Pitchforked

The Met tones down La Damnation de Faust.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Susan Graham (left) and Marcello Giordani (right) in a tender moment from
the Met's 2008 staging of La Damnation de Faust. Photo by Ken Howard © 2008 The Metropolitan Opera.

If you were planning  on seeing the Metropolitan Opera's unique and visually mind-blowing production of Berlioz' La Damnation de Faust next season, you are out of luck. In an e-mail sent to subscribers (and obtained by Superconductor) the Met has announced that the company's presentations of the hybrid opera-oratorio will not be seen in its staging as originally envisioned by director Robert Lepage. The remainder will be mounted as concert performances in the vast opera house. Also, there will be just four shows, as three of the performances are cancelled.

Opera Review: Falling Down

The Met opens with a disastrous Samson et Dalila.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A world of toil: Robert Alagna does hard time in Samson et Dalila.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2018 The Metropolitan Opera.

It wasn't just the temple that collapsed last night.

The big story coming out of Monday's season-opening performance of Camille-Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila at the Metropolitan Opera was the onstage vocal collapse of Roberto Alagna. The internationally reputed tenor, who has a quarter century of experience on the Met stage, was here saddled with the role of Samson. In the third act, shorn of his hair and blinded by Philistine thugs, the singer appeared to lose his vocal strength along with his muscles. He had very little voice for the opera's demanding final scenes.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Samson et Dalila

The Met opens its 2018 season with Saint-Saëns' Old Testament thumper.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Mr. DeMille, they're ready for their closeup: Roberto Alagna (left) and
Elina Garança wig out in the Met's new Samson et Dalila.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2018 The Metropolitan Opera.

The new season opens with Roberto Alagna and Elina Garança in the title roles of Samson et Dalila, the story of an implacable hero, an unstoppable anti-heroine and the most famous gravity-check in the Old Testament. Also, lots of really, really big hair!

Opera Review: The Last Waltz

Many partings mark the Met's new Rosenkavalier.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Kiss the girls: Octavian (Elīna Garanča) woos the Marschallin (Renée Fleming) in Act I of Der Rosenkavalier. Photo by Ken Howard © 2017 The Metropolitan Opera.

 The end of an era is the subject of Robert Carsen's fascinating new production of Der Rosenkavalier which bowed at the Metropolitan Opera on Thursday night. Updated to Vienna in 1910 (the year of the opera's genesis) this show crackles with nervous energy, a wild party on its final round of the night. Fittingly, this show also marks Renée Fleming's final appearances as the Marschallin in this opera, a part she has played at the Met since the year 2000.

In Strauss' Comedy, A New Ingénue

Late casting change in Der Rosenkavalier.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

"The Presentation of the Rose" from Act II of Der Rosenkavalier.
Photo © 2009 The Metropolitan Opera.

In a late breaking item (courtesy of  Lisa Hirsch at The Iron Tongue of Midnight) soprano Erin Morley will take over as Sophie in the Metropolitan Opera's 2013 revival of Der Rosenkavalier. The Richard Strauss comedy, one of the composer's most beloved comic creations, opens Friday at the Metropolitan Opera House.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Der Rosenkavalier

The last run for the Met's classic 1967 production of the Strauss comedy.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Marina Serafin and Alice Coote in a tender moment from Act I of Der Rosenkavalier.
Photo by Jonathan Tischler © 2013 The Metropolitan Opera.

Der Rosenkavalier is a rambunctious Viennese comedy, a bitter-sweet coming of age story that chronicles Octavian's transition from a sweet, adulterous relationship with the Marschallin (Marina Serafin) to eventual marriage to Sophie von Faninal, a 15-year-old ingenue played by Erin Morley. (She is a late replacement for Mojca Erdmann, who is recovering from pneumonia.) Edward Gardner conducts.

Opera Review: A Conspiracy of Voices

The Met presents La Clemenza di Tito.
by Paul J. Pelkonen
Reposted from The Classical Review.

Crumbling majesty: Giuseppe Filianoti as Titus in La Clemenza di Tito.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

On Friday, the Metropolitan Opera opened the second of three Mozart revivals this month with La Clemenza di Tito. This performance featured a strong young cast dominated by Giuseppe Filianoti in the title role and the flexible mezzo of Elina Garanca as Sesto, the best friend of the Roman emperor Titus turned would-be assassin.

Read the whole review by Superconductor's own Paul J. Pelkonen, exclusively on The Classical Review.