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Rare Gems – Week 63 at the Met

Craig Byrd — Mon, 24 May 2021 07:01:00 +0000

The seven productions being presented in Week 63 at the Met are all considered rare gems – which is this week’s theme.

How one defines rare is, I suppose, an individual choice. Most of them are having their third, fourth or fifth showings.

If you are a fan of Joyce Di Donato, Renée Fleming or Juan Diego Flórez, you’ll find plenty to enjoy this week as each of them appears in two productions.

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

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

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

If you read this column early enough on May 24th, you’ll still have time to see the 1998-1999 season production of Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades that was part of Unhinged Mad Scenes week.

Here is the full line-up of rare gems for Week 63 at the Met:

Monday, May 24 – Massenet’s Thaïs – 3rd Showing

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

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

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

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

In his New York Times review of this production, Anthony Tomassini wrote:

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

Tuesday, May 25 – Borodin’s Prince Igor – 2nd Showing

Conducted by Gianandrea Noseda; starring Oksana Dyka, Anita Rachvelishvili, Sergey Semishkur, Ildar Abdrazakov, Mikhail Petrenko and Štefan Kocán. This Dmitri Tcherniakov production is from the 2013-2014 season. This is an encore presentation.

Alexander Borodin based his opera on The Lay of Igor’s Host, a poem scholars believe dates back to the 12th century. The composer died before completing the opera and the work was ultimately finished and edited by composers Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov. Prince Igor had its world premiere in 1890 in St. Petersburg three years after Borodin’s death.

Set in Putivil (or northeastern Ukraine now) in 1885, the title character leaves with his son and an army to battle the Polovtsians. Igor is not successful and ends up a prisoner of Khan Konchak, the leader of the Polovtsians. Konchak gives Igor a chance to forge an alliance, but Igor instead chooses to escape to his home. But what, if anything, will he find?

This 2014 production marked the first time in nearly 100 years that Prince Igor had been performed at the Met. Tcherniakov made significant changes to the opera and apparently it worked.

Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times included this production as one of the 10 Best Classical Music Events of 2014.

In his original review he said of the reworking:

“It is common in contemporary opera for a director to update the setting of a story and impose some interpretive concept on a piece. Most directors do not go so far, however, as to reorder scenes, tweak the plot, excise whole ensembles and interpolate musical numbers from a different score.

But the Russian director Dmitri Tcherniakov essentially does all of this in the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Borodin’s Prince Igor, which opened on Thursday night. Yet his wonderful staging is dreamlike, wrenchingly human and viscerally theatrical. The impressive cast, with many Russian singers, is headed by the compelling bass Ildar Abdrazakov in the title role.”

Wednesday, May 26 – Rossini’s La Donna del Lago – 3rd Showing

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

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

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

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

Di Donato regularly sings “Tanti affetti” from La Donna del Lago in concerts. Anthony Tomassini, writing in the New York Times, said of her performance in this production:

“It was good to have the stage so bright for Ms. DiDonato’s triumphant performance of ‘Tanti affetti.’ Besides adding an important Rossini opera to the Met’s repertory, this production gives those who have only heard her sing that aria as an encore a chance to get to know the long opera that precedes it.”

Thursday, May 27 – Shostakovich’s The Nose – 3rd Showing

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

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

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

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

Friday, May 28 – Giordano’s Fedora – 2nd Showing

Conducted by Roberto Abbado; starring Mirella Freni, Ainhoa Arteta, Plácido Domingo, Dwayne Croft and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. This Beppe De Tomasi production is from the 1996-1997 season. This is an encore presentation.

Umberto Giordano was on the podium leading the orchestra in the world premiere of Fedora in Milan in 1898. The libretto, written by Arturo Colautti, is based on a 1882 play of the same name by Victorien Sardou.

After Count Vladimir betrays his fiancé Princess Fedora, he is killed and it is believed Count Loris Ipanov is responsible. Fedora plans her revenge. She travels to Paris and while at a party Ipanov declares his love for her. How will she reconcile his newly-announced passion for her with her suspicions he murdered her husband-to-be?

Yes you read that cast list correctly. Classical pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet appears in this production in a non-singing role. But the highlight for most people in the audience was another opportunity to see legendary soprano Freni.

In his review for the New York Times, Anthony Tomassini talked about the response she got upon her first entrance on opening night.

“When Ms. Freni appeared, she was greeted by a round of applause that forced the conductor Roberto Abbado to stop the performance. Now 61, she could be making her last appearances at the Met. Her voice remains full, rich and intensely expressive. There are signs of wear, but the sense of line, varied colorings, and enveloping resonance of her singing harken to a tradition that may disappear with her retirement.”

She did return to the Metropolitan Opera stage in 2005 for a celebration of her 40th anniversary of her Met debut and the 50th anniversary of her career.

Saturday, May 29 – Strauss’s Capriccio – 4th Showing

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

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

When Fleming decided to do the role of the Countess in this opera by Strauss in 2011, it was the first time she had performed the full opera at the Met. Anthony Tomassini of the New York Times was impressed:

“The role suits her ideally at this stage of her career, and she sang splendidly. The performance over all, sensitively conducted by Andrew Davis and featuring a winning cast, made an excellent case for this Strauss curiosity, his final opera, which had its premiere in Munich in 1942 in the midst of World War II.”

Sunday, May 30 – Rossini’s Le Comte Ory – 5th Showing

Conducted by Maurizio Benini; starring Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez. This Bartlett Sher production is from the 2010-2011 season. This is an encore presentation.

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

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

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

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

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

That’s the full line-up for Week 63 at the Met. As of this writing, I’m not yet aware of the theme for Week 64 at the Met. Leave comments about what you’d like to see in the weeks ahead.

Enjoy the operas! Enjoy your week!

Photo: Mirella Freni in Fedora (Photo by Erika Davidson/Courtesy Met Opera Archives)

The post Rare Gems – Week 63 at the Met appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Verismo Passions: Week 52 at the Met

Craig Byrd — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 08:01:00 +0000

When this week is over, it will mark the end of a full year of streaming productions made available by the Metropolitan Opera. Though they have been re-running productions more frequently, Week 52 at the Met, with the theme Verismo Passions, offers two first-ever streaming productions.

Both are by composer Umberto Giordano: a 1996-1997 season production of the little-seen Fedora and a production of Andrea Chénier from earlier in the same season.

Verismo refers to a sense of realism in the arts and applies primarily to 19th century Italian operas. So crack open your favorite bottle of chianti and settle in for a week of Italian operas by Cilea, Leoncavallo, Mascagni, Puccini and Zandonai joining the two operas by Giordano.

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

If you read this column early enough on March 8th, you might still have time to catch the 1983-1984 season production of La Forza del Destino by Giuseppe Verdi that concludes a week celebrating women’s history month at the Met. (Plus it gives you another Italian opera!)

Here is the full line-up of Week 52 at the Met:

Monday, March 8 – Puccini’s Manon Lescaut

Conducted by James Levine; starring Renata Scotto, Plácido Domingo and Pablo Elvira. This Gian Carlo Menotti production is from the 1979-1980 season. This is an encore presentation of the production previously available on May 27th.

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

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

Harold C. Schonberg raved about both lead performances in his review for the New York Times.

“Renata Scott sang the title role and it was a typical Scotto performance. She understood the character dramatically and vocally and her acting was always convincing…Domingo cemented the point that he is probably the best all-around tenor active in the world today.”

Tuesday, March 9 – Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci

Cavalleria Rusticana: Conducted by Fabio Luisi; starring Eva-Maria Westbroek, Jane Bunnell, Marcelo Álvarez and George Gagnidze.

Pagliacci: Conducted by Fabio Luisi; starring Patricia Racette, Marcelo Álvarez, George Gagnidze and Lucas Meachem.

Both operas were David McVicar productions from the 2014-2015 season. This is an encore presentation of these two one-act operas that was previously available on May 10th and January 8th.

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

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

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

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

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

For those relatively new to opera, these two one-act productions are easy ways to explore the art form. There is well-known music, but there is more. Pagliacci is not just a commonly performed opera, it is also one that is referenced in countless films and television shows. But don’t count out Cavalleria Rusticana. If you’ve seen either Raging Bull or The Godfather III, you’ll recognize this opera, too.

There was controversy surrounding these two productions when David McVicar’s productions replaced the long-performed productions by Franco Zeffirelli. Alex Ross, writing for The New Yorker, made the case for the new productions as a way for the Met Opera to continue to grow and evolve.

“If the Met were to offer nothing but fixed stagings of a fixed canon, it would succumb to terminal atrophy. Not that Europe is so far ahead: all those antic deconstructions are a defense against the boredom of an overfamiliar repertory. The really radical move would be to focus on new opera, as every company did before 1900.”

Wednesday, March 10 – 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 that was previously available on April 18th and January 4th.

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.”

Thursday, March 11 – Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini

Conducted by Marco Armiliato; starring Eva-Maria Westbroek, Marcello Giordani and Mark Delavan. This is David Kneuss’s re-working of the 1984 Piero Faggioni production from the 2012-2013 season. This is an encore presentation of the production previously available on July 9th.

Riccardo Zandonai is not the best known of composers nor are his works regularly performed. Francesca da Ramini is his most popular work. The opera had its world premiere in Turin in 1914. The libretto was written by Tito Ricordi. Gabriele d’Annunzio’s play Francesca da Rimini was the source material that inspired this opera.

The title character, Francesca, is set to marry Giovanni (who is known by his nickname, Gianciotto.) When she is introduced to his brother, Paolo, she believes this man to be her groom. He falls in love with her, but has conspired to take Francesca away from his brother. Sibling rivalry significantly intensifies when Gianciotto’s youngest brother, Malatestino, gets involved.

This production marked the first time in over a quarter century since the Met had performed Francesa da Rimini. Steve Smith, writing for the New York Times said of Zandonai’s music, “…his musical language, though grounded in Italian lyricism, bears traces of Tristan und Isolde, Pelléas et Mélisande and Der Rosenkavalier.” But he concluded his review with two words, “Still – why?”

Friday, March 12 – Giordano’s Fedora FIRST SHOWING

Conducted by Roberto Abbado; starring Mirella Freni, Ainhoa Arteta, Plácido Domingo, Dwayne Croft, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. This Beppe De Tomasi production is from the 1996-1997 season.

In his review for the New York Times, Anthony Tomassini talked about the response she got upon her first entrance on opening night.

She did return to the Metropolitan Opera stage in 2005 for a celebration of her 40th anniversary of her Met debut and the 50th anniversary of her career.

Saturday, March 13 – Giordano’s Andrea Chénier FIRST SHOWING

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.

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.”

Sunday, March 14 – Puccini’s Tosca

Conducted by Emmanuel Villaume; starring Sonya Yoncheva, Vittorio Grigolo and Željko Lučić. This David McVicar production is from the 2017-2018 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available on April 21st and September 25th.

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 2018 production of Tosca was a troubled one. The two announced stars pulled out of appearing. Two conductors, for very different reasons, also left the production. This McVicar production was new and it replaced the previous production by Luc Bondy that sharply divided Met Opera audiences. Bondy’s production had replaced the beloved production by Franco Zeffirelli. Yoncheva and Grigolo sang these roles for the first time.

Anthony Tommasini, in his New York Times review had mixed feelings about the two leads.

“Jumping in for Kristine Opolais and Jonas Kaufmann, who canceled, Ms. Yoncheva and Mr. Grigolo were both singing their roles for the first time, and they looked wonderfully youthful as Puccini’s lovers, the opera diva Floria Tosca and the painter Mario Cavaradossi. They saved the day and gave compelling performances, but their greenness came through, in different ways.”

I’ll leave it up to you if you want to read how, in Tommasini’s mind, that greenness impacted the performance he attended.

That ends not just Week 52 at the Met, but our first full year of streaming productions. How will they launch their second year? Time will tell.

In the meantime, enjoy the operas and enjoy your week.

Photo: Eva-Maria Westbroek and Marcello Giordani in Francesca da Rimini (Photo by Marty Sohl/Courtesy Metropolitan Opera)

The post Verismo Passions: Week 52 at the Met appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Celebrating Women’s History Month: Week 51 at the Met

Craig Byrd — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 08:01:00 +0000

The US government decreed that March would be Women’s History Month starting in 1987. But anyone who knows the world of opera knows that women have long played a strong role on opera stages around the world. Week 51 at the Met celebrates women on and off-stage.

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

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

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

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

Monday, March 1 – Donizetti’s Don Pasquale

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, March 2 – Verdi’s Falstaff

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, March 3 – Wagner’s Die Walküre

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, March 4 – Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, March 5 – Britten’s Peter Grimes

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, March 6 – Dvořák’s Rusalka

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enjoy the operas and enjoy your week!

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

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Franco Zeffirelli: Week 49 at the Met

Craig Byrd — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 08:01:00 +0000

Week 49 at the Met salutes Franco Zeffirelli. How you know Franco Zeffirelli may depend on whether you spend more time in movie theaters or opera houses.

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, February 15 – Puccini’s La Bohème

Conducted by Nicola Luisotti; starring Angela Gheorghiu, Ainhoa Arteta, Ramón Vargas, Ludovic Tézier, Quinn Kelsey, Oren Gradus and Paul Plishka. This revival of Franco Zeffirelli’s 1981 production is from the 2007-2008 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that streamed on March 17th and September 27th.

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

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

I know this is opera, not sports, but one important statistic is central to this production. March 29, 2008, marked the 347th performance of Zeffirelli’s production of La Bohème at the Met. That didn’t just make it the most performances of a single production of La Bohème to play the Met, this was the most performances of a single production of any opera in the Met’s history.

Tuesday, February 16 – Verdi’s Falstaff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, February 18 – Puccini’s Tosca

Conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli; starring Hildegard Behrens, Plácido Domingo and Cornell MacNeil. This Franco Zeffirelli production is from the 1984-1985 season. This is an encore presentation of the production made available on January 22nd.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday, February 21 – Puccini’s Turandot

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

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

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

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

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

Enjoy Week 49 at the Met and enjoy your week!

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

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Week 32 at the Met

Craig Byrd — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 07:01:39 +0000

We can all use some lightness and comedy in our lives. Perhaps that’s why the theme for Week 32 at the Met is Operatic Comedies. Not only can you expect some laughs this week, the productions being offered mark several milestones: the first ever production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola at the Met; the Met debuts of Tony Award winners Kelli O’Hara, Bartlett Sher and Susan Stroman and the final performances by Renée Fleming in Der Rosenkavalier.

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

If you read this column earlier enough on October 19th, you might still have time to catch the 2010-2011 season production of Don Pasquale that concludes last week’s Donizetti Week.

Here is the line-up for Week 32 at the Met:

Monday, October 19 – Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia

Conducted by Maurizio Benini; starring Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Flórez, Peter Mattei, John Del Carlo and John Relyea. This Bartlett Sher production is from the 2006-2007 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on March 31st.

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

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

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

This production marked the debut of Tony Award-winner (and 9-time nominee) Bartlett Sher at the Metropolitan Opera. In Anthony Tommasini’s review in the New York Times he hailed Sher’s production.

“For the inventive, breezy new production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Metropolitan Opera, which opened on Friday night and boasts a winning cast, the director Bartlett Sher, making his Met debut, has embraced the opera’s atmosphere of intrigue and subterfuge. Michael Yeargan’s set is an abstract matrix of movable doors, stairwells and potted orange trees that characters lurk behind as they listen in on conversations. Yet this is in no way an updated production. The costume designer, Catherine Zuber, has dressed the characters in colorful and sexy period garb with comic touches, like the disheveled, curly red wig worn by Rosina, the young heroine.

“If not updated, the opera is freshened up by Mr. Sher, bringing his perspective as an acclaimed theater director best known to New Yorkers for The Light in the Piazza.”

Tuesday, October 20 – 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 that was made available on April 23.

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, October 21 – Mozart’s Così fan tutte

Conducted by David Robertson; starring Amanda Majeski, Serena Malfi, Kelli O’Hara, Ben Bliss, Adam Plachetka and Christopher Maltman. This Phelim McDermott is from the 2017-2018 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on April 12th.

Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte had its world premiere in Vienna in 1790. Lorenzo Da Ponte, who wrote the libertti for The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni, wrote the libretto.

Ferrando and Guglielmo are vacationing with their fiancées, Dorabella and Fiordiligi. They are sisters. Don Alfonso challenges the men to a bet revolving around the women and their ability to be faithful. Using disguise, deception and a wicked sense of humor, Mozart’s opera ends happily ever after for one and all.

This production transports the original Naples setting in the 18th century to Brooklyn in the 20th century. Specifically, McDermott places the opera at an amusement park filled with the attractions you’d expect to set at the side show: sword swallowers, a bearded lady, a fire eater, a strongman and a contortionist.

Anthony Tommasini seemed a bit torn about the effectiveness of this setting. In his New York Times review he said, “I have never seen a production that completely cracks the code of Così, and for all its charms and insights, this production also comes up short. Mr. McDermott’s concept doesn’t explore the unsettling elements as much as some productions I’ve seen. But one thing it gets right is the role of sexual desire as a motivator for these lovers. To that end, moving the story to the 1950s, when proper young people refrained from premarital sex, and setting it in an amusement park, where the couples are on vacation, work well.”

Thursday, October 22 – Rossini’s La Cenerentola

Conducted by James Levine; starring Cecilia Bartoli, Ramón Vargas, Simone Alaimo and Alessandro Corbelli. This Cesare Lievi production is from the 1997-1998 season.

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

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

This was the first-ever production of La Cenerentola at the Met. There was one, and truly only one, reason for them to finally mount Rossini’s opera: Cecilia Bartoli. She included an aria from the opera on her first solo album in 1989 called Rossini Arias.

Mark Swed, writing in the Los Angeles Times, said of Bartoli’s performance in this production, “Still only 31 and a singer known for her insistence on respecting the natural limits of her supple but not large voice, Bartoli remains utterly fresh-sounding. So smooth and whole is the musical line that the florid decorations of Rossini’s coloratura never seem like display but more like a cat purring.

“Remarkable as her incomparable technique may be, Bartoli also integrates the singing–and purring it seems all the more–into a complete stage persona. If the Looney Tunes artists were still at it, they would have the perfect opera cat in Bartoli. She has a feline sense of surprising movement. Her attention is bright and seems scaled to the micro-second. She simply owns the stage, the way a cat owns its surroundings.”

Friday, October 23 – Verdi’s Falstaff

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

Saturday, October 24 – Rossini’s Le Comte Ory

Conducted by Maurizio Benini; starring Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez. This Bartlett Sher production is from the 2010-2011 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on April 16th and September 15th.

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

Here Sher uses an opera-within-an-opera conceit. It was one that Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times did not expect to like, “Nothing in Ory invites an opera-within-an-opera concept. Still, Rossini artificially turned two unrelated pieces into a completely reconceived opera, so the artifice of Mr. Sher’s staging is somehow resonant. Moreover, for all the antics, Mr. Sher takes Rossini’s characters and their romantic entanglements seriously and coaxes precise, nuanced performances from his gifted cast.”

Sunday, October 25 – Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier

Conducted by Sebastian Weigle; starring Renée Fleming, Elīna Garanča, Erin Morley, Matthew Polenzani, Marcus Brück and Günther Groissböck. This Robert Carsen production is from the 2016-2017 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on April 19th.

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

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

With this production, Fleming retired the role of Marschallin from her repertoire as she gradually made her exit from full productions. Anthony Tommasini, writing in the New York Times, closed his review by stating, “Der Rosenkavalier is not just about the passage of time and aging, but also about the importance of knowing when to let something, or even someone, go — in all stages of life. Ms. Fleming may be letting go of opera productions. We’ll see. Predictability is not a significant component of diva DNA. But she can look forward to many years of concerts and other artistic projects. And she sang beautifully on this milestone night for her, and for opera.”

That’s the full line-up for Week 32 at the Met. Next week the theme will be Politics in Opera (befitting a week prior to our elections.) Have fun with this week’s operas and enjoy your week.

Photo: Cecilia Bartoli in La Cenerentola (Photo courtesy of Met Opera Archives)

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Week 19 at the Met

Craig Byrd — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 07:01:20 +0000

Three operas based on Shakespeare’s plays anchor Week 19 at the Met. Two by Verdi and one by Gounod. The rest of the week is a mix of popular operas from Rossini, Wagner, Strauss and a lesser-known one by Puccini.

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

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

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

Monday, July 20 – Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Conducted by Michele Mariotti; starring Isabel Leonard, Lawrence Brownlee, Christopher Maltman and Maurizio Muraro. This revival of Bartlett Sher’s 2006 production is from the 2014-2015 season.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, July 23 – Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette
Conducted by Plácido Domingo; starring Anna Netrebko, Roberto Alagna, Nathan Gunn and Robert Lloyd. This revival of Guy Joosten’s 2005 production is from the 2007-2008 season.

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

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

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

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

Friday, July 24 – Verdi’s Falstaff
Conducted by James Levine; starring Mirella Freni, Barbara Bonney, Marilyn Horne, Bruno Pola and Paul Plishka. This revival of Franco Zeffirelli’s 1964 production is from the 1992-1993 season.

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

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

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

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

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

Giacomo Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West had its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in 1910. It was Puccini’s follow-up to Madama Butterfly. Like that work, this was also inspired by a play by David Belasco. The Girl of the Golden West was adapted by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini.

Set during the Gold Rush era in California, Sherriff Rance is told by a Wells Fargo agent, Ashby, that he is chasing a bandit named Ramerrez. Minnie is the owner of the bar where Rance’s unrequited love for Minnie remains just that. A stranger arrives and successfully flirts with Minnie. He identifies himself as Johnson, but in reality he is the bandit Ramerrez. Can he avoid recognition and capture? Will their love save the day?

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

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

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

Enjoy Week 19 at the Met!

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

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