This is Willis-Sørensen’s third production of Otello. She has sung in a wide range of operas from Puccini to Wagner to Beethoven. She recorded the final aria from Otello for her album Rachel, which was released last year. Two months ago she released her second album, Strauss: Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss.

I recently spoke with Willis-Sørensen about Otello and her various experiences with it, the present-day resonance the opera has and the experience of performing Otello with a Black singer in the title role. What follows are excerpts from my conversation with Willis-Sørensen that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

How much does the philosophy expressed in Bird Set Free by Sia, where she says, “Sing for love, sing for me,” resonate with you as you’re preparing yourself before going on stage?

I love that song. My daughter actually showed it to me. It’s so beautiful. “I don’t care if I sing off key. I found myself and my melodies. I sing for love. I sing for me. I let it out like a bird set free.” That’s what it feels like to me when I’m singing. There’s this incredible freedom of expression. Everyone is sitting there looking at me and it’s like I’ve been given the platform to express myself. It’s just the most incredible feeling.

To me there’s something more valuable in expressing something honest than in doing it perfectly. I’ve been varying degrees of toxic perfectionist all my life. With singing the best performances I’ve ever given, I would never say they are the ones that were the most technically perfect. It’s more the ones where I accessed something very real and shared it with the audience. That’s where I feel the most rewarding fulfillment.

Can you tell when you’re in a good production versus when you’re in one that isn’t working as well?

Yes. I’ve been wrong a couple of times, to be fair. I mean, no one’s perfect! But generally when the story is discernible, it’s legible – so to speak from the audience perspective – it’s going to be a good production. If it is not, then it’s going to be a concert with some weird, confusing nonsense happening in front of the audience. Which is not my favorite, obviously, given that I described it that way. It’s hard. I don’t envy a director the task of trying to coordinate all of those multitudinous moving parts.

This is your third production of Otello. How much does a production itself influence your approach to the role?

I’m finding that each nuance that I learn from an old production sort of informs the next one. It’s only my third. But it seems if you are asked to look at something from a different perspective, potentially it enriches your viewpoint on the role. Then depending on the flexibility of the director or the amount of time, you can really hone something.

I think it’s never identical. There are no two performances that are identical. The first production was very traditional. I think making a role debut in a production like that is a gift because you’re just doing the show, you’re just telling the story as well as you can, which is always ideal for a role debut.

The second production that I did was very modern in Munich and the take on the character was so different. I find that the strength of presentation from the second has informed this third one significantly. This is more traditional, but I think that my telling from day one has become a lot stronger than it was previously. 

LA Opera conductor James Conlon is a passionate fan of Verdi’s. Are you that passionate about Verdi as well? 

Absolutely. I’m in a very fortunate position where I get to sing a wide variety of repertoire, probably wider than is normal to do you could argue. But Verdi is certainly, if not my absolute favorite, then somehow among the top two favorite composers to sing. It’s just written in such a grateful way and the characters are always really interesting to play. I just love it. It suits my throat. I find singing Verdi feels very physically satisfying. Very often you die in the end, which is nice in a weird way. I mean, it makes you really think about your own mortality to die on stage. It makes you more grateful to be alive, but also the act of doing this somehow…I don’t know. I almost recommend it as a therapy, enacting your own death physiologically and then trying to lie there. 

Let’s talk about Desdemona’s death. The audience is led to believe that Desdemona has been killed. Then she seems to come back to life to sing her final passage in the opera before she does die. How do you navigate something like that to make it the serious moment it needs to be?

She’s dead. She’s not dead. Wait, is she dead? I know it’s very strange. It’s not very logical. Maybe it wasn’t common knowledge that it takes 3 to 5 minutes to choke a person. But I think [Otello’s] just knocked her unconscious. Clearly something is physically wrong enough that ultimately she dies from it. But she comes two for a second after the fact.

After the physical struggle, I don’t want to think. I want it as absolutely clean as possible. So that’s what I’m trying to focus on during those moments. Then I just try to not breathe visibly for the rest of the show.

Sonya Yoncheva said in 2015 about this role, “Desdemona is a strong woman who knows exactly what she’s doing. The only thing that escapes her is the level of craziness attained by Otello. I personally think she’s very brave. Her greatest strength is her love for Otello. She defends her love, her man, to the very end.” History has not really viewed the character that way. She is viewed more as a tragic victim. Where do you find her?

I think she’s strong in that she marries Otello against her parents wishes. She’s somehow emotionally healthy enough to believe she didn’t have a poor relationship to her parents. She didn’t escape them to marry Otello. They didn’t want her to marry him. She was so in love that she made this decision to stand by him and run away with him. That represents some kind of chutzpah, right? Who does that? 

But her love for Otello is so big. His specificity, his difference from all the other men she’s interacting with, I think is part of what contributes to that. She is a tragic victim. I just don’t see her as weak because I think it’s too easy to say that only weak people become the victims of abuse. I don’t think in the real world that’s how that plays out. When your tenderness is taken advantage of by another person, in whatever way, that could basically happen to anyone. It takes so much to be able to stand up to an abuser if they are someone you love.

So I think it’s a very relevant story. We have to feel like it’s a terrible mistake, it’s a terrible misunderstanding, and that Otello has done something very wrong. 

I also think there’s something even more topical than that, which is the whole idea that lies take on a truth of their own. If you repeat something often enough, you get a huge percentage of people to believe you. Social media is a hotbed of complete and utter falsehoods. 

It’s enough just to have an accusation. That’s enough to ruin you. Just the accusation. There doesn’t have to be any proof. There doesn’t have to be any investigation as soon as an accusation is made. That is another part of the story that’s really relevant.

I have three little children: a nine-year-old daughter and twin sons who are almost eight. My son was saying to someone, “It’s okay if you like something and I like something different. We can both like different things and still be good friends.” We can have divergent opinions and not be accusing one another of stupidity. That’s a beautiful notion that I’m trying really hard to teach my children. I think that’s really missing in public discourse.

What was once acceptable in opera for this role is no longer acceptable. Your other Otellos were not Black performers/singers. Creatively does it make a difference to see Russell Thomas, a Black man as Otello, singing opposite you? Do you think it’s important that that continue to be what is done on opera stages?

I have loved working with all of the Otellos that I’ve worked with. They have been very impressive and interesting storytellers. I think that Russell also is an incredible storyteller. I think he has experience to access in order to tell this role in a different way based on being an actual Black man. So when he talks about being a Black man among white people – I think they water down for the supertitles – but it’s something that he is able to tell in an different way. He’s very passionate and he’s a wonderful colleague. Singing with him is a joy.

I’m not entitled to have an opinion on the controversy because I am a white woman. But I do think that what differentiates opera from other art forms is the singing. At any given time in the world there may be five men who can do the role of Otello. So to make their skin color be requisite, we will just never get to do the piece.

I think Aida is the same. There are actually a few really wonderful African-descent singers who could sing either really well and they should do it. For that reason, I’m nervous about undertaking that task myself, even though it’s been offered a couple of times, because I don’t want to be part of the controversy.

It just doesn’t have an easy answer. In the productions I’ve done where we altogether ignored it, it’s fine. We’re still telling a story about jealousy. It just becomes not an issue of race. So I guess you can see much more clearly the issue of the racial dynamic, if the tenor is actually Black. So I think that it’s worthwhile doing either way. But this does definitely make this particular production of Otello extra special. 

Verdi wrote in a letter he sent in 1871 to Giulio Ricordi, “I deny that either singers or conductors can create or work creatively. This, as I have always said, is a conception that leads to the abyss.” If you had the opportunity to either refute or concur with Verdi, what would you tell him?

I tend not to agree with that because, and I always say this, if there were only one right way of doing it, just record it and be done. But we do it again and again. The beauty of the live experience is one thing. But I think the diversity of experience with different casts, I felt that myself in different casts, every singer brings themselves into what they’re doing. I would argue you have to work creatively.

But on the other hand, maybe what he meant, which I do agree with, is that you follow what is written on the page and you will make magic. We don’t have to create magic. We get to make the magic that Verdi already wrote down on the page. I do think his articulations, the expressive markings, the tempi, the dynamics, there’s room, of course, for rubato, there’s room for naturalistic interpretation. But most of that information is already on the page. When you follow those guidelines in a naturalistic way, you tend to do better than if you go rogue and ignore them.

To see the full interview with Rachel Willis-Sørensen, please go here.

Main Photo: Russell Thomas and Rachel Willis-Sørensen in LA Opera’s “Otello” (Photo by Cory Weaver/Courtesy LA Opera)

The post Rachel Willis-Sørensen: Desdemona Is Strong appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

“I’ve always seen all those nuances and everything that’s written on the page and I’ve tried to do them as best I could. But then in French what’s amazing is that it just works,” he said during a recent Zoom call. “It makes more sense. In Italian you had to make sense of it and in French it already makes sense. It makes it easier to sing, but it also makes it easier to understand, not just for us, for the audience. Things are clearer. The text is clear. The intentions are clearer.”

Verdi’s opera tells the story of Don Carlos of Spain (Matthew Polenzani) and Élisabeth de Valois (Sonya Yoncheva) who are betrothed to one another. They have never met. Don Carlos sneaks away to meet this unknown woman. They fall in love. However, their happiness is quickly ruined when Carlo’s father, Philippe II (Eric Owens), announces that he’s in love with her and she is to be his bride.

Even though she is now his stepmother, Don Carlos tries multiple times to woo Élisabeth away from his father.

With the Spanish Inquisition ongoing, the affairs of all three and the appearance of a mysterious monk lead to murder plots, revenge, unrequited love and thievery.

Verdi’s opera debuted in 1867 in Paris in French. Three months later it was performed in London in Italian. That version is the one most commonly performed.

This Saturday’s performance is the last opportunity for audiences to see Dupuis as Don Carlos’ best friend, but it’s also the performance that is being made available around the world as part of Met Opera Live in HD series.

Don Carlos is Verdi’s longest opera, but Dupuis finds much to like in these lengthy works even though they might be a bit convoluted.

“I think that’s a little point, isn’t it? Let’s make this as long as complicated as we can,” he says rhetorically. “You have to understand it from going back in time when they were writing them. These people had nothing like we do to to change their minds and just turn on a machine in their living room. So when they finally got the time to dress up and go to the opera it was a six hour long business. Every opera needed to have a minimum of five acts and a ballet. The only problem when Verdi wrote it was that the opera was too long. The people would have to catch the last train. So you have to shorten it enough so that people had time to go and catch the last train. But he had written even longer than what we’re doing.”

Dupuis counts himself amongst those who are usually most comfortable when opera hues primarily to the way fans and audiences usually see them. But with Don Carlos he thinks there is a great argument for performing Verdi’s work in the original French language.

“We like things the way we know them,” he says. “It is assembled this way, conducted this way, stage like that. And so it’s really hard for anyone to come up with something new. What’s interesting is that in this case we’re not changing what Verdi wrote. We’re using what Verdi wrote. What the French triggers is perhaps the sense that you’re hearing it for the first time. It allows you to re-hear it for the first time to possibly re-experience that first-time experience of the initial moment you actually heard this. But I know it’s not easy for everybody to open up their mindset to that.”

To make his point he brings up an example of his first aria in the opera which he describes as being a bit on the boring side…until it is sung in French.

“My first aria can be very boring. It might still be, I don’t know, but it’s two verses of the same music. The entire goal of this aria is to convince the Queen to have a meeting with Don Carlos. That’s all I’m doing. But I never understood how every word is carefully chosen so that it would make sense for the Queen to accept this invitation. So it’s very interesting how I get to play with those words so much better in the French. Even though I do speak Italian, when I sing the Italian it’s an inversion of the lines. It’s so intricate to be fitting the music that I feel like I’m losing this sense that the whole time my character is talking on a second degree. That’s lost in the translation because they had to make every word fit the the musical line. Instead of fitting the music on the words it did the opposite and it didn’t allow them to have these layers of understanding.”

One of the best known arias in Don Carlo is Dieu, tu semas dans no ames. To be performing an opera that features an aria about devotion to liberty at a time when the world is crisis adds additional meaning to Don Carlo for Dupuis.

“Every word that I say just made more sense. It already made sense in a generic context of war. But if you think of my character as this guy who is following the army. He goes to Flanders and he sees what the king and most importantly, the church, the Inquisition, he sees what they’re doing to those people because they’re not of the same religious belief. They’re Protestants and so the only response that they have is we kill everyone that doesn’t think like of us. And boom! Immediately we’re like, wait, is that what Putin was saying? This country right next to us they don’t think like me. Therefore, I must crush them like this. It seemed to me that that’s exactly what was happening.”

A different language and a new awareness are just two factors that allow Dupuis to try to achieve perfection in this production and in his art. Verdi said, “I have striven for perfection, it has always eluded me, but I surely had an obligation to make one more try.” Dupuis completely agrees with the composer.

“I don’t think perfection is achievable, but I think it’s a great goal. I think the people that have obsessed a bit too much about it definitely either changed careers or drowned in their careers. I think one of the hardest things to do is to strive for perfection and then have the humility to recognize that you did your best.”

One of Dupuis’ best attempts at that was in Jake Heggie‘s opera Dead Man Walking in Montreal.

“It was by far the most successful show I’ve ever been in opera. Not one review, not one person had anything bad to say about it. But it wasn’t perfect and I know it wasn’t. What was great about it though is that there was emotion. People lived something. They experienced something. Did we go to the theater for a reason? Do we live something that made us interested in going back? I think that’s what we should strive for, but I don’t think perfection is attainable. And I think that’s OK.”

There is so much more to my conversation with Etienne Dupuis. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel here.

Main photo: Etienne Dupuis (Photo by Dario Acosta/Courtesy of the artist)

The post Baritone Etienne Dupuis Strives for Perfection… appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enjoy your week! Enjoy the operas! Happy Pride!

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

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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)

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Amongst the authors whose work inspired the seven operas being streamed are Goethe, Nikolai Gogol, Victor Hugo, Alexander Pushkin, Friedrich Schiller and William Shakespeare.

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 April 5th, you might still have time to catch the 2016-2017 season production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde that concludes a week celebrating Love Triangles. And if you’ve never seen this production, I strongly recommend it.

Here is the full line-up for Week 56 at the Met:

Monday, April 5 – Gounod’s Faust

Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin; starring Marina Poplavskaya, Jonas Kaufmann, Russell Braun and René Pape. This Des McAnuff production is from the 2011-2012 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on May 23rd, November 17th and January 27th.

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

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

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

McAnuff made his Metropolitan Opera debut with this production. He is best known as the director of Jersey Boys and Ain’t Too Proud on Broadway. In his Faust he 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, 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.

Tuesday, April 6 – Verdi’s Rigoletto

Conducted by James Levine; starring Christiane Eda-Pierre, Isola Jones, Luciano Pavarotti, Louis Quilico and Ara Berberian. This revival of John Dexter’s 1977 production is from the 1981-1982 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was made available on August 12th and December 30th.

Victor Hugo, the author of Les Míserables, was also a playwright and it was his play, Le roi s’amuse, that served as the inspiration for Giuseppe Verdi’s opera. Francesco Maria Piave, who regularly collaborated with the composer, wrote the libretto. The opera had its world premiere in Venice, Italy in 1851.

The title character is a jester who serves the Duke of Mantua. The Duke is a seductive man who, upon learning that the woman with whom Rigoletto lives is his daughter and not his wife, makes the young woman, Gilda, his next target. Curses, assassination plots and more leave this clown without much to smile about. 

For most opera fans, Pavarotti’s appearance in this production was the selling point. But for New York Times critic Edward Rothstein, he found something, or rather, someone else to admire.

“Though Luciano Pavarotti as the Duke may attract the most attention, Louis Quilico, as Rigoletto, was at the center of the drama; his passions and fears could be heard in his voice as well as seen in his face and body. His ‘La ra, la ra, la la’ seemed sobbed out by a jester who has lived too long and seen too much.”

Wednesday, April 7 – Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin

Conducted by Robin Ticciati; starring Anna Netrebko, Elena Maximova, Alexey Dolgov, Peter Mattei and Štefan Kocán. This revival of the 2013-2014 Deborah Warner production is from the 2016-2017 season. This is an encore presentation of the production previously available on August 19th.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was inspired by Alexander Pushkin’s verse novel of the same name for this opera that had its world premiere in Moscow in 1879. The composer co-wrote the libretto (using much of Pushkin’s text as written) with Konstantin Shilovsky.

Onegin is a rather selfish man. Tatyana expresses her love for him, but he rejects her saying he isn’t suited to marriage. By the time he comes to regret the way he treated her, he has also come to regret the actions that lead to a duel that killed his best friend.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky had been announced to sing the title role in this production. Due to ongoing treatments for cancer, he had to withdraw from the production. When this production opened Mariusz Kwiecien sang the role. Ten days prior to this performance that is being shown, Peter Mattei assumed the role. Exactly seven months after this performance, Hvorostovsky passed away.

Thursday, April 8 – Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini

Conducted by James Levine; starring Renata Scotto, Plácido Domingo and Cornell MacNeil. This Piero Faggioni production is from the 1983-1984 season. This is an encore presentation of the production previously available on August 18th and December 17th.

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.

The only clip I could find is, unfortunately, the finale. So if you don’t know the opera and don’t want to see how it ends, I’d advise you bypass this clip.

This production marked the first time Zandonai’s opera had been performed at the Metropolitan Opera in 66 years. It also marked the debut of Piero Faggioni.

Donal Henahan, my favorite of all New York Times opera critics had fun with this one. In particular he sharpened his pen for his comments about Scotto’s performance:

“To succeed even on its own modest level, the work needs a Francesca of irresistible stage presence and a voice to match. Renata Scotto is at a point in her career where the voice is colorless and often downright shrill. Her acting powers were stretched beyond their limits by a heavily padded scenario and heavy-handed direction by Piero Faggioni in his Met debut. The problem was not that she indulged in silent-movie histrionics, which cannot and should not be avoided in a period production of this sort, but that she seemed to have only half a dozen poses to draw upon. Her idea of showing desire for Paolo did not extend much beyond kneading her loins and clutching her thighs, which she did at tiresome length.”

Friday, April 9 – Shostakovich’s The Nose

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 previously available on July 1st.

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.

Saturday, April 10 – Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette

Conducted by Plácido Domingo; starring Anna Netrebko, Roberto Alagna, Nathan Gunn and Robert Lloyd. This revival of Guy Joosten’s 2005 production is from the 2007-2008 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available on July 23rd and November 7th.

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

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

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

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

Sunday, April 11 – Verdi’s Luisa Miller

Conducted by Bertrand de Billy; starring Sonya Yoncheva, Olesya Petrova, Piotr Beczała, Plácido Domingo, Alexander Vinogradov and Dmitry Belosselskiy. This revival of the 2002 Elijah Moshinsky production is from the 2017-2018 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was previously available on May 2nd and August 26th.

Luisa Miller was Verdi’s 15th opera. As with Don Carlo, the composer turned to Friedrich Schiller for inspiration. His work, Kabale und Liebe, was the basis for Salvadore Cammarano’s libretto. The opera had its world premiere in 1849 in Naples, Italy.

Like many a young woman, Luisa Miller’s father is not thrilled with her choice of boyfriends. Carlo, the man she loves, is not quite who he seems to be. Enter Wurm, who knows the truth about Carlo and who does everything he can to ruin their relationship because he, too, is in love with Luisa.

Domingo announced that his performance of Luisa’s father in this production would make the 149th role he had portrayed in his career. This was part of his career shift after switching from singing tenor roles to baritone roles.

Conductor de Billy was brought in after James Levine was fired from the Metropolitan Opera after an investigation into in appropriate sexual behavior.

The first opera Domingo and Levine collaborated on at the Met was a 1971 production of Luisa Miller. This production was the Met’s first of this Verdi work in over a decade.

That’s it for Week 56 at the Met. Next week the theme is Once Upon a Time. Can you guess what will be shown?

Enjoy your week and enjoy the operas!

Photo: Paulo Szot in The Nose (Photo by Ken Howard/Courtesy Metropolitan Opera)

The post From Page to Stage: Week 56 at the Met appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Soprano Sonya Yoncheva is talking about her new album Rebirth on Sony Classical. Rather than follow a traditional concept like her previous albums of the works of Giuseppe Verdi, George Frideric Handel and an album of arias from French operas, Yoncheva is tackling primarily Baroque music on Rebirth. There are a few exceptions including a Bulgarian folk song (she’s from Bulgaria) and that one song by Abba which she included because it relies on the same for notes for its structure as Hear me, O God by composer Alfonso Ferrabosco II (also on the album).

Yoncheva came to prominence when she won the 2010 Operalia competition. Offers to join opera productions around the world came her way. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in a 2013 production of Verdi’s Rigoletto. Lead roles in Otello, La Bohème, La Traviata, Luisa Miller and Médée followed. This summer she will make her role debut as the title character in Aida.

Last week I spoke by phone with Yoncheva who was in her home in Switzerland and she began by explaining how she realized the record labels were actually right about waiting to do Rebirth.

“Today with all those years I’ve been recording, I understand,” she says. “It’s written and performed for a specific audience. That’s why I basically didn’t record it in that time. I think it’s maybe better for a singer to establish the career already and little by little you can propose things you like and are more personal to you.”

She was able to record the album last summer after the first lockdown in Europe. She found the project had a distinct resonance to our modern times.

“Artists are very personal when we present projects like that,” she offers. “I think that the world was in such a state before this pandemic. I think it was worse before. Rebirth is more a less a mirror of what’s happening around me. In my work I always try to underline those things. I wanted to get spiritual.”

Though she told me it wasn’t truly a risk now, Yoncheva thrives on taking risks. As she will when she performs in Aida. She has had many opportunities to perform the role before.

“It’s a role that I always refused many many times. When they first proposed me this I thought they were totally insane,” she says followed by a laugh. “Many years ago when I was starting I couldn’t understand the woman. In my own life I would never keep my tongue in my mouth as we say here. If I love someone I will go for it and I will forget about anything else. Duty is important, but I would make it important that I would love my man and have my duties as a queen. Why can’t she say the truth? Still I’m struggling with it. The music is so fascinating. Maybe now is the time I could give it a try.”

She’ll be performing the role of the Ethiopian princess at a time when casting issues are omnipresent. It’s a reality that is not lost on Yoncheva.

“I always try to put myself in the place of others. I could feel a lot of pain around this topic. I don’t know how we can solve this. She is where she is from and she needs to be presented exactly as the composer wanted her to be. At the same time, I don’t really find the way how to solve the problem of casting the best Aida. Perhaps the best answer will be only to do a concert version to keep the music alive.”

When she takes to the stage of Arena di Verona, it will be the first production in which she’s appeared in eight months. Yoncheva says the difficultly of that long a layoff is massive.

“You cannot imagine. It’s like saying to Roger Federer he won’t play for eight months and all of a sudden he has the US Open. I can do all the exercises at home and warm my voice, but it’s never the same. How you can start and finish a show? It’s something very real. I’m very impatient to do something on stage with real costumes and see what happens.”

Yoncheva’s recent Met Opera Stars Live in Concert (available on demand through April 4th) included L’hymne a l’amour and she made a point of saying it was written by two women (Édith Piaf and Marguerite Monnot). I asked her about it and she was very intentional in giving them credit.

“I know we are talking a lot about this and I find that this is a very old topic. I was reading recently a book about courtesans in the Venetian period and one of them, Veronica Franco, was one of the first courtesans to talk about the right of a woman to exist and be considered a human being. I said to myself this happened in the 15th century and we still talk about that.”

“The force of a woman is also this ability to put people together and keep the balance in family and in business or artistic relations. It’s really interesting to do more research and see who those women were in music history. I’m working on a little project so you’re understanding this is important to me.”

As our conversation was nearing its end, I asked her about something Bangladeshi poet Munia Khan said, “The easiest way to be reborn is to live and feel life every day.” It came as no surprise that she wholeheartedly endorses that way of thinking.

“I think the most important part is to be totally honest. First of all with yourself and then with others. This is what is also called respect and love – those kind of feelings you can express in such simple ways. When I’m on stage there aren’t many filters. I’m singing a part, of course, but this is the way to give this kind of green light to this personality to come into your body and to perform them in the best way. You are the one to communicate with the audience.

“I think honesty always pays back. We must, a little bit, escape from the artificial way of communicating and just be humans. It’s so simple. It’s simple to say it. As an artist I’m singing for this.”

Photo: Sonya Yoncheva (©Javier del Real)

The post Soprano Sonya Yoncheva’s 10 Year “Rebirth” appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

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.

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

If you read this column early enough on March 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.

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, 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.

My top pick this week was originally from Dance Theatre of Harlem. They were schedule to show their highly-acclaimed re-invention of the ballet The Rite of Spring with music by Igor Stravinsky on Saturday. We just received word it has been postponed until March 13th.

Luckily there are plenty of other options and my revised Top Pick is The Gathering For Justice’s tribute to the legendary Harry Belafonte.

I also have Tony Award-winner Brian Stokes Mitchell, Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel in San Francisco Opera’s 2013 production of Verdi’s Falstaff, an evening with Tony Award winner Ali Stroker and a release party/concert for Old Friends by Mark Winkler and David Benoit.

But there’s so much more than that. So take a look. Here are my Best Bets: February 26th – February 28th:

MUSICAL: Gatsby – a Musical – Cadogan Hall – February 26th – February 28th

Baz Luhrmann did all but make F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby into a musical. But he’s not the only one who believes this story can, to greater or lesser degree, be musicalized.

Enter composer and lyricist Joe Evans and writer/director Linnie Reedman with their musical version, Gatsby A Musical.

The show played at the Kings Head Theatre in north London in 2012. This weekend, Cadogan Hall is offering a reunion concert presentation.

Daisy is the focus of the musical and she’s played in this concert by Jodie Steele (Six The Musical). Ross William Wild (Million Dollar Quartet) plays Gatsby. Tom Buchannan is played Liam Doyle (Wicked). Blake Patrick Anderson (Be More Chill) plays Nick Carraway with Joe Frost and Emma Williams playing George and Myrtle Wilson. (You don’t need a synopsis, do you? Didn’t we all read this in high school or college?)

Reviews in 2012 were mostly positive, though some said it was more like a play with music rather than a musical. Even if that’s true, if we’re about to embark on our own roaring twenties, wouldn’t it be great to get lost in all the decadence from a century ago?

There are three performances available: Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 PM EST/11:30 AM PST. Tickets, which must be purchased in advance, are £22 which equates to approximately a little over $31.

CHAMBER MUSIC: Jupiter String Quartet – Kranner Center for the Performing Arts – February 26th – 1:00 PM EST/10:00 AM PST

The first weekend of this month I included the Reflection and Renewal series with Jupiter String Quartet in my Best Bets. I’m including them again as the series comes to an end with Friday’s concert. On the program are works by Felix Mendelssohn, George Walker and William Bolcom.

The last two are what makes this concert the most interesting to me personally. Walker was the first African-American composer to receive be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music. His Lilacs was named the recipient in 1996. Jupiter String Quartet will be performing Lyric for Strings, written when the composer was 24 as a tribute to his recently deceased grandmother.

Bolcom’s Three Rags for String Quartets is an arrangement of three popular piano pieces the composer wrote: Poltergeist, Graceful Ghost and Incineratorag. In this concert, Jupiter String Quartet will be playing the last one.

If you’ve missed any of the four performances from Krannert Center you have until March 5th to view them all. Each episode runs 20-30 minutes. There is no charge to do so.

JAZZ: Paula West: Great American Politic – SFJAZZ – February 26th – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

Jazz singer Paula West took to the stage at SFJAZZ in 2018 with this show as a musical response to he who was once president. Among the songwriters she relied on to express her views were Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Simon and Garfunkel.

You’re probably thinking, do I really need to end my week with a politically charged show? If you’ve heard Paula West before you already know the answer to that question. If you don’t know her, hopefully this clip will persuade you to take a look.

Tickets are $5 (which gives you access to a full month of Fridays at Five concerts). You can also get an annual membership for $60 (which give you access for 52 weeks).

OPERA: Courtney Bryan’s Blessed – Opera Philadelphia Channel – Debuts February 26th – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

Opera Philadelphia continues their fascinating new series of digital commissions with Blessed by composer Courtney Bryan.

Bryan regularly came back to a bible verse from Matthew 5 as protests about policy brutality grew in frequency and intensity around the country.

The verse, a rather popular one, says, “blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Blessed is her musical response to that verse.

Performing are soprano Janinah Burnett and vocalist Damian Norfleet. The film, directed by Tiona Nekkia McClodden, was shot in New Orleans, New York and Philadelphia. Collaborating with McClodden was sound designer Robert Kaplowitz to create what press materials are calling “sonic quilting.”

Tickets range from $10 for a seven day rental to $25 for a digital package.

OPERA: Verdi’s Falstaff – San Francisco Opera – February 27th – February 28th

Conducted by Nicola Luisotti; starring Bryn Terfel, Ainhoa Arteta, Heidi Stober and Meredith Arwady. This Olivier Tambosi production is from the 2013-2014 season.

Two of Shakespeare’s play served as the inspiration for Verdi’s Falstaff: The Merry Wives of Windsor and sections from Henry IV Parts 1 and 2. Arrigo Boito adapted the plays to create the libretto. 

Falstaff had its world premiere in 1893 at La Scala in Milan. This was Verdi’s final opera and only his second comedic opera.

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

I’ll be watching this production just to see Bryn Terfel in this role.

Joshua Kosman, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, said of Terfel’s performance, “His performance as the fat knight has everything that makes Falstaff irresistible – grandiose self-regard, improbable charisma and a vein of deep poignancy, all conveyed through singing of great power and flexibility.

“And as Falstaff says of himself, Terfel was not only a great onstage wit but the cause of wit in others. His very presence seemed to spur his fellow performers to find both the buoyant humor and the rich emotional undercurrent in the piece.”

The production becomes available at 1:00 PM EST/10:00 AM PST and remains available through the end of Sunday, February 28th PST.

JAZZ: Mark Winkler/David Benoit Record Release Party – Feinstein’s at Vitello’s – February 27th – 9:00 PM EST/6:00 PM PST

I’ve written about singer/songwriter Mark Winkler before. In fact, you can see my interview with him from August 2019 here. He has teamed up with pianist, composer and KKJZ radio host David Benoit for a new album called Old Friends which was released on Tuesday.

The new recording finds the duo performing three songs they co-wrote along with well-known tunes such as “The Shadow of Your Smile,” “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today” and the title song (originally performed by Simon & Garfunkel). I’ve heard the album and think it’s quite good.

To celebrate the album’s debut they are holding a live-streaming release party from Feinstein’s at Vitello’s in Los Angeles. Joining Winkler and Benoit for this performance are Gabe Davis on bass, Clayton Cameron on drums and Pat Kelley on guitar.

There is the main show at 9:00 PM EST/6:00 PM PST with a ticket price of $31.75. There’s also an Encore After Show scheduled for 10:45 PM EST/7:45 PM PST which will find Winkler and Benoit in conversation with Brad Roen. Tickets are $18 for the after show.

POSTPONED DANCE: Firebird – Dance Theatre of Harlem – rescheduled to March 13th

Dance Theatre of Harlem’s month-long Winter 2021 Virtual Ballet Series concludes this week and they’ve saved the best for last.

In 1982, DTH premiered John Taras’ choreography to the classic score by Igor Stravinsky. Instead of Russia the setting is the Caribbean. Geoffrey Holder created the sets and costumes.

When the work first debuted 39 years ago, Anna Kisselgoff in her New York Times review proclaimed, “It is filled with amusing inconsistencies but it does one thing other versions do not – send its audience into a whooping spell of delirium. When the firebird figure drove out the forces of malice last night, the house cheered as if it had just seen an adventure yarn. And so it had. Good conquered evil and did so in an action-packed continuum.”

There is no charge to watch the ballet.

Firebird will be available for one week on DTH’s YouTube Channel.

BROADWAY/CABARET: An Evening with Ali Stroker – Kean Stage – February 27th – 7:30 PM EST/4:30 PM PST

Ali Stroker was the recipient of the 2019 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance as Ado Annie in the revival of Oklahoma. She made her Broadway debut in the 2015 revival of the musical Spring Awakening.

For this live-streamed show from Enlow Recital Hall at Kean University in New Jersey, Stoker will be performing songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Stephen Sondheim, Carole King, Stephen Schwartz and, of course, Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Tickets are $25 with a discount available to members of the Kean University family (you have to e-mail to acquire that discount.)

Ado Annie is just a girl who can’t say no. How can you say no to this concert?

JAZZ: Artifacts Trio: …and Then There’s This – REDCAT – February 27th – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

What began, perhaps, as a one-off collaboration amongst cellist Tomeka Reid, flutist Nicole Mitchell and drummer Mike Reed in 2015 has blossomed into one of the most vital trios working in jazz.

This live-streamed concert through REDCAT in Los Angeles is required viewing for those who like their music on the more adventurous and experiment side. You probably knew that when you read the configuration of cello, flute and drums.

Tickets are $15 for general admission; $12 for REDCAT members and students and $8 for CalArts students, faculty and staff. There will be a post-performance discussion with Reid after the concert ends.

ROOTS MUSIC: Joachim Cooder and Amythyst Kiah with Special Guest Ry Cooder – Skirball Cultural Center YouTube Channel – February 27th – 11:00 PM EST/8:00 PM PST

Every once in a while a concert comes along that doesn’t fit easily into what Cultural Attaché does, but seems too good not to mention. Quite often those events come from the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

Saturday’s concert by Joachim Cooder with his father Ry Cooder as a special guest is just such a concert. And for added measure vocalist Amythyst Kiah is also part of this concert.

What can you expect? A little bit roots rock, some folk influences, definitely some blues, a little bit of country and a whole lot of great music.

Ry Cooder might be known to some as the composer of the scores for such films as Paris, Texas and Alamo Bay. He was also the producer of the album that put the Buena Vista Social Club on all of our radars. Above all, he’s a supremely talented musician.

Joachim’s most recent album was last year’s Over That Road I’m Bound, a collection of songs by country artist Uncle Dave Macon. He’s a singer, drummer, keyboardist who has collaborated with his father and also released two other solo albums.

Kiah – you just need to hear this woman sing. Truly. Earlier this year she released a single called “Black Myself” that, well, just has to be heard. She’s got an amazing voice.

There is no charge to watch this show. However, if you make reservations for the concert by February 26th, you’ll get access to program notes and more. And if you can’t watch the show as it streams on Saturday night, it will be available on Skirball’s YouTube channel.

BROADWAY/CABARET: Brian Stokes Mitchell with Seth Rudetsky – Seth Concert Series – February 28th – 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST

During the pandemic you’ve probably seen video of Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell serenading his neighborhood with “The Impossible Dream” from the musical Man of La Mancha in support of hospital workers during the pandemic.

Stokes, as his friends and colleagues call him, has appeared on Broadway in Jelly’s Last Jam, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Ragtime (originating the role of Coalhouse Walker), Kiss Me, Kate, King Hedley, Man of La Mancha and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. He won his Tony for his performance as Fred Graham in Kiss Me, Kate.

He is also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for The Actors Fund. In other words, he has plenty to talk and sing about.

If you can’t watch the show live at the time listed about, there will be an encore showing at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST. Tickets for either time are $25.

*TOP PICK* GALA: The Gathering for Harry (Belafonte) – The Gathering For Justice – February 28th – 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

This gala fundraiser for The Gathering For Justice is advertising this is a “surprise” event celebrating the 94th birthday of legendary actor, activist, singer and songwriter Harry Belafonte. But does that matter? They are celebrating Harry Belafonte.

I grew up with my mother and my aunt talking about how much they loved Belafonte and his music. His records were played regularly by them both. I won’t go into their other, more personal, comments about him.

He’s a Tony Award winner for his performance in John Murray Anderson’s Almanac, a three-time Grammy Award winner, an Emmy Award winner and the recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

While his most recent film appearance was in Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman as an civil rights pioneer, it is his work as an activist that he is perhaps best known. Which makes this event with The Gathering For Justice a perfect fit. The organization’s focus on ending child incarceration and the systemic racism within our criminal justice system.

That Belafonte founded the organization also helps (and makes this whole surprise thing a little, well, surprising.)

Amongst the artists coming together to celebrate Belafonte’s birthday are Aloe Blacc, Common, Danny Glover, Tiffany Haddish, Jay-Z and Susan Sarandon.

Tickets begin at $25 but sponsorship packages go for as much as $100,000.

CHAMBER MUSIC: Telegraph Quartet – Noe Music – Debuts February 28th – 10:00 PM EST/7:00 PM PST

Last September San Francisco-based Telegraph Quartet was scheduled to perform at Noe Valley Chamber Music. The pandemic forced some changes. First was the date. Second was the name of the festival, which is now called Noe Music.

The new date is upon us as violinist Eric Chin and Joseph Maile; violist Pe-Ling and cellist Jeremiah Shaw perform a program of music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Johannes Brahms on Sunday.

Korngold is best known for his rousing film scores, but he also composed classical music. His four-movement String Quartet No. 3 had its world premiere in Los Angeles in 1949 as part of the Evenings on the Roof series at the Wilshire Ebell Theater. It’s a stunning work.

Brahms’ String Quartet in A minor, Op. 51, No. 2 was composed in 1873. Along with the composer’s String Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, they were both published as companion pieces Op. 51. The piece performed in this concert actually had its premiere prior to the Brahms’ String Quartet No. 1. Also a four-movement work, this quartet with its use of canons, shows the influence of Johann Sebastian Bach on Brahms.

Tickets are $20 and the concert is expected to run 90 minutes.

Those are my official picks as Best Bets: February 26th – February 28th, but a few reminders:

Saturday’s Met Stars Live in Concert features soprano Sonya Yoncheva in a performance from Germany.

Also from the Metropolitan Opera are the last three productions streaming in celebration of the late baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky. They are all works by Verdi: La Traviata from the 2011-2012 season on Friday; Un Ballo in Maschera from the 2012-2013 season on Saturday and Il Trovatore, the final production in which he appeared at the Met from the 2014-2015 season.

Larry Powell’s The Gaze…No Homo is available for free streaming this weekend only from Center Theatre Group. Beginning Monday, March 1st, it will be available for streaming on demand for $20 through March 25th. I’ve written about this show before. I strongly recommend it. Last December I published a two-part interview with Powell. You can read part one here and part two here.

That’s it for my Best Bets: February 26th – February 28th. Have a terrific weekend and I’ll see you in March (on Monday) with next week’s line-up of streaming productions from the Met.

Photo: Harry Belafonte with Martin Luther King, Jr. (Photo courtesy Mr. Belafonte’s Facebook page)

Update: On Friday afternoon, February 26th, I received word that Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Firebird was being postponed until March 13th. This post has been updated to reflect the postponement and a new Top Pick was selected.

The post Best Bets: February 26th – February 28th – REVISED appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

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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It would probably be unnecessarily obtuse to say they chose the composer’s third, fourth, fifth, six, seventh, eighth and tenth operas for this week’s streaming productions. Or to say, you’re not going to see Le Villi, Edgar or Il trittico. But absent those three, you are sure to have realized you’ll get to see and hear all of his most popular works.

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 column earlier enough on September 21st, you might still have time to catch the 2017-2018 production of Bellini’s Norma from last week’s Bel Canto Classics.

Here is the all-Puccini line-up for Week 28 at the Met.

Monday, September 21 – 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 that was streamed on April 15th.

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.”

Tuesday, September 22 – Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West

Conducted by Nicola Luisotti; starring Deborah Voigt, Marcello Giordani and Lucio Gallo. This revival of Giancarlo del Monaco’s 1991 production is from the 2010-2011 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was streamed on April 7th.

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?

If you read the dates carefully, this production was the 100th anniversary of its debut at the Met.

Anthony Tommasini, writing in the New York Times said this production was the best possible way to celebrate its centennial.

“In spirit, the Met’s current staging is close to the original and allows this remarkable score to come through beautifully. For generations Fanciulla has been patronized as an unlikely melodrama, a prototype for the spaghetti western films from Italy, a pulsing Puccini opera plopped into an implausible California setting where miners sing ‘doo-dah day’ refrains when not spouting Italian.

“But the piece has won a loyal following, and on this night, thanks in large part to the stylish, nuanced and sensitive conducting of Nicola Luisotti, the score emerged as arguably Puccini’s most subtly written and boldly modern music. In place of those typical Puccini melodic outbursts that grab you and won’t let go, this ingenious score folds refined lyrical strands into a nearly through-composed musical fabric.”

Wednesday, September 23 – Puccini’s Manon Lescaut

Conducted by Fabio Luisi; starring Kristine Opolais, Roberto Alagna, Massimo Cavalletti and Brindley Sherratt. This Richard Eyre production is from the 2015-2016 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that streamed on July 13th.

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

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

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

Thursday, September 24 – Puccini’s Madama Butterfly

Conducted by Patrick Summers; starring Patricia Racette, Maria Zifchak, Marcello Giordani and Dwayne Croft. This revival of Anthony Minghella’s 2006 production is from the 2008-2009 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that was streamed on April 17th.

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly is every bit as popular as La Bohéme. Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa wrote the libretto based on John Luther Long’s short story, Madame Butterfly and on the 1887 French novel Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti. David Belasco turned Long’s story into the play Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy in Japan. Puccini saw the play in 1900 in London. His opera had its world premiere in 1904 at La Scala in Milan.

Cio-Cio San falls in love with an Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy named Pinkerton while he is stationed in Japan. They hold a wedding ceremony that Cio-Cio San takes very seriously. When Pinkerton has orders to go back to the States, she awaits his return. Unbeknownst to Pinkerton, Cio-Cio San has gotten pregnant and given birth to a son. When he finally does return with his American wife, Cio-Cio San is devastated. (If this sounds like the musical Miss Saigon, it is because Madama Butterfly served as the inspiration for that musical.)

Steven Smith, writing in the New York Times praised Racette’s performance as Cio-Cio San.

“Returning as Cio-Cio-San, the 15-year-old former geisha of the title, was the soprano Patricia Racette, whose first appearances in this production last season drew resounding acclaim. Her singing was robust, nuanced and passionate, befitting a performer of her skill and experience.

“Even more striking was the dramatic specificity with which she inhabited the role. Her facial expressions, gestures and physical tics were those of an innocent, trusting girl, incapable until the end of accepting abandonment by Pinkerton, her American husband. In every dimension Ms. Racette’s effort was exceptional; hers is a performance not to be missed.”

Friday, September 25 – 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 streamed on April 21st.

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.

Saturday, September 26 – Puccini’s Turandot

Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin; starring Christine Goerke, Eleonora Buratto, Yusif Eyvazov and James Morris. This revival of the 1987 Franco Zeffirelli production from the 2019-2020 season. This is an encore presentation of the production that streamed on May 21st.

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.”

Sunday, September 27 – 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.

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.)

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.

There you have it. A complete diet of Giacomo Puccini for Week 28 at the Met. Enjoy the operas and have a great week!

Photo: Patricia Racette in Madama Butterfly. (Photo by Ken Howard/Courtesy Metropolitan Opera)

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