We've Got a Horse Right Here: The 2018-19 Metropolitan Opera Season

Perqs, re-creations and the Metropolitan Opera season that was.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Yes, this is a parody of Parks & Recreation starring (l.-r.) Javier Cammarena, Federica Lombardi
Stefan Vinke, Anna Netrebko, Kyle Ketelsen, Christine Goerge, Ambrogio Maestri and Greer Grimsley.
Original image © NBC, opera singers © The Metropolitan Opera, photoshop by the author.

Another Metropolitan Opera season is in the books, and the hard-working singers, actors, dancers, musicians, stagehands and army of support that makes up America's largest opera company is on their way to Pawnee, Indiana for some much deserved recreation at America's biggest Harvest Festival. So this year, let's call the awards the "Little Sebastians" and celebrate by awarding tiny statues of small horses, so small that you can't even see them on the Internet.

Or something.

Anyway, Here's the awards for the Met season-that-was.

Presenting: the Little Sebastians!

Opera Review: The Empire Doesn't Strike Back

The Metropolitan Opera brings back Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Conspirators: Vitellia (Elza van den Heever) and Sesto (Joyce DiDonato)
plot as Publio (Christian Van Horn) looks on in a scene from La Clemenza di Tito.
Photo by Richard Termine © 2019 The Metropolitan Opera.

In past seasons at the Metropolitan Opera, revivals of the company's 1984 Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production of Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito were often done out of a sense of obligation to the composer's reputation. However, this spring run, under the baton of new broom conductor Lothar Koenigs,  has been particularly inspired. On Tuesday night, in the penultimate performance of this opera this season, the cast, featuring soprano Elza van den Heever and mezzo Joyce DiDonato made the case for this work being one of the composer's strongest efforts.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Siegfried

The third and least-loved part of the Ring has some of its most sublime music.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Badger, badger, badger, badger....the dragon Fafner emerges in Act II of Siegfried.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

What's more than five hours long and has very few women in it? The answer for opera lovers is Siegfried, the third segment of Wagner's massive tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung. The Met offers three performances this spring.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: La Clemenza di Tito

Mozart's drama of intrigue and attempted assassination in Ancient Rome.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Matthew Polenzani (seen here in the title role of Mozart's Idomeneo)
sings the title role in La Clemenza di Tito at the Metropolitan Opera this season.
Photo © 2019 The Metropolitan Opera.

A stellar cast (Joyce DiDonato, Matthew Polenzani, Elza van den Heever) takes the stage in this late season revival of Mozart's opera seria of passion and power politics.

Opera Review: The Return of Robot Monster

The Met brings back the Ring, and the "Machine."
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Striking it rich: Tomasz Konieczny had a strong Met debut as Alberich in Das Rheingold.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2019 The Metropolitan Opera.

Albert Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Which might account for why the Metropolitan Opera chose this spring to revive its huge, hideously expensive and critically pounded Robert Lepage staging of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. There are three cycles this season, and a few extra performances of the opera. Saturday afternoon marked the start of Cycle I, a sold-out Das Rheingold that, unaccountably still had a few empty seats.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Das Rheingold

The Ring begins. (Do I really need to embellish more?)
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Wotan and Loge take the "Machine" express down to Nibelheim in a
key scene from Das Rheingold. Photo © 2010 The Metropolitan Opera.

Gods, dwarves, mermaids and giants on an enormous pinning mechanical stage set. What's not to love about the opening opera of Wagner's Ring?

Opera Review: An Old Cuckold (with Horns on His Head)

Ambrogio Maestri returns as the Met's Falstaff.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Va, vecchio John: Falstaff (Ambrogio Maestri) gives a lesson in personnel management to
Bardolfo (Keith Jameson) and Pistola (Richard Bernstein) in Verdi's Falstaff.
Photo by Karen Almond © 2019 The Metropolitan Opera.

"It's not going to be my favorite Verdi opera." This, from an attendee on the 1 train riding away from Lincoln Center after the Metropolitan Opera's Wednesday night performance of Falstaff, efficiently sums up the attitude of audiences toward the composer's final opera--and his only successful attempt at writing comedy. Falstaff is a masterwork, but one held in high regard not for its considerable qualities but for its place as Verdi's last musical utterance. On Wednesday night under the baton of Robert Carnes, the opera received a performance that just might change that gentleman's opinion.

Season Preview: 2019-2020 The Year of Not Living Dangerously

The Metropolitan Opera unveils next season.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

"...and that escalator to nowhere." Anthony Roth Costanzo climbs the stairs of destiny
in the Met's upcoming first presentation of the Philip Glass opera Akhnaten.
Photo from the Los Angeles Opera used by permission of the Met press office © 2019 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera revealed its new schedule at 1pm today, confirming a lot of what was already known about next year.  The two remaining shows by Franco Zeffirelli (Turandot and La bohéme return. Also, this is the first time in years that the company is mounting revivals of operas by Tchaikovsky (The Queen of Spades) and Janacek (Kat'a Kabanova) alongside its usual French, Italian and German fare.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Falstaff

Shakespeare's fat knight goes a-courtin' in Windsor.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Va, vecchio Ambrogio! Ambrogio Maestri returns to the role of Falstaff at the Met.
Photo © 2018 The Metropolitan Opera.

The big fella is back. Ambrogio Maestri revives his acclaimed portrayal of Jack Falstaff in this welcome revival of the Robert Carsen  production.

The Superconductor Interview: Cornelius Meister

The German conductor gets ready for his Met debut with Don Giovanni.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The formation of damnation: Cornelius Meister gets ready for his Met debut with Don Giovanni.

The conductor Cornelius Meister is a fast-rising star in Europe. Having just finished a lengthy run at the helm of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, he is now the music director o the State Opera and the State Orchestra in the German city of Stuttgart.  On January 30, Mr. Meister will make his debut at the Met. His task: conducting one of Mozart's finest and darkest operas: the deliciously twisted Don Giovanni. This week, Superconductor found time to sit down with the maestro to talk all things dramma giocoso.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Iolanta/Duke Bluebeard's Castle

Two fairy tales of love and terror returns with new divas.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Either this is a scene from Duke Bluebeard's Castle....or the 1 train is taking forever.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2019 The Metropolitan Opera.

The pervading motif of young women in the throes of self-discovery and danger ties together this double-bill, one of the most eagerly anticipated revivals of the coming Met season.

Opera Review: The Final Stand of the Old Kingdom

The Met revives the Sonja Frisell Aida (probably) for the last time.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Dolora Zajick (kneeling) begs for mercy in Act IV of Verdi's Aida.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2019 The Metropolitan Opera.

Everything ends, even in the world of opera. On Monday night, the Metropolitan Opera opened what is most likely the final run of its thirty-year-old production of Verdi's Aida. (A new staging by Michael Mayer is planned for Opening Night in 2020.) This revival features a new Aida, the house debut of American soprano Kristin Lewis who has sung the role with some success in Vienna and Naples. Opposite her was tenor Yonghoon Lee and mezzo Dolora Zajick, who has been singing the role of the Egyptian princess Amneris in this same staging for thirty seasons.

Opera Review: The Queen of Stage

With this superb new Adriana Lecouvereur, the Met finally gets it right.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Anna Netrebko (top) lashes out at her rival in Act III of Adriana Lecouvereur.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2019 The Metropolitan Opera.

Francesco Cilea is remembered for one opera: Adriana Lecouvereur. A frothy combination of backstage infighting and murderous romantic triangle, Adriana is only revived when a star diva decides to take on the steep challenges of the title role. On New Year's Eve 2018, the Metropolitan Opera and Anna Netrebko unveiled their new Adriana in a handsome, traditional production by Sir David McVicar that surrounded the Russian soprano with an all-star cast. Set entirely on a unit stage with a rotating theater-within-a-theater, Sir David solved some of the scenic challenges of this work and did it in a coherent and well-managed manner, just as he has done with so many operas at the Met in this decade.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: The Magic Flute

The Met brings back its sturdy Flute for another toot. 
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Bald soprano: Kathryn Lewek tears up as the Queen of the Night
in The Magic Flute. Image © 2018 The Metropolitan Opera. 

Q: When does something become a "holiday tradition?"
A: When it's insistently and repetitively done every damn year.

In an unusual schedule repetition, the Met brings back its "family-friendly" (that's shortened, abridged and translated into English) holiday presentation of Mozart's The Magic Flute in its always impressive presentation by Julie Taymor. (It was slotted in last year to cover the cancellation of a planned La Forza del Destino.) Anyway, it's back.

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.

Opera Review: The Three Faces of a Composer

The Met (finally) revives Puccini's Il Trittico.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Three faces of Il Trittico: Marcelo Alvarez and Amber Wagner in Il Tabarro, Kristine Opolais
in Suor Angelica and Plácido Domingo in Gianni Schicchi. Photos by Ken Howard.

No work by Puccini has suffered more neglect and critical ignorance than Il Trittico, his "triptych" of three single act operas that premiered at the Metropolitan Opera one hundred years ago. Part of what has hurt the reputation of this work: comprised of three operas designed to be performed together and in a certain sequence, is the unfortunate habit producers have of playing these works individually, or pairing them "Cav-Pag" style with operas by other composers.

Opera Review: The King is Half-Undressed

The Met revives Bizet's The Pearl Fishers.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Pearl jam: Pretty Yende and Javier Camarena canoodle in Act II of Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de Perles.
Photo © 2018 The Metropolitan Opera.

The big story from Tuesday night's performance of Georges Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de Perles ("The Pearl Fishers") at the Metropolitan Opera happened at the start of the second act. As the lights dimmed and conductor Emmanuel Villaume took his bow from the podium, an announcement was made from the stage.

"Mariusz Kwiecien, singing the role of Zurga has taken ill. His replacement is  Alexander Birch Elliot."

Opera Review: Woman On Fire

Sondra Radvanovsky burns up the Met's Tosca.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

She doesn't get mad. She gets stabby. Sondra Radvanovsky is Tosca at the Met.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2018 The Metropolitan Opera.

In the twenty-two years since her Met debut, soprano Sondra Radvanovsky has sung many roles, including Floria Tosca, the fiery and jealous opera soprano who is the star of the opera that bears her surname. And yet, this current run of Tosca, which had its second performance on Monday night may mark the first time that New Yorkers really got to see this great American soprano tackle this formidable part head-on.

Obituary: Montserrat Caballé, 1933-2018

The soprano and recording artist was La Superba to her fans.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

I've got a secret: the great Montserrat Caballé could sing anything.

One would argue that in opera singers of a vanished age, it was the voice and only the voice that mattered. These words would be fitting as a eulogy for Montserrat Caballé. The soprano, who passed away yesterday at the age of 85, possessed one of the largest and most flexible instruments of her age, succeeding in everything from Rossini to dramatic operas by Puccini and Strauss. The cause of death was listed as a gall bladder infection.

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.