You know that means two operas by Puccini are certain to be included…and you probably know what they are. There are also works by Cilea, Giordano, Lehár (and you know which one that is, too); Massenet (I’m guessing you’ll know which one that is) and Verdi (chances are you can figure this one out.) You’ll have to keep reading to see how you did.

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

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

If you read this early enough on April 26th, you’ll still have time to see the 2018-2019 season production of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites which concludes Moral Authority week. It’s not set in Paris, but it does take place in France.

Here is the full line-up for Week 59 at the Met:

Monday, April 26 – Puccini’s La Bohème

Conducted by Marco Armiliato; starring Sonya Yoncheva, Susanna Phillips, Michael Fabiano, Lucas Meachem, Alexey Lavrov, Matthew Rose and Paul Plishka. This revival of Franco Zefferelli’s 1963 production from the 2017-2018 season. This is an encore presentation of the production made available last year on July 6th.

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

The story centers on four friends who are unable to pay their rent. Successfully getting out of a potentially bad situation with their landlord, all but one go out on the town. Rodolfo stays home and meets a young woman named Mimi. They fall in love, but Mimi’s weakness may be a sign of something far more life-threatening than they know. (If this sounds like the musical Rent, it is because La Bohème served as Jonathan Larson’s inspiration for that musical.)

This production had multiple casts during this season’s performances. Yoncheva was the third person to sing Mimi (following Angel Blue and Anita Hartig). Phillips was the second woman to sing the role of Musetta. Fabiano was the fourth person to sing the role of Rodolfo (following Dmytro Popov, Jean-Francois Borras and Russell Thomas).

Tuesday, April 27 – 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 made available last year on April 23rd, October 20th and December 26th. 

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 was the first Metropolitan Opera production directed by a Broadway veteran and wth five-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman (The Producers). 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.”

Wednesday, April 28 – Giordano’s Andrea Chénier

Conducted by James Levine; starring Maria Guleghina, Wendy White, Stephanie Blythe, Luciano Pavarotti and Juan Pons. This Nicholas Joël production is from the 1996-1997 season. This is an encore presentation of the production made available earlier this year on March 13th.

Giordano’s opera had its world premiere in Milan in 1896. It features a libretto by Luigi Illica and is inspired by the life of the poet André Chénier who was executed during the French Revolution.

A love triangle is ultimately at the center of this opera. Chénier says one too many things in the presence of Maddalena, Countess di Coigny’s daughter, about the imbalance between the French government and the poverty that has trapped so many of his countrymen. This is just prior to the French Revolution.

Half a decade later, Carlo Gérard, who was a footman to the now executed King Louis XVI and was influenced by Chénier’s talk, is now a leading political figure. The poet, however, is not in their good graces. This interrupts his plans to meet a young woman with whom he has been corresponding. That turns out to be Maddalena. Though she and Chénier are in love, Gérard also has his eyes on her. Politics and passion collide leading to the poet’s execution.

Bernard Holland was not a fan of this production when he reviewed it for the New York Times. He did, however, seem to be impressed by how Pavarotti was handling this role so late in his career.

“This is an opera that can be celebrated more for its parts than its whole. Luciano Pavarotti has the principal one. Six decades have drained a lot of the color from his voice, but in the title role he holds up admirably well. The points of vocal stress are handled gingerly but they are handled. A 61-year-old tenor must by nature be a master of disguise; and so Mr. Pavarotti directs most of our attention to his powers of articulation, almost to the point of excess.”

Thursday, April 29 – Massenet’s Manon

Conducted by Maurizio Benini; starring Lisette Oropesa, Michael Fabiano and Artur Ruciński. This is a revival of the 2011-2012 Laurent Pelly production from the 2019-2020 season. This is an encore presentation of the production made available last year on June 25th and earlier this year on January 23rd.

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, April 30 – 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. This is an encore presentation of the production made available last year on July 14th.

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 Traviatawhich 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 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.”

Saturday, May 1 – Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur

Conducted by Gianandrea Noseda; starring Anna Netrebko, Anita Rachvelishvili, Piotr Beczała and Ambrogio Maestri. This David McVicar production is from the 2018-2019 season. This is an encore presentation of the production made available last year on April 18th and earlier this year on January 4th and March 10th.

Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur had its world premiere in Milan in 1902. It features a libretto by Arturo Colautti. The opera is based on the 1849 Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé play Adrienne Lecouvreur. 

At the center of this opera is a love triangle. The title character is a beloved actress who has many possible suitors. She is in love with the Count of Saxony, Maurizio. He, though smitten with Adriana, is trying to fully break ties with his ex-lover, the Princesse de Bouillon. Insecurities and jealousies lead all three down a path that will ultimately end in murder.

Anthony Tommasini, writing in his New York Times review, said of this production, “The strongest scenes in the opera, involving the three principals, leapt off the stage on Monday, especially the confrontation between Adriana and the princess in Act II, when they discover that they both love Maurizio. Ms. Netrebko and Ms. Rachvelishvili sang ferociously as they hurled accusatory phrases at each other. Yet each found moments in the music to suggest the womanly longing that consumes them.”

Sunday, May 2 – Puccini’s La Rondine

Conducted by Marco Armiliato; starring Angela Gheorghiu, Lisette Oropesa, Roberto Alagna, Marius Brenciu and Samuel Ramey. This Nicholas Joël production is from the 2008-2009 season. This is an encore presentation of the production made available last year on April 15th and September 21st.

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

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

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

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

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

Well you’ve made it to the first weekend in May and the end of Week 59 at the Met. Au revoir à la semaine prochaine! Profite de ta semaine! Profitez des opéras!

Photo: Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu in La Rondine (Photo by Ken Howard/Courtesy Metropolitan Opera)

The post City of Light: Week 59 at the Met appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Indirectly celebrating this natal day are multiple options that fall under the category of a line from Hamlet, “The play’s the thing.” Beyond the Shakespeare options are five other plays.

If you want funky jazz, contemporary classical music, operas from Europe or modern dance, I’ve got that for you as well. They’re all so good, I can’t make one of them the top pick.

In As You Like It, these famous words are said, “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players.” So in this spirit of this weekend’s Academy Awards, the nominees for great players in Best Bets: April 23rd – April 26th are:

THEATER: Neat – Manhattan Theatre Club – Now – April 25th

Charlayne Woodard’s one-person show Neat opened at New York City Center in a Manhattan Theatre Club production in 1997.

Lawrence Van Gelder, writing for the New York Times, said of Woodard’s play, “Ms. Woodard sings, she dances, but most of all she tells good stories, bringing them to life in ways that are poignant.”

Woodard revisits the work in this prevention as part of MTC’s Curtain Call series. The great thing is you can see this wonderful play and performance for free. All you have to do is register. But act quickly, the run ends on Sunday, April 25th.

DANCE: Digital Program 5 – San Francisco Ballet – Now – May 12th

Three archival performances make up this program from San Francisco Ballet. They include 7 for Eight from 2016 and Anima Animus and Snowblind from 2018.

Helgi Tomasson is the creator of 7 for Eight which is set to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. David Dawson is the choreographer of Anima Animus which is set to music by Ezio Bosso. Cathy Marston is the choreographer of Snowblind which uses music by Amy Beach, Philip Feeney, Arthur Foote, and Arvo Pärt.

Tickets are $29 and allow for 72 hours of access to the program.

PLAY READING: Two Sisters and a Piano – New Normal Rep – Now – May 23rd ART IN AN EMAIL

Playwright Nilo Cruz is best-known for his Pulitzer Prize winning play Anna in the Tropics from 2002. Three years prior to that success he premiered Two Sisters and a Piano.

The play tells the story of two sisters under house arrest in Cuba in 1991. One sister is an author and the lieutenant keeping track of their case has fallen in love with her. The other is a pianist who finds her piano tuner falling head over heels for his client.

Cruz has directed a new reading of Two Sisters and a Piano with Jimmy Smits (Anna in the Tropics); Florencia Lozano (Rinse, Repeat), Gary Perez and Daphne Rubin-Vega (both of whom appeared in Two Sisters and a Piano at The Public Theater.)

In A.D. Amorosi‘s review of this reading for Variety, he says, “Cruz’s playful poetic language, even at its most harshly politicized, and his easy direction allow his actors a delicious freedom. Even when its characters are not free, enclosed in one cramped apartment with nothing but mangoes, rice and the occasional rum shot (and despite the virtual limitations of a laptop’s viewing screen), Two Sisters and a Piano is as open as a Havana landscape, with all of its flavors, scents and sensory overloads at full tilt.”

Tickets are $25 with $10 tickets available for students.

PLAY: The Royale – Private Reels: From the LCT Archives on Broadway on Demand – Now – May 16th

Real life boxer Jack Jackson (the first African-American world heavyweight champion) serves as the inspiration for the story of Jay “The Sport” Jackson in Marco Ramirez’s 2016 play The Royale. (He was also the inspiration for The Great White Hope).

The story is told in six rounds.

Rachel Chavkin, Tony Award-winner for Hadestown, directed this production. Starring are McKinley Belcher III (the 2020 revival of A Soldier’s Play), Khris Davis (Sweat), Montego Glover (Tony nominee for Memphis), John Lavelle (Catch-22) and Clarke Peters (Five Guys Named Moe).

As Ben Brantley said in his rave New York Times review, “…the great subject of The Royale, which has been given such original and graceful theatrical form, is the selfish single-mindedness required of champions, and the repercussions such a focus has when it’s exercised by a black man in a white man’s world.” 

There is no charge to watch The Royale, but you will have to register with Broadway on Demand.

THEATER: An Iliad – A Noise Within – Now – May 16th

Easily one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences I’ve had seeing a play was when I attended Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson’s An Iliad at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. It’s a powerful work that is inspired by Homer’s Iliad.

This play, specifically called An Iliad because it isn’t the Iliad, calls for just one actor and a cellist and that actor has to be completely on top of his/her game.

A Noise Within is offering streaming performances of An Iliad with co-founder Geoff Elliott and actress Deborah Strang alternating performances. Joining them as both composer and cellist is Karen Hall. Julia Rodriguez-Elliott directs.

The link in the title will take you to the website so you can see which actor is performing in each performance. Tickets, which are $25 for an individual and $40 for a family, must be reserved a minimum of two hours before each performance.

To see what Denis O’Hare had to say about the show, check out my 2014 interview with him here.

OPERA: Jules Massenet’s Manon – Wiener Staatsoper – April 22nd – 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM

Conducted by Frédéric Chaslin; starring Nina Machaidze, Juan Diego Flórez and Adrian Eröd. This Andrei Serban production is from 2019.

Massenet’s opera was composed in 1883 and had its world premiere in January of 1884 in Paris. The libretto is by  Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille.

They based the opera on the 1731 Abbé Prévost novel, L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut.

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

This is the first of Vienna State Opera’s productions I’ve included in our listings. Very much like the Metropolitan Opera, they offer a different production each day. There is no charge to watch the productions, but you do need to register on their website. Each production will be available for 24 hours.

MUSICAL: A Letter to Harvey Milk – Now – April 25th

The creators of this musical, Jerry James, Laura I. Kramer, Ellen M. Schwartz and Cheryl Stern were inspired by a short story of the same name by Lesléa Newman. A Letter to Harvey Milk opened off-Broadway in 2018 at the Acorn Theatre in New York.

The setting is San Francisco in the mid 1980s. Harry, a kosher butcher who has retired and is also a widower, is given an assignment to write a letter to someone who is dead. He chooses California politician Harvey Milk – the first openly gay politician elected in California who was later assassinated by Dan White in 1978. But why?

Members of the original cast has reunited for this streaming production. They include Adam Heller, Julia Knitel, Cheryl Stern who are joined by Michael Bartoli, Jeremy Greenbaum, Aury Krebs and Ravi Roth. Evan Pappas directs.

Tickets range from $10 – $50 with proceeds going to The Actors Fund and HIAS. All tickets purchased will allow viewing of the musical through Sunday, April 25th at 11:59 PM EDT/8:59 PDT.

SHAKESPEARE: Shakespeare Sonnet Slam – Gingold Theatrical Group – April 23rd – 6:00 PM EDT/3:00 PM PDT

Happy Birthday William Shakespeare. You don’t look a day over 450. The Gingold Theatrical Group is celebrating by holding a virtual open mic where Shakespeare’s sonnets or other material based on or inspired by the Sonnets will be performed. Everyone is invited to participate and you have three minutes to give it your all.

Joining in this celebration are Stephen Brown-Fried, Robert Cuccioli, Tyne Daly, George Dvorsky, Melissa Errico, Alison Fraser, Tom Hewitt, Daniel Jenkins, John-Andrew Morrison, Patrick Page, Maryann Plunkett, Tonya Pinkins, Laila Robins, Jay O. Sanders, Renee Taylor, Jon Patrick Walker and more.

You’ll have to come up with your own take on the Sonnets, but this is a free party! You can find the Shakespeare Sonnet Slam on Gingold Theatrical Group’s Facebook page.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL MUSIC: Sonic Shift – Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra – Premieres April 23rd at 9:30 PM EDT/6:30 PM PDT

Composer Jessie Montgomery has curated this new episode of LA Chamber Orchestra’s Close Quarters series. On the program are works by composers Marcos Balter, Anna Meredith and Alyssa Weinberg. Each work explores the progression from acoustic music to electronic and electro-acoustic music with an emphasis on the wind section.

Will Kim provides the visuals that accompany the performance which is lead by Christopher Rountree of Wild Up! Nadia Sirota is the music producer.

This is the first of two Close Quarters episodes curated by Montgomery. I recently interviewed her about working with LACO. You can read that interview here.

There’s no charge to watch this performance. Donations are encouraged.

CHAMBER MUSIC: Neave Trio – Asheville Chamber Music Series – April 23rd – April 25th – Art in an EMAIL

Pianist Eri Nakamura, cellist Mikhail Veselov and violinist Anna Williams are the members in Neave Trio. Following on the heels of their 2019 album Her Voice, which featured female composers, their concert this weekend as part of the Asheville Chamber Music Series will also showcase female composers.

On the program is the Trio No. 1, Op. 33 by Louise Farrench; Rebecca Clarke’s Piano Trio and Cécile Chaminade’s Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 11.

Perhaps none of these composers is familiar to you. They aren’t to me. But Neave Trio’s passion for this lesser-known music makes this concert utterly compelling.

There are three performances: Friday, April 23rd at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT; Saturday at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT and Sunday at 3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT.

You can watch this concert for free, but donations are encouraged.

JAZZ: Sun Ra Arkestra – SFJAZZ – April 23rd – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

The name Herman Poole Blount probably doesn’t mean anything to you. But if told that was the birth name of Le Sony’r Ra who would later become known as Sun Ra, you might have a better idea who he was.

Experimental, free and avant-garde jazz was his specialty. It was always performed best by the Sun Ra Arkestra.

After Sun Ra’s death in 1993, alto saxophonist Marshall Allen starting leading the ensemble. As he does in this concert at SFJAZZ from 2017.

To get a sense of what might be in store for you in this Fridays at Five concert, here are some of the songs being performed: Space Loneliness, Saturn, Angels and Demons at Play and Space is the Place. It’s going to be trippy.

And you can take that trip for $5 (which offers one full month of digital membership or $60 (which includes a one year digital membership.)

There is an encore showing on April 24th at 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT.

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet – Great Performances on PBS – April 23rd – Check Local Listings

You don’t expect just some stand-up sonnets for Shakespeare’s birthday, do you? Of course not. Let’s throw in some tragedy. As in the tragic love story of them all – Romeo and Juliet.

The National Theatre created this film which maneuvers its way from rehearsal into and around the Lyttleton Theatre. The cast are stuck in a theater that has shut down and act out the story of the Capulets and the Montagues.

Starring as the title characters are Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley. The cast also includes Fisayo Akinade, Ella Dacres, Deborah Findlay, Tamsin Greig, Ellis Howard, Lloyd Hutchinson, David Judge, Adrian Lester, Lucian Msamati, Alex Mugnaioni, Shubham Saraf and Colin Tierney. Simon Godwin is the director.

As with any show on PBS, I’d advise checking your local listings for exact airdate and time in your part of the country.

OPERA: Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte – Wiener Staatsoper – April 24th – 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT

Conducted by Adam Fischer; starring Benjamin Bruns, Olga Bezsmertna, Íride Martínez, Markus Werba and Annika Gerhards. This Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier production is from 2015.

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?

MONOLOGUES: Whispers International – April 24th – 2:00 PM EDT/11:00 AM PDT

As you know, there was a massive blast in Lebanon on August 4th of last year. Almost 200 people were killed and over 6,000 people were injured.

Whispers International was created to raise money for the victims and to help in the rebuilding of the area around the blast site.

British playwrights Geraldine Breenna, Mike Elliston, Kim Hardy, Angela Harvey, John Jesper and Kate Webster have made their writing available to a company of Lebanese actors to perform.

Those actors are Nadine Labaki, Georges Khabbaz, Nada Abou Farhat, Talal El Jurdi, Bernadette Houdeib, Rita Hayek, Badih Abou Chacra, Dory Al-Samarany, Bshara Atallah, Sany Abdul Baki, Josyane Boulos, Agatha Ezzedine and Hagop Der Ghougassian 

Tickets are £13.52 which at press time equals approximately $18.75.

OPERA: Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel – Weiner Staatsoper – April 25th – 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT

Conducted by Christian Thielemann; starring Ileana Tosca, Daniela Sindram, Adrian Eröd, Janina Baechle, Michaela Schuster, Annika Gerhards

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

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

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

CABARET: Mandy Gonzalez – Seth Concert Series – April 25th – 3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT

With the upcoming film version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights, it’s a great time to check in on one of the musical’s original cast members: Mandy Gonzalez, who originated the role of Nina.

Gonazalez is an insanely talented singer and actress.

I saw her in In the Heights. She’s also appeared in Wicked, Lennon, Dance of the Vampires and as Angelica Schuyler in Hamilton.

I’ve also seen her perform her cabaret act and it is impossible to express the amount of pure joy that comes out of her when she’s singing. (And she does a killer version of Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen.)

She is Seth Rudetsky’s guest in his concert series this weekend.

Tickets are $25 and you can watch the live performance at 3:00 PM EDT or the replay of the concert at 8:00 PM EDT. Whichever you choose, you will certainly have a good time.

IN PERSON: DANCE: Uniting in Movement – American Ballet Theatre – Segerstrom Center for the Arts – April 25th – 1:30 PM PDT

You could be ambivalent about the Academy Awards and go see a rare live performance of ballet in Costa Mesa. ABT has been creating a program of three different works that were filmed this week. On Sunday, they are opening up Segerstrom Center for the Arts for a limited number of people to see the performance live.

The works are Let Me Sing Forever More by choreographer Jessica Lang and set to the recordings of Tony Bennett (clearly the title comes from Fly Me to the Moon); La Follia Variations by Lauren Lovette set to music of the same name by composer Francesco Geminiani and Indestructible Light by Darrell Grand Moultrie which is set to music by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Neal Hefti and Billy Strayhorn.

Hefti, by the way, composed the theme for the television series Batman.

At press time the only available tickets were $80 each. There are Covid-protocols in place for this performance.

For those willing to wait, Uniting in Movement will be available for streaming through Segerstrom Center for the Arts from May 12th – May 26th for $25.

CHAMBER MUSIC: Argus Quartet: noise/Silence – Five Boroughs Music Festival and The Noguchi Museum – April 25th – 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT (Art in an email)

Cellist Audrey Chen, violinists Clara Kim and Gioncarlo Latta and violist Maren Rothfritz make up the Argus Quartet. Though they perform music from across all eras of classical music, they seem to excel in contemporary works.

This concert was filmed at one of my favorite museums in New York, The Noguchi Museum. It is being presented by the Five Boroughs Music Festival. The Argus Quartet will perform works by composers John Cage (String Quartet in Four Parts); Dorothy Rudd More (Modes for String Quartet), Rolf Wallin (several selections from Curiosity Cabinet) and Paul Wiancko (Vox Petra).

The concert will be available for free streaming on the Five Boroughs Music Festival YouTube channel through December 31st.

OPERA: Bizet’s Carmen – Weiner Staatsoper – April 26th – 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT

Conducted by Andrés Orozco-Estrada; starring Anita Rachvelishvili, Piotr Beczala, Erwin Schrott and Vera-Lotte Boecker. This Calixto Bieito production is from 2021.

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

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

Set in Seville, Spain, Carmen is a gypsy who has caught everyone’s eye. A soldier, Don José, plays coy and gives her no attention. Her flirtation causes troubles for both when Don José’s girlfriend, Micaëla arrives. Tensions escalate between the two women and after a knight fight, José must arrest Carmen. When she seduces him it sets off a series of events that will not end well for the gypsy woman.

PLAY: Measure for Measure – Goodman Theatre – April 26th – May 9th

Here’s another opportunity to celebrate the bard. But this isn’t going to be your standard production of a Shakespearean play.

Director Robert Falls has transported this play from Vienna to New YOrk City circa the late 1970s (or as I like to describe it, before Disney moved into Broadway).

The story is still the same. Claudio is sentenced to death under an arcane law invoked by Angelo who has taken over for the Duke who has left rather than have to deal with morality issues in (originally Vienna). Claudio’s crime? Getting his girlfriend, Juliet, pregnant.

The Duke returns in disguise and becomes aware of the decisions Angelo has been making. Deception, bargains, bartering, love and death are all on the table in this fairly convoluted play.

Justin Hayford, in his review for the Chicago Reader, had mixed feelings about the production:

“It’s rare for one of Shakespeare’s plays to be ripped from its original setting, transplanted across centuries and continents—and still end up feeling vital, urgent, and utterly contemporary. At least for a while. If Falls and his stellar cast could maintain that vitality past intermission, they’d have a masterpiece on their hands.”

Nonetheless, I think the concept sounds interesting and worth checking out. What else are you going to do on a Monday night? (Of course, I have another option for you…)

Tickets are free, but require registration.

AUDIO PLAY: Brother, Brother – New York Theatre Workshop – Live Premiere April 26th – 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT Art in an email

New York Theater Workshop is offering up a twist on audio plays. This will feature visuals, but not of the performers. Rather, artists Ibrahim Rayintakath​ and Liang-Hsin Huang have created imagery that will accompany Aleshea Harris’ play.

Brother, Brother tells the story of two brothers sharing a bicycle while making their way through Appalachia. They are actors headed to Tennessee. They start getting followed by a mysterious man in a maroon suit. At this moment the dreams they have for their future are confronted by the acts from their past.

Starring in this audio play are Amari Cheathom (terrific in August Wilson’s Jitney), André De Shields (Tony Award-winner for Hadestown), Gbenga Akinnagbe (To Kill a Mockingbird) and Owen Tabaka (Ratatouille: The Tik Tok Musical). Shayok Misha Chowdhury directs.

Tickets are $10. Brother, Brother will remain available for streaming through July 25th.

Those are my Best Bets: April 23rd – April 26th. But a few reminders (and a preview):

MasterVoices has debuted the 3rd part of Myths and Hymns, a series of short films set to Adam Guettel’s song cycle. For details about the series, go here. For my interview with MasterVoices Artistic Director Ted Sperling, go here.

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Gala 2021 is available for streaming through Sunday. For details about the program and how to get tickets, go here.

Carnegie Hall’s Voices of Hope series continues with multiple new shows available for free viewing. For details go here.

The Metropolitan Opera streams Philip Glass’ Satyagraha on Friday (highly recommended); Beethoven’s Fidelio on Saturday and Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites on Sunday (also highly recommended). For details and previews go here.

Here’s a preview of next week at the Met where the theme is City of Light (all the operas take place in Paris). Monday’s opera is, what else, La Bohème by Puccini.

That truly is the full and complete list of Best Bets: April 23rd – April 26th. Enjoy your weekend!

Photo: William Shakespeare (By BatyrAshirbayev98/Courtesy Wikipedia Commons)

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Serving as Yoncheva’s accompanist is Julien Quinten.

The announced program includes works by Giuseppe Verdi (Aida, Il Trovatore); Antonin Dvořák’s (Rusalka), Giacomo Puccini (La Bohème, Le Villi, Madama Butterfly), Henry Purcell (Dido and Aeneas), George Frideric Handel (Rinaldo), Jules Massenet (Thaïs, Manon), Georges Bizet (Carmen) and a song made famous by Édith Piaf (but not the first one that comes to mind.)

If you’ve been following the nightly streaming opera productions from the Met you will have seen and heard Yoncheva in La Bohème, La Traviata, Luisa Miller, Otello and Tosca.

Zachary Woolfe, in his New York Times review of the 2017 production of La Traviata at the Met, was mightily impressed with Yoncheva.

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

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

Sonya Yoncheva will be releasing a new album on Sony Classical called Rebirth. She recorded project with Leonardo García Alarcón and his ensemble Cappella Mediterranea. It is scheduled for release on March 12th. The selections span five centuries ranging from Monteverdi to ABBA (and yes there is a logic to that.)

Tickets are $20 and allow screening the performance live and on demand for two weeks.

Photo: Sonya Yoncheva (Photo by Javier Del Real/Courtesy Metropolitan Opera)

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

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

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

If you read this column early enough on January 18th, you might still have time to catch the 2013-2014 production of Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák that concludes Renée Fleming week.

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

Monday, January 18 – Bizet’s Carmen

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

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

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

Set in Seville, Spain, Carmen is a gypsy who has caught everyone’s eye. A soldier, Don José, plays coy and gives her no attention. Her flirtation causes troubles for both when Don José’s girlfriend, Micaëla arrives. Tensions escalate between the two women and after a knight fight, José must arrest Carmen. When she seduces him it sets off a series of events that will not end well for the gypsy woman.

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

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

Tuesday, January 19 – Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, January 20 – Bellini’s Norma

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, January 21 – Verdi’s La Traviata

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, January 22 – Puccini’s Tosca

Conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli; starring Hildegard Behrens, Plácido Domingo and Cornell MacNeil. This Franco Zeffirelli production is from the 1984-1985 season.

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, January 23 – Massenet’s Manon

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday, January 24 – Wagner’s Die Walküre

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enjoy the opera and enjoy your week!

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, September 7 – Massenet’s Manon 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, September 8 – Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, September 10 – Massenet’s Cendrillon

Conducted by Bertrand de Billy; starring Kathleen Kim, Joyce DiDonato, Alice Coote and Stephanie Blythe. This Laurent Pelly production is from the 2017-2018. This is an encore presentation of the production that was streamed on June 27th.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, September 12 – Berlioz’s Les Troyens

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday, September 13 – Massenet’s Werther

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Your options this weekend have something for everyone. Classical music fans have four different concerts to watch. Opera fans have two different productions available. Fans of plays have a couple options. Three different Broadway stars have concerts this weekend. You can attend a high-end karaoke with music and stage stars in your pajamas. Jazz fans have an all-star concert. Finally, Broadway says goodbye to one of the most public victims of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Here are your Best Bets at Home: September 4th – September 7th:

Pacific Symphony’s Summer Replay – Pacific Symphony – Various Dates through October 24th

Orange County’s Pacific Symphony has a series of filmed concerts available on their website for free viewing. You have to sign up to watch them, but classical music fans have three concerts available now with a forth becoming available on Thursday, September 10th. They are:

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 performed on September 16, 2017 conducted by Carl. St. Clair (available through September 12th)

Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 performed on May 20, 2017 by pianist Orli Shaham. Conducted by Carl St. Clair (available through September 26th)

Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique performed on February 7, 2020 conducted by Carl. St. Clair (available through October 10th)

On September 10th the Virtual Tchaikovsky Spectacular will become available through October 24th. The program features works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture complete with live cannons and fireworks.

The Last Angry Brown Hat – Latino Theater Company – September 4th – September 13th

Los Angeles-based Latino Theater Company will offer a reading of the play The Last Angry Brown Hat by Alfredo Ramos. The play depicts the reunion of four friends who, in the 1960s, were members of a Chicago civil rights organization named the Brown Berets. When they come together for a friend’s funeral, they try to reconcile the angry young men they once were with the more mature men they have become.

The cast features Robert Beltran, Mike Gomez, Sal Lopez and Geoffrey Rivas. The Last Angry Brown Man is directed by Jose Luis Valenzuela.

While you are at the LATC website, you might notice that two other plays are available for streaming: an online reading of Alberto Barboza’s August 29th (through September 6th) and an archival film of Jose Luis Valenzuela’s La Olla (through September 10th).

Eleanor – Barrington Stage Company – September 4th – September 5th – 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT

Tony Award-winning actress Harriet Harris, who won the award for her performance in the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie, will take on legendary first lady Eleanor Roosevelt in this new play by Mark St. Germain (Freud’s Last Session).

In this one-person show, Roosevelt offers her perspective on her unlikely journey from her relatively mundane upbringing to becoming the wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Her life has been subject to endless speculation on multiple levels.

How St. Germain distills this fascinating woman into his play should be quite interesting.

This production was originally meant to be performed live at Barrington Stage Company this weekend. Director Henry Stram filmed the play without an audience. Barrington Stage Company is making the play available for streaming for the price of $15.

Kate Baldwin in Concert – Broadway Relief Project – September 5th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

New York’s Broadway Relief Project offers three great things in our current pandemic. The first is a live performance with a socially-distanced audience and artist; the second is a fundraiser for worthy causes and the last is the ability to livestream the performance. The concerts take place at Open Jar Studios.

On Saturday, Kate Baldwin will perform as a fundraiser for Active Minds, a non-profit addressing the issue of mental health.

Baldwin is a two-time Tony Award nominee for her delightful performances in the 2009 revival of Finian’s Rainbow and the 2017 revival of Hello, Dolly! with Bette Midler.

Not all livestream concerts in this series are free, but Kate Baldwin’s does appear to be without a fee to watch. Of course, donations are encouraged.

Rossini’s Sonatas – Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra – September 5th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

The fifth and final concert in Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s Summerfest series features the works of composer Gioachino Rossini. The works being performed are his String Sonata No. 3 in C Major and the String Sonata No. 6 in D Major.

Spearheading this concert is Principal Bass player David Grossman. He is joined for the Rossini by Carrie Kennedy and Joel Pargman on violin and Andrew Shulman on cello.

The concert will conclude with Grossman performing improvisations on the Fats Waller song Honeysuckle Rose.

If you are unable to watch the stream of this performance at it scheduled time, the performance will be available for later viewing on LACO’s website.

Jazz Musicians UNITE Against Racism Concert – Just Jazz Television Network – September 5th – 10:00 PM EDT/7:00 PM PDT

Eleven very different jazz artists have come together for the second Jazz Musicians UNITE Against Racism livestream concert on Saturday night. Singer Dwight Trible and producer/journalist LeRoy Downs will host the three-hour event.

The artists participating are pianist/composer Billy Childs, singer Carmen Lundy, percussionist Munyungo Jackson, singer Tierney Sutton, saxophonist Bob Sheppard, percussionist/drummer Jonathan Pinson, drummer/composer Christian Euman, pianist Jamael Dean, bass player Dave Robaire, pianist Tamir Hendelman and bassist/composer Jonathan Richards.

Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda – Great Performances at the Met on PBS – September 6th (check local listings)

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

If you follow our weekly updates of the Metropolitan Opera streaming schedule, this is the same production the Met streamed on April 28th

Mary, Queen of Scots, is the central figure in this opera written by Gaetano Donizetti that had its world premiere in 1835 at La Scala in Milan. The libretto by Guiseppe Bardari, was based on Friedrich von Schiller’s play, Mary Stuart, from 1800. The opera is part of the composer’s Tudor Trilogy along with Anna Bolena and Roberto Devereux.

The opera depicts the bitter rivalry that existed between Mary, Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I.

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

Nick Cordero Memorial – BroadwayonDemand.com – September 6th – 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

We all followed the horrible story of Broadway performer Nick Cordero and his battle with Covid. Through Instagram updates from his wife, Amanda Kloots, we were all rooting for him to pull through. Sadly he passed away on July 5th.

Friends, family and fellow performers are coming together on Sunday to celebrate Cordero’s life with a memorial that will be streamed for free. The tribute will include performances by some of the many people with whom he shared the stage in such musicals as A Bronx Tale, Bullets Over Broadway, Waitress, and Rock of Ages. Expect photos, videos and memories as part of the memorial.

Thee is no charge to watch Nick Cordero’s memorial. You do need to create an account on Broadway on Demand. The event also serves as a fundraiser for the Save the Music Foundation. Donations can be made by texting CORDERO to 41444.

Brandon Victor Dixon in Concert – Broadway Relief Project – September 6th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

As part of the same series as Kate Baldwin’s concert, Brandon Victor Dixon, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Judas in 2018’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live on Concert, will take to the Open Jar Studios stage in support of WeAre.Org. They are an organization that utilizes artists and the arts to further awareness of our shared humanity and responsibilities.

As anyone who saw Jesus Christ Superstar knows, Dixon is a powerful performer. His Broadway credits include The Color Purple, Motown: The Musical; Hamilton and Shuffle Along, Or the Making of a Musical Sensation and All that Followed. He also appeared off-Broadway in the enormously moving Kander and Ebb musical, The Scottsboro Boys.

There is a $5 fee for watching this livestream.

Karen Olivo with Seth Rudetsky – September 6th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

Karen Olivo made her Broadway debut in the musical Rent. She then originated the roles of Faith in the musical Brooklyn and Vanessa in the musical In the Heights. She won a Tony Award for her portrayal of Anita in the 2009 revival of West Side Story. She was on Broadway in the role of Satine in the musical Moulin Rouge! when Broadway closed due to the pandemic.

She is Seth Rudetsky’s guest this week for his conversation/concert series. Sunday’s show will be live. If you cannot watch it then there will be an encore showing of the concert on September 7th at 3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT. Tickets to either showing are $25.

Massenet’s Manon – Metropolitan Opera – September 7th – 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT

Since we’re including Monday due to the holiday, here is the first reveal of one of the operas to be found in this week’s celebration of French operas. (For the full line-up, check back on Monday.)

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

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

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

There is always one main reason why this opera gets produced and the same reason that audiences love it. The soprano title role. In this production, Anna Netrebko sings Manon.

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

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

Jim Caruso’s Pajama Cast Party – September 7th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

We’ve written several times about Jim Caruso’s Cast Party. The show is an institution in New York and takes place at Birdland. Like many a show, Cast Party is now online and the dress code is truly comfortable: pajamas.

If you aren’t familiar, Cast Party finds performers from Broadway, jazz, popular song and more showing up to talk and perform.

This Monday’s guests include Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning composer Tom Kitt (Next to Normal) who will be joined by his Michael to offer the world premiere of a new song; Derek Klena (Jagged Little Pill); Australian musical theatre star Stephen Mahy (Jekyll and Hyde) and Broadway veteran Terry Burell (The Threepenny Opera).

There is no charge to watch Jim Caruso’s Pajama Cast Party.

That’s it for your Best Bets at Home: September 4th – September 7th. But as always, we have some reminders for you:

Los Angeles area audiences can catch In Concert at the Hollywood Bowl on September 4th on PBS SoCal at 8:00 PM PDT. This week’s concert celebrates jazz performances.

Speaking of jazz, here are reminders from this week’s Jazz Stream:

Detroit Jazz Festival streams all weekend from September 4th – September 7th

Kenny Werner Trio Live at Smalls on September 4th

Dee Dee Bridgewater’s SFJazz Concert from 2017 is featured on September 4 as part of their Fridays at Five series

Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s 2020 concert from New York’s Blue Note is streaming on September 4th

Melissa Aldana Quartet performs Live at Smalls on September 5th.

Reminders from this week’s Metropolitan Opera productions:

The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess streams on Friday and Saturday, September 4th and 5th.

Thomas Adés’s The Tempest streams on Sunday, September 6th.

That is our complete list of Best Bets at Home: September 4th – September 7th.

I hope you have a safe, happy and wonderful holiday weekend.

Photo: Nick Cordero (Courtesy of Broadway on Demand)

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What’s on tap for the Best Bets at Home: June 26th – June 28th?

Broadway fans will have a musical, a diva in concert and an all-star special concert. Fans of theatre will have Shakespeare, Molière (with a Broadway star), a reading of a sequel to a classic play (also featuring Broadway stars) and more. Opera fans have a second production of a Massenet opera available to them just this week and a celebration of opera choruses. Jazz fans have two options with many of the genre’s biggest names performing. Classical music fans have a Carnegie Hall concert by one of our greatest living composers and also the farewell to a legendary conductor.

What will you choose?

Here are the Best Bets at Home: June 26th – June 28th

Falsettos – Lincoln Center at Home on Broadway HD – Now – June 27th at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

The 2016 Broadway production of James Lapine and William Finn’s musical Falsettos is available for streaming through Saturday, June 27th. The presentation of this Tony Award-nominated production is part of Lincoln Center at Home in collaboration with Broadway HD.

Lapine and Finn paired two one-act Off-Broadway musicals they created (1981’s March of the Falsettos and 1990’s Falsettoland) to make the full length musical Falsettos.

Christian Borle plays Marvin. He and his wife, Trina (Stephanie J. Block), are preparing their son, Jason (Anthony Rosenthal) for his Bar Mitzvah. Marvin has recently left Trina for Whizzer (Andrew Rannells) which complicates more than just their marriage. Trina is seeing a therapist, Mendel (Brandon Uranowitz) and her therapist is falling in love with his patient.

It sounds complicated and perhaps it is. But Lapine and Finn have created a musical that is both funny and heartbreaking, romantic and sad. They’ve also created one hell of a show that feels just as topical today as when it was first created.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – National Theatre Live – Now – July 2nd

First let me tell you this is definitely not a traditional production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This 2019 Nicholas Hytner production finds most of the audience walking around the theatre as the play takes place.

The Bridge Theatre, where this production was staged, has high ceilings and a unique structure that allows for this immersive version of Midsummer. Critics talked about Cirque du Soleil-style elements, some queering up of the story and they all raved about how this possibly over-produced play has, with this production, entered the 21st century.

Maybe not being a traditional production is going to be not just a good thing, but a great thing with this A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Philip Glass Ensemble: Music with Changing Parts – Medici.tv – June 26th – June 28th

This weekend’s free Carnegie Hall concert available on Medici.tv features a 2018 performance by composer Philip Glass with his ensemble. The concert is complete performance of his 1970 work Music With Changing Parts.

For quite some time this was not amongst Glass’s best-known works. It was independently released on vinyl and went out of print in the late 1970s. It was remastered and released on CD in 1994. It’s a work that greatly influenced Brian Eno and David Bowie who saw the Philip Glass Ensemble perform it in Europe in the 1970s.

Michael Riesman is the conductor for this performance. Joining Glass and the Ensemble are the San Francisco Girls Chorus (Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Conductor) and students from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Watching the concert is free, but it does require signing in with Medici.tv.

Wayne Shorter Celebration Part 2 – SF Jazz Friday’s at Five – June 26th 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

On May 22nd SF Jazz streamed the first part of their Wayne Shorter Celebration featuring Kamasi Washington, Terrace Martin and Shorter’s touring musicians pianist Danilo Pérez, bass player John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade. This was one of the concerts that replaced Shorter’s scheduled shows that he had to miss due to health issues.

For part two of this celebration the special guests are Herbie Hancock and Terence Blanchard. Once again, Pérez, Patitucci and Blade also perform.

Friday’s At Five does require you sign up in advance. You can join for one month for $5 or for an entire year for $60. Membership allows you to watch all Friday’s at Five programs. Upcoming performances will include Allen Touissant, John Scofield, Cécile McLorin Salvant and two more celebrations of Wayne Shorter (with guests Branford Marsalis, Joshua Redman and Ambrose Akinmusire.)

The Men From the Boys – Playbill Pride Plays – June 26th – 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

As part of their programming celebrating Gay Pride, Playbill will live stream a reading of Mart Crowley’s The Men from the Boys. This is a 2002 sequel to Crowley’s best-known play, The Boys in the Band. Many of the characters from the first play appear in this sequel and new characters are also introduced.

Performing this reading will be Denis O’Hare as Michael, Rick Elice as Donald, Mario Cantone as Emory, Joseph James O’Neil as Hank, Kevyn Morrow as Bernard, and Lou Liberatore as Harold. For the new characters Carson McCalley plays Scott, Charlie Carver plays Jason and Telly Leung plays Rick.

Directing The Men From the Boys is Zachary Quinto who appeared in the 2019 Broadway production of The Boys in the Band.

Crowley passed away earlier this year.

Playing Through Changes – Jazz House Kids – June 26th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

New Jersey-based Jazz House Kids offers education and performances for children ages 8 to 18. Like many organizations this year their plans of a big gala were thwarted by the pandemic. So they took their efforts online in a mix of live performances and classic footage. This is a re-streaming of last week’s event.

Lester Holt of NBC News hosts the program.

The performers included in this 2 hour and 15 minute show are Dianne Reeves, David Sanborn, Eddie Palmieri, Diana Krall, Ingrid Jensen, Wynton Marsalis, Andra Day, Chick Corea, Bill Charlap Trio, Ravi Coltrane, Dee Dee Bridgewater, José James, The Christian McBride Big Band featuring Melissa Walker and the late Al Jarreau and George Duke.

McBride and Walker will do a live introduction to this week’s streaming of Playing Through Changes.  

We’ve provided a link in the title that goes to the Jazz House Kids webpage. It will also be available for viewing on their Facebook page and YouTube Channel

Gloria: A Life – PBS Great Performances – June 27th (Check Local Listings)

Christine Lahti stars in Emily Mann’s play as women’s rights leader Gloria Steinem. Lahti is joined by an all-female cast playing the non-Steinem characters. Gloria: A Life is directed by Diane Paulus.

Reviews for the play itself were mixed. The last 20 minutes of the production, which feature a talking circle, regularly got singled out for how powerful they were. Since Steinem is included in this film, it is probably a safe assumption that she will be part of this part of the performance..

Manon – San Francisco Opera – June 27th – June 28th

This week’s offering from San Francisco Opera is their 2017 production of Jules Massenet’s Manon. This was a co-production with Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre and the Israeli Opera.

We’ve written previously about the creation of Manon and its storyline. Rather than recap it again, you can find it here.

For this production Ellie Dehn sings the role of Manon and Michael Fabiano sings the role of Chevalier des Grieux. Both singers were making their role debuts in this production, which was directed by Vincent Boussard. Patrick Fournillier is the conductor.

Tartuffe On Line – Molière in the Park – June 27th – 2:00 PM EDT/11:00 AM PDT and 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Who knew Molière would be so topical in 2020. If you don’t know the premise of Tartuffe, here’s a quick preview:

Tartuffe believes himself to be a righteous man, but he is ultimately a thief. His favorite accessory is his bible which he has at the ready whenever its mere presence can be helpful to him.

Oronte longs for his days of having power. But his power is quickly disappearing. He is now old, rudderless and hopelessly naive.

Imagine what happens when these two meet up. This is truly a satire that mirrors our times.

Raúl Esparza and Samira Wiley had the cast that also includes Kaliswa Brewster, Naomi Lorrain, Jared McNeill, Jennifer Mudge, Rosemary Prinz, Carter Redwood. Lucie Tiberghien directs and the translation is by Richard Wilbur.

The performance will remain available online through July 12th. This event is free, but does require registration here.

Lea Salonga with Seth Rudetsky – June 28th – 9:00 AM EDT/6:00 AM PDT (second showing 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT)

Lea Salonga probably needs no introduction. She is this week’s guest performer in Seth Rudetsky’s concert series. The concert will be live for the first showing and that performance will be streamed later in the day (at a better hour for most people.

If you want a reminder, she is the Tony Award-winning actress who originated the role of Kim in Miss Saigon. She has also appeared on Broadway in Les Misérables, Flower Drum Song, Allegiance and Once on This Island.

This is not a free event. Tickets are required and they are $25.

Great Opera Choruses – LA Opera at Home – June 28th – 6:00 PM EDT/3:00 PM PDT

Every year the LA Opera Chorus performs a concert celebrating Great Opera Choruses. This year’s event was scheduled at The Soraya in Northridge (where the concert had taken place for four years), but was cancelled due to the pandemic. Rather than give up on their annual tradition, LA Opera is performing a virtual concert in collaboration with The Soraya.

Grant Gershon, Resident Conductor of the LA Opera Orchestra, will be joined by Assistant Chorus Master Jeremy Frank who will serve as accompanist and music supervisor.

The program is slated to include three famous choruses from popular works. The concert will culminate with a performance of the Anvil Chorus from Verdi’s Il Trovatore. The audience will be encouraged to sing along (and bang things). The virtual concert will provide lyrics on screen.

MTT25: An Online Tribute to Michael Tilson Thomas – San Francisco Symphony Facebook Page – June 28th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

Conductor, pianist and composer Michael Tilson Thomas ends his 25-year tenure with the San Francisco Symphony not quite as anyone imagined. But that won’t stop the orchestra from celebrating him.

Sunday finds an on-line tribute to Tilson Thomas hosted by Audra McDonald and Susan Graham.

Joining them for this tribute will be Yo-Yo Ma, Renée Fleming, Julia Bullock, Measha Brueggergosman, Bonnie Raitt, Lars Ulrich, and more. They will all share their own memories of working with MTT and there will also be performances.

MTT has long been a personal inspiration for me. I was too young to have been around to watch Leonard Bernstein on television. When I was growing up MTT offered his own perspectives on classical music for me to enjoy. Not only were they informative, they instilled in me a passion that helped guide me through tedious piano practices, lessons and recitals.

His passion for certain composers also inspires me. One of my all-time favorite recordings is MTT leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic in an amazing concert with Sarah Vaughan called Gershwin Live! Seeing him lead the same orchestra in 2018 in a performance of Charles Ives’s A Symphony: New England Holidays is one of my favorite concerts.

Playbill Pride Spectacular – Playbill Pride Plays – June 28th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

Playbill closes out their Pride celebrations with an all-star concert on Sunday featuring some of Broadway’s best-known performers.

How’s this for a line-up: Jelani Alladin, Alexandra Billings, Billy Bustamante, Jean Colella, DeMarius Copes, Wilson Cruz, Robin De Jesús, Lea Delaria, Brandon Victor Dixon, Eden Espinosa, Niani Feelings, Harvey Fierstein, Gaby Gamache, Matt Gould, Curtis Holland, Cheyenne Jackson, this year’s Pulitzer Prize winner Michael R. Jackson, Francis Jue, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Caitlin Kinnunen, L. Morgan Lee, Raymond J. Lee, Matthew Lopez, Cheech Manohar, Griffin Matthews, Anastacia McCleskey, Michael McElroy, John McGinty, Chris Medlin, Ezra Menas, Paul HeeSang Miller, John Cameron Mitchell, Mary Kate Morrissey, Javier Muñoz, Alan Muraoka, Shakina Nayfack, Ariana Notartomaso, Diana Oh, Ken Page, Clint Ramos, Lee Roy Reams, Matt Rodin, Jai Rodriguez, Mj Rodriguez, Mars Rucker, Sushma Saha, George Salazar, Miriam Shor, Jason Tam, John Tartaglia, Sonya Tayeh, Sergio Trujillo, Vishal Vaidya, BD Wong, Iain Young, and Brittany Zeinstra.

John McDaniel serves as Music Director. The concert will showcase songs from musicals with LGBTQ stories. Playbill Pride Spectacular is free to watch, but will serves as a benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

That’s a wrap on this weekend’s Best Bets at Home: June 26th – June 28th. Enjoy yourselves!

Main Photo: The company of Falsettos (Photo by Joan Marcus)

Update: This post has been updated to include the extension to July 12th of the ability to view Tartuffe Online

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From my perspective two productions stand out as highlights this week. The first is Tuesday’s streaming production of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic. The other is Sunday’s Julie Taymor directed production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

All productions are available by going to the Met Opera website. Each production is scheduled to become available at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT for a period of 23 hours. As we learned last week, schedules are subject to change.

Here is the line-up for Week 15 at the Met:

Monday, June 22 – Verdi’s La Traviata (this is the production originally scheduled to conclude Week 14 at the Met)

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

La Traviata is one of the world’s most performed operas. Verdi collaborated with librettist Francesco Maria Piave on this opera inspired by a play (La Dame aux camélias) that was itself inspired by the novel fils by Alexandre Dumas. The opera had its world premiere in 1853 in Venice.

Like many good love stories, this one does not end well. Violetta (Yoncheva) is in love with Alfredo Germont (Fabiano). His father (Hampson) demands that she give up on her one-true love and that leads to devastating consequences.

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

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

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

This is the second production of La Traviata shown by the Metropolitan Opera during these streaming productions. The previous production, starring Natalie Dessay in 2012, was also a revival of the 2011 production.

Tuesday, June 23 – John Adams’s Doctor Atomic

Conducted by Alan Gilbert; starring Sasha Cooke, Thomas Glenn, Gerald Finley, Richard Paul Fink and Eric Owens. This Penny Woolcock production is from the 2008-2009 season.

This John Adams opera had its world premiere in 2005 in San Francisco and features a libretto by Peter Sellars. The main source of inspiration for the libretto was declassified government documents from individuals who worked at Los Alamos on the development of the atomic bomb.

Act one of Doctor Atomic takes place approximately one month before the first test. The second act takes place the morning of that test in 1945. At the center of it all is Robert J. Oppenheimer (Finley).

In his review for the New York Times, Anthony Tomassini said of Adams’s score: “This score continues to impress me as Mr. Adams’s most complex and masterly music. Whole stretches of the orchestral writing tremble with grainy colors, misty sonorities and textural density. Mr. Gilbert exposes the inner details and layered elements of the music: obsessive riffs, pungently dissonant cluster chords, elegiac solo instrumental lines that achingly drift atop nervous, jittery orchestral figurations.”

Wednesday, June 24 – Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila

Conducted by Sir Mark Elder; starring Elīna Garanča and Roberto Alagna. This Darko Tresnjak production is from the 2018-2019 season.

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

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

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

Thursday, June 25 – Massenet’s Manon

Conducted by Maurizio Benini; starring Lisette Oropesa, Michael Fabiano and Artur Ruciński. This is a revival of the 2011-2012 Laurent Pelly production from the 2019-2020 season.

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

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

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

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

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

This is the second production of Manon programmed by the Metropolitan Opera. The 2011-2012 production, with Anna Netrebko as Manon, was streamed on May 24th.

Friday, June 26 – Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore

Conducted by James Levine; starring Kathleen Battle, Luciano Pavarotti, Juan Pons and Enzo Dara. This John Copley production is from the 1991-1992 season.

Gaetano Donizetti’s opera had its world premiere in 1832 in Milan. The libretto, by Felice Romani, was based on Eugène Scribe’s libretto for Daniel Auber’s Le philtre.

Poor Nemorino doesn’t have anything to offer the love of his life, Adina. Sergeant Belcore is also in love with Adina, but she spurns his offer of marriage. Knowing that Adina has read the story of Tristan and Isolde, Nemorino asks Dr. Dulcamara for the same love potion that Tristan used to win over Isolde. Will this elixir of love truly works its magic?

Edward Rothstein, in his review for the New York Times had mixed feelings about certain performances and elements of the production, but he singled out Battle for praise. “Ms. Battle can send a note out into space, sustain it there, playing subtly with its shape and dimension, then call it back into her throat and gently bring it to a close so one awaits the next moment of sensuous sound. When Adina realizes that she really does love this slightly clumsy peasant, Ms. Battle’s sighs of recognition soared. Donizetti might have preferred a lighter timbre, but he would certainly have recognized his elixir in use.”

Saturday, June 27 – 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.

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.”

Sunday, June 28 – Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte

Conducted by James Levine; starring Golda Schultz, Kathryn Lewek, Charles Castronovo, Markus Werba, Christian Van Horn and René Pape. This revival of the 2004 Julie Taymor production is from the 2017-2018 season.

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

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

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

That’s the complete line-up for Week 15 at the Met. Enjoy your operas and have a great week!

Photo: Markus Werba as Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. (Photo by Richard Termine/Courtesy of Metropolitan Opera)

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As a reminder, each production becomes available at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT on the date listed. The opera will be available for streaming for the next 23 hours at the Met Opera’s website.

Which means if you still want to catch Sunday, May 17th’s production of Verdi’s Nabucco, you have until 6:30 PM EDT/3:30 PM PDT on Monday to do so.

Here are the operas available Week 10 at the Met.

Monday, May 18 – Mozart’s Idomeneo

Conducted by James Levine, starring Nadine Sierra, Elza van den Heever, Alice Coote, and Matthew Polenzani. This is the Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production from the 2016-2017 season.

Mozart’s opera had its world premiere in 1781 in Munich and has a libretto by Giambattista Varesco. It tells the story of Idomeneus, the King of Crete, who in order to survive at sea promises Poseidon he will kill the first man he sees upon being rescued. His son, Idamante, learns that his father is in serious danger and fears he has perished. Mourning his father at the beach, he is overjoyed to see that he has survived. But in doing so becomes the first man his father sees. That’s when the story gets good!

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

Tuesday, May 19 – Wagner’s Lohengrin

Conducted by James Levine, starring Eva Marton, Leonie Rysanek, Peter Hofmann, Leif Roar, and John Macurdy. This is the August Everding production from the 1985-1986 season.

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

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

He also went on to praise James Levine’s conducting and the playing of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

Peter Hoffman, who sang the title role, also performed rock music and in musicals. He starred in the Hamburg production of The Phantom of the Opera and sang the part over 300 times. He’s best known for his roles in Wagnerian opera.

This production was first staged in 1976.

Wednesday, May 20 – Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera

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

Verdi’s opera, translated A Masked Ball, had its premiere in Rome in 1859. This production is set in the early 20th century.

What makes this production particularly appealing is the presence of Russian baritone, Hvorostovsky. I saw him give a recital and he was truly spectacular. Sadly, that is in the past tense. Two and a half years after this production, Hvorostovsky was diagnosed with brain cancer. In 2017 he succumbed to the disease.

Both his voice and his presence were stunning to witness in person. His performance as Renato in Un Ballo in Maschera earned him rave reviews. I recommend watching this production just to hear him sing.

Thursday, May 21 – Puccini’s Turandot

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

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

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

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

Friday, May 22 – Mozart’s Don Giovanni – Viewers’ Choice

Conducted by Richard Bonynge, starring Joan Sutherland, James Morris, and Gabriel Bacquier. This is the Herbert Graf production from the 1977-1978 season.

Based on the stories of Don Juan, this opera has a libretto by arguably Mozart’s best collaborator: Lorenzo Da Ponte.

It should come as no surprise that Mozart’s opera is a viewer’s choice selection. It remains one of his most performed operas and has several demanding roles that allow singers to shine. That this production stars Joan Sutherland and James Morris makes it even more compelling, even if film technology is not what we are accustomed to seeing today.

In the New York Times, Harold C. Schonberg said of this production, “This is a Don Giovanni on the highest of today’s standards, and in some respects it ranks with the great one of the past.

Saturday, May 23 – Gounod’s Faust

Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, starring Marina Poplavskaya, Jonas Kaufmann, Russell Braun, and René Pape. This is the Des McAnuff production from the 2011-2012 season.

McAnuff, who is best known as the director of Jersey Boys and Ain’t Too Proud on Broadway, chose to set this production before and after the dropping of atom bombs in Japan in World War II.

Critics may have been divided over Des McAnuff’s approach to Faust, but they were unanimous in their praise of tenor Jonas Kaufmann. Audiences were too. His performance generated a lot of emotion from audiences attending this production.

We are all familiar with the idea of selling your soul to the devil. Gounod is one of many composers who was inspired by Goethe’s Faust, Part One. (SF Opera recently made Boito’s Mefistofele available for streaming.)

A little trivia: The Metropolitan Opera’s first production when it opened its doors in 1883 was this opera.

Sunday, May 24 – Massenet’s Manon

Conducted by Fabio Luisi, starring Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczała, and Paulo Szot. This is the Laurent Pelly production from the 2011-2012 season.

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

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

There is always one main reason why this opera gets produced and the same reason that audiences love it. The soprano title role. In this production, Anna Netrebko sings Manon.

Anthony Tommasini, writing in The New York Times made all of this abundantly clear in his review of this production and singled Netrebko out for praise.

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

That’s the line-up for Week 10 at the Met. Enjoy the operas! Remember to check back next Monday for Week 11 at the Met.

Photo: The final scene from Turandot with Yusif Eyvazov and Christine Goerke. (Photo by Marty Sohl/Courtesy of the Met Opera)

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