Metropolitan Opera Preview: Cyrano de Bergerac

"And all you can come up with is 'Big Nose.'"
by Paul J. Pelkonen

This isn't The Nose: Roberto Alagna as Cyrano de Bergerac.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2017 The Metropolitan Opera.

Franco Alfano is remembered today as a footnote. He's the guy saddled with the unenviable task of writing the final pages of Giacomo Puccini's last opera Turandot in 1924. That completion was dismissed in 1924 by Toscanini himself. However, his six operas survive. This is the first Metropolitan Opera revival of Cyrano de Bergerac.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Der Fliegende Holländer

Yannick Nézet-Séguin steers into Wagnerian waters.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Out to sea: Michael Volle as the Flying Dutchman.
Photo by Richard Termine © 2017 Richard Termine courtesy the Metropolitan Opera.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin became the future of the Metropolitan Opera when he accepted the role of music director-to-be at the opera house. Here, audiences can hear him cnduct Wagner at the big house for the first time, as he dips into the stormy waters of Der Fliegende Holländer.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Der Rosenkavalier

Viennese waltzes and bed-hopping: Strauss' comedy gets a new staging.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Elīna Garanča (top) and Renée Fleming in a publicity photo for the
Met's new production of Der Rosenkavalier.

Renée Fleming has owned the role of the Marschallin in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier at the Met for the last two decades. Here, she appears in a new production opposite a new Octavian, mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča. 

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Eugene Onegin

La Netrebko returns opposite two substitute baritones in Tchaikovsky's drama.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Anna Netrebko in the Act I "letter scene" from Eugene Onegin.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2014 The Metropolitan Opera.

Anna Netrebko returns to the role of Tatiana in the production she created in 2013. Her Onegin(s) will be Mariusz Kwiecien and Peter Mattei. They are substituting for Dmitri Hvorostovsky, who has declared himself unable to perform due to cancer treatments.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Fidelio

Beethoven's lone opera returns to the big house. 
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Adrienne Pieczonka in the title role of Beethoven's Fidelio.
Photo © 2014 Royal Opera House of Covent Garden.

Beethoven only wrote one opera: the strange yet stirring Fidelio. Adrienne Pieczonka plays a brave wife who dresses in drag and gets a job as a jailor in order to get her husband out of prison. This is the first Met revival in over a decade.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Idomeneo

Power, mystery and a gigantic sea monster in Mozart's drama.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The supernatural climax of Mozart's Idomeneo.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2006 The Metropolitan Opera.

Matthew Polenzani takes on the title role in Mozart's challening drama, an opera seria thar chronicles the trials and tribulations of a Cretan king who returns from the Trojan War only to find out that the gods demand a sacrifice: his only son.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: La Traviata

The girl in the red dress goes back on the clock.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Champagne supernova: Sonya Yoncheva in La Traviata at the Met.

Photo by Ken Howard © 2015 The Metropolitan Opera.

Sonya Yoncheva returns to sing Violetta in the Met's controversial, clock-watching production of Verdi's tragic masterpiece.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Werther

The Met brings back its handsome new Werther...without its star, Jonas Kaufmann.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Isabel Leonard stands strong as Charlotte in Massenet's Werther.
Well actually this photo is of the mezzo in Cosí fan tutti but we're on deadline.
Photo © 2017 The Metropolitan Opera.

Vittorio Grigolo has big shoes to fill (Jonas Kaufmann's) as the Met revives its Richard Eyre staging of Werther, the tale of a lovestruck poet whose tragic love for the beautiful Charlotte (Isabel Leonard) leads to suicide.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Rusalka

It's like The Little Mermaid but with more death.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The sleeper must awaken: Kristin Opolais (rear) and Brandon Jovanovich (foreground) in Rusalka.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2017 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Met plunges into a new production of Dvořák's Rusalka, a Czech fairy tale with gorgeous music and a dark but oh-so-Romantic ending. Kristine Opolais sings the title role, which has become one of her signature parts in recent years.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Il Barbiere di Siviglia

Rossini's comic brilliance lights up the Met stage...again.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Figaro (on cart) makes his grand entrance in Act I of Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
Photo © 2016 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Met brings joy and warmth into the middle of winter with this January 2017 revival of Il Barbiere di Siviglia. This version of the opera is sung in Italian and presented without cuts.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Roméo et Juliette

"A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life..."
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Publicity photo of Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo as Juliette and her Roméo.
Photo by Kristian Schuller for the Metropolitan Opera.

The Met unveils a new take on Shakespeare's classic story of doomed young love, with Vittorio Grigolo and Diana Damrau singing Charles Gounod's gorgeous music. This new production by Bart Sher was first seen at Salzburg and La Scala. It arrives at the Met on New Year's Eve.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Nabucco

Plácido Domingo is the king of Babylon in Verdi's hokey but effective Old Testament opera.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Plácido Domingo (seen here as Oreste in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride.) sings the title role in Verdi's Nabucco. 
Photo by Ken Howard © 2015 The Metropolitan Opera

Verdi's early opera is an Old Testament epic with a towering title role and a chorus that you will never forget. For this revival, Placído Domingo steps into the gold boots of Nebuchednezzar, king of Babylon, captor of Jews and finally, convert to the faith.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Salome

The opera that made Richard Strauss a household name and shocked the world.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Head-hunter: Patricia Racette is Salome in the Met's new revival of Strauss' opera.
Photo © San Antonio Opera.

Salome is a white-knuckle ride down the road of excess, leading not to the palace of wisdom but to depravity and death. And yes the Met has scheduled performances of it right around the holidays.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: L'Amour de Loin

Long distance love is the subject of Kaija Saariaho's 21st century opera.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Keep 'em separated: Susanna Philips and Eric Owens in L'Amour de Loin. 
Image © 2016 The Metropolitan Opera.

Sixteen years after its Salzburg premiere and fourteen years after the first North American performances, the Metropolitan Opera finally stages L'Amour de Loin ("Love From Afar") by contemporary Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, in a new production by Robert Lepage.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Manon Lescaut

Anna Netrebko takes on Puccini in the title role of Manon Lescaut
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Anna Netrebko and Marcelo Àlvarez are down and out in Paris
in a scene from Manon Lescaut. Photo by Ken Howard © 2016 The Metropolitan Opera.

Anna Netrebko, currently the most marketable soprano on the planet takes on a major Puccini role in her continued bid for world supremacy. She will play the title role in the Met's new-ish production of Manon Lescaut, just five years after she played the title role in Massenet's Manon.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Guillaume Tell

For the first time in almost a century, the Met takes aim at Rossini's last opera.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A climactic moment from Act III of Guillaume Tell.
Photo by Ruth Walz for the Dutch National Opera. © 2016 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera finally grants the wishes of many Rossini fans (this writer included) with the first new production of William Tell at the theater since 1931. For the first time at the Met, the opera will be sung in its original French.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: L'Italiana in Algeri

Rossini's culture-clash comedy returns, conducted by James Levine.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Bass Ildar Abdrazakov is Mustafa in the Met revival of L'Italiana in Algeri.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2016 The Metropolitan Opera.

Although Il Barbiere di Siviglia is Rossini's best known comedy, L'Italiana in Algeri just might be his funniest. Ildar Abdrazakov is Mustafa, the Bey of Algiers opposite debut artists Marianna Pizzolato and René Barbera as the lovers Isabella and Lindoro. James Levine conducts the revival of this opera buffa rarity starring  in the title role. This is the first Met run of this opera since 2004.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: I Puritani

A bel canto favorite returns to the big stage.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A scene from I Puritani. Photo by Ken Howard © 2016 The Metropolitan Opera.

Diana Damrau and Javier Camarena return to lend heat to the Met's serviceable but decidedly antique staging of Vincenzo Bellini's final opera.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Jenůfa

Leoš Janáček's harrowing drama of Czech village life returns.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Oksana Dyka in the title role of Jenůfa, opening at the Met on Oct. 28.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2016 The Metropolitan Opera.

The last time the Met staged its production of Jenůfa, Karita Mattila shone in the title role. Now, the Finnish diva graduates to the role of the Kostelnicka, the original operatic stepmother from hell. t
his bucolic tragedy is one of Janáček's masterpieces and the opera tht made the Czech composer a sensation late in life.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: La Bohéme

The Met brings back its meal ticket featuring four starving artists.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

If the shoe fits...Susanna Philips (center) as Musetta in a scene from Act II of La Bohéme.
Photo by Cory Weaver © 2016 The Metropolitan Opera.

A brace of young, talented tenors, sopranos and baritones portray Puccini's Paris bohemians, trying to stay warm through a long cold winter and a massive Act Three cascade of fake stage snow. This is the Met's most-performed and most revived show, back for another year.