. Mr. Kaufmann is ideal in the role. He sings with dark colorings, melting warmth, virile intensity and powerful top notes. There is a trademark dusky covering to his sound that lends a veiled quality to Mr. Kaufmann’s Werther and suits the psychology of the character.”

That’s the complete line-up for Week 26 at the Met. Enjoy the operas and enjoy your week! Bonjour!

Photo: Berlioz’s Les Troyens (Photo by Cory Weaver/Courtesy of Metropolitan Opera)

The post Week 26 at the Met appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

This week some of the most popular operas are being presented including Carmen, La Bohème and Rigoletto. For the second time during these weekly streams, the Met is offering up a production of my personal favorite opera, Tristan und Isolde. The common denominator amongst them all is one of opera’s greatest themes: Love.

Each production becomes available on the Met Opera website at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PDT. They remain available for 23 hours. One exception this week is Saturday’s opera, La Bohème which will end at 12:00 PM EDT/9:00 AM PDT on Sunday to make way for the Roberto Alagna and Aleksandra Kurzak recital that begins at 1:30 PM EDT/10:30 AM PDT. Schedules and line-ups are subject to change.

If you are reading this column early on Monday, August 10th, you might still have time to catch the 2016-2017 season production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

Here is the line-up for Week 22 at the Met:

Monday, August 10 – Puccini’s Manon Lescaut

Conducted by James Levine; starring Karita Mattila, Marcello Giordani and Dwayne Croft. This revival of Gian Carlo Menotti’s 1980 production is from the 2007-2008 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.

Anthony Tommasini said in his New York Times review that there was basically one reason the Met brought back this production of Manon Lescaut after 18 years: Mattila. He said she did not disappoint. Going further he added, “Though a lovely and mature Finnish woman, Ms. Mattila is such a compelling actress that she affectingly conveyed Manon’s girlish awkwardness. She acted with her voice as well, singing with burnished sound and nuanced expressivity.”

Tuesday, August 11 – Bizet’s Carmen

Conducted by Louis Langrée; starring Aleksandra Kurzak, Clémentine Margaine, Roberto Alagna and Alexander Vinogradov. This revival of Richard Eyre’s 2009 production is from the 2018-2019 season.

Georges Bizet collaborated with librettists Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy on this immensely popular opera. It was based on Propser Mérimée’s novella of the same name. 

When Carmen was first performed in Paris in 1875 it was considered both shocking and scandalous. 

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.

Margaine made her Met Opera debut in the 2017 revival of this production of Carmen. She had not been announced to open the production, but assumed the part in true understudy form when Sophie Koch took ill. Margaine had been scheduled to take on the role later in the run.

Of her return to the role in this production, Zachary Woolfe in the New York Times said, “Anchoring the performance was the mezzo Clémentine Margaine, arrestingly stern and articulate in the title role. Her voice doesn’t bloom, but it darkly insinuates, like a clarinet. And she portrays a disconcertingly changeable, mordant yet (seemingly genuinely) hopeful Carmen, rising to stony grandeur in the final duet.”

Wednesday, August 12 – Verdi’s Rigoletto

Conducted by James Levine; starring Christiane Eda-Pierre, Isola Jones, Luciano Pavarotti, Louis Quilico and Ara Berberian. This revival of John Dexter’s 1977 production is from the 1981-1982 season.

Victor Hugo, the author of Les Míserables, was also a playwright and it was his play, Le roi s’amuse, that served as the inspiration for Giuseppe Verdi’s opera. Francesco Maria Piave, who regularly collaborated with the composer, wrote the libretto. The opera had its world premiere in Venice, Italy in 1851.

The title character is a jester who serves the Duke of Mantua. The Duke is a seductive man who, upon learning that the woman with whom Rigoletto lives is his daughter and not his wife, makes the young woman, Gilda, his next target. Curses, assassination plots and more leave this clown without much to smile about. 

For most opera fans, Pavarotti’s appearance in this production was the selling point. But for New York Times critic Edward Rothstein, he found something, or rather, someone else to admire.

“Though Luciano Pavarotti as the Duke may attract the most attention, Louis Quilico, as Rigoletto, was at the center of the drama; his passions and fears could be heard in his voice as well as seen in his face and body. His ”La ra, la ra, la la” seemed sobbed out by a jester who has lived too long and seen too much.”

Thursday, August 13 – Puccini’s Turandot

Conducted by Paolo Carignani; starring Nina Stemme, Anita Hartig, Marco Berti and Alexander Tsymbalyuk. This revival of Franco Zeffirelli’s 1987 production is from the 2015-2016 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. 

By the time this production of Turandot was broadcast on Met Opera in HD, Nina Stemme was the fourth woman to sing the title role. Christine Goerke, Lise Lindstrom and Jennifer Wilson had all performed in the production prior to Stemme. It should be noted that having multiple singers for a given role during a season is not at all unusual.

Vivien Schweitzer, in her review for the New York Times, said of Stemme’s performance that she, “managed to render the grisly ice maiden surprisingly vulnerable. Ms. Stemme sounded more grief-stricken than angry during “In questa reggia,” the aria in which she recalls her violated ancestor.

“Her powerful, luxuriant voice retained its warmth throughout the evening, with blazing high notes that were never forced or shrill, even when projected over the massed ensembles of orchestra and chorus. Her transition from powerful to helpless seemed particularly acute when she begged her father not to be given to the “stranger” (the prince Calaf), who has solved the riddles that will allow him to possess her.”

Friday, August 14 – Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde

Conducted by James Levine; starring Deborah Voigt, Michelle DeYoung, Robert Dean Smith and Matti Salminen. This revival of Dieter Dorn’s 1999 production is from the 2007-2008 season.

Richard Wagner wrote the music and the libretto for Tristan and Isolde. Gottfried von Strassburg’s novel, Tristan, from the 12th century, serves as his inspiration. The opera had its world premiere in Munich in 1865.

It is a bit of oversimplifying to say that the story in Tristan und Isolde is about two lovers whose passion for each other is so strong, it can only truly thrive in the afterlife. But frankly, in a nutshell, that’s the essential premise. But don’t be mistaken, this is pure drama and glorious music.

Sadly the only clip we could find from this production was wildly out of synch. Rather than post something so obviously problematic, we’ve opted not to post anything. However, should you find a clip, please forward it to us!

This was Voigt’s first Tristan und Isolde at the Met. It was a hot ticket. But there were challenges for the Met.

Ben Heppner, one of the world’s most-renowned Wagnerian singers, took ill just before the opening. John McMaster took on the role in his absence on opening night. As Heppner’s illness continued, Gary Lehman assumed the role. Lehman, however, was injured during a performance. Heppner, who would not sing the part until the final four performances, was still unavailable. Robert Dean Smith made his Metropolitan Opera debut in this hugely demanding role in the performance you’ll be seeing.

Saturday, August 15 – Puccini’s La Bohème  (ends at noon Sunday)

Conducted by Stefano Ranzani; starring Kristine Opolais, Susanna Phillips, Vittorio Grigolo, Massimo Cavalletti, Patrick Carfizzi and Oren Gradus. This revival of Franco Zeffirelli’s 1981 production is from the 2013-2014 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.)

Anita Hartig was scheduled to sing the role of Mimi in this performance of La Bohème that took place on April 5, 2014. She took ill and the Met was in a very difficult position because that performance (the one made available here) was part of Met Opera in HD around the world. Where could they find a replacement for this pivotal role in Puccini’s opera on very short notice?

They took a chance and reached out to Kristine Opolais who had just sung Madama Butterfly the night before at the Met. Would she consider singing Mimi the next night at the Met? She had previously sung the role, but never on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera. After some initial and brief hesitation, she said yes. The results are on display for us all to see and enjoy.

Sunday, August 16 – Verdi’s Luisa Miller 

Conducted by James Levine; starring Renata Scotto, Plácido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes, Bonaldo Giaiotti and James Morris. This Nathaniel Merrill production is from the 1978-1979 season.

Luisa Miller was Verdi’s 15th opera. Like Maria Stuarda, the composer turned to Friedrich von Schiller for inspiration. His work, Kabale und Liebe, was the basis for Salvadore Cammarano’s libretto. The opera had its world premiere in 1849 in Naples, Italy.

Like many a young woman, Luisa Miller’s father is not thrilled with her choice of boyfriends. Carlo, the man she loves, is not quite who he seems to be. Enter Wurm, who knows the truth about Carlo and who does everything he can to ruin their relationship because he, too, is in love with Luisa.

When this production opened earlier in the season, a different cast sang most of the roles. When the Met Opera decided to film this production, they realized the kind of stars usually found only on recordings would be most beneficial. As a result, you will see major opera stars of the late 1970s here.

One bit of trivia: This was the first time Renata Scotto sang the title role in this opera at the Met.

The Metropolitan Opera celebrated love and survived multiple last-minute cast replacements for Week 22 at the Met. I hope you enjoy the productions.

Photo: A scene from Act II of Puccini’s La Bohème. (Photo by Evan Zimmerman/ Courtesy Met Opera)

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Each production becomes available at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT and will remain available for 23 hours on the Met Opera website. That means you still have until 6:30 PM EDT/3:30 PM PDT on Monday to watch Manon from the 2011-2012 season.

Here are the productions available Week 11 at the Met.

Monday, May 25 – Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust

Conducted by James Levine; starring Susan Graham, Marcello Giordani and John Relyea. This Robert Lepage production is from the 2008-2009 season.

Hector Berlioz composed this work in 1845. He never envisioned La Damnation de Faust to be staged as an opera, but rather as a concert work. The first time it was performed as an opera was in 1893. The Metropolitan Opera first performed it as a concert in 1896. It would be ten more years before The Met would present it as a fully-staged opera.

Once again Goethe’s work serves as the inspiration for this story about the deal one man makes with the devil to save the woman he loves.

With Le Damnation de Faust, Lepage made his Metropolitan Opera debut. His extensive use of video in this production was one of the many points of both interest and discussion in 2008. Critics at the time wondered if this was a sign of what his then-upcoming Ring Cycle might be like.

Tuesday, May 26 – Verdi’s Ernani

Conducted by Marco Armiliato; starring Angela Meade, Marcello Giordani, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Ferruccio Furlanetto. This revival of the 1983 Pier Luigi Samaritani production is from the 2011-2012 season.

This opera is based on Herman Melville’s 1830 drama of the same name. Francesco Maria Piave, who wrote the libretto, would go on to work with Verdi on multiple operas including La Traviata and Rigoletto.

Three men are all in love with the same woman in this opera set in 16th century Spain. Working out all the relationships amongst the main characters anchors this story of love, betrayal, royalty and ultimately tragedy.

Prior to this production opening, Meade was announced as the winner of the Beverly Sills Artist Award. That meant she faced added scrutiny for her performance. Critics and audiences were impressed. Will you be?

Wednesday, May 27 – Puccini’s Manon Lescaut

Conducted by James Levine; starring Renata Scotto, Plácido Domingo and Pablo Elvira. This Gian Carlo Menotti production is from the 1979-1980 season.

Menotti’s production was new to the Metropolitan Opera when it debuted in 1980. It replaced a 1949 production that had been in place for 31 years.

Renata Scotto sings the role of the title character, a woman who choses the love of Des Grieux (Domingo) over her obligation to go to a convent. Like many a great love affair, this one is not destined to last forever.

Harold C. Schonberg raved about both lead performances in his 1980 review for the New York Times.

“Renata Scott sang the title role and it was a typical Scotto performance. She understood the character dramatically and vocally and her acting was always convincing…Domingo cemented the point that he is probably the best all-around tenor active in the world today.”

Thursday, May 28 – Berlioz’s  Les Troyens

Conducted by Fabio Luisi; starring Deborah Voigt, Susan Graham, Bryan Hymel and Dwayne Croft. This Francesca Zambello production is from the 2012-2013 season.

If you though only Wagner wrote long operas, let me introduce you to this over 5-1/2 hour opera by Berlioz.

Set in the ancient city of Troy, where the Greeks have “gifted” their enemy with a wooden horse. Cassandra had feared there was a threat and when the Greeks ransacked the city, she and the woman of Troy choose suicide over surrendering.

Prince Aeneas, able to flee Troy, sets sail with his fleet for Italy. Circumstances force him to land at Carthage where Queen Dido falls in love with him. Will their love win out or must Aeneas be faithful to the Gods?

Because it is so long, many opera companies do not regularly perform Les Troyens. Nonetheless, this lengthy work is considered by many critics to be amongst the greatest operas ever written.

Friday, May 29 – Bellini’s La Sonnambula 

Conducted by Evelino Pidò; starring Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez. This Mary Zimmerman production is from the 2008-2009 season.

This was the first production of La Sonnambula at the Met since 1972. Zimmerman set the story in present-day New York.

The original story was set in a 19th century Swiss village where the orphan Amina (Dessay) is in love with Elvino (Flórez). Her sleepwalking poses problems for them both, but true love conquers all, even walking in your sleep.

Bellini’s opera had its world premiere in 1831 in Milan. The libretto was written by Felice Romani who also collaborated with the composer on Norma. This opera is less than half the run-time of Les Doyens.

Saturday, May 30 – Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore

Conducted by Domingo Hindoyan; starring Pretty Yende, Matthew Polenzani, Davide Luciano and Ildebrando D’Arcangelo. This revival of the 2012-2013 Bartlett Sher production is from the 2017-2018 season.

Welcome to another opera with a libretto by Felice Romani. L’Elisir d’Amore was inspired by Eugène Scribe’s libretto for Daniel Auber’s Le philtre.

In this opera, Adina (Yende) and Nemorino (Polenzani) are the couple at the center of the story. Nemorino is madly in love with Adina, but she toys with his love. In an act of desperation he purchases an “elixir” that he believes will make her fall in love with him. He pretends not to love her anymore which leads, of course, to the planning of their wedding. But will it take place? It’s a comic opera, of course it will!

When this production was reviewed critics were particularly impressed with Yende’s performance.

Sunday, May 31 – R. 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.

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.

In his review for the New York Times, Anthony Tomassini raved about Mattila.

“I cannot think of a performance on any stage in New York right now that tops Ms. Mattila’s Salome for courage, intensity and emotional nakedness. 

“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.”

That concludes Week 11 at the Met.

Here’s a tease for Week 12: One of the productions marked the North American premiere of a work by a British composer based on a surreal film by a Spanish filmmaker.

Main Photo: John Relyea as Mephistopheles in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust (Photo by Ken Howard/Courtesy of Metropolitan Opera)

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Here is this week’s programming available at MetOpera.org for 23 hours starting at 7:30 PM (ET) each night.

Monday, March 23 – Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde

Conducted by Simon Rattle, starring Nina Stemme, Ekaterina Gubanova, Stuart Skelton, Evgeny Nikitin, and René Pape. Transmitted live on October 8, 2016.

Tuesday, March 24 – Wagner’s Das Rheingold

Conducted by James Levine, starring Wendy Bryn Harmer, Stephanie Blythe, Richard Croft, Gerhard Siegel, Dwayne Croft, Bryn Terfel, Eric Owens, and Hans-Peter König. Transmitted live on October 9, 2010.

Wednesday, March 25 – Wagner’s Die Walküre

Conducted by James Levine, starring Deborah Voigt, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Stephanie Blythe, Jonas Kaufmann, Bryn Terfel, and Hans-Peter König. Transmitted live on May 14, 2011.

Thursday, March 26 – Wagner’s Siegfried

Conducted by Fabio Luisi, starring Deborah Voigt, Hunter Morris, Gerhard Siegel, Bryn Terfel, and Eric Owens. Transmitted live on November 5, 2011.

Friday, March 27 – Wagner’s Götterdämmerung

Conducted by Fabio Luisi, starring Deborah Voigt, Wendy Bryn Harmer, Waltraud Meier, Jay Hunter Morris, Iain Paterson, Eric Owens, and Hans-Peter König. Transmitted live on February 11, 2012.

Saturday, March 28 – Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

Conducted by James Levine, starring Annette Dasch, Johan Botha, Paul Appleby, and Michael Volle. Transmitted live on December 13, 2014.

Sunday, March 29 – Wagner’s Tannhäuser

Conducted by James Levine, starring Eva-Marie Westbroek, Michelle DeYoung, Johan Botha, Peter Mattei, and Gunther Groissböck. Transmitted live on October 31, 2015.

Check back here at Cultural Attaché for next week’s line-up which has one of my favorite Metropolitan Opera productions ever!

Photo of the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center by Jonathan Tichler/Courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera

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