The opera star appearing in the most productions is the late baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky who appears in the final two productions being streamed. The composer being represented the most is, no surprise, Verdi. In fact, Hvorostovsky singing Verdi received the top vote. That opera (see below for the reveal) is the final streaming production.

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 theplanned 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 19th, you’ll still have time to see the 2015-2016 season production of Puccini’s Turandot that concludes Puccini week.

Here is are selections for Week 71 at the Met:

Monday, July 19 – Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro – 3rd Showing

Conducted by James Levine, starring Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Susanne Mentzer, Dwayne Croft, and Sir Bryn Terfel. This Jonathan Miller production is from the 1998-1999 season.

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

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

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

Tuesday, July 20 – Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci – 2nd Showing

Both operas conducted by James Levine. Cavalleria Rusticana starring Tatiana Troyanos, Jean Kraft, Plácido Domingo and Vern Shinall. Pagliacci starring Teresa Stratas, Plácido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes and Allan Monk. This Franco Zeffirelli production is from the 1977-1978 season.

Perhaps no pairing of one-act operas is more popular than the combination of Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni and Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo. 

Cavalleria Rusticana had its world premiere in Rome in 1890. The opera is based on a short story which later became a play by Giovanni Verga. Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci adapted them both for their libretto.

Mascagni’s opera centers on a love triangle. Turridu, who has returned from military service, goes to see his ex-lover, Lola, before seeing his current lover, Santuzza. Lola is married to Alfio. Santuzza decides to tell Alfio about the infidelity and the two men decide to duel. At the end of the opera, multiple hearts are left broken.

Pagliacci had its world premiere in Milan in 1892. Leoncavallo also wrote the libretto.

The opera tells the story of a married couple, Canio and Nedda, who are performers in a small theatre company on the road. Canio is insanely jealous and that jealousy drives Nedda to seek affection from another man, Silvio. Nedda and Silvio make plans to elope, but their plans are overheard by Tonio, another member of the company. He tells Canio about Nedda’s plans. Looking for revenge, Canio, during a performance of their touring play, makes his personal life mirror the drama in the play.

This was not the first time Domingo had sung the lead tenor roles in both operas on the same night. In fact, with this performance he did so for the 25th time. Previous double-hitters were performed in Vienna, Covent Garden and in San Francisco. These performances also marked the first time James Levine conducted each opera at the Met.

Wednesday, July 21 – Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles – 4th Showing

Conducted by Gianandrea Noseda; starring Diana Damrau, Matthew Polenzani, Mariusz Kwiecień and Nicolas Testé. This Penny Woolcock production is from the 2015-2016 season.

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.

Thursday, July 22 – Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann – 2nd Showing

Conducted by Yves Abel; starring Erin Morley, Hibla Gerzmava, Kate Lindsey, Christine Rice, Vittorio Grigolo and Thomas Hampson. This revival of the 2009 Bartlett Sher production is from the 2014-2015 season.

Jacques Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffman had its world premiere in Paris in 1881. The libretto was written by Jules Barbier and was inspired by three short stories by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffman. Offenbach did not live to see this opera performed. He died four months before its premiere.

In the opera Offenbach and Barbier put the author of the stories in the middle of all the action. He’s seeking perfect love and tells a tavern crowd about three fruitless attempts at romance. The first with the daughter of an inventor who turns out to be a doll instead of a human being. The second with a beautiful young woman with a gorgeous voice, but whose singing may lead to her death. The third with a young woman who steals his reflection. Will poor Hoffman ever find love? Or will his writing be his lifelong companion?

In David Shengold’s Opera News review of this production he raved about Grigolo’s performance:

“…Grigolo may have found his most convincing Met part yet. His French is remarkably clear and accurate for an Italian tenor and — though he deployed his full resources at climaxes, often excitingly — Grigolo showed admirable dynamic variety in filling out Offenbach’s higher lines. His soft singing wasn’t exactly Gallic classic voix mixte but he integrated it gracefully into his overall vocalization, clear and attractive save for rather empty low notes. Grigolo paced himself well in this extremely demanding assignment; he tended to be placed near the lip of the stage, but he interacted with colleagues and created an actual character.”

Friday, July 23 – Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment – 3rd Showing

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. 

Saturday, July 24 – Verdi’s Il Trovatore – 3rd Showing

Conducted by Marco Armiliato; starring Anna Netrebko, Dolora Zajick, Yonghoon Lee, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Štefan Kocán. This revival of David McVicar’s 2009 production is from the 2014-2015 season. 

Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore is based on the play El trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez published in 1836. The libretto was written by Salvadore Cammarano with additions by Leone Emanuele Badare. The opera had its world premiere in Rome in 1853.

The setting is Zaragoza, the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon, circa 1412. To offer up a quick synopsis here would be a fool’s game to play. Several stories happen simultaneously and sometimes share the same characters. The opera has rarely been hailed for its story, but it certainly ranks as one of Verdi’s finest compositions.

This production of Il Trovatore took place months after Hvorostovsky’s diagnosis of cancer. This was his last production at the Met and as you could tell at the start of the clip above, he was beloved by the audience.

Anthony Tommasini’s review in the New York Times said that positively influenced the performance Hvorostovsky gave on opening night.

“It’s impossible to imagine a singer giving more than Mr. Hvorostovsky did on this night. When your life is actually threatened by a serious illness, you truly are putting everything on the line when you sing.

“Mr. Hvorostovsky gave a gripping performance as Count di Luna. There was little need to take what he has been going through into account. His resplendent voice, with its distinctive mellow character and dusky veneer, sounded not at all compromised. He sang with Verdian lyricism, dramatic subtlety and, when called for, chilling intensity as the complex count, who, in this production, with its Goya-inspired imagery, is the brash leader of the Royalist Aragon troops at a time of bloody civil war in Spain.”

Sunday, July 25 – Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera – 4th Showing

Conducted by Fabio Luisi; starring Sondra Radvanovsky, Kathleen Kim, Stephanie Blythe, Marcelo Álvarez and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. This David Alden production is from the 2012-2013 season. 

Verdi’s opera, translated A Masked Ball, had its premiere in Rome in 1859. Librettist Antonio Somma used the libretto written by Eugène Scribe for the opera, Gustave III, ou Le Ballo masqué, written by Daniel Auber in 1833. 

The opera is based on the real life assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden who was killed while attending a masquerade ball in Stockholm. 

Verdi takes some dramatic liberties which certainly enhances the drama. Riccardo is in love with Amelia. She, however, is the wife of his good friend and confidante, Renato. Riccardo is warned by his friend that there is a plot to kill him at the ball. Paying no attention to the warning, Riccardo instead seeks out Ulrica, a woman accused of being a witch. In disguise he visits Ulrica to have his fortune read. She tells him he will be killed by the next man who shakes his hand. That next man turns out to be Renato. What follows is a story of intrigue, deception, questions of fidelity and, of course, the assassination.

This was a brand new production of Un Ballo in Maschera at the Met. Director Alden was influenced by black and white films and, in particular, film noir for his production.

Karita Matilla was originally announced to sing the role of Amelia. She withdrew approximately six months prior to its staging. Radvanovsky assumed the role.

In his New York Times review, Anthony Tommasini said of Radvanovsky and Hvorostovsky, “She was particularly moving in the scene in which her husband, here the charismatic baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, having discovered her in a rendezvous with the king, tells her to prepare to die. Confronting his wife, Mr. Hvorostovsky shook Ms. Radvanovsky by the shoulders, as if really ready to strangle her. But the next moment he nestled his head next to her face and kissed her, almost pleadingly, singing with his trademark dark sound and supple phrasing, which poignantly brought to life this suffering husband’s love.”

It’s been quite a run of streaming productions. But all good things must come to an end.

Enjoy the operas! Enjoy your week!

Photo: Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Sondra Radvanovsky in Un Ballo in Maschera

The post Week 71 at the Met: The Final Week appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Since he composed 12 operas, it is inevitable that there will be some operas being presented in both weeks. In fact, the same seven operas are being presented this week that were presented back in September. However, to the Met’s credit, there is only one production being shown this week that appeared in the previous Puccini Week.

Amongst the stars in this week’s operas are Roberto Alagna, Barbara Daniels, Plácido Domingo, Angela Gheorghiu, Karita Mattila, Luciano Pavarotti, Renata Scotto, Nina Stemme, Paulo Szot and Shirley Verrett.

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 12th, you’ll still have time to see the 2016-2017 season production of Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier that concludes Richard Strauss week.

Here is the full line-up for Week 70 at the Met:

Monday, July 12 – Puccini’s Manon Lescaut – 2nd Showing

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, July 13 – Puccini’s La Bohème – 3rd Showing

Conducted by James Levine; starring Renata Scotto, Maralin Niska, Luciano Pavarotti, Ingvar Wixell and Paul Plishka. This Fabrizio Melano production is from the 1976-1977 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.)

Pavarotti made his Met Opera debut in 1968 in La Bohème. This 1977 production of Puccini’s beloved opera was actually the very first Live at the Met broadcast. 

Harold C. Schonberg, writing in the New York Times, said of Pavarotti’s performance, “Nobody around today can sing a better Rodolfo, and this despite the fact that the voice has changed somewhat in recent years. It is a little heavier passages above the staff are not produced as effortlessly as before sometimes there is a decided feeling of strain. One hopes that the Manricos he has been singing have not taken the lyric bloom from his voice. With all that, he sang most beautifully last night. Only Mr. Pavarotti can spin out long phrases with such authority and color.”

Wednesday, July 14 – Puccini’s Tosca – 4th Showing

Conducted by James Conlon; starring Shirley Verrett, Luciano Pavarotti and Cornell MacNeil. This Tito Gobbi production is from the 1978-1979 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.

Donal Henahan, in his New York Times review, praised Verrett’s singing. “Miss Verrett, in appearance the most persuasively starlike Floria Tosca the Met has offered in years, also succeeded in satisfying the purely vocal demands of her role. There was little strain anywhere, and many passages of extraordinarily fine, intelligently nuanced singing.”

He went on to say about Pavarotti, “Mr. Pavarotti, though a bit thin of voice in such outpourings as ‘Recondite armonia,’ pitched himself into the action, vocally and theatrically, with his usual infectious enthusiasm. Puccini is notoriously hard on voices—perhaps more so than Verdi or even Wagner— and Mr. Pavarotti is taking a calculated risk in moving into emotionally heavy and tone‐shredding roles. But his ‘Vittoria!’ rang out excitingly, without sounding strident, and in the lyrical passages he was nothing less than glorious. Bravissimo is not good enough for such singing. How about pavarotissimo?”

Thursday, July 15 – Puccini’s Madama Butterfly – 2nd Showing

Conducted by Pier Giorgio Morandi; starring Hui He, Elizabeth DeShong, Bruce Sledge and Paulo Szot. This is a revival of the 2006 Anthony Minghella production from the 2019-2020 season.

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 Butterflyserved as the inspiration for that musical.)

Seth Colter Walls, writing in the New York Times, praised much of Hui He’s work as Cio-Cio San:

“Ms. He’s work in ensembles could also give off a stranded feeling — and not just because of the strain evident in ascents to high notes. Yet during more intimate passages, she pulled the night together by delivering a Cio-Cio-San full of subtle yet fascinating changes. Some darkly rich tones provided dramatic dimension for her first-act work before a brighter, brassier sound underlined the character’s hopeful delusions in the second act. Tellingly, the soprano was at her most moving when interacting with her young son, depicted in this production through Bunraku-style puppetry. In these moments, the intensity that was missing from the flesh-and-blood interactions became plainly obvious.”

Friday, July 16 – Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West FIRST SHOWING

Conducted by Leonard Slatkin; starring Barbara Daniels, Plácido Domingo and Sherrill Milnes. This Giancarlo Del Monaco production is from the 1991-1992 season.

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?

Martin Bernheimer, writing in the Los Angeles Times, was very impressed with the production. Here are excerpts from his review:

“The Metropolitan Opera has expended rousing, loving care on its new production of La Fanciulla del West…The most striking contribution to this emphatically successful project would seem to come, however, from the stage director: Giancarlo del Monaco…His Fanciulla may be the most realistic, the most detailed, the most atmospheric version since the world premiere, which happened to be presented by the same company 81 years ago…Perhaps Del Monaco has given us the ultimate oxymoron: a thinking person’s Fanciulla del West.”

Saturday, July 17 – Puccini’s La Rondine – 4th Showing

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.

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.”

Sunday, July 18 – Puccini’s Turandot – 2nd Showing

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.”

That’s the line-up for Week 70 at the Met. For those following the labor issues at the Metropolitan Opera, a tentative agreement has been reached so it looks like there will indeed be a 2021-2022 season. That will mean more LIVE in HD presentations to experience.

Enjoy your week! Enjoy the operas! 

Photo: Nina Stemme and Marco Berti Puccini’s Turandot. (Photo by Marty Sohl/Courtesy Metropolitan Opera)

The post Puccini: Week 70 at the Met appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enjoy your week! Enjoy the operas! Happy Pride!

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

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As you might expect for a series tied to podcasts, most of this week’s productions are from recent seasons. Most of the operas come from 2018-2020. There is one notable exception: the 2014-2015 season production of Verdi’s Macbeth.

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

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

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

If you read this column early enough on May 31st, you’ll still have time to see the 2010-2011 season production of Rossini’s Le Comte Ory that was part of Rare Gems week.

Here is the full line-up of rare gems for Week 64 at the Met:

Monday, May 31 – Puccini’s Turandot – 4th Showing

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, June 1 – Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila – 3rd Showing

Conducted by Sir Mark Elder; starring Elīna Garanča, Roberto Alagna, Laurent Naouri, Elchin Azizov and Dmitry Belosselskiy. This Darko Tresnjak production is from the 2018-2019 season.

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.

Wednesday, June 2 – Bizet’s Carmen – 2nd Showing

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.”

Thursday, June 3 – Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment – 2nd Showing

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.

While Anthony Tommasini did rave about Camarena’s high C’s, he also thought the chemistry between Yende and Camarena worked well, as he said in his New York Times review:

“Ms. Yende and Mr. Camarena treat the story seriously, without a trace of mugging or winking. They were adorable during scenes of budding romance. Complications ensue when the Marquise of Berkenfield, here the commanding mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, realizes that Marie is the daughter she abandoned at birth to avoid scandal, and hauls her off to teach her ladylike behavior. But young love wins out.”

Friday, June 4 – The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess – 5th Showing

Conducted by David Robertson; starring Angel Blue, Golda Schultz, Latonia Moore, Denyce Graves, Frederick Ballentine, Eric Owens, Alfred Walker and Donovan Singletary. This James Robinson production is from the 2019-2020 season. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, June 5 – Verdi’s Macbeth – 3rd Showing

Conducted by Fabio Luisi; starring Anna Netrebko, Joseph Calleja, Željko Lučić and René Pape. This revival of Adrian Noble’s 2007 production is from the 2014-2015 season.

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth was the first of his plays to inspire an opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave with additional work by Andrea Maffei. The opera had its world premiere in Florence, Italy in 1847. Verdi re-wroked Macbeth and changed the language from Italian to French. The revised version had its premiere in Paris in 1865.

This is not Shakespeare set to music. Verdi did take much of what Shakespeare wrote about a Scottish general who is told by three witches that he will be the King of Scotland. With the help of his wife, Lady Macbeth, he stops at nothing to do so. However, Verdi couldn’t include the whole play in his opera, nor did he want to. The relationship between Macbeth and Lady MacBeth truly anchors this opera.

This production marked the first time Netrebko had sung the role of Lady Macbeth at the Met. Anthony Tommasini, writing in the New York Times, set up the challenges she was facing:

“…the lead soprano role in Verdi’s Macbeth is not just a daunting challenge. For Ms. Netrebko, who turned 43 last week, it represents a shift from the lyric soprano and bel canto roles with which she made her reputation to vocally weightier repertory. Lady Macbeth is particularly risky and demanding.”

He was more than pleased with the result. “The years that Ms. Netrebko spent singing bel canto heroines paid off here in the skillful way she dispatched the trills and runs that Verdi folds into the vocal lines. One such place is the Act II banquet scene after Macbeth, having murdered King Duncan, has been proclaimed the new monarch. Lady Macbeth sings a drinking song, a brindisi, inviting the guests to join in a toast. Yet there was something eerily malevolent in the way this Lady Macbeth tossed off the song with insistent good cheer. Wearing a ruby red evening gown, her eyes wild, Ms. Netrebko almost willed her guests into having a good time, or else.”

Sunday, June 6 – Philip Glass’s Akhnaten – 5th Showing

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.

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. 

That’s the complete line-up for Week 64 at the Met. Next week the theme is Updated Settings for Classic Operas.

Enjoy your week! Enjoy the operas!

Photo: J’Nai Bridges, Anthony Roth Costanzo and Dísella Lárusdóttir in Akhnaten. (Photo by Karen Almond/Courtesy Met Opera)

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The competition is designed to find the most talented young opera singers and help them develop their craft and their careers. Amongst the alumni appearing in this week’s productions are Lawrence Brownlee, Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Ben Heppner, Sondra Radvanovsky, Samuel Ramey, Teresa Stratas and Carol Vaness.

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

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

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

If you read this column early enough on May 10th, you’ll still have time to see the 2019-2020 season production of Handel’s Agrippina that was part of Happy Mother’s Day week.

Here is the full line-up for Week 61 at the Met:

Monday, May 10 – Puccini’s La Bohème

Conducted by James Levine; starring Teresa Stratas, Renata Scotto, José Carreras, Richard Stilwell, Allan Monk, James Morris and Italo Tajo. Franco Zeffirelli production from the 1981-1982 season. This is an encore presentation of the production previously available last year on July 19th and December 24th.

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, May 11 – Mozart’s Don Giovanni

Conducted by James Levine; starring Carol Vaness, Karita Mattila, Dawn Upshaw, Jerry Hadley, Samuel Ramey, Ferrucio Furlanetto and Kurt Moll. This Franco Zeffirelli production is from the 1989-1990 season. This is an encore presentation of the production previously available on February 19th of this year.

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.

Donal Henahan, in his New York Times review, singled Ramey out for praise for his performance as the title character. “Samuel Ramey, the handsomest and most athletic Don Giovanni on the stage today, dominated the performance physically, as the Don must. But his flexible bass could also articulate cleanly a breathtakingly fast Champagne Aria and sustain a singing line in his Serenade. If his phrasing was sometimes blunt and insensitive, so was the heartless character he portrayed.”

Wednesday, May 12 – Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde

Conducted by James Levine; starring Jane Eaglen, Katarina Dalayman, Ben Heppner, Hans-Joachim Ketelsen and René Pape. This Dieter Dorn production is from the 1999-2000 season. This is an encore presentation of the production previously available on July 12th of last year.

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.

Bernard Holland, writing for the New York Times, loved this production. He praised the two leads saying “I wonder if we’ve ever had better ones.” He raved about the orchestra saying, “The heart of Tristan is its orchestra, and James Levine worked in slow, patient accumulations of force. The sound was wonderful.” And concluded his review by stating, “There is no other music like it, and I have never heard a better performance.”

Tristan und Isolde is easily my personal favorite opera. I’ve seen productions in the United States and in Europe. I find it profoundly moving on all levels. What Wagner accomplished here by not resolving the music until the final minutes of the opera is without parallel. I plan to watch this production and encourage you to do the same.

Thursday, May 13 – Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier

Conducted by Edo de Waart; starring Renée Fleming, Christine Schäfer, Susan Graham and Kristinn Sigmundsson. This revival of the 1969 Nathaniel Merrill production is from the 2009-2010 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available last year on July 25th and this year on January 13th.

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?

Fleming first performed the role of The Marschallin at the Metropolitan Opera in 2000 to great acclaim. Singing the trouser role (a male character sung by a female) of Octavian in that production was Susan Graham. They reunited for this 2009 production in the same roles.

James Levine was scheduled to conduct Der Rosenkavalier, but was forced to leave during rehearsals for spine surgery.

Friday, May 14 – The Audition

In anticipation of this year’s National Council Auditions Finals, the Metropolitan Opera is running a documentary about the 2007 competition called The Audition. The film is directed by Susan Froemke.

The finalists in that year’s competition were Jamie Barton, Kierra Duffy, Michael Fabiano, Dísella Làrusdóttir, Ryan McKinny, Angela Meade, Nicholas Pallesen, Matthew Plenk, Alek Shrader, Ryan Smith and Amber L. Wagner.

Don’t some of those names sound familiar?

Saturday, May 15 – Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia

Conducted by Michele Mariotti; starring Isabel Leonard, Lawrence Brownlee, Christopher Maltman and Maurizio Muraro. This revival of Bartlett Sher’s 2006 production is from the 2014-2015 season. This is an encore presentation of the production previously available last year on July 20th and December 23rd.

Gioachino Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) had its world premiere in 1816 in Rome. The opera is based on the new 1775 comedy by Beaumarchais of the same name. The libretto was written by Cesare Sterbini.

In this comedic opera, Count Almaviva is in love with the delightful Rosina. As he’s a Count, he wants to make sure her love is true and anchored in her passion for him, not the fact that he’s a Count. 

In order to be sure, he pretends to be student with no money. Regardless of his efforts, Bartolo, who serves as Rosina’s guardian, will make sure no one will woo Rosina and win. Bartolo, however, doesn’t know that Almaviva has a secret weapon, a cunning man named Figaro who is…the barber.

Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, writing for the New York Times, said of this revival, “The Met’s production is glossy, sweet and rich in laughs. And it has stars: Lawrence Brownlee makes a dashing Almaviva, singing with a focused, ardent tenor. Isabel Leonard is a pitch-perfect Rosina, cute but sharp clawed, dispatching Rossini’s dizzying runs and ornaments with stenciled precision. Maurizio Muraro owns the role of Bartolo, his diction flawless in the rapid-fire patter arias. Paata Burchuladze was a sly, gravelly Basilio.”

Sunday, May 16 – 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 previously available last year on April 29th and October 17th and this year on March 31st.

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.”

If you want to watch the National Council Auditions Grand Finals Concert on May 16th you’ll need to go here to register. The event starts at 11:00 AM ET/8:00 AM PT.

This year’s finalists are:

Jongwon Han, a bass baritone from Seoul, South Korea (age 26)

Duke Kim, a tenor from Seoul, South Korea (age 29)

Hyoyoung Kim, a soprano from Seoul, South Korea (age 24)

Brittany Olivia Logan, a soprano from Garden Grove, CA (age 28)

Raven McMillon, a soprano from Baltimore, MD (age 25)

Timothy McMurray, a baritone from Milwaukee, WI (age 29)

Murrella Parton, a soprano from Seymour, TN (age 30)

Erica Petrocelli, a soprano from East Greenwich, RI (age 28)

Emily Sierra, a mezzo-soprano from Chicago, IL (age 23)

Emily Treigle, a mezzo-soprano from New Orleans, LA (age 23)

Who will be the next big opera stars in the future? This event will certainly offer some insights.

That’s the complete line-up for Week 61 at the Met.

Enjoy your week and enjoy the operas!

Photo: Lawrence Brownlee in Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Photo by Ken Howard/Courtesy Met Opera)

The post National Council Auditions Alumni – Week 61 at the Met appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, April 12 – Massenet’s Cendrillon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, April 14 – Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, April 15 – Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel

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

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

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

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

Friday, April 16 – Dvořák’s Rusalka

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

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

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

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

Saturday, April 17 – Puccini’s Turandot FIRST SHOWING

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday, April 18 – Rossini’s La Cenerentola

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Of particular note this week is that two productions are being streamed for the very first time: a 1982-1983 season production of Mozart’s Idomeneo (remarkably the first time the opera had ever been performed at the Met) and a production of the composer’s Don Giovanni from the 2000-2001 season starring Bryn Terfel and Renée Fleming.

There is also the fourth showing of Strauss’ Elektra with Nina Stemme. If you haven’t seen this yet, I strongly urge you to do so. It’s a powerful production filled with amazing performances.

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 22nd, you might still have time to catch the 2019-2020 season production of Handel’s Agrippina that concludes a week celebrating Viewer’s Choice.

Here is the line-up for Week 54 at the Met:

Monday, March 22 – Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice

Conducted by James Levine; starring Danielle de Niese, Heidi Grant Murphy and Stephanie Blythe. This Mark Morris production is from the 2008-2009 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available on June 3rd and November 3rd. 

Once again the myth of Orpheus inspired a composer. Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera, which premiered in Vienna in 1762, has a libretto by Ranieri de’ Calzabigi. (Others who have been so inspired include Haydn, Lizst and Stravinsky. The story is also the inspiration for the Tony Award-winning musical Hadestown.)

The Orpheus story is about a man who suddenly loses the love of his life, Euridice. He travels to the underworld to find her. He can bring her back, but only if he truly trusts in her love.

Anthony Tomassini, in his New York Times review of this production, began his review with singular praise for Blythe:

“With each performance the American mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe gives, it becomes increasingly apparent that a once-in-a-generation opera singer has arrived. Ms. Blythe’s latest triumph came on Friday night at the Metropolitan Opera: a vocally commanding and deeply poignant portrayal of Orfeo in a revival of Mark Morris’s 2007 production of Gluck’s sublime masterpiece Orfeo ed Euridice. This was Ms. Blythe’s first performance of Orfeo, a touchstone trouser role for many mezzo-sopranos, and she already owns it.”

Tuesday, March 23 – 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 previously available on May 25th and September 9th.

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.

Wednesday, March 24 – Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride

Conducted by Patrick Summers; starring Susan Graham, Plácido Domingo, Paul Groves and Gordon Hawkins. This revival of the 2007 Stephen Wadsworth production from the 2010-2011 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available on June 17th.

Christoph Willibald Gluck’s 1779 opera features a libretto by Nicolas-François Guillard. The opera had its world premiere in Paris.

A storm is raging on the island of Tauris. Iphigenia and Diana (the goddess) beg for relief from the storm. But the bigger storm brewing is the one inside Iphigenia who longs to be reunited with her brother, Orest, whom she believes to be dead after her mother killed her father and Orest killed their mother in revenge. Iphigenia must navigate what the gods want as she tries to quiet her pain.

The 2007 production of this opera marked the first time in 90 years that Gluck’s opera was performed at the Metropolitan Opera. Both Graham and Domingo were in that production, too. Zachary Woolfe, writing for the New York Times, said of the production being offered:

“An impassioned revival with those singers, which opened Saturday evening, confirms that there is no reason for this radiant opera not to be a repertory staple.”

Thursday, March 25 – Strauss’s Elektra STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!

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

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.”

Friday, March 26 – Mozart’s Idomeneo FIRST SHOWING

Conducted by James Levine; starring Hildegard Behrens, Ileana Cotrubas, Frederica von Stade, Luciano Pavarotti and John Alexander. This Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production is from the 1982-1983 season.

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

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

This production marked the first time in the Met’s history that the opera was performed there. Donal Henahan, writing for the New York Times, was glad they finally got around to it:

“At any rate, the staging, however bizzarre at times, did not overpower the singers, who caught the powerful emotions that run beneath the surface of this Mozart score. Miss von Stade, a mezzosoprano in a part that originally was meant for castrato and later was given to a tenor, made a marvelously convincing young prince. Miss Cotrubas made an instant impression with her first aria, ‘Padre, germani, addio,’ and never let the side down thereafter. Miss Behrens flung herself into the villainous role of Elettra with vocal and dramatic abandon, actually stealing the last act from under Mr. Pavarotti’s nose. When she collapsed in a rage at the end and had to be carried off the stage, one could almost believe she had thrown a real fit.”

Saturday, March 27 – Mozart’s Don Giovanni FIRST SHOWING

Conducted by James Levine; starring Renée Fleming, Solveig Kringelborn, Hei-Kyung Hong, Paul Groves, Bryn Terfel, Ferruccio Furlanetto and Sergei Koptchak. This revival of the 1990 Franco Zeffirelli production is from the 2000-2001 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.

Bernard Holland, writing for the New York Times, raved about all the performances, but singled out Terfel’s approach to the title character:

“Mr. Terfel comes to the Don with his own powerful if somewhat repugnant point of view. If the production is about period elegance, the character itself achieves a modern mean-spiritedness. Endearing naughtiness is replaced with outright sadism. This is a coldly obsessive figure for whom rape and murder is not offhand but committed with pleasure. On the other hand, this not very nice man sings like an angel. The articulation was wonderful, and Mr. Terfel commands such a depth of color that his ”La ci darem la mano” could soar out into the hall even at half voice. Volume does not necessarily conquer the Met’s bigness. Quality and focus have a better chance.”

Sunday, March 28 – Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer

Conducted by Valery Gergiev; starring Anja Kampe, Mihoko Fujimura, Sergey Skorokhodov, David Portillo, Evgeny Nikitin and Franz-Josef Selig. This François Girard production is from the 2019-2020 season.  This is an encore presentation of the production previously available on January 29th.

Richard Wagner’s opera, commonly billed by its English-language name, The Flying Dutchman, had its world premiere in Dresden in 1843. Wagner wrote the libretto and based it on The Memoirs of Mister von Schnabelewopski (Aus den Memoiren des Herrn von Schnabelewopski) by Henrich Heine.

Der Fliegende Holländer tells the story of a Dutch sea captain who claims he can sail safely anywhere in the world. The devil, hearing his boasting, condemned him to never die and to forever sail until he finds a woman willing to offer him eternal love. He can only leave the sea once every seven years. When he encounters Senta, he has found the woman that will end his curse. But she already has a fiancé. Whose love will win out?

Anthony Tommasini, writing in the New York Times, was not thrilled by this production. He did, however, single out Kampe’s performance.

“The soprano Anja Kampe, a leading Wagner soprano in Europe, made her belated Met debut as Senta; it’s good to finally have her here. Her singing was plush and warm, with lyrical sheen in tender phrases and steely intensity when Senta’s obsession takes hold. Despite some strained top notes, she was a standout.”

That’s it for Week 54 at the Met. Next week it’s all about being torn between two lovers as Love Triangles are the theme. Enjoy the week and enjoy the operas!

Photo: Bryn Terfel and Renée Fleming in Don Giovanni (Courtesy Metropolitan Opera)

The post Myths and Legends: Week 54 at the Met appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, March 1 – Donizetti’s Don Pasquale

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, March 2 – Verdi’s Falstaff

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, March 3 – Wagner’s Die Walküre

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, March 4 – Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, March 5 – Britten’s Peter Grimes

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, March 6 – Dvořák’s Rusalka

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enjoy the operas and enjoy your week!

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

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

My top pick is the world premiere of Death by Tyshawn Sorey. Los Angeles Opera is giving the work its debut through their digital shorts program. The work will begin streaming on Friday, February 19th at 11:00 AM.

Those interested in modern dance, ballet, jazz, classical music, plays and musicals will also have plenty to watch his weekend.

Here are my Best Bets: February 19th – February 21st:

DANCE: Evidence – Ronald K. Brown – The Joyce Theatre – Now – March 4th

In 1985 Ronald K. Brown formed a new company called Evidence. On the occasion of its 35 anniversary, the Joyce Theatre is streaming a program of six works for solo dancers and couples. Included in the program are For You, which served as a tribute to Stephanie Reinhart, the late co-creator of the American Dance Festival; Grace, a solo that put Brown on the map when it was performed by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre; March, a duet set to a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Mercy set to music by Meshell Ndegeocello; Palo y Machete, from One Shot, which was inspired by photographer Charles “Teenie” Harris and She is Here.

Tickets are $25 per household and allow for on-demand streaming through March 4th.

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Soundwalk – Multiple Locations – Now Available

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Reid has created a musical landscape to accompany walks through many public parks and spaces in some of America’s cities. Her goal, as stated on the website, is to “inspire us and make us feel connected to something larger than ourselves. It is meant to serve as artistic nourishment – a place to recharge, reconnect, and re-energize.”

You download an app, put on your headphones and talk a walk through designated areas and listen to the music she’s created. Right now it is only available in Los Angeles and New York, but additional cities will be added throughout the year.

For Los Angeles, presented in association with CAP UCLA, The Kronos Quartet performs the music to accompany walks through Griffith Park as does the Soundwalk Ensemble. For New York, presented in association with the New York Philharmonic, musicians from the orchestra perform the music to accompany walks through Central Park. The Soundwalk Ensemble, members of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City and Poole and the Gang also perform.

There is no charge to download the app and the Soundwalk experience will remain active into 2023. Additional locations roll out beginning in April.

JAZZ: Kenny Barron – SFJAZZ – February 19th – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

In this fall of 2018 concert, legendary jazz pianist Kenny Barron is joined by violinist Regina Carter, trumpeter Eddie Henderson and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington. Any one of them would be compelling, having them perform with Barron will offer great music.

Barron is an 11-time Grammy Award nominee (how is it possible he’s never won one?) whose career began as a member of Dizzy Gillespie’s quartet. His recording career began in 1967 and his most recent release was 2020’s Without Deception with bassist Dave Holland.

Tickets are $5 (which allows for a one-month digital subscription) or $60 (which allows for a 12-month digital subscription). There is only the one showing on Friday.

DANCE: Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet – Ahmanson Theatre – February 19th – February 21st

Ivo Váňa-Psota was the first choreographer of a ballet of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It was set to the music by Sergei Prokofiev. The work had its world premiere in 1938.

In 2019 Matthew Bourne presented to the world his new Romeo and Juliet ballet, also set to Prokofiev’s music as interpreted by composer Terry Davies.

Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles is making the ballet available for rent this weekend only. Unlike other Bourne productions, Romeo and Juliet has never been performed in Los Angeles. Cordelia Braithwaite dances the role of Juliet and Paris Fitzpatrick dances the role of Romeo.

There are seven available performances this weekend. On Friday at 5:00 PM PST and 8:00 PM PST; Saturday at 2:00 PM PST, 5:00 PM PST and 8:00 PM PST and Sunday at 1:00 PM PST and 6:30 PM PST. Tickets are $10.

*TOP PICK* OPERA: Death – LA Opera – February 19th – May 4th

This is our third week in a row with Tyshawn Sorey on our list of best bets. This week his work Death will have its world premiere from LA Opera. Sorey sets the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar to music for solo voice and piano.

Dunbar is considered America’s first great Black poet. Sorey uses his poem of the same name from Dunbar’s 1903 collection Lyrics of Love and Laughter.

Performing Death are mezzo-soprano Amanda Lynn Bottoms and pianist Howard Watkins. Nadia Hallgren (Becoming) directed the film.

Sorey is obviously exploding with his inventive mix of jazz, classical and experimental music styles. With Save the Boys and Death, 2021 is clearly turning out to already be a remarkable year for the 40-year-old who was awarded a MacArthur “Genius Grant” in 2017.

There is no charge to watch Death, but you do need to register with LA Opera.

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Michelle Cann plays Florence Price – Philadelphia Orchestra – February 19th – February 25th

June 15, 1933 was a pivotal day in the life of composer Florence Price. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed her Symphony in E Minor. This marked the first time the work of a Black woman had her composition performed by a major orchestra in America.

The other important date happened well after Price had passed away. In 2009 a couple, while renovating a house they purchased in Illinois, came across manuscripts, books and other writings by Price. More than half of the works she composed were found. The rediscovery of Price had begun.

Pianist Michelle Cann, who has made Price’s Concerto in One Movement a regular part of her repertoire, joins The Philadelphia Orchestra and music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, for a performance of the work in a film available through February 25th. They are using the original orchestration of the concerto. The website indicates this may be the first time since the 1930s that this orchestration has been performed.

Also on the program are Rossini’s Overture to La scala di seta and Schubert’s Symphony No. 4 (“Tragic”).

Tickets are $17.

DANCE: New Bach – Dance Theatre of Harlem – February 20th – February 27th

The second half of Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Winter 2021 Virtual Ballet Series takes place on Saturday with New Bach which will be posted on their YouTube channel on Saturday.

Robert Garland created New Bach which had its world premiere in 2001 just after the 9/11 tragedy. Anna Kisselgoff, in her New York Times review, said of the work upon its premiere (with specific names from that performance): “Mr. Garland has used the Balanchine model in the best sense in New Bach,’ and alludes to the jazzy syncopation of the Bach-Balanchine masterpiece Concerto Barocco. Bach’s Violin Concerto in A minor, (conducted here by Joseph E. Fields with Deborah Wong as the violin soloist), has impelled him into formal patterns studded with occasional pelvis swivels, limp arms descending from rotating shoulders and wiggles in plié. Nothing is overdone, however, as four couples are in frequent interplay with the leads — Donald Williams, wittily assertive in a noble style, and Tanya Wideman-Davis, eye-riveting in her robust but refined classical silhouette.”

There is no charge to watch New Bach.

OPERA: Puccini’s La Rondine – San Francisco Opera – February 20th – February 21st

Conducted by Ion Marin; starring Angela Gheorghiu, Gerard Powers, Anna Christy and Misha Didyk. This Nicolas Joël production is from the 2007-2008 season.

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?

This production marked Gheorghiu’s debut with San Francisco Opera. Joshua Kosman, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, said, “Gheorghiu’s company debut is long overdue, but her performance in the signature role of Magda was worth the wait. Her tone was strong but tender, with an irresistible blend of earthiness and purity, and when she lofted the high notes of “Chi il bel sogno di Doretta,” her breath control and flawless intonation seemed to make time stand still.”

JAZZ: Jason Marsalis and the K Love Experience – Snug Harbor (on Stage it) – February 21st – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

You know Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, the late Ellis Marsalis and perhaps even Delfeayo Marsalis. But do you also know drummer/vibraphonist Jason Marsalis? If not, Sunday’s performance from New Orleans’ Snug Harbor will give you a great opportunity to hear the youngest of the Marsalis brothers.

This concert will feature music with Afro-Cuban, funk, samba, reggae coursing through its veins. This won’t just be music to sit and listen to, you’ll want to get up and dance.

Tickets are $15.

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Daniil Trifonov Recital – Shriver Hall – February 21st – 5:30 PM EST/2:30 PM PST

Are you tired of me constantly having a recital by pianist Daniil Trifonov on my best bets? I hope not, because there’s a reason his performances regularly appear on my list, he’s that good.

This performance, filmed at New York’s 92nd Street Y, finds Trifonov performing Szymanowski’s Sonata No. 3, Op. 36 and Debussy’s Pour le piano.

He concludes with Brahms’ Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5.

Tickets are $15 and allow for on-demand streaming through February 28th.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL MUSIC: Bang on a Can Marathon #5 – February 21st – 1:00 PM EST/10:00 AM PST

Fans of contemporary classical music will not want to miss this Sunday’s Bang on a Can Marathon. All you have to do is look at the line-up:

Hour 1: Jakhongir Shukur’s Potter’s Wheel performed by Robert Black; Jennifer Walshe performing her Happiness Starts Right Now; Maria Huld Markan Sigfusdottir’s Pending, performed by Chi-chi Nwanoku and a new work by Amir Elsaffar performed by Ken Thomson

Hour 2: A new work by Gregory Spears performed by David Byrd-Marrow; a new work by Kristina Wolfe performed by Molly Barth; Gabriel Kahane’s Hollywood & Vine performed by Arlen Hlusko and a new work written and performed by Bora Yoon with video by R. Luke Dubois

Hour 3: Matthew Shipp performs his Spaceman’s Blues; Joel Thompson’s Supplication and Compensation performed by Anthony Roth Costanzo; Rohan Chander’s △ or The Tragedy of Hikkomori Loveless from FINAL//FANTASY performed by Vicky Chow and a new work written and performed by David Cossin.

HOUR 4: Eve Beglarian’s A Solemn Shyness performed by Lara Downes; a new work written and performed by Ingrid Laubrock; Molly Herron’s Canon No. 4 performed by Maya Stone and a new work by Alvin Lucier performed by Mark Stewart.

There is no charge to watch the marathon, but donations are encouraged.

OPERA: Sole e Amore – Lyric Opera of Chicago – Begins February 21st – 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

Fans of Italian opera will want to check out Sole e Amore which will feature arias by Bellini, Donizetti, Mascagni, Puccini, Rossini and Verdi. Members of the Ryan Opera Center Ensemble will be performing.

They include baritones Leroy Davis and Ricardo José Rivera; bass Anthony Reed; bass-baritone David Weigel; mezzo-sopranos Katherine Beck, Katherine DeYoung, and Kathleen Felty; sopranos Maria Novella Malfatti and Denis Vélez; tenors Martin Luther Clark and Lunga Eric Hallam and pianist Chris Reynolds.

Enrique Mazzola, who will become the Lyric’s music director in the 2021-2022 season, curated the program and will also play piano for much of the recital.

The program is free and will be available on the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s YouTube channel.

PLAYS/MUSICALS: TruSpeak…Hear Our Voices – February 21st – 5:00 PM EST/2:00 PM PST

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) has assembled a very impressive line-up for their gala event, TruSpeak…Hear Our Voices on Sunday.

Maggie Baird, Brendan Bradley, Brenda Braxton (Smokey Joe’s Cafe), Jim Brochu (The Big Voice: God or Merman?), Nick Cearley (one half of The Skivvies), Robert Cuccioli (Irish Rep’s A Touch of the Poet), Andrew Lynn Green, Ann Harada (Avenue Q), Dickie Hearts (Grace and Frankie), Cady Huffman (Tony Award-winner The Producers), Crystal Kellogg (School of Rock), Will Mader, Lauren Molina (the other half of The Skivvies), Jill Paice (An American in Paris), Tonya Pinkins (Caroline, or Change), Jana Robbins (Gypsy), Dominique Sharpton, Haley Swindal, Regina Taylor (I’ll Fly Away), Crystal Tigney and Tatiana Wechsler are all participated.

The gala will feature monologues, plays and an online musical.

TRU is a non-profit that helps in the development of new theatre companies and new works.

Tickets are $55 with VIP tickets also available (this is a fundraiser after all) that will include virtual meet-and-greet opportunities.

BROADWAY/CABARET: Santino Fontana with Seth Rudetsky – February 21st: 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

One of my favorite movies of all time is Tootsie. When the musical was announced Santino Fontana was cast in the role of Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels. (If you don’t know the movie, please do yourself a favor and watch it.) I purchased a ticket to see the show only to find out Fontana was out after the birth of his daughter. I held onto my ticket in hopes that I could see Fontana’s Tony Award-winning performance, but sadly the show closed before I had a chance to do so.

Luckily we can all see how talented he is when he joins Seth Rudetsky for this weekend’s concert. He’ll share music and stories from his career that has included being Prince Topher in Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella and Tony in Billy Elliot. Filmgoers will recognize him as the voice of Prince Hans in Frozen.

If you are unable to watch the live performance on Sunday, there is an encore showing of the concert on Monday, February 22nd at 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST.

That is my list of my Best Bets: February 19th – February 21st. But before I go, I have a few reminders:

The Metropolitan Opera’s weeklong look at the work of Franco Zeffirelli concludes with the first-ever streaming of his 1989-1990 season production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni on Friday; the first-ever streaming of his 1996-1997 season production of Bizet’s Carmen on Saturday and concludes with the 2009-2010 revival of his 1987 staging of Puccini’s Turandot on Sunday.

Irish Repertory Theatre’s @Home Winter Festival continues this weekend. There are five different productions available for viewing. You can find out details here.

Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Icons on Inspiration with Julie Andrews, Common, Katy Perry, Yuja Wang and more is still available for free streaming (though donations are encouraged)

There you have it. The complete list of Best Bets: February 19th – February 21st. I hope you enjoy the culture, you enjoy the weekend and for those of you struggling with the aftermath of the winter storms this week, I’m sending you my best.

Main Photo: Tyshawn Sorey in a still from Death (Courtesy LA Opera)

The post Best Bets: February 19th – February 21st appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Opera fans know him as the man who created 11 new productions for the Metropolitan Opera over 35 years. Filmgoers might know Zeffirelli for his films Romeo and Juliet (1968), Endless Love (1981) and his star-studded film version of Hamlet (1990). But those two worlds often overlapped with film adaptations of Otello and La Traviata and other opera-themed works such as Callas Forever.

Three productions this week are being shown for the first time: his 1978 productions of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliaci, his 1990 staging of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and his 1997 staging of Bizet’s Carmen.

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 February 15th, you might still have time to catch the 1988-1989 production of Die Walküre by Richard Wagner that concludes the second week of Black History Month.

Here is the full line-up for Week 49 at the Met:

Monday, February 15 – 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 and September 27th.

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. 

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.

Tuesday, February 16 – Verdi’s Falstaff

Conducted by James Levine; starring Mirella Freni, Barbara Bonney, Marilyn Horne, Bruno Pola and Paul Plishka. 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 and October 23rd.

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, February 17 – Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci FIRST SHOWING

Both operas conducted by James Levine. Cavalleria Rusticana starring Tatiana Troyanos, Jean Kraft, Plácido Domingo and Vern Shinall. Pagliacci starring Teresa Stratas, Plácido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes and Allan Monk. This Franco Zeffirelli production is from the 1977-1978 season.

Perhaps no pairing of one-act operas is more popular than the combination of Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni and Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo. 

Cavalleria Rusticana had its world premiere in Rome in 1890. The opera is based on a short story which later became a play by Giovanni Verga. Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci adapted them both for their libretto.

Mascagni’s opera centers on a love triangle. Turridu, who has returned from military service, goes to see his ex-lover, Lola, before seeing his current lover, Santuzza. Lola is married to Alfio. Santuzza decides to tell Alfio about the infidelity and the two men decide to duel. At the end of the opera, multiple hearts are left broken.

Pagliacci had its world premiere in Milan in 1892. Leoncavallo also wrote the libretto.

The opera tells the story of a married couple, Canio and Nedda, who are performers in a small theatre company on the road. Canio is insanely jealous and that jealousy drives Nedda to seek affection from another man, Silvio. Nedda and Silvio make plans to elope, but their plans are overheard by Tonio, another member of the company. He tells Canio about Nedda’s plans. Looking for revenge, Canio, during a performance of their touring play, makes his personal life mirror the drama in the play.

This was not the first time Domingo had sung the lead tenor roles in both operas on the same night. In fact, with this performance he did so for the 25th time. Previous double-hitters were performed in Vienna, Covent Garden and in San Francisco. These performances also marked the first time James Levine conducted each opera at the Met.

Thursday, February 18 – 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.  This is an encore presentation of the production made available on January 22nd.

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.”

Friday, February 19 – Mozart’s Don Giovanni – FIRST SHOWING

Conducted by James Levine; starring Carol Vaness, Karita Mattila, Dawn Upshaw, Jerry Hadley, Samuel Ramey, Ferrucio Furlanetto and Kurt Moll. This Franco Zeffirelli production is from the 1989-1990 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.

Donal Henahan, in his New York Times review, singled Ramey out for praise for his performance as the title character. “Samuel Ramey, the handsomest and most athletic Don Giovanni on the stage today, dominated the performance physically, as the Don must. But his flexible bass could also articulate cleanly a breathtakingly fast Champagne Aria and sustain a singing line in his Serenade. If his phrasing was sometimes blunt and insensitive, so was the heartless character he portrayed.”

Saturday, February 20 – Bizet’s Carmen – FIRST SHOWING

Conducted by James Levine; starring Angela Gheorghiu, Waltraud Meier, Plácido Domingo, and Sergei Leiferkus. This Franco Zeffirelli production is from the 1996-1997 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.

Bernard Holland, writing in the New York Times, singled our Domingo and Gheorghiu for praise. “Placido Domingo’s Don Jose is exquisite taste and sheer sensuous beauty. Never has a voice so suited a role, or a role a voice. Mr. Domingo’s delicacy in the ‘Flower Song’ is something I shall not soon forget.

“Micaela has not many minutes onstage, but Angela Gheorghiu squanders not a second. Every opportunity for theatrical effect and vocal nuance is fiercely taken advantage of: it is an impressive, sometimes moving exercise.”

Sunday, February 21 – Puccini’s Turandot

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

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

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

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

That concludes the line-up for Week 49 at the Met saluting the work of Franco Zeffirelli. Next week will showcase the work of the late Dmitri Hvorostovsky.

Enjoy Week 49 at the Met and enjoy your week!

Photo: Ramón Vargas and Angela Gheorghiu in Puccini’s La Bohème (Photo by Marty Sohl/Courtesy Met Opera)

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