A lot has been written about our lives today in the post-George Floyd era. For tenor Lawrence Brownlee, who made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Count Almaviva in Rossini’s Il Barbiere de Siviglia in 2007, not enough attention has been given to the triumphs of the African-American population in the United States.

So he set about creating a recording and concert called Rising that celebrates those triumphs through the work of poets from the Harlem Renaissance. Amongst the poets whose works have been set to music are Arna Wendell Bontemps, Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr., Countee Cullen, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Georgia Douglas Johnson, James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes and Claude McKay.

Many of the works were newly commissioned by Brownlee for Rising. These include compositions from Jasmine Barnes, Shawn E. Okpebholo, Damien Sneed, Brandon Spencer and Joel Thompson. There are also compositions previously written by Margaret Bonds, Jeremiah Evans and Robert Owen.

On Thursday, March 23rd, he will perform Rising at Carnegie Hall in New York with pianist Kevin J. Miller who also appears on the album. That will be followed by appearances at the Kennedy Center on March 26th, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia on March 29th, Ithaca College on April 1st and Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana on April 4th. The album will be released in June.

Earlier this month I spoke with Brownlee about Rising, the Harlem Renaissance and the poets chosen for the project. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

Writer, poet and activist Zora Neale Hurston, who established the Harlem Renaissance movement, said, “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” Having commissioned Cycles of My Being, a song cycle about life as an African-American living in America by Tyshawn Sorey and Terrance Hayes in 2018 and now multiple composers for Rising, how would Hurston’s perspective apply to the time between these two projects and their relationship to one another? 

I believe as an artist that I’ve matured. I feel like I have a little bit more understanding what I want to say, what I feel like my audience is and my ability to get people interested using the writings of others. James Earl Jones talked about having a terrible stuttering problem and he had a theater teacher who told him that he could use the work of others to really be meaningful in his own work.

So I take the same thing and the work of Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Jessie Redmond Fauset, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay and so many other people of the Harlem Renaissance that inspired us. A lot of people know about Langston Hughes and W.E.B. Du Bois, but they don’t know about James Weldon Johnson and some of the other people. What Zora Neale Hurston said, I think, is true. Time does focus you a bit. It gives you more insight. It gives you more perspective.

In the liner notes you say you wanted to create something that speaks “not just to our struggles but to our triumphs.” Has the attention, which is long overdue to the struggles, particularly post-George Floyd, meant that the triumphs have taken a backseat in both the national consciousness and in the conversation we’re having?

I think so. A lot of people focus on our struggles and they focus on the pain. These things are ubiquitous. They’re everywhere. They’re constant. People know about the suffering.

I specifically talked to these composers and said I want you all to choose your own text. We presented them with the texts. But I told them that I want them to focus, if they want to, on the joys, the passions, the triumphs. We love love. We love moving ahead in society. We love the positivity.

That’s what I wanted to show. I want to talk about the triumph, the joy, the relationships. That was really important in Rising.

Of the 29 selections that are on Rising, some of the compositions clearly predate the project. What was the process of selecting the other poems to be set to music and the composers who would write that music?

The thing I think Rising shows is that the wealth of the different voices and the different approaches in composition and their different influences. You could see some people were greatly influenced by jazz, some by gospel, some by a wide array of things, some by classical, some by Stravinsky. There’s a wealth of different styles and different voices that I hope people appreciate in this project.

There was one decision in the liner notes that I thought was particularly intriguing. You do not put any information as to who wrote which poems in the liner notes. After listening to it the first time, some of them I knew, but I spent the next 40 minutes looking them up to see who had written these poems. I assume you are trying to inspire people to be participants in this project?

Absolutely. I wanted people to go into search because if you put in Google “writers of the Harlem Renaissance,” there are not three. There are tons of them. People didn’t know who Arna Bontemps was. People didn’t know who some of these writers who have made such amazing contributions to to the canon of writing. I want people to go in that rabbit hole and to search. I’m thankful that I can be a part of the exploration. I hope people will take a really deep dive.

Amongst all the writers whose poetry is included in this album, it is no surprise that Langston Hughes is the predominant voice. What makes his poetry so appealing for a composer since countless composers have previously set his words to music? 

I think it’s accessible. I think there are some people who have a real gift. They are prolific in the writing. They can write on a number of different subjects. Langston Hughes is someone who’s been able to show that and demonstrated that – even with the six composers that we worked with on the album. Many of them focused on Langston Hughes. Not because it was easy, but because it inspired them.

Many of these composers that wrote for Rising, but also the ones before predating the project – and there are so many others that wrote with the words of Langston Hughes – did so because it was meaningful to them. They felt that they could say something with their own artistic voice using his work.

What are you able to say with your own artistic voice when you get to sing lines like “A lady named Day fainted away in the dark,” from Night Song which I think is spectacular. Or “In silence every tone I seek is heard” from Hughes’s Silence? 

[Composer] Robert Owens. I fell in love with his writing. Some of his songs are about 30 seconds, but they’re impactful. It gives me an opportunity to explore, to be expressive. Performing this recital that is all in English – as someone who does a lot of recitals that are different languages – and even in the different languages, I like to explore expressivity and to really be meaningful. But the weight of the word, how it falls on a language that is your own, it’s different.

“The lady named Day fainted away in the dark.” The setup for that has to be right so people feel the gravity of the situation. Using every tool that you can from a descriptive standpoint, but also a musical and artistic standpoint. I try to focus on the text and to couple it with what I’m given from the poet and the composer and my voice all come together, hopefully to create a special moment.

Langston Hughes knew there was a musicality to his his writing, didn’t he? 

Well, I think they all did. You have these people who being in the hot spotlight of New York. Could you imagine? The great jazzers, they were all there. Some of the great songstresses they were all there. New York was a hotbed. The great Sidney Poitier moved from Nassau, Bahamas, to be in New York City. He was a dishwasher before he became the great actor that he was. It was because he saw a movie with a cowboy on it and he wanted to be an actor. He came where? To New York.

The great Charlie Parker was in New York. The great Miles Davis was in New York. All these wonderful writers of the Harlem Renaissance. I’m sure that there was some cross-pollination and inspiration amongst themselves that maybe was even inspired by music they couldn’t get out of their head that Miles Davis played or the great Dizzy Gillespie played. It inspired their own creativity.

Do you think it’s possible to have another era like that?

Oh, I hope. I think it’s important for people of this time, like myself and others, to record. I think it’s something that we have to say. We want to contribute to the whole history of life and how it progresses even beyond 2000s into the 3000s. We can’t even think of that because I won’t be here in however many years from now. But I think people of this time have something to say about all the outside factors that affect who we are as people and artists. I think that will be important for people in the future. So much of what I’ve learned from these writers, from these musicians of the past, makes me the artist that I am today.

Langston Hughes was asked about the purpose of art and his response was “Perhaps the mission of an artist is to interpret beauty to people, the beauty within themselves.” How does Rising allow you to interpret the beauty within yourself and by extension, share that with your audience?

I like to think of myself as a vessel. But in being a vessel, I think people look at you and will make assertations about you. People will maybe size you up and try to imagine what it is that drives you. Being an expressive artist is sometimes about challenging my own self. What more can I do? What are the special moments that I can create? For me there is never a quantifiable perfect recital. I don’t think you can quantify what perfection is. But I think it is important as an artist to try and create special moments. The way that I can do that is with thought and intelligence.

I tell the students all time to make sure that you don’t ruin the payoff. Some of that is leading them to the water so they drink. But the time that they drink is by design. We can’t give them the payoff. That will be far more effective if it’s in the right place. So how do I do that? I do that with musicality, with intention, making sure the high point of whatever specific song is at a certain place.

That takes a lot of thinking. It’s not me just getting on stage singing the right notes and rhythms in the right times. It’s so much more than that. Someone told me the last thing you do is sing and all of the work comes beforehand. Getting that in line and having thought that out and gone through that, having performed it already, I feel now that I have a really good grip on what I want to say and being a more expressive artist.

To watch the full interview with Lawrence Brownlee, please go here.

Main Photo: Lawrence Brownlee (Photo by Zakiyah Caldwell Burroughs/Courtesy Warner Classics)

The post The Rising of Lawrence Brownlee appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

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)

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Amongst the stars performing in this week’s productions are Kathleen Battle, Angel Blue, Lawrence Brownlee, Maria Ewing, Denyce Graves, Jessye Norman, Eric Owens, Florence Quivar, Leontyne Price 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 February 1st, you might still have time to catch the 2007-2008 production of Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi that concludes The Antiheroes week.

Here’s the full line-up for Week 47 at the Met:

Monday, February 1 – The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess

Conducted by David Robertson; starring Angel Blue, Golda Schultz, Latonia Moore, Denyce Graves, Frederick Ballentine, Eric Owens, Alfred Walker and Donovan Singletary. This James Robinson production is from the 2019-2020 season. This is an encore presentation of the production previously made available on September 5th and 6th and December 11th.

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.”

Tuesday, February 2 – 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 and November 6th.

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.”

Wednesday, February 3 – Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites

Conducted by Manuel Rosenthal; starring Maria Ewing, Jessye Norman, Betsy Norden, Régine Crespin and Florence Quivar. This John Dexter production is from the 1986-1987 season. 

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

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

Will Crutchfield, in his New York Times review, said of this production, “The revival is cast from strength: the Carmelite sisters are being played by Maria Ewing, Jessye Norman, Florence Quivar, Regine Crespin and Betsy Norden. It has always been easy to get good singers interested in this work…This is not because the opera is old-fashioned. It is a severe drama of the spirit; its questions are not of romantic passion or political freedom but of the relationship of these nuns to their vows, to God, to one another and to their consciences as they face a terrible fate in Revolutionary France. There are no star turns, no big vocal payoffs, yet the writing is essentially vocal in the sense of treating the human voice with love and respect. It does not ask singers to degrade their art, even though it does ask them to cede a part of it: there is a lesson here for willing composers.”

Thursday, February 4 – Rossini’s La Cenerentola

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

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

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

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

Friday, February 5 – Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro

Conducted by James Levine; starring Carol Vaness, Kathleen Battle, Frederica von Stade, Thomas Allen and Ruggero Raimondi. This Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production is from the 1985-1986 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.

In his New York Times review, Donal Henahan seemed particularly impressed with Battle. “The greatest strength of this performance lay in its pair of servant lovers, Kathleen Battle as Susanna and Ruggero Raimondi as Figaro, with Frederica von Stade’s Cherubino and Carol Vaness’s Countess adding vocal quality to a cast that had its weak spots. Miss Battle’s spring-water soprano and pert acting were a delight all evening, and her last-act aria, ‘Deh vieni, non tardar,’ caught Susanna’s whole character in one affecting moment.”

Saturday, February 6 – Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos

Conducted by James Levine; starring Jessye Norman, Kathleen Battle and Tatiana Troyanos. This revival of Bodo Igesz’s 1962 production is from the 1987-1988 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available on May 13th and December 5th.

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

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

Donal Henahan had some fun with his review of this production in the New York Times. “Jessye Norman, as the monumentally offended Prima Donna, played Ariadne with a dignified horror that put one in mind of Margaret Dumont trying to ignore a particularly egregious Groucho caper.

“Miss Norman, pacing herself a bit too obviously, as she often does, muted her glorious soprano early in the evening. However, she allowed it to expand to Wagnerian proportions in the final duet a purple-passioned caricature of the High Romantic style. Miss Battle gave a strangely reticent performance, singing half voice much of the time, most frustratingly in Zerbinetta’s coloratura showpiece, ‘Grossmachtige Prinzessin.’ In this aria, one of the most strenuous 10 minutes in all of opera for a light soprano, Miss Battle sang with supple accuracy and grace but rarely with the cutting brilliance and clarity of a true Zerbinetta. One had to conclude that she was either out of sorts or purposely saving voice.”

Sunday, February 7 – Puccini’s Tosca

Conducted by James Conlon; starring Shirley Verrett, Luciano Pavarotti and Cornell MacNeil. This Tito Gobbi production is from the 1978-1979 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously made available on June 4th and December 29th.

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?”

That concludes Week 47 at the Met and the first week of their Black History Month series. Next week the Metropolitan Opera continues their celebration of Black History Month with a second week in this series.

Enjoy your week and enjoy the operas!

Photo: Shirley Verrett and Luciano Pavarotti in Tosca (Photo courtesy Met Opera Archives)

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Fleming stars in works by Dvořák, Handel, Massenet, Mozart, Rossini and Richard Strauss. The productions date from 1998-2014. It was thought that she had retired from staged operas in 2017. However it was announced last year that Fleming will star in Kevin Puts’ adaptation of Michael Cunningham’s The Hours in 2022.

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. 

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.

If you read this column early enough on January 4th, you might still have time to catch the 2010-2011 production of Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi that concludes Epic Rivalries week.

Here’s the full line-up for Week 44 at the Met:

Monday, January 11 – Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro

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. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously made available on May 4th.

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, January 12 – 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. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously made available on June 7th.

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, a monk, has a lustful obsession with Thaïs, 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.”

Wednesday, January 13 – R. 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 made available on July 25th.

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.

Thursday, January 14 – Rossini’s Armida

Conducted by Riccardo Frizza; starring Renée Fleming, Lawrence Brownlee, John Osborn, Barry Banks and Kobie van Rensburg. This Mary Zimmerman production is from the 2009-2010 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously made available on June 15th.

This infrequently performed opera by Rossini had its world premiere in 1817 in Naples, Italy. The librettist is Giovanni Schmidt who used Toarquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata as the inspiration.

Set during the Crusades, Armida is in love with a soldier named Rinaldo. He’s a knight and is itching to go to war. Rinaldo is unaware that Armida’s passion for him dates back to their first meeting years ago. As war looms, she makes Rinaldo very aware of the role she played in saving his life shortly after they met.

This Met Opera production marked the first time Armida was performed at the Met.

In an interview with Studs Terkel, Fleming spoke about her desire to sing this role and when it became a reality in 1993.

“This was one of my Cinderella moments. …There was a cancellation and Luigi Ferrari of the Pesaro Festival was frantically looking for someone to replace–because Armida is a big, virtuosic part that Maria Callas made famous. And nobody really wants to follow in her footsteps unless you are really confident. And I decided to audition for it. He had heard about me from, I think, Marilyn Horne of – amongst other people – and went and auditioned for him and got the job and learned the role in two weeks. And performed it then a month later.”

Friday, January 15 – R. Strauss’s Capriccio

Conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, starring Renée Fleming, Sarah Connolly, Joseph Kaiser, Russell Braun, Morten Frank Larsen and Peter Rose. This revival of the 1998 John Cox production is from the 2010-2011 season. This is an encore presentation of the production previously made available on May 7th.

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

When Fleming decided to do the role of the Countess in this opera by Strauss in 2011, it was the first time she had performed the full opera at the Met. Anthony Tomassini of the New York Times was impressed. “The role suits her ideally at this stage of her career, and she sang splendidly. The performance over all, sensitively conducted by Andrew Davis and featuring a winning cast, made an excellent case for this Strauss curiosity, his final opera, which had its premiere in Munich in 1942 in the midst of World War II.”

Saturday, January 16 – 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 and November 2nd.

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.”

Sunday, January 17 – 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 and November 19th.

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?

That’s the full line-up for Week 44 at the Met.

Have a great week and enjoy the operas!

Photo: Renée Fleming in Thaïs (Photo by Ken Howard/Courtesy Met Opera)

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Okay, maybe there’s a little tragedy thrown in since La Bohème is being shown, but the rest is truly light-hearted entertainment. That’s right, there’s also the threat of cannibalism. But that’s in a fairy tale so does it really count?

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

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.

If you read this column early enough on December 21st, you might still have time to catch the 2011-2012 production of Götterdämerung by Richard Wagner that concludes last week’s Epic Proportions week. (Definitely not family fare!)

Here is the line-up for Week 41 at the Met:

Monday, December 21 – Mozart’s The Magic Flute

Conducted by James Levine; starring Ying Huang, Erika Miklósa, Matthew Polenzani, Nathan Gunn and René Pape. This revival of Julie Taymor’s 2004 production is from the 2006-2007 season. This is an encore presentation of the production previously made available on August 3rd.

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?

This production launched the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD series. Had they not begun making live worldwide theatrical broadcast of their opera productions available, we very likely wouldn’t be enjoying all the streaming operas they have made available for free.

This version of The Magic Flute differs from the other Taymor production that was streamed (on June 28th and October 1st) in that it was shortened by over an hour and the German was replaced with an English language libretto.

Tuesday, December 22 – 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 and September 10th.

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.”

Wednesday, December 23 – 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 made available on July 20th.

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.”

Thursday, December 24 – 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 made available on July 19th.

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.”

Friday, December 25 – Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel

Conducted by Vladimir Jurowski; starring Christine Schäfer, Alice Coote, Rosalind Plowright, Philip Langridge and Alan Held. This Richard Jones production is from the 2007-2008 season. This is an encore presentation of the production previously made available on June 10th.

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.

This production was created for the Welsh National Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The Metropolitan Opera offered this production as part of its family fare programming. Nothing like cannibalism to keep the kiddies happy!

Saturday, December 26 – Lehár’s The Merry Widow

Conducted by Sir Andrew Davis; starring Renée Fleming, Kelli O’Hara, Nathan Gunn, Alek Shrader and Thomas Allen. This Susan Stroman production is from the 2014-2015 season. This is an encore presentation of the production previously made available on April 23 and October 20th. 

Franz Lehár’s opera had its world premiere in 1905 in Vienna. The libretto is based on Henri Meilhac’s 1861 comedy, L’attaché d’ambassade (The Embassy Attaché). Viktor Léon and Leo Stein wrote the libretto. 

When Hanna Glawari, a young woman, becomes a widow, the Ambassador wants her to re-marry someone who lives in their province of Pontevedro so her wealth can remain in the country. The last thing he wants is for her to fall for a Frenchman. Meanwhile his own wife, Valencienne, is having an affair with Camille, Count de Rosillon – a Frenchman. 

Hanna claims to soon be marrying Camille, hoping to preserve Valencienne’s reputation. Circling all of this is Count Danilo, Hanna’s ex who refuses to marry her for her money. When she announces her engagement to Camille, Danilo is forced to reconcile his feelings.

This is another production directed by a Broadway veteran with five-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman (The Producers), making her Metropolitan Opera debut. Also appearing at the Met for the first time is Tony Award winner Kelli O’Hara (The King and I). 

Of O’Hara, Anthony Tommasini wrote in his New York Times review, “Ms. O’Hara’s ardent fans (put me in the front ranks of that group) will be delighted with the chance to hear her sing without the amplification requisite on Broadway. She is a vocalist with operatic training. And her tender voice carries nicely in the house — certainly as well as that of the gifted young tenor Alek Shrader, who sounded a little pinched as Camille in his scenes with her.”

Sunday, December 27 – Verdi’s Falstaff

Conducted by James Levine; starring Lisette Oropesa, Angela Meade, Stephanie Blythe, Jennifer Johnson Cano, Paolo Fanale, Ambrogio Maestri and Franco Vassallo. This Robert Carsen production is from the 2013-2014 season. This is an encore presentation of the production previously made available on April 8th and August 30th

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.

In Carsen’s production the story has been updated to England in the 1950s. His approach to Verdi’s opera was much lighter than is commonly done and, as a result, yielded overwhelmingly great reviews. 

On opening night Maestri performed the role of Falstaff for his 200th time. Anthony Tommasini, in his review for the New York Times, raved about Maestri:

“A splendid cast is led by the powerhouse Italian baritone Ambrogio Maestri, who simply owns the role of Falstaff…At 6 foot 5 with his Falstaffian physique, Mr. Maestri certainly looks the part. A natural onstage, and surprisingly light on his feet, he makes Falstaff a charming rapscallion and sings with consummate Italianate style.”

That’s it for Week 41 at the Met. Next week’s line-up will all feature tenor Luciano Pavarotti.

Happy Holidays! Stay safe and healthy and enjoy the operas!

Photo: Joyce DiDonato in Cendrillon (Photo by Ken Howard/Courtesy Met Opera)

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The Living Room Recitals take place on Thursdays. With today’s recital by tenor Ashley Faatoalia, LA Opera will have presented over 40 recitals from the artist’s living rooms. Most of these recitals are still available for viewing. His recital takes place at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT.

Faatoalia is from Los Angeles and has performed locally in Invisible Cities from Yuval Sharon and The Industry; Candide with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and The Festival Play of Daniel with LA Opera.

His repertoire for this recital will include spirituals, art songs and arias. That’s one of the things that’s great about this series, the artists get to pick and choose what they will perform. And with whom they perform. Louise Thomas serves as Faatoalia’s accompanist.

Last week, mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven sang music by African American composers Florence Price, Leslie Adams and Charles Brown in addition to some classic arias.

Soprano Ana María Martínez sang music by Dvorak and Spanish songs in her recital. She performed in Hector Berlioz’s Carmen, Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlo and Manuel Penella Moreno’s El Gato Montes with LA Opera. She is slated to be part of LA Opera’s production of Don Giovanni scheduled for early next year. The status of that production is unknown as of press time.

Tenor Russell Thomas, who appeared in Mozart’s The Clemency of Titus and sang the title role of Otello in concert at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Phil, performed works by Ralph Vaughan-Williams, Pietro Mascagni, Samuel Barber and Verdi.

Soprano Guanqun Yu, who has also appeared in The Clemency of Titus and was scheduled to appear in The Marriage of Figaro this year, performed a recital that included works by Claude Debussy, Franz Liszt and Frédéric Chopin. She is scheduled to be part of LA Opera’s production of Verdi’s Il Trovatore next fall.

Tenor Lawrence Brownlee performed works by Marc Blitzstein, Gabriel Fauré and Tyshawn Sorey. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2007 in Gioachino Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia. He and bass-baritone Eric Owens performed a very memorable concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2019.

Bass Morris Robinson performed works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert and Verdi. He has appeared with LA Opera in productions of Rigoletto, Satyagraha by Philip Glass and is scheduled to appear in Mozart’s Don Giovanni in the abbreviated 2020-2021 season. We’ll have to see if any productions go forward this season. He is also to be in Il Trovatore and Wagner’s Tannhäuser at LA Opera next fall.

Tenor Arturo Chacón-Cruz has appeared in Verdi’s Rigoletto and Macbeth, El Gato Montes and Giacomo Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi with LA Opera. He has performed all over the world after winning the 2005 Operalia Competition.

Soprano Angel Blue, who so memorably sang the role of Bess in George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess at the Metropolitan Opera, started her recital with a moment of silence in acknowledgement of the turmoil the country was facing at the time of her performance. She was announced as part of the cast of this season’s Il Trovatore by Verdi. When the schedule was revised, she was no longer attached to the production.

Each and every recital (and there are far more than are listed here) allows you not just to hear and see great music, but you also get to act out some voyeuristic tendencies and see how all the performers live.

These are not slickly-produced recitals. In fact, the rawness of them makes them even more interesting and impressive. Plus there is no charge to watch them.

One additional advantage is the ability to watch the recital live as it happens or to be able to go back and watch it later. It is worth noting that some of the recitals are no longer available due to rights issues. At press time, I counted only four of the recitals shown on the LA Opera at Home pages as being unavailable.

There is other programming available as part of Los Angeles Opera At Home. I encourage you to check it out. They are also rolling out a new program called Digital Shorts that will pair performances of works by such composers as Matthew Aucoin, David Lang, Missy Mizzoli, Ellen Reid, Sorey and Du Yun with animators, filmmakers and choreographers. As we get more details on that program, we’ll be sure to share them with you.

Each week there is new programming added. If you’re missing being at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles or any other opera house around the world, I think it is worth taking some time to explore LA Opera at Home and have some Living Room Recitals in your own home.

Photo of Ashley Faatoalia singing at a MUSE/IQUE concert courtesy of his website.

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

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

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

If you read this preview early enough on Monday, September 14th, you might still have time to catch the 2013-2014 season production of Jules Massenet’s Werther starring Jonas Kaufmann.

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

Monday, September 14 – Donizetti’s Don Pasquale

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, September 15 – Rossini’s Le Comte Ory

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, September 17 – Rossini’s La Cenerentola

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

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

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

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

Friday, September 18 – Bellini’s I Puritani

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

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

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

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

Saturday, September 19 – Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore

Conducted by Domingo Hindoyan; starring Pretty Yende, Matthew Polenzani, Davide Luciano and Ildebrando D’Arcangelo. This revival of the 2012-2013 Bartlett Sher production is from the 2017-2018 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on May 30th.

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

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

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

Sunday, September 20 – Bellini’s Norma

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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What can you watch this weekend? Musicals old and new; an innovative approach to live performance of a play; three classical music concerts; two operas and one opera recital; a dance film festival where every film was shot with mobile devices plus a revival of a classic work of dance from the 1970s.

If that isn’t enough, we’ll remind you of two jazz concerts, three more operas and a marathon audio stream of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

To access any of the on-line events, click on the title of the individual event you want to see.

So what will you watch? Here are this weekend’s Best Bets at Home: July 24th – July 26th:

She Loves Me – PBS Great Performances – July 24th (check local listings)

Roundabout Theatre Company’s 2016 revival of She Loves Me was one of the most enjoyable musical productions of that season. This weekend PBS is airing a film of that production which starred Laura Benanti, Gavin Creel, Byron Jennings, Jane Krakowski and Zachary Levi.

The musical was written by composer Jerry Bock with lyricist Sheldon Harnick (Fiddler on the Roof) and book writer Joe Masteroff (Cabaret). It is based on the book Parfumerie by Miklós László and tells the story of two people who have a truly antagonistic relationship at work, but don’t know they are the anonymous pen pals who are falling in love through the letters they write each other. Sound familiar? Perhaps you’ve seen The Shop Around the Corner or You’ve Got Mail.

This production (the second revival of the show) was directed by Scott Ellis with choreography by Warren Carlyle. I cannot recommend it enough. This was truly a wonderful production. See it!

The Weir – Irish Repertory Theatre – July 24th – July 25th

New York’s Irish Rep has had great success with Conor McPherson’s The Weir. Their 2013 production was nominated for Best Outstanding Revival at the Lucille Lortel Awards. The run of the show was so successful that they revived it again two years later. Now comes a version specifically designed for our pandemic age.

The play is set in a pub in Ireland. The bartender is sharing ghost stories with two regulars. They also discuss an imminent new arrival, a woman named Valerie who is renting a nearby house with the help of another former local, Finbar. Over the course of the play, with the men vying for her attention, the stories get more intense and some, deeply personal.

Dan Butler, Sean Gormley, John Keating, Tim Ruddy, and Amanda Quaid star in this new version directed by Ciarán O’Reilly – completed with all social distancing required to keep everyone safe. Critics have raved about how innovative this particular production is.

You must make a reservation to see one of the performances at least two hours in advance in order to get a link to watch The Weir. Performances are Friday, July 24th at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT and Saturday, July 25th at 3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT. Tickets have a suggested donation price of $25.

Broadbend, Arkansas – Transport Group Theatre – Now – August 16th

Broadbend, Arkansas is a timely musical from 2019 that tells the story of a woman whose father was killed during a routine traffic stop by a police officer when she was a child. Three decades later she is now coming to grips with another attack by a police officer, this time on her teenage son.

Justin Cunningham and Danyel Fulton star in this musical which features a libretto by Ellen Fitzhugh and Harrison David Rivers. The music was written by Ted Shen, who also wrote additional lyrics. This is a film from the 2019 production.

The show was described as “jazz-infused” and paying “homage to Stephen Sondheim” by Laura Collins-Hughes in her New York Times review.

There is no fee to stream the musical. However, Transport Theatre Group is encouraging donations to the Black Theatre Network.

Orchestre National de France at Carnegie Hall – Medici.tv – July 24th – July 26th

This week’s Carnegie Hall Fridays concert on Medici.tv comes from a January 2016 performance by the Orchestra National de France. Under the direction of conductor Daniele Gatti, this concert features works by composers from the 19th and 20th century. Joining the orchestra for this performance was violinist Julian Rachlin.

The program opens with the Prelude to Act III of Richard Wagner’s The Mastersingers of Nuremberg. This was performed in tribute to conductor Kurt Masur who had passed away one month prior to this concert. One aspect of Masur’s legacy was serving as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic from 1991-2002. He was named Music Director Emeritus after stepping down in 2002.

The rest of this concert features Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in A Minor featuring Rachlin. He continues with an encore of Eugène Ysaÿe’s Sonata for Solo Violin in D Minor.

After Rachlin’s encore the orchestra performs Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E Minor and performs the Prélude to Gabriel Fauré’s Pelléas et Mélisande, Suite for Orchestra.

If you regularly read this column you know that Medici.tv and Carnegie Hall make these concerts available for free viewing over the weekend. However, you do need to sign up with an e-mail to access the film.

Faust – Royal Opera House – Now – July 29th

Charles Gounod’s Faust had its world premiere in Paris in 1859. The libretto was written by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré who used both Carré’s play Faust et Marguerite and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust, Part One as inspiration.

This oft-told story is about a man who sacrifices his soul to the devil, Méphistophélès, in order to maintain his youth and the love of Marguerite.

But you know what happens when you make a deal with the devil…it’s not going to end well.

This 2019 revival of David McVicar’s 2004 production stars Michael Fabiano as Faust, Erwin Schrott as Méphistophélès and Irina Lungu as Marguerite. Dan Ettinger conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and the Royal Opera Chorus.

This opera has five acts and runs nearly three-and-a-half hours, but reviews for this revival were very positive. 

50 Years of Mostly Mozart – Lincoln Center at Home – July 24th

In 1966 Lincoln Center launched their Mostly Mozart Festival. The original mandate was to exclusively celebrate the work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Over the years they have expanded that mandate to include composers who influenced Mozart, who were his contemporaries and later composers who were influenced by him.

This concert from 2016 features Mozart’s first and last symphonies.

Symphony No. 1 in E-Flat Major was written when Mozart was just eight years old. His final symphony is nicknamed Jupiter Symphony and is formally known as the Symphony No. 41 in C Major.

Music Director Louis Langré leads the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in this performance. Pianist Richard Goode joins the orchestra for a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concert No. 12 in A Major.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Summerfest Concert #2 – Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra – July 25th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

This second of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s newly filmed concerts features Joshua Ranz, the orchestra’s principal clarinetist. Each concert in their Summerfest series was filmed practicing social distancing behavior on the stage of Zipper Hall at the Colburn School.

The centerpiece of this second concert will be Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet.

Written in 1789, this is the composer’s only finished clarinet quintet. The work calls for two violins, a viola and cello in addition to the clarinet.

Joining Ranz in this performance are Tereza Stanislav and Cheryl Norman-Brick on violin; Robert Brophy on viola and Andrew Shulman on cello.

The concert will open with a performance of Florence Price’s Adoration. Ranz arranged her composition for Clarinet and String Quartet. You can read about Price in our preview of LACO’s first concert in this series here.

If you are unable to watch the performance as it debuts, it will be archived at LACO’s website.

The Makropulos Case – SF Opera – July 25th – July 26th

Czech composer Leoš Janáček wrote this opera between 1923-1925. It was his penultimate opera. He also wrote the libretto which was based on Karel Čapek’s play Věc Makropulos. The opera had its world premiere in Brno in late 1926.

The story is rather convoluted in The Makropulos Case.

It involves a nearly century-long lawsuit, a missing will, an opera singer admired by many men, a bastard son, allegations of forgery, suicide and a life-extending potion.

San Francisco Opera gave the American premiere of this opera in 1966. This production, directed by Olivier Tambosi, is from 2010 with Jiří Bělohlávek conducting. The cast includes Thomas Glenn, Miro Dvorsky, Susannah Biller and Karita Matilla.

Reviews were overwhelmingly positive for this production and all singled out Matilla who made her role debut in this production.

Mobile Dance Film Festival – 92Y Harkness Dance Center – July 25th – August 31

This is the third year of the 92Y Harkness Dance Center’s Mobile Dance Film Festival. All of the films showcased in the festival were shot on mobile devices.

Films from Europe (Germany, Hungary, Italy); South America (Brazil, Uruguay); Asia (Indonesia, Japan) plus Russia, Australia and Papau New Guinea are included with American entries.

Some of the films in the festival are part of a Quarantine Screen section which features films made during the Covid-19 pandemic. There is also the first-ever documentary film. Bent But Not Broken is a film that looks at dancers with scoliosis.

You need to register to access the Mobile Dance Film Festival and there is a $5 fee for doing so. That will give you full access to four hours of programming from July 25th through August 31st.

Lawrence Brownlee and Friends – Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Facebook Page – July 26th 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Opera singer Lawrence Brownlee has assembled a talented group of friends for this live concert on Sunday. The tenor, who made his Metropolitan Opera debut in a 2007 production of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, will be joined by alumni from Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center.

They include soprano Whitney Morrison, mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges and baritone Will Liverman. Three current students at the Center will also participate. Craig Terry, Chris Reynolds and members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra will also perform from their homes.

The purpose of this concert is to celebrate Black artistry. Not only is Brownlee performing, he is also the artistic advisor of this concert.

Lawrence Brownlee and Friends will stream live on Lyric’s YouTube and Facebook channels.

Dougla – Dance Theatre of Harlem YouTube Page – July 26th

For those of a certain age, Geoffrey Holder is known for directing the original Broadway production (and its 1984 revival) of The Wiz and for directing the 1978 musical Timbuktu! Or you might know him from his 7-Up commercials from the 1970s advertising the soft drink as the “uncola.”

Holder was also a prolific choreographer and Dougla, which the Dance Theatre of Harlem revived in 2018, is one of his best-known works. It was first performed in 1974 and this revival was carefully overseen by Holder’s song, Leo and his widow, Carmen de Lavallade.

Trinidad was were Holder was born and the word Dougla refers to people of both African and South Asian descent. Specifically in his ballet, Dougla depicts a wedding between a couple where one partner is of Indian descent and the other is African.

The music was written by Holder and Tania León and primarily utilizes flutes and percussion. For this 2018 production, León directed the live performance of the music.

That’s this week’s Best Bets at Home: July 24th – July 26th.

Want more? How about a few reminders before we go:

Cécile McLorin Salvant and Sullivan Fortner are the featured concert on this week’s Fridays at Five from SFJazz. You can read our preview published earlier this week here.

The Ron Carter Trio performs live on July 24th and 25th from the Village Vanguard in New York. You can read our preview from earlier this week here.

LA Opera audio-streams their 2010 complete Ring Cycle by Richard Wagner on Saturday beginning at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT. For our complete preview please go here.

Metropolitan Opera’s streaming productions this weekend are Verdi’s Falstaff on Friday; Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier on Saturday and Puccini’s La Fannciula del West on Sunday. For details you can go here.

That’s officially it for our Best Bets at Home: July 24th – July 26th. Enjoy your weekend! Enjoy culture! And if you like what you read here at Cultural Attaché, be sure to tell your friends!

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Each opera becomes available at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT on the date listed and will be available for 23 hours. Schedules and line-ups are subject to change. You can find each opera at the Metropolitan Opera’s website.

If you read this early enough on Monday, you’ll have time to catch Franco Zeffirelli’s 1981-1982 production of Puccini’s La Bohème.

Here is the line-up for Week 19 at the Met:

Monday, July 20 – 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.

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.”

Tuesday, July 21 – Wagner’s Tannhäuser
Conducted by James Levine; starring Éva Marton, Tatiana Troyanos, Richard Cassilly, Bernd Weikl and John Macurdy. This is a revival of Otto Schenk’s 1977 production from the 1982-1983 season.

Composer and librettist Richard Wagner combined two German legends for this opera that had its debut in Dresden in 1845. The first legend is that of the 13th century poet and minstrel singer, Tannhäuser, about whom little is known beyond his poetry. The other is the Wartburg Song Contest, a contest amongst minstrel singers in Wartburg, a castle that overlooks the German town of Eisenach.

In the opera the title character spends time with the gods, particularly Venus, and back in the real world where his lover Elizabeth has been waiting for him. A song contest is announced to win Elizabeth’s hand. Will Tannhäuser do the right thing to win Elizabeth or will his flirtation with Venus undermine his desires?

When reading reviews and articles about this production, I found that Donal Henahan’s closing comments in his New York Times review particularly amusing:

“The ballet, by Norbert Vesak, is far better than most of the dances inflicted on opera, and suggests an orgy as convincingly as possible under the circumstances. Which is to say, of course, not convincingly at all. It is well known that opera people do not understand much about orgies because they spend most of their spare time in small hotel rooms studying scores and ripping up their press notices. Still, Mr. Vesak’s ballet is fun to watch. It does go on too long, as before, but so does Wagner’s ballet music.”

Wednesday, July 22 – Verdi’s Macbeth
Conducted by James Levine; starring Maria Guleghina, Dimitri Pittas, Željko Lučić and John Relyea. This Adrian Noble production is from the 2007-2008 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.

When this production of Macbeth took place it marked the first time in nearly two decades since its last performance at the Met. Adrian Noble, who directed, made his Metropolitan Opera debut with this production. From 1990-2003 he was the Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company in England.

Thursday, July 23 – 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.

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.”

Friday, July 24 – 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.

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.”

Saturday, July 25 – Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier
Conducted by Edo de Waart; starring Renée Fleming, Christine Schäfer, Susan Graham and Kristinn Sigmundsson. This is a revival of the 1969 Nathaniel Merrill production from the 2009-2010 season.

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

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

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.

Sunday, July 26 – Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West
Conducted by Marco Armiliato; starring Eva-Maria Westbroek, Jonas Kaufmann, and Željko Lučić. This revival of the 1991 Giancarlo del Monaco production is from the 2018-2019 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?

This production marked Kaufmann’s return to the Metropolitan Opera after a four-and-a-half-year absence from their stages. He had previously been announced in three productions during that time, but withdrew from each one. Skeptics wondered if he would actually appear in this one. He did. And though not in top form, he still received praise from Anthony Tommasini in the New York Times:

“The dusky colorings of Mr. Kaufmann’s voice gave his singing of this Italianate music a Germanic cast, but that quality made his Johnson seem, intriguingly, more of an outsider. He brought melting richness and dramatic nuances to his performance, supported by the sensitive conducting of Marco Armiliato.”

That’s all for Week 19 at the Met. What would you like to see in upcoming weeks? Leave a comment and let us know!

Enjoy Week 19 at the Met!

Photo: Anna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna in Roméo et Juliette (Photo by Ken Howard/Courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera)

The post Week 19 at the Met appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, July 13 – Puccini’s Manon Lescaut

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, July 14 – Verdi’s La Traviata

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, July 15 – Puccini’s Turandot

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

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

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

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

Thursday, July 16 – Berg’s Wozzeck

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, July 17 – Rossini’s La Cenerentola 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday, July 19 – Puccini’s La Bohème 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enjoy your week!

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

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