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

All productions become available at 7:30 PM EST/4:30 PM PST and remain available for 23 hours. Schedules and timings may be subject to change.

The Met is heavily promoting their Met Stars Live in Concert series and the planned resumption of performances in the 2021-2022 season, so you’ll have to go past those announcements and promos to find the streaming productions on the Metropolitan Opera website. 

If you read this column early enough on March 1st, you might still have time to catch the 2014-2015 production of Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi that concludes Dmitri Hvorostovsky Week at the Met.

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

Monday, March 1 – Donizetti’s Don Pasquale

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, March 2 – Verdi’s Falstaff

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, March 3 – Wagner’s Die Walküre

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, March 4 – Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, March 5 – Britten’s Peter Grimes

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, March 6 – Dvořák’s Rusalka

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enjoy the operas and enjoy your week!

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

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

Donizetti, who wrote nearly seventy operas, is known for writing great roles for women. So it comes as no surprise that those operas are being presented here. The week begins and ends with Anna Netrebko performing. She’s even in a third opera during the week.

In the middle of Week 31 at the Met are Donizetti’s Three Queens. All three of those productions (Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux) feature great performances. It is worth nothing that in the 2016 production of Roberto Devereux, Sondra Radvanovsky had performed the lead female roles in all three of these operas in one season at the Met. It was deemed, “a milestone in the career of an essential artist.”

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

If you read this column earlier enough on October 12th, you might still have time to catch the 2012-2013 season production of Parsifal that concludes last week’s Wagner Week. 

Here is the full line-up for Week 31 at the Met:

Monday, October 12 – 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 streamed on March 21st.

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.

Tuesday, October 13 – Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment

Conducted by Marco Armiliato; starring Natalie Dessay, Felicity Palmer, Juan Diego Flórez and Alessandro Corbelli. This Laurent Pelly production is from the 2007-2008 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was streamed on September 16th.

This two-act comic opera written by Gaetano Donizetti was first performed in 1840 in Paris. The libretto is by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard.

La Fille du Régiment tells the story of a young woman, Marie, who was raised by the 21st Regiment after having been found as a baby on a battlefield. The plan is that when she is old enough she will marry one of the men of the Regiment. She falls in love with Tyrolean Tonio. When the Marquise de Berkenfield shows up, it is discovered that she is Marie’s aunt and she wants to take Marie away to raise her as a lady. Will love win out for Marie?

Pelly updated the original Napoleonic war setting to World War I for this production. The end result, according to several critics, was that the “war is hell” concept is undermined by the silliness of the plot.

One of the hallmarks of this opera is the challenge that faces every tenor singing the role of Tonio to hit nine high C’s in the opera’s best known aria, “Ah! mes amis.” Flórez nailed them and, of course, repeated the aria to wild applause from the audience. 

Wednesday, October 14 – 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. This is an encore presentation of the production that was streamed on May 30th and September 19th.

Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore had its world premiere in Milan in 1832. The libretto by Felice Romani. L’Elisir d’Amore was inspired by Eugène Scribe’s libretto for Daniel Auber’s Le philtre.

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

When this production was reviewed critics were particularly impressed with Yende’s performance. She made her role debut in this production. Polenzani was part of Sher’s original production and returns to the same part here. Conductor Hindoyan made his first appearance at the Met with this production.

Thursday, October 15 – Donizetti’s Anna Bolena

Conducted by Marco Armiliato; starring Anna Netrebko, Ekaterina Gubanova, Tamara Mumford, Stephen Costello and Ildar Abdrazakov. This David McVicar production is from the 2011-2012 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was streamed on April 27th.

Anna Bolena has its premiere in Milan in Milan in 1830. The libretto is based on two works: Ippolito Pindemonte’s Enrico VIII ossia Anna Bolena and Alessandro Pepoli’s Anna Bolena. Donizetti’s librettist was Felice Romani.

Donizetti wrote four operas about the Tudor period. The three most popular operas are being performed in consecutive order (and the order of their composition) this week. The lesser-known fourth opera (which was actually the first opera) is Il castello di Kenilworth. Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux‘s leading female characters are referred to as the “three Donizetti Queens.”

In Anna Bolena, Henry VIII has fallen in love with Jane Seymour who is Queen Anna’s lady-in-waiting. Though King Henry had demanded Anna separate from Lord Percy to marry him, he now must find a way to make it possible for him to leave her and marry Jane. He contrives a meeting between Lord Percy and Anna in order to set her up for treason and ultimately execution.

This production was the first time the Metropolitan Opera performed Anna Bolena in all its history. It was, however, the second time Netrebko had performed the role having sung it in Vienna earlier that year. Anthony Tommasini, writing for the New York Times, raved about Netrebko’s performance, “Ms. Netrebko sang an elegantly sad aria with lustrous warmth, aching vulnerability and floating high notes. When the audience broke into prolonged applause and bravos, Ms. Netrebko seemed to break character and smile a couple of times, though her look could have been taken as appropriate to the dramatic moment, since the delusional Anna is lost in reverie about happy days with her former lover.”

Friday, October 16 – Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda

Conducted by Maurizio Benini; starring Elza van den Heever, Joyce DiDonato, Matthew Polenzani, Joshua Hopkins and Matthew Rose. This David McVicar production is from the 2012-2013 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was streamed on April 28th.

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

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

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

Saturday, October 17 – Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux

Conducted by Maurizio Benini; starring Sondra Radvanovsky, Elīna Garanča, Matthew Polenzani and Mariusz Kwiecień.  This David McVicar production is from the 2015-2016 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was streamed on April 29th.

Roberto Devereux had its world premiere in Naples in 1837. François Ancelot’s Elisabeth d’Angleterre was the main inspiration for Salvadore Cammarano’s libretto. It is believed he also used Jacques Lescéne des Maisons’ Historie secrete des amours d’Elisabeth et du comte d’Essex as inspiration as well.

This opera tells the story of the title character who is the Earl of Essex. Queen Elizabeth I is secretly in love with him. In the very late 16th century (1599 to be exact), she sends him with an army to quash an uprising in Ireland. He is unsuccessful and, despite instructions to do otherwise, he returns to England. He is deemed to be a deserter. This being opera, it isn’t just a political tale nor one of history. There are conflicted relationships that ultimately lead to tragedy.

This was the Metropolitan Opera’s first production of Roberto Devereux. When Radvanovsky sang in this production, she had also performed the two previous Donizetti operas in this informal trilogy in the same season at the Met. This is how the audience responded on opening night to Radvanovsky’s accomplishment as reported by Anthony Tommasini in the New York Times: “The applause and bravos for the soprano Sondra Radvanovsky were so frenzied at the end of Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux at the Metropolitan Opera on Thursday night that she looked overwhelmed, almost a little frightened.The audience members knew, it seemed, that they had just witnessed an emotionally vulnerable and vocally daring performance, a milestone in the career of an essential artist.”

Sunday, October 18 – Donizetti’s Don Pasquale

Conducted by James Levine; starring Anna Netrebko, Matthew Polenzani and Mariusz Kwiecien. This revival of Otto Schenk’s 2006 production is from the 2010-2011 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was streamed on April 11th and September 14th.

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

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

Vivien Schweitzer, writing in the New York Times, said of Netrebko’s performance:

“Ms. Netrebko offered a vivid portrait of Norina, her fluid voice lustrous as she navigated the bel canto hurdles in a performance that was both physically energetic and vocally rich. She oozed seductive charm as she languished on her balcony, singing of love, and she turned demure — her voice taking on a suitably meek cast — as ‘Sofronia,’ the Don’s new wife. Her transition to vixen was complete as she flounced down the stairs in hot-pink tights, tiara and velvet gown, flustering the hapless Don by her sudden metamorphosis from timid to tyrannical.”

You’re in for a lot of heartbreak this week – even if there is some humor mixed in here and there. That’s the complete line-up for Week 31 at the Met. Enjoy the operas and have a great week.

Photo: Anna Netrebko in Lucia di Lammermoor (Photo by Ken Howard/Courtesy Met Opera)

The post Week 31 at the Met appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

What is Bel Canto? Simply put it is a particular style of singing “with its emphasis on beauty of sound and brilliancy of performance rather than dramatic expression or romantic emotion.” That definition comes from the Harvard Dictionary of Music.

This means that women are front and center in these operas. Anna Netrebko, Diana Damrau, Natalie Dessay, Elīna Garanča, Pretty Yende and Sondra Radvanovsky are this week’s leads.

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 14th, you might still have time to catch the 2013-2014 season production of Jules Massenet’s Werther starring Jonas Kaufmann.

Here is the complete line-up for Week 27 at the Met:

Monday, September 14 – Donizetti’s Don Pasquale

Conducted by James Levine; starring Anna Netrebko, Matthew Polenzani and Mariusz Kwiecien. This revival of Otto Schenk’s 2006 production is from the 2010-2011 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on April 11th.

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

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

Vivien Schweitzer, writing in the New York Times said of Netrebko’s performance:

“Ms. Netrebko offered a vivid portrait of Norina, her fluid voice lustrous as she navigated the bel canto hurdles in a performance that was both physically energetic and vocally rich. She oozed seductive charm as she languished on her balcony, singing of love, and she turned demure — her voice taking on a suitably meek cast — as ‘Sofronia,’ the Don’s new wife. Her transition to vixen was complete as she flounced down the stairs in hot-pink tights, tiara and velvet gown, flustering the hapless Don by her sudden metamorphosis from timid to tyrannical.”

Tuesday, September 15 – Rossini’s Le Comte Ory

Conducted by Maurizio Benini; starring Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez. This Bartlett Sher production is from the 2010-2011 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on April 16th.

Gioachino Rossini’s Le Comte Ory had its world premiere in Paris in 1828. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Charles-Gaspard Delestre-Poirson who adapted a play they had written eleven years earlier. Rossini used some of the music he had composed for Il Viaggio a Reims, performed at the the coronation of Charles X, in this opera.

Count Ory and his companion Raimbaud disguise themselves as hermits to seduce women left behind during the Crusades while the men went to the Holy Land. The women are on their own. Lady Ragonde takes charge of Formoutiers castle and looks after Adèle, the sister of the castle’s lord. Ory and Raimbaud offer their assistance, but obviously have something else on their minds.

This was the very first production of Le Comte Ory at the Met. All three leads had previously appeared together in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia under Sher’s direction four years earlier.

Here Sher uses an opera-within-an-opera conceit. It was one that Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times did not expect to like:

“Nothing in Ory invites an opera-within-an-opera concept. Still, Rossini artificially turned two unrelated pieces into a completely reconceived opera, so the artifice of Mr. Sher’s staging is somehow resonant. Moreover, for all the antics, Mr. Sher takes Rossini’s characters and their romantic entanglements seriously and coaxes precise, nuanced performances from his gifted cast.”

Wednesday, September 16 – Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment

Conducted by Marco Armiliato; starring Natalie Dessay, Felicity Palmer, Juan Diego Flórez and Alessandro Corbelli. This Laurent Pelly production is from the 2007-2008 season.

This two-act comic opera written by Gaetano Donizetti was first performed in 1840 in Paris. The libretto is by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard.

La Fille du Régiment tells the story of a young woman, Marie, who was raised by the 21st Regiment after having been found as a baby on a battlefield. The plan is that when she is old enough she will marry one of the men of the Regiment. She falls in love with Tyrolean Tonio. When the Marquise de Berkenfield shows up, it is discovered that she is Marie’s aunt and she wants to take Marie away to raise her as a lady. Will love win out for Marie?

Pelly updated the original Napoleonic war setting to World War I for this production. The end result, according to several critics, was that the “war is hell” concept is undermined by the silliness of the plot.

One of the hallmarks of this opera is the challenge that faces every tenor singing the role of Tonio to hit nine high C’s in the opera’s best known aria, “Ah! mes amis.” Flórez nailed them and, of course, repeated the aria to wild applause from the audience.

Thursday, September 17 – Rossini’s La Cenerentola

Conducted by Maurizio Benini; starring Elīna Garanča, Lawrence Brownlee, Simone Alberghini, Alessandro Corbelli and John Relyea. This revival of Cesare Lievi’s 1997 production is from the 2008-2009 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on July 17th.

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

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

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

Friday, September 18 – Bellini’s I Puritani

Conducted by Patrick Summers; starring Anna Netrebko, Eric Cutler, Franco Vassallo and John Relyea. This is a revival of the 1976 Sandro Sequi production from the 2006-2007 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on June 1st.

Vincenzo Bellini’s I Puritani had its world premiere in Paris in 1835. The libretto was written by Carlo Pepoli. This was the composer’s final work. He died eight months after the premiere of this opera.

I Puritani is set in 1650 England. Elvira and Arturo are going to be married. He is a Royalist and she is a Puritan. (Puritanism was a religious reform movement that originated in the late 16th Century and believed that The Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church had too much in common and weren’t rooted in the text of the Bible.) Riccardo, a Puritan, is also in love with Elvira and believes himself to have already been promised her. The three must navigate not just their romantic entanglement, but also the political issues and intrigue surrounding the English Civil War.

This was the Metropolitan Opera’s first production of I Puritani in a decade. By the time this production opened in late 2006, it was the fourth new role for Netrebko that year. The New York Times reported that on opening night the soprano received a lengthy ovation at the the conclusion of the second act mad scene.

Saturday, September 19 – 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. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on May 30th.

Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore had its world premiere in Milan in 1832. The libretto by Felice Romani. L’Elisir d’Amore was inspired by Eugène Scribe’s libretto for Daniel Auber’s Le philtre.

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

When this production was reviewed critics were particularly impressed with Yende’s performance. She made her role debut in this production. Polenzani was part of Sher’s original production and returns to the same part here. Conductor Hindoyan made his first appearance at the Met with this production.

Sunday, September 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.

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.

That’s the full line-up for Week 27 at the Met. I hope you enjoy Bel Canto Classics.

Photo: Joyce DiDonato and Sondra Radvanovsky in Norma. (Photo by Ken Howard/Courtesy Metropolitan Opera)

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All operas are available on the Metropolitan Opera’s website beginning at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT and remain available for 23 hours. Remember, schedules and timings are always subject to change.

If you read this column early enough, you can still catch Julie Taymor’s production of The Magic Flute on Monday until 6:30 PM EDT/3:30 PM PDT.

Here is the full line-up for Week 16 at the Met:

Monday, June 29 – Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment

Conducted by Enrique Mazzola; starring Pretty Yende, Stephanie Blythe, Kathleen Turner, Javier Camarena and Maurizio Muraro. This revival of the 2008 Laurent Pelly production is from the 2018-2019 season.

This two-act comic opera written by Gaetano Donizetti was first performed in 1840 in Paris. The libretto is by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard.

La Fille du Régiment tells the story of a young woman, Marie, who was raised by the 21st Regiment after having been found as a baby on a battlefield. The plan is that when she is old enough she will marry one of the men of the Regiment. She falls in love with Tyrolean Tonio. When the Marquise de Berkenfield shows up, it is discovered that she is Marie’s aunt and she wants to take Marie away to raise her as a lady. Will love win out for Marie?

One of the hallmarks of this opera is the challenge that faces every tenor singing the role of Tonio to hit nine high C’s in the opera’s best known aria, “Ah! mes amis.” In this production Camarena did this so effortlessly he was allowed an encore to do a second pass at the aria and another nine high C’s.

Tuesday, June 30 – Wagner’s Die Walküre

Conducted by James Levine; starring Hildegard Behrens, Jessye Norman, Christa Ludwig, Gary Lakes, James Morris and Kurt Moll. This revival of the 1986 Otto Schenck production is from the 1988-1989 season.

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, July 1 – Shostakovich’s The Nose

Conducted by Pavel Smelkov; starring Andrey Popov, Alexander Lewis and Paulo Szot. This William Kentridge production is from the 2013-2014 season.

Dmitri Shostakovich’s satirical The Nose was the composer’s first opera. It had its debut in Leningrad in 1930. The libretto was by Shostakovich, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Georgy Ionin and Alexander Preis. It is based on a novel by Nikolai Gogol.

The premise is rather simple. The nose of a Saint Petersburg official leaves his face to go off and explore life by itself. The man goes in search of his missing nose and finds it suddenly much bigger and assuming a position of power over him.

The Nose was not performed in Russian again after its premiere until 1974. This was the Metropolitan Opera’s first production of the opera. It also marked the Met Opera debut of tenor Paulo Szot as the man with the missing nose. In addition to his opera career, Szot appeared on Broadway in the 2008 revival of South Pacific and won a Tony Award for his performance.

Thursday, July 2 – 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.

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.”

Friday, July 3 – Mozart’s Don Giovanni

Conducted by Fabio Luisi; starring Marina Rebeka, Barbara Frittoli, Mojca Erdmann, Ramón Vargas, Mariusz Kwiecień, Luca Pisaroni and Štefan Kocán. This Michael Grandage production is from the 2011-2012 season.

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

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

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

Saturday, July 4 – Donizetti’s Don Pasquale

Conducted by Nicola Rescigno; starring Beverly Sills, Alfredo Kraus, Håkan Hagegård and Gabriel Bacquier. This John Dexter production is from the 1978-1979 season.

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

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

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

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

Sunday, July 5 – Rossini’s La Donna del Lago

Conducted by Michele Mariotti; starring Joyce DiDonato, Daniela Barcellona, Juan Diego Flórez, John Osborn and Oren Gradus. This Paul Curran production is from the 2014-2015 season.

Sir Walter Scott’s poem, The Lady of the Lake, served as the inspiration for this opera by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto is by Andrea Leone Tottola. La Donna del Lago had its world premiere in Naples 1819.

Rossini’s opera is set in Scotland in the first half of the 16th century when King James V reigned. Elena has been promised to Rodrigo, but she’s in love with Malcom. Both men are rebels as is her father, Douglas. The King, disguised as a man named Umberto, falls in love with Elena at first sight, but knows she is related to rebels who want him overthrown. How both the relationships and the politics play out will ultimately impact Elena for the rest of her life.

This production was first seen in 2013 at the Santa Fe Opera who co-produced with the Metropolitan Opera and this was the first time this opera was performed by the Met.

Di Donato regularly sings “Tanti affetti” from La Donna del Lago in concerts. The New York Times‘s Anthony Tommasini said of her performance in this production, “It was good to have the stage so bright for Ms. DiDonato’s triumphant performance of ‘Tanti affetti.’ Besides adding an important Rossini opera to the Met’s repertory, this production gives those who have only heard her sing that aria as an encore a chance to get to know the long opera that precedes it.”

That’s Week 16 at the Met. Join us next week to see what they have in store for Week 17.

Photo: Mariusz Kwiecien (center) in the title role of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. (Photo by Marty Sohl/Courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera)

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Here’s the line-up for this week and there are some real gems here. Broadway fans might be interested to know that Tony Award-winner Kelli O’Hara appears in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte on Sunday, April 12th.

Monday, April 6 – Verdi’s Aida

Conducted by Nicola Luisotti, starring Anna Netrebko, Anita Rachvelishvili, and Aleksandrs Antonenko. 

Tuesday, April 7 – Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West

Conducted by Nicola Luisotti, starring Deborah Voigt, Marcello Giordani, and Lucio Gallo. 

Wednesday, April 8 – Verdi’s Falstaff

Conducted by James Levine, starring Lisette Oropesa, Angela Meade, Stephanie Blythe, and Ambrogio Maestri. 

Thursday, April 9 – Wagner’s Parsifal

Conducted by Daniele Gatti, starring Katarina Dalayman, Jonas Kaufmann, Peter Mattei, and René Pape.

Friday, April 10 – Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette

Conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, starring Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo. 

Saturday, April 11 – Donizetti’s Don Pasquale

Conducted by James Levine; starring Anna Netrebko, Matthew Polenzani, and Mariusz Kwiecien.

Sunday, April 12 – Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte

Conducted by David Robertson; starring Amanda Majeski, Serena Malfi, Kelli O’Hara, Ben Bliss, Adam Plachetka, and Christopher Maltman.

With such a great line-up for Week 4 at the Met, what do you think will be part of Week 5?

Photo from Cosi fan tutte by Jonathan Tichler/Courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera

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