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.

Hvorostovsky Withdraws from Met Production

The singer has bowed out of the upcoming Eugene Onegin for health reasons.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Singer Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Photo from his website

This morning, baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky announced that he is withdrawing from fully staged opera performances "for the foreseeable future."

The Year in Reviews: Opera 2013

Superconductor recalls the best opera performances of 2013.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A bird in a gilded cage: Christine Goerke in Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Met.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2013 The Metropolitan Opera.

As the year is ending we are finally getting to our end-of-2013 wrapup. This was supposed be to be a Top Ten list but I think it's going to be a lucky thirteen--it was a pretty good year for opera!

Here are the best opera performances (and operas in concert) that I saw this year in chronological order. All links lead to the full reviews.

Opera Review: Meet the New Aristocrats

The Met's second cast takes over Eugene Onegin.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Marina Poplavskaya takes over in the Met's new production of Eugene Onegin.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2013 The Metropolitan Opera.

It is sometimes instructive to see the second cast. That maxim applies to the mid-season return of Deborah Warner and Fiona Shaw's new Eugene Onegin at the Metropolitan Opera. The revival opened last week. On Monday night, the cast: baritone Peter Mattei (Onegin) soprano Marina Poplavskaya (Tatiana) and tenor Rolando Villazón (Lenski) gave their third performance together. They brought fresh energy and perspective to this production, which opened the Met's season in September of this year.

Opera Review: The Russian Hat Trick

Anna Netrebko opens the Met season (again) with Eugene Onegin.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Reunited: Onegin (Mariusz Kwiecien, left) and Tatiana (Anna Netrebko) clench in the final scene
of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. Photo by Ken Howard © 2013 The Metropolitan Opera.

With her third consecutive starring role on the opening night of a Metropolitan Opera season, Anna Netrebko has become the face of the company in this decade. On Monday night, New Yorkers gathered at the opera house, in Lincoln Center plaza and in Times Square heard the superstar soprano sing Tatiana in the company's new production of Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin. This performance (viewed by this writer in Times Square) makes a strong case for this work as one of the greatest Russian operas ever written.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Eugene Onegin

A troika of stars open the 2013 season.
by Paul J. Pelkonen
This is the preview for Eugene Onegin. The Superconductor review of opening night can be found here.

Mariusz Kwiecien and Anna Netrebko clinch in a promotional image for Eugene Onegin.
Photo © 2013 The Metropolitan Opera.

For the third consecutive year, the Metropolitan Opera has elected to open its season with a new production tailored to the needs of soprano Anna Netrebko. Here, the dark-eyed diva stars as Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, one of Tchaikovsky's most beloved operas. Tatiana must choose between the safety of a bourgeois marriage and a whirlwind romance with the title characte, played by bari-hunk Mariusz Kwiecien. Completing the troika of stars is tenor Piotr Beczala as Lensky, Onegin’s doomed rival.

Aunt Petunia and the Deathly Opera

Fiona Shaw to direct Eugene Onegin.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Fiona Shaw (right) receives the shocking news that she's directing Eugene Onegin at the Met.
OK. Yes. That's a still from Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone with Ms. Shaw (right,)
Richard Griffiths (center) and Harry Melling (right.) Can't fool you for a second.
Movie still from  Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone © 2001 Warner Bros.

The Metropolitan Opera announced today that actor-director Fiona Shaw, best known to American audiences as Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter films will step in for Deborah Warner to direct the company's new production of Eugene Onegin. Onegin, a collaboration with the English National Opera is scheduled to open the 2013 season.

The Ghost of Conductors Past

James Levine may cancel 2013-2014 performances at the Met.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The presence of conductor James Levine is fading from the Metropolitan Opera House.

Reports out of the Metropolitan Opera House  indicate more cancellations for James Levine.

Subscribers to the Metropolitan Opera's 2012-2013 season are already too aware that this is the company's first season in four decades without the presence of music director James Levine. But they may have to wait even longer to see the acclaimed conductor back at work.

An item in today's edition of parterre box indicates that the Metropolitan Opera has abandoned plans to revive Wagner's Parsifal and Tannhäuser next season. According to parterre's anonymous source, the likely replacements for these two works would be a revival of Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka and Alban Berg's Wozzeck.  

These two Wagner revivals were specifically tailored to the talents of Mr. Levine, a dedicated Wagnerian who has conducted these operas many times in his career. Parsifal, Wagner's final opera, is considered to be one of his specialties, a work he has recorded on three seperate occasions.