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)

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This week’s series launches with a work by George Frideric Handel from 1725 and concludes with a work by Richard Wagner from 1868 (in a production that hasn’t been streamed yet).

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

If you read this column early enough on November 2nd, you might still have time to catch the 2011-2012 season production of Satyagraha that concludes last week’s Politics in Opera series. 

Monday, November 2 – Handel’s Rodelinda

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, November 3 – 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.

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.”

Wednesday, November 4 – Mozart’s Idomeneo

Conducted by James Levine; starring Nadine Sierra, Elza van den Heever, Alice Coote, and Matthew Polenzani. This revival of the 1982 Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production from the 2016-2017 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available on May 18th and October 4th.

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!

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

Thursday, November 5 – Rossini’s Semiramide

Conducted by Maurizio Benini; starring Angela Meade, Elizabeth DeShong, Javier Camarena, Ildar Abdrazakov and Ryan Speedo Green. This is a revival of John Copley’s 1990 production from the 2017-2018 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available on June 16th.

Voltaire’s Semiramis was the inspiration this Rossini opera. The libretto is by Gaetano Rossi. Semiramide had its world premiere in 1823 in Venice. This was the composer’s final Italian opera.

Queen Semiramide is a troubled and complicated woman. She and her lover, Assur, killed her husband, King Nino. Their son, Ninius, disappears and is presumed dead as Semiramide ascends to the throne. Years later she becomes enamored with a young warrior named Arsace. Guess who he turns out to be?

David Wright, writing in New York Classical Review, raved about Meade’s performance.

“Soprano Angela Meade anchored the cast with a fearless performance in the title role of the morally compromised and lovestruck queen, issuing a blizzard of sixteenth and thirty-second notes and dizzying leaps with expressive power to back them up.”

Friday, November 6 – 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 previously available on June 18th and 19th.

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.”

Saturday, November 7 – Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette

Conducted by Plácido Domingo; starring Anna Netrebko, Roberto Alagna, Nathan Gunn and Robert Lloyd. This revival of Guy Joosten’s 2005 production is from the 2007-2008 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available on July 23rd.

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

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

In her review for the New York Times, Anne Midgette said of the two leads: 

“You are not going to hear much better singing than this today. True, Anna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna can both be faulted. She is a little wild, flinging herself into roles and about the stage (especially, on Tuesday, at her first entrance); he has a certain emotional bluntness, and a certain monochrome tone. So much for the obligatory criticism. The bottom line is that Ms. Netrebko produced a luscious sound that you wanted to bathe in forever, especially in her first-act duet with Mr. Alagna. The ultimate measure for a singer should be, Is this a sound you want to listen to? The answer here was yes.”

Sunday, November 8 – Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg – March 28th

Conducted by James Levine; starring Annette Dasch, Johan Botha, Paul Appleby and Michael Volle. This revival of Otto Shenk’s 1993 production is from the 2014-2015 season.

Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg had its world premiere in Munich is 1868. As with his other works, Wagner wrote the libretto. It is also a rare comedy from the composer. The opera is one of Wagner’s longest running nearly four-and-a-half hours.

At stake in the opera is the love of a young girl named Eva. She has been betrothed to whomever wins a singing contest. Walther von Stolzing is desperately in love with Eva and wants to compete, but the song he wants to sing doesn’t conform to the rules set out by the competition. With the help of a cobbler named Hans Sachs, he hopes to overcome the opposition to him, win the contest and ultimately marry Eva.

In his review for the New York Times, Anthony Tommasini raved about Johan Botha in the role of Walther. “The powerful tenor Johan Botha has excelled in the demanding role of Walther, the restless knight who has come to Nuremberg, where he instantly falls for Eva, the lovely daughter of Pogner, the wealthy goldsmith. He did so again on this night. Mr. Botha has a very hefty physique. He does not cut the figure of the dashing young knight of Wagner’s imagination. Yet he sang with so much romantic allure and freshness, especially during the glorious ‘Morning Dream Song’ (as Sachs names it), that Mr. Botha seemed the essence of a young man in love.”

That’s the full line-up for Week 34 at the Met – our first half of the Two-Week Tour of Opera History. Next week’s operas begin with a work by Tchaikovsky from 1892 and concludes with an opera from 2016 composed by Adés.

Enjoy the operas and enjoy your week.

Photo: Stephanie Blythe in Orfeo ed Eridice (Photo by Ken Howard/Courtesy Metropolitan Opera)

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The highlight for me this week is Friday’s showing of Thomas Adés’s The Exterminating Angel, based on the 1962 film by Luis Buñuel.

Each production becomes available at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PDT and remains available at the Met Opera website for 23 hours. This means you still have time on Monday, June 1st to catch Karita Matilla in Richard Strauss’ Salome up to 6:30 PM EDT/3:30 PM PDT.

Here is the line-up for Week 12 at the Met:

Monday, June 1 – Bellini’s I Puritani

Conducted by Patrick Summers and starring Anna Netrebko, Eric Cutler, Franco Vassallo and John Relyea. This is a revival of the 1976 Sandro Sequi production from the 2006-2007 season.

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

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

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

Tuesday, June 2 – Berg’s Lulu

Conducted by Lothar Koenigs and starring Marlis Petersen, Susan Graham, Daniel Brenna, Paul Groves, Johan Reuter and Franz Grundheber. This William Kentridge production is from the 2015-2016 season.

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

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

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

Wednesday, June 3 – Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice

Conducted by James Levine and starring Danielle de Niese, Heidi Grant Murphy and Stephanie Blythe. This Mark Morris production is from the 2008-2009 season.

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 (Blythe) who suddenly loses the love of his life, Euridice (de Niese). He travels to the underworld to find her. He can bring her back, but only if he truly trusts in her love.

Mezzo-soprano Blythe is a highly-acclaimed singer whose work ranges from Wagner’s Ring Cycle to Ricky Ian Gordon’s 2014 opera 27 about Gertrude Stein. The reviews she received for this production at the Met Opera were overwhelmingly positive.

Thursday, June 4 – Puccini’s Tosca

Conducted by James Conlon and 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 (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.

When Pavarotti took on this role it was one of his first forays into more demanding roles that were tougher on his vocal chords. The tenor made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera six-and-a-half years prior to this Tosca in a production of Donizett’s La fille du régiment.

Friday, June 5 – Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel

Conducted by Thomas Adès and 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 saw the composer’s The Tempest a couple weeks ago, 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.”

Saturday, June 6 – Verdi’s Otello

Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and starring Sonya Yoncheva, Aleksandrs Antonenko and Željko Lučić. This Bartlett Sher production is from the 2015-2016 season.

Verdi’s opera based on Shakespeare’s play was his penultimate opera. (Falstaff was the last opera he composed.) It premiered in Milan in 1887 and features a libretto by Arrigo Boito.

Otello tells the story of a Moor (Antonenko) in the Venetian Army who is convinced by his ensign, Iago (Lučić), that Otello’s wife, Desdemona (Yoncheva), has been unfaithful.

This was Sher’s sixth production for the Metropolitan Opera. The production made history by being the first Metropolitan Opera production where the tenor singing the title role was not in blackface (that had been standard practice around the world.)

Critics were mixed in their reviews of the production, but Yoncheva received universal praise for her performance.

Sunday, June 7 – Massenet’s Thaïs

Conducted by Jesús López-Cobos and starring Renée Fleming, Michael Schade and Thomas Hampson. This John Cox production is from the 2007-2008 season.

Jules Massenet’s Thaïs had its world premiere in Paris in 1894. The libretto is by Louis Gallet based on the novel of the same name by Anatole France.

In this opera the Roman Empire is controlling Egypt. Athanaël (Hampson), a monk, has a lustful obsession with Thaïs (Fleming), which conflicts with his attempts to convert her to Christianity.

For sopranos who want to sing the title character, this is a great role. Fleming earned rave reviews for her performance this production, which originated at Lyric Opera Chicago in 2002. She and Hampson performed together in Thaïs in Chicago and have recorded the opera.

In his New York Times review of this production, Anthony Tomassini wrote, “But let’s face it. Thaïs is a diva spectacle, and Ms. Fleming plays it to the hilt. In Scene 2, during a party at Nicias’ well-appointed house, complete with solid-gold decorative palm trees, Athanaël appears, issuing apocalyptic threats to Thais, which Mr. Hampson sings chillingly. The guests ridicule the monk, forcing him to his knees and bedecking him with garlands in tribute to Venus. In the midst of a vocal outpouring, Ms. Fleming climbs a winding staircase just so she can deliver a triumphant high C from the top landing, then scurries back down to face the humiliated monk as the curtain falls.”

So ends Week 12 at the Met.

Here’s a sneak peak for Week 13: Marilyn Horne singing Rossini from 1986.

Photo: David Adam Moore, Christian Van Horn, Rod Gilfry, Christine Rice, Audrey Luna and Sir John Tomlinson in The Exterminating Angel. (Photo by Ken Howard/Courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera)

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