Opera Review: Never Send Flowers

The Met uncorks its new La Traviata.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Soprano Diana Damrau and her four-legged friend in the new Metropolitan Opera
production of La Traviata. Photo by Marty Sohl © 2018 The Metropolitan Opera.

Ask the typical Metropolitan Opera-goer which productions were liked least  in the last decade, and you'll get two answers: One, Michael Mayer's 2013 production of Rigoletto, which moved that drama to 1960s Las Vegas. Two, the 2010 La Traviata by Willy Decker, who set the opera in a sterile white space dominated by a gigantic clock, a heavy metaphor for the heroine Violetta's impending death from tuberculosis. To replace Mr. Decker's production, Met general manager Peter Gelb brought back Mr. Mayer. His assignment: to create a more congenial setting for the death of Verdi's heroine, one  would do less to offend the delicate sensibilities of the audience.

Festival Preview: The Met Live in HD Summer Festival 2018

The Met Live in HD festival Marx the spot with ten operas and a classic screwball comedy.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

That ain't peanuts: Groucho is open for business in a scene from A Night at the Opera
© 1935 Universal Pictures.

As a celebration of opera (and an opportunity for marketing the Metropolitan Opera to the city at large) you can't beat the Met's Live in HD Film Festival. This eleven-evening free event has become a hallmark of the Peter Gelb era at the Met. It allows the revisiting of old favorites or the experience, for the bold opera novice, of something entierey new.

2018-19 Metropolitan Opera Season Preview: Meet the New Boss

The Met crowns Yannick Nézet-Séguin as its Music Director...two years early.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads a rehearsal of Der fliegende Holländer at the Met in 2017,
unaware of the neon crown hovering overhead added by this blog's author.
Photo by Richard Termine © 2017 The Metropolitan Opera. Crown inspired by Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The Metropolitan Opera announced its schedule today for 2018-19, along with the blockbuster news that Yannick Nézet-Séguin, currently in the middle of a successful run of Wagner's Parsifal has been official crowned as the company's music director. This enthronement is two years ahead of schedule.

Opera Review: The Full (Digital) Verdi

The Met outdoor broadcast series does Il Trovatore.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Passions writ large: Dmitri Hvorostovsky (left) woos Anna Netrebko in Act IV of Il Trovatore.
Photo © 2016 The Metrropolitan Opera.

Not every opera reviewer can see every important revival at the Metropolitan Opera. (It's even harder when that house continues its practice of keeping hard-working bloggers out of its press seats.) A major gap was corrected last night when this writer finally got a chance to see last year's searing revival of Il Trovatore, with Anna Netrebko, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Dolora Zajick and Younghoon Lee squaring off in Verdi's most passionate opera. Il Trovatore is a repertory staple, but one that is hard to bring off as a full success. Under the baton of Marco Armiliato, this quartet of singers succeeded.

Superconductor Preview: Met Outdoor HD Festival

The Met does its annual big show in Lincoln Center Plaza.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The annual MET Live in HD festival attracts 3000 opera lovers each night to Lincoln Center Plaza.
Photo © 2015 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera likes to do things big. And nothing is bigger than their annual ten-day series of free opera screenings, shown on an enormous digital projection screen mounted on the balcony of the Grand Tier of the Metropolitan Opera House. There are 3,100 seats for each screening and no tickets are required. This year's series starts Friday night and continues through Labor Day. Superconductor has a preview.

Opera Review: March to the Scaffold

The Met's Summer HD Festival repeats La Damnation de Faust.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

 Let's make a deal: Méphistophèles (John Relyea, left) offers advice to
Marcello Giordani's Faust in Berlioz' La Damnation de Faust.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2008 The Metropolitan Opera.

Two key initiatives from the reign of current  Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb were on display at Lincoln Center Plaza on Thursday night. The first was the company's Live in HD program. The second: the company's recent association with director Robert Lepage. The occasion: a free outdoor screening of Mr. Lepage's 2008 production of La Damnation de Faust, the director's first and most successful show for the Met stage.

Opera Review: Trunk Music

The Met rolls out its "Vegas" Rigoletto.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Diana Damrau and Željko Lučić in the final scene from Michael Mayer's new Rigoletto.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2013 The Metropolitan Opera.

When you think about it, certain operas allow a fluidity of time and place. Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto has always been one of these. In setting the banned Victor Hugo play Le Roi s'amuse, Verdi and his librettist Francesco Maria Piave moved the story from France to 16th century Mantua. (That Italian region's noble family, the House of Gonzaga, had long died out, and wouldn't sue.) The libertine King Francois I became a safely anonymous Duke, and the opera was allowed to go forward.

Siegfried: How It's Done

Or, Remembrance of Rings Past.

Act II of the new Siegfried with Jay Hunter Morris as the hero taking on a Macy's™ balloon.

For those of you on your way to today's 12pm performance of Siegfried (or to the Met Live in HD broadcast) I thought I'd offer up these YouTube nuggets from other productions of the opera.

It's Wagner, the vay it oughta be.

(Oh great. When they scrap the Machine and bring this production back, that'll probably be the slogan. I'll get royalties, which I'll go sleep on in a cave.)

Act I: Part II of the Forging Song. Siegfried Jerusalem in the title role. Heinz Zednik as Mime.

Footage from the telecast directed by Brian Large.

 © 1989 Deutsche Grammophon/The Metropolitan Opera.

Act II: Siegfried's horn-call and the fight with Fafner. (Matti Salminen)

Unlike the new staging, nobody in the audience laughs at the dragon.

Footage from the telecast directed by Brian Large.
 © 1989 Deutsche Grammophon/The Metropolitan Opera.


And finally, 'cos I couldn't find any footage from Act III at the Met, here's a rehearsal of Hildegard Behrens singing Brunnhilde's Awakening, opposite the medium-quality Siegfried of German tenor Reiner Goldberg. He never sang the role in front of an audience, and was replaced for the premiere by veteran tenor Manfred Jung.

This is rehearsal footage from Bayreuth, 1983, with Sir Georg Solti conducting. Enjoy.

"Heil dir, Sonne! Heil dir, Licht! Heil dir Leuchtende Tag!"

The Metropolitan Opera Live in HD Preview

Part II of the Metropolitan Opera User's Guide

Ernani (Roberto de Biasio, l.) and Elvira (Angela Meade)
in Act IV of Verdi's Ernani at the Met.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera. 

Read Part I: Buying Tickets.

Although some of us old-fashioned types like seeing their operas in the big house at Lincoln Center, the Met has done very well with its Live in HD broadcasts. The schedule for the 2011-2012 season has been announced, and is presented below for your planning pleasure.

This year' offerings include the second half of Wagner's Ring, along with operatic appearances by Anna Netrebko, Natalie Dessay, and Mahatma Gandhi. (Well, sort of.) So getcha popcorn ready.

Oct. 15: Anna Bolena by Gaetano Donizetti
What's it about? Anna loses her head to King Henry VIII in the Italian version of The Tudors.
Why see it? Anna Netrebko sings the title role.

Oct. 29: Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
What's it about? The greatest lover in history makes a fatal dinner invitation.
Why see it? To see if James Levine conducts after a five-month hiatus.

Nov. 5: Siegfried
by Richard Wagner
What's it about? The boisterous exploits of a sword-swinging doofus. Part III of The Ring.
Why see it? Fafner, (the dragon in Act II) is bound to be cooler than the dragon in Das Rheingold.

Nov. 19: Satyagraha
by Philip Glass
What's it about? Gandhi: The Early Years.
Why see it? To see if Mr. Glass finally allows subtitles for his opera. The libretto is in Sanskrit. And no, that wasn't a joke.

Dec. 3: Rodelinda by Georg Freidrich Handel
What's it about? Intrigue and jealousy in medieval Lombardy. With great singing.
Why see it? Because it stars the fabulous Renée Fleming.

Dec. 10: Faust by Charles Gounod
What's it about? Goethe's morality play reimagined as a 20th century parable of the atomic bomb.
Why see it? To determine if the bomb is more than just a metaphor.

Jan. 21, 2012:The Enchanted Island by Handel, Vivaldi, and some other people.
What's it about? The Met attempts a baroque pastiche. The plot? Episode I of Shakespeare's The Tempest.
Why see it? Because pairing David Daniels with Joyce DiDonato can save anything.

Feb. 11: Götterdämmerung by Richard Wagner
What's it about? Briefly: Boy loves girl. Boy forgets girl. Girl has boy killed. World ends. Part IV of the Ring.
Why see it? Because the Reverend Harold Camping has nothing on Richard Wagner's end-of-the-world scenario.

Feb. 25: Ernani by Giuseppe Verdi
What's it about? Verdi's well-traveled tale of a gentleman bandit with a weakness for horn calls.
Why see it? A star is born: Angela Meade comes into her own in the role of Elvira.

April 7: Manon by Jules Massenet
What's it about? A good girl goes very bad, goes to New Orleans, and dies.
Why see it? The same reason to see Anna Bolena: La Netrebko is singing the title role.

April 14: La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi
What's it about? A good girl gone bad finds true love, moves back to Paris, and dies.
Why see it? Natalie Dessay takes her turn in the the Willy Decker "red dress" production.

Opera Review: Bishop Takes Sacrifice

Iphigénie en Tauride at the Met

Paul Groves (left) and Placìdo Domingo, trapped in Iphigénie en Tauride
Photo by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera

The dreaded "backstage plague" struck the Met on Wednesday night, sidelining mezzo-soprano Susan Graham for that evening's performance of Iphigénie en Tauride. Placìdo Domingo went on as Orest, although he too was suffering from a cold.

The story of Iphigénie picks up where Elektra leaves off. Orestes is hounded by the Furies, running for his life in the company of his friend Pylade. He winds up in Tauride (modern-day Scythia) where he is scheduled to be sacrificed by the high priestess of Diana. What he doesn't know is that this is his sister, Iphigénie.

The Metropolitan Opera makes a policy of hiring cover singers to take over a role at the last minute in the event of illness. On Wednesday evening, it was Elizabeth Bishop in the title role. Ms. Bishop, a winner at the 1993 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, made a strong impression as the Greek princess-turned-priestess in Gluck's drama.

Like Ms. Graham, she is an American singer, with a good command of French and a strong onstage presence. However, she was at her best in the lower reaches of the role, as her voice tended to compress and develop a vibrato whenever she reached for her higher range. She was well matched with the ailing Mr. Domingo as Orestes. The 70-year-old super-tenor managed some fine, heroic singing despite his illness. There was nothing wrong with his acting.


With one star down and another suffering, that left tenor Paul Groves to carry the evening as Orestes' best friend, Pylade. Mr. Groves has a fine heroic instrument and an idiomatic command of French. He took the lead in the third act, singing his ensemble with the other two leads as Orestes and Pylade each attempt to be first on the altar under Iphigénie's knife.

The second half of the show had more momentum than the first, with a driven dynamic intensity as the cast settled into their roles. Patrick Summers led a crystal-clear performance in the pit, allowing the audience to hear the radical, almost revolutionary nature of Gluck's score, which paved the way for every opera that followed in the next 250 years.

Stephen Wadsworth's production remains an imaginative exercise in grimness that combines elements of Indiana Jones and Saw--imagining Diana's temple and its bloody altar as a chamber of horrors. That said, the imaginative use of actual torches on the stage, carefully choreographed ritual dances and (unaccountably) a ballet that takes place behind a big, solid wall (thus, invisible to the audience) makes this one of the more innovative productions of the Peter Gelb era.

Metropolitan Opera Announces 2011-2012 Season

This is all very exciting, but you can now visit the 2012-2013 Metropolitan Opera Season Announcement.


Visit the Superconductor 2011-2012 Metropolitan Opera Season Preview, with profile pages on all the operas being done at the Met this year.


"We try to keep drama confined to the stage, but as you know this is an opera house, which is why your eyes are constantly glued to the opera blogs. I check them myself to make sure I haven't retired."
--Met general manager Peter Gelb, at today's press conference.

Gary Lehman is Siegfried.

The Met announced its 2011-2012 season with a press conference that was broadcast in live streaming audio on the Internet. Since I'm a subscriber, I got to listen, and since I'm a blogger, I get to write about it.

Here's what's on tap for next year:

The Met has announced seven new productions for 2011-2012, counting the forthcoming stagings of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung that will take the boards next Fall and Winter.

The other five new stagings include (badly needed) new productions of Don Giovanni and Faust, which will hopefully be better than their predecessors: the terminally dull brick-and-mortar Don and the ridonkulous 2005 Faust that featured Rene Pape prancing around the stage in a foam rubber "devil suit" inspired by a William Blake painting.

Deborah Voigt is Brunnhilde in
Siegfried and Götterdämmerung.

THE NEW PRODUCTIONS:
Anna Bolena Sept. 26 (Opening Night)
Anna Netrebko goes under the axe in the Met's first-ever production of the Donizetti drama based on the life of the unfortunate Tudor queen who was indirectly responsible for founding the Church of England. This is the first of a projected Donizetti "Queens" trilogy: Maria Stuarda is planned for 2012, and Roberto Devereux for 2013. David McVicar is scheduled to direct all three productions.

All three operas are being staged at the Met for the very first time.

Hey, it only took them 180 years.


Don Giovanni Oct. 13
The Met has taken a few cracks at Giovanni in the last few decades. Franco Zeffirelli tackled the opera, with mixed results--in fact the Zeff Don was the first of his mega-productions to get tossed on the dust-heap. Its follow-up (by Marthe Keller) was a dull brick-and-mortar affair that put audiences to sleep. The new, sexed-up Don will be directed by Michael Grandage, the Tony Award-winner who staged Red. Mariusz Kwiecien sings the title role in the fall. Gerald "Doctor Atomic" Finley will sing it in the spring. James Levine conducts.

Siegfried Oct. 27
(Now in eye-popping 3-D!)
Despite the late-hour decision by Ben Heppner to cancel his appearance in the title role, this installment of Wagner's Ring should allow director Robert Lepage a chance to show his stuff. Gary Lehman sings Siegfried opposite Deborah Voigt as Brünnhilde. This is also the first Met production to make use of 3D digital "fractal" technology projected onto the planks of the Machine. 3D glasses will not be required, robbing the Met Opera Shop of a marketing opportunity.

Faust Nov. 29

Jonas Kaufmann sings the title role in Faust.

This new staging by Canadian director Des MacAnuff is a co-production with the English National Opera Mr. McAnuff updates the opera to the 20th century and makes Goethe's medieval mystic into a mad scientist working to finish the atomic bomb, is bound to be some improvement over the Met's 2005 version of Faust, as mentioned above.

Faust stars Jonas Kaufmann in the title role and René Pape as Méphistopheles. According to a March 7 announcement, soprano Angela Gheorghiu, originally cast as Marguerite, will be replaced, by  Marina Poplavskaya. The Russian diva-on-the-rise made an excellent impression at the Met in 2010 productions of Verdi's Don Carlo as well as the lead role in La Traviata. Hopefully, Ms. Poplavskaya will be able to sing in French as well as she does in Italian.

David Daniels and Joyce DiDonato in The Enchanted Island.

The Enchanted Island Dec. 31, 2011
Directed by Phelim McDermott (whose last Broadway show was The Addams Family) Enchanted is a pastiche, built Frankenstein-style from little-known operas by Handel, Vivaldi, and others. It is a showcase for countertenor David Daniels, soprano Joyce DiDonato and other baroque specialists. Oh, and Placído Domingo is in it.

The story is a Shakespearean "interquel" with the lovers from A Midsummer Night's Dream winding up on the unknown island from The Tempest, playing off the clash between Prospero (Daniels) and Sycorax. Why the Met chose this path instead of just reviving and performing some of the complete operas, we'll never know.

Götterdämmerung Jan. 27
Robert Lepage has called this the most "social" opera of Wagner's massive Ring cycle. The Lepage Ring comes to its apocalyptic finish with the six-hour marathon of Twilight of the Gods.

• What happens when a giant Wagnerian chorus meets Mr. Lepage's giant machine? 
• Is there room for everybody on the stage? 
• Will the digital Rhine flood virtually drown the assembled audience? 
• Will Mr. Lepage light the Machine afire by plunging his broken spear into its breast as it collapses at the end, only to be renewed for the beginning of the next Das Rheingold? 

Stay tuned for the answers.

Anna Netrebko gets locked up in Manon.

Manon March 29
This is another Met co-production, this time with Covent Garden. Anna Netrebko is the latest diva to don Manon's finery. Piotr Beczala is her des Grieux. The production also stars Paulo Szot as Lescaut. (The baritone has apparently found his nose.) Featuring fabulous singing, fabulous outfits, and in the orchestra pit, Fabio Luisi. This new staging is directed by Laurent Pelly, whose production of La Fille du Regiment is also enjoying a revival this year.

With that, on to the Notable Revivals!

Here's the rest of the repertory, broken out by composer.


Benjamin Britten: Billy Budd
Gaetano Donizetti: L'Elisir d'Amore, La Fille du Regiment
Philip Glass: Satyagraha
Georg Friedrich Händel: Rodelinda
Engelbert Humperdinck: Hansel & Gretel
Leoš Janáček: The Makropoulos Case
Modest Mussorgsky: Khovanschina
Giacomo Puccini: La bohème, Madama Butterfly, Tosca
Gioachino Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia
Giuseppe Verdi: Aida, Ernani, Macbeth, Nabucco, La Traviata
Family-friendly holiday production: Hansel & Gretel ("You know, for kids!")


The Complete Lepage Ring:
In addition to the premiere of the Lepage productions of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, three complete Ring cycles are scheduled for the Spring of 2012. Hopefully, the much-ballyhooed $65 million dollar "Machine" set is up to the challenge--not to mention the singers. The Met Orchestra shouldn't have a problem, especially with James Levine conducting.

Live in HD Schedule:

Anna Bolena: Oct. 15, 2011

Siegfried: Nov. 5, 2011

Satyagraha: Nov. 19, 2011

Rodelinda: Dec. 3, 2011

Faust: Dec. 10, 2011

The Enchanted Island: Jan. 21, 2012

Götterdämmerung Feb. 11, 2012

Ernani Feb. 25, 2012

Manon April 7, 2012

La Traviata April 14, 2012