O Come, O Come Emmanuel

And save thy captive...Tosca?
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Rome if you want to: Emmanuel Villaume not standing atop the Castle Sant'Angelo.
The conductor will step in for the suspended James Levine in the Met's new Tosca.
Photo of Mr. Villaume by TheaterJones. Photo alteration by the author.

Tosca is an opera of violence and derring-do, of an artist and an opera singer confronted by evil and corruption and trying to save themselves from the clutches of Rome's police chief, Baron Scarpia. In a case of life imitating art, the Metropolitan Opera's troubled production of Tosca has found its savior: French conductor Emmanuel Villaume.

The Unreliable Aristocrat

Jonas Kaufmann ditches Tosca at the Met.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

He's moving on: Jonas Kaufmann, shown here in the Met staging of Parsifal
in 2012, will not be appearing in Tosca later this year.

It's all just a little bit of history repeating: Jonas Kaufmann will not be singing at the Met this year. The news dropped today from Michael Cooper at the New York Times.

Baton, Baton, Who's Got the Baton?

Exploring podium possibilities at The Metropolitan Opera.
by Paul J.  Pelkonen

Call it a comeback: James Levine's return to the Met podium in 2013.
Photo by Jonathan Tichler, © 2015 The Metropolitan Opera.

A pair of stories published by the Arts section of the New York Times earlier this month have offered some much-needed insight into the conducting situation at the Metropolitan Opera. The articles, by Michael Cooper and Zachary Woolfe, also fueled Internet speculation as to the artistic future of that great institution, which will announce the 2016-17 season later this month.

The Return of New York City Opera?

New York's "other" opera company may be back from the dead.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Back from the dead? The City Opera may be rising from the ashes.
Art by John Byrne from X-Men #135 © 1978 Marvel Comics.

In an astonishing early Christmas gift for the opera lovers of New York, the New York City Opera may be about to rise from the ashes of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. An agreement was reached today between the remaining City Opera and New York City Opera Renaissance, a new 501(c) organization dedicated to resurrecting the destitute opera company and returning it to the campus of Lincoln Center.

For Opera Goers, the Lottery is Over

Met Opera (quietly) alters rush ticket policy (again.)
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Much to this guy's relief, the Met is getting out of the lottery business.
New York Lottery image © New York State Lottery. Photo alteration by the author.

Earlier this year, Superconductor published a column regarding the Metropolitan Opera's implementation of a new rush ticket policy for the 2014-15 season which forced would-be opera goers to enter a daily lottery on the Met website. Last night, this blog discovered that as of Nov. 20, 2015, this lottery has been discontinued in favor of an online-only, first-come, first-serve policy.

One-Two Princes Here Before You

Javier Cammarena will sing in La Cenerentola.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

This hasn't actually happened onstage yet. Juan Diego Flórez (left) and Javier Camarena (right)
will both woo Joyce DiDonato (center) in the Met's La Cenerentola (background.)
All photographic elements s by Ken Howard and Marty Sohl © 2014 The Metropolitan Opera. 
All photo editing by the author.

In a story that broke late Thursday afternoon, the Metropolitan Opera announced that star mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato will split her attentions between two bel canto tenors in the company's forthcoming revival of Rossini's La Cenerentola.

Bottle Fatigue

Anna Netrebko to miss first two performances of L'Elisir d'Amore.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Pass the hat: Anna Netrebko is ill. Andriana Chuchman will make an early Met debut as Adina in L'Elisir d'Amore.
Photo by Chia Messina for Opus 3 Artists. Photo alteration by the author.

L'Elisir d'Amore will return tonight at the Metropolitan Opera, but without Anna Netrebko. In a late-breaking story, the Russian soprano has bowed out of the first two performances of the Donizetti opera, citing illness. Tonight marks the first performance of the bel canto comedy this season.

Isolde Dumps Tristan

Deborah Voight withdraws from WNO Wagner run.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

To sail no more: Deborah Voigt may have sung her last Tristan und Isolde.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2007 The Metropolitan Opera.

One week before the premiere of its new production of Tristan und Isolde, the Washington National Opera had to search for a replacement soprano.

According to a story by Anne Midgette in today's Washington Post, soprano Deborah Voigt has bowed out of the WNO's season-opening run of the Wagner opera. Ms. Midgette also reported that the soprano is considering retiring the role of Isolde (the fiery Irish princess who falls hard for a Cornish knight) from her repertory.

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.

Met Opera Reverses Field

Metropolitan Opera Guild-published mag to resume reviewing the Met.

by ppelkonen@gmail.com

Sunshine, lollipops and rainbows: Opera News will write about the Met!
Image from The Sunday Morning Hangover.

In a move reminiscent of the gyrations of a certain mechanical stage set, the Metropolitan Opera has reversed its decision to crack down on Opera News, the publication put out monthly by the Metropolitan Opera Guild.

The reversal comes following a page one story by Daniel J. Wakin in the New York Times, in which Opera News editor in chief F. Paul Driscoll revealed that the magazine, which has been in business for 76 years, had decided to stop reviewing  performances at the opera house.

Mr. Driscoll's announcement followed complaints from Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb about a review of Götterdämmerung by Fred Cohn and an editorial by ON features editor Brian Kellow chronicling negative audience reactions to recent productions at the Met.

Metropolitan Opera Attacks Opera News

Met Guild publication to cease reviews of Met productions.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

(Ed. Note: This story has since been updated, with the Metropolitan Opera issuing a press release stating that Opera News will continue to review its performances. Read more about it here.)

Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb has struck again, this time close to his own opera house.

According to a report by Daniel J. Wakin in the New York Times, Opera News, the 76-year old publication of the Metropolitan Opera Guild, announced today that they will no longer be reviewing Metropolitan Opera productions. The decision comes following the Met's "dissatisfaction" with the magazine's reviews of recent Met shows, most notably its controversial, expensive production of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Another cancellation for the Met's Don Giovanni.

Dinner guest: Bryn Terfel.
Photo © 2012 Deutsche Grammophon.

In October of 2011, one of the biggest stories coming out of the Met involved Mariusz Kwiecien, who was replaced in the title role of the Met's new production of Don Giovanni after being injured in a rehearsal. He was replaced by Peter Mattei, and the show went on.

Now there are problems with the second cast. Bass John Relyea, scheduled to sing eight performances as Leporello, has bowed out of the production, according to a report on The Wagnerian's blog. Mr. Relyea's doctor ordered the singer to rest his voice. 

Their replacements for the upcoming shows will be Kyle Ketelsen, who will sing the first four performances, and none other than Bryn Terfel, who will sing the last four shows in March. 

Mr. Terfel, last seen as the Wanderer in the Met's new production of Wagner's Siegfried made his early reputation with this opera, singing and recording Masetto (with Arnold Östman) the Don (with Sir Georg Solti) and Leporello (with Claudio Abbado.) He first sang Leporello at the Met in 1995, and the Don in 2000 

This run of the company's new Michael Grandage production pairs the singers with Canadian baritone Gerald Finley in the title role. The cast also includes Matthew Polenzani as Don Ottavio, Marina Rebeka as Donna Anna and Isabel Leonard as Zerlina. James Morris (another famous Met Wotan) is the Commendatore. Andrew Davis conducts.

Don Giovanni returns on Feb. 21.

Recording Recommendation

Don Giovanni is one of the most frequently recorded Mozart operas, and many fine recordings are available. Here are three that I like.

Vienna Philharmonic cond. Josef Krips (Decca, 1955)

Don Giovanni: Cesare Siepi

Leporello: Fernando Corena

Donna Anna: Suzanne Danco

Donna Elvira: Lisa della Casa

Il Commendatore: Kurt Böhme

One of the first stereo recordings of this opera, the Krips recording captures singers of a different age in the fertile ground of Vienna, just a decade after the war. Siepi and Corena play the roles of master and servant with gusto, and the conducting is terrific.

Chamber Orchestra of Europe cond. Claudio Abbado (DG, 1998)

Don Giovanni: Simon Keenlyside

Leporello: Bryn Terfel

Donna Anna Carmela Remigio

Donna Elvira: Soile Isokoski

Il Commendatore: Matti Salminen

This was Bryn Terfel's third recording of the opera, and his first as Leporello. (He was the Don for Solti's recording, and also recorded Masetto.) The Welsh baritone seems much more comfortable as the Don's slippery servant, and gives a great reading of this part. Abbado's conducting is spot on, as is Matti Salminen's terrifying Commendatore.

Valhalla Collapses Early

Stage accident stops Darmstadt Das Rheingold.

A scene from the Darmstadt Das Rheingold. 
Image © 2012 Staattheater Darmstadt.

It seems that the Metropolitan Opera is not the only place where mounting Wagner's epic Ring Cycle is an occupational hazard. 

Reports are coming out of Darmstadt, Germany that a Feb. 11 performance of Das Rheingold at the Darmstadt Stadttheater came to an early end when a section of the set came unfastened and crashed onto the stage, landing in the orchestra pit and injuring a musician. This story was first reported (in English) on Norman Lebrecht's blog Slipped Disc.

The giants kidnapt Freia in a scene from the Darmstadt Das Rheingold. 
Image © 2012 Staattheater Darmstadt.

The Darmstadt production of Rheingold modernizes Wagner's drama, with Wotan as a pinstriped industrialist and the Giants as construction workers in safety helmets. From the photographs on the theater's website, Valhalla appears to be a nuclear plant. The production is by John Dew.

The incident took place towards the end of the two and half hour opera, when a piece of press-board, which framed the action, was 26 feet high and 4 feet wide. Apparently it fell forward with one end landing in the orchestra pit and striking a member of the orchestra in the head. The performance was stopped immediately, and the woman was taken to a nearby hospital. 

Perhaps this is why Wagner designed the famous "covered" pit at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus?

The Doge Abides

Plácido Domingo to sing Simon Boccanegra with the Opera Orchestra of New York.

Plácido Domingo in the Metropolitan Opera
production of Simon Boccanegra

The Opera Orchestra of New York has revealed its "secret" production of the 2012 spring season, starring Plácido Domingo. 

And it's...Simon Boccanegra. The opera will be performed in concert at Avery Fisher Hall on March 7. This will mark the OONY's first performance of Boccanegra. OONY music director Alberto Veronesi will conduct.

The title role in Boccanegra has long been considered a pinnacle of the baritone repertoire. Mr. Domingo, who began his 50-year opera career singing in that range, added the role to his repertory in 2009. 

Simon Boccanegra had a complex genesis. Verdi wrote the original version of the opera in 1857. The confusing plot and lack of action did not sit well with the public, and the opera vanished from the stage. In 1881, at the urging of librettist Arrigio Boito, Verdi revamped the opera, restructuring the story and adding the climactic Council Chamber scene to the end of Act I.

Although the OONY has a reputation for bringing little-heard works and unusual versions of operas to the ears of New Yorkers, this will be a performance of the 1881 revision of the opera. It is also Mr. Veronesi's second appearance leading the OONY, following a 2010 double bill of Massenet's La Navarraise and Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana at Carnegie Hall.

The opera gained new life in the repertory in the 20th century, becoming a favorite of great Verdi baritones Tito Gobbi and Piero Cappucilli. It is regularly seen at the Metropolitan Opera, where Mr. Domingo sang the role in the winter of 2009. 

Earlier in his career, Mr. Domingo was frequently heard in the role of Gabriele Adorno, the revolutionary firebrand who is determined to knock the Doge off the throne of Genoa. In this performance, Gabriele will be sung by Massimino Giordano. The role of Amelia, Simon's secret daughter and Gabriele's love interest will be sung by Ana Maria Martinez in her Opera Orchestra of New York debut.

This performance will mark the 71-year old singer's only Verdi appearances of the season. It is also his third performance with the Opera Orchestra of New York, following a 1973 Francesca di Rimini and Massenet's Le Cid in 1976. 

Is James Levine Hanging Up His Towel?

Metropolitan Opera Music Director pulls out of Götterdämmerung.

This may soon be an unfamiliar sight. James Levine in rehearsal.
Photo by Koichi Miural.

The Metropolitan Opera press office continues its tradition of springing big stories on Friday afternoon when they think no-one is looking.

The latest is that Music Director James Levine will not conduct the January 27, 2012 premiere of Götterdämmerung, the final chapter of the company's troubled new production of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will take over all five performances, including a Met Live in HD telecast on Feb. 5. Mr. Luisi will also lead the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra's Carnegie Hall concert on Jan. 15, featuring soprano Renée Fleming.

The maestro's health problems in recent years have included back trouble, shoulder injuries and a bout with cancer. Earlier this year, he stepped down from his position as Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He also cancelled his Tanglewood commitments with that orchestra, leaving the summer free for rest and rehabilitaion.


On Labor Day weekend, Mr. Levine suffered a fall while walking in New England. This forced him to cancel his Met commitments, which included leading the company's new productions of Don Giovanni and Siegfried. He was replaced by newly promoted Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi.

Mr. Luisi's conducting drew better notices than the stagings of the operas. However, the Italian conductor's sudden commitment to the Met sent earthquakes through major European opera houses. The loudest outrage came from Rome, where Mr. Luisi stepped away from a new production of Salome a few weeks before its premiere.

Mr. Levine last conducted at the Met in May of this year, leading performances of Die Walküre, the second chapter in the Ring. He has not conducted since. As of this writing, Mr. Levine is scheduled to conduct three complete Ring cycles in April. Whether that happens or not remains to be seen.

UPDATED: Lehman Bailout Rattles Met's Siegfried

Heldentenor cancels due to illness, replacement announced.

Enter the Dragon: Jay Hunter Morris as Siegfried at the San Francisco Opera.
Photo by Cory Weaver © 2011 San Francisco Opera.

New York, meet Jay Hunter Morris. 

The Metropolitan Opera announced on Wednesday night that Mr. Morris, an up-and-coming heldentenor, will be singing the title role in the Oct. 27th premiere of the company's new production of Siegfried. In an update, Mr. Morris will also sing the remainder of the fall performances, including the Nov. 5 Met Live in HD telecast.

Mr. Morris replaces Gary Lehman, who cancelled all his fall performances of the role. Mr. Lehman's manager, Brian Jauhiainen, told Daniel J. Wakin in the New York Times that the culprit was a year-long virus contracted from eating shellfish in Oct. 2010. Mr. Jauhiainen said that the tenor was prepared to sing the role but was "physically exhausted." However, he is expected to sing in the Jan. 27 premiere of Götterdämmerung. Next spring, Mr. Lehman will platoon the role in both operas with Stephen Gould.

The late change poses problems with marketing Siegfried, a tough sell even to the most hardened Wagnerian. Mr. Lehman's blonde-wigged profile has dominated much of the company's promotional material for the production. As of this writing, the tenor is expected to sing the part in three spring performances, as part of the complete Ring. Those shows are being sold on a subscription-only basis.

Mr. Lehman was originally added to the Ring cast last year as a replacement for Ben Heppner. Mr. Heppner, who had sung every major Wagner role except Siegfried, was originally under contract to sing in this new production. In February of this year, the Canadian tenor announced that he had cancelled his plans to appear, and withdrawn the role from his repertory.

What's interesting about this cancellation and casting change is that Jonas Kaufmann is in town for a recital at the Met on Oct. 30. Mr. Kaufmann made a stir as Siegmund, the hero of Die Walküre, the previous opera in the Ring. The tenor has sung other Wagner roles such as Lohengrin, but has yet to tackle Siegfried. Then again, it might be weird for Siegmund to play his own son.

The title role in this opera is the summit of the German tenor repertory. The character wrestles a bear, beats up a dwarf, forges a sword, kills a dragon, kills the dwarf, beats up Wotan and then sings a 37-minute long duet with the soprano after having been onstage for about four hours. The role is so demanding that on occasion, each of the three acts have been taken by a different heldentenor.

Mr. Morris, whose other Wagner roles include Erik in Der fliegende Holländer,  sang the role in this year's San Francisco Opera production of the Ring. However, he only played the character in Siegfried. Another tenor, Ian Storey, sang the role in Götterdämmerung. 

This is the second Met production this month to lose its leading man in the week before the premiere. Earlier this month, Peter Mattei replaced Mariusz Kwiecien in Don Giovanni after the Polish baritone suffered a back injury in rehearsal. Mr. Kwiecien is due to return Oct. 25. Both productions are conducted by new Met principal conductor Fabio Luisi, himself a replacement for injured music director James Levine.

Watch for the Superconductor review of the Oct 27 performance of Siegfried.

The Italian Job

Daniel Barenboim takes over at La Scala.

Daniel Barenboim leads a rehearsal in 2005. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

Conductor/pianist Daniel Barenboim has been appointed as the new Music Director of La Scala. He is the first conductor to hold that post since Riccardo Muti left in 2005. The conductor signed a 5-year contract which starts Dec. 1. He has been a frequent guest conductor at the house in recent years.

By taking this position, Mr. Barenboim has effectively swapped jobs with Mr. Muti, who now serves as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Barenboim led the CSO for 17 years, stepping down at the end of his contract in 2006.

The La Scala position is one of the most important jobs in Italian musical culture and the operatic world. As the house is often subject to strikes and other unpredictable labor actions, the music director must balance singers, unions, press, and a volatile and vocal public.

Mr. Barenboim will also retain his current post as the Music Director of the Berlin Staatsoper. An acclaimed conductor of operas and symphonies, he remains in international demand as a solo pianist and a performer of concertos. His newest recording is the two Liszt piano concertos, recorded with the Staatskapelle Berlin. Pierre Boulez conducts.

Born in Argentina in 1942, Mr. Barenboim was raised in Israel. He received early praise from Wilhelm Furtwängler and formal training from Nadia Boulanger. Mr. Barenboim rose to fame in the early 1970s as a pianist, conductor and accompanist to his first wife, the late cellist Jacqueline du Pré. She retired from music in 1973, and died in 1987.  

He has served as music director at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted the Ring at Bayreuth and issued a massive recording catalogue over a 44-year career. Among his prominent recordings: two cycles of Beethoven piano sonatas, the major  symphonies of Beethoven and Brahms, and two cycles of Bruckner symphonies recorded in Chicago and Berlin. 

A number of those recordings are being reissued this month, including a 34-disc box set (on Warner Brothers Classics) of his complete Wagner operas, recorded in Bayreuth and Berlin. (This has been released in Europe on Oct. 10--an American release date remains TBA.) Also newly available, Mr. Barenboim's first recording of the complete Bruckner symphonies, made with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the 1970s.

The Hunting of the Snark

"And now, on with the opera. Let joy be unconfined. Let there be dancing in the streets, drinking in the saloons, and necking in the parlor."--Otis B. Driftwood

Groucho Marx, Siegfried Ruman and Margaret Dumont in A Night at the Opera
© 1935 Universal Pictures. All rights reserved.

I just learned from my good friend James Jorden that the magazine Opera News has just named
Opera Chic its "Essential Opera Blog". We here at Superconductor would like to congratulate our comrade in Milan on her achievement.

The venerable magazine (published by the good folks at the Metropolitan Opera Guild) commented that the writing on Opera Chic is "like that of a dedicated and informed adolescent fan," and that the publication "goes against the current of snarky one-liners often found on opera blogs, writing from a vantage point of admiration, not disdain."

Snarky one-liners?

Moi?

In the spirit of that award, here's a quick collection of snarky one-line synopses of operas. Just for the fun of it. Twenty-five of them, in alphabetical order. As a tip of the hat to my dear, departed father, I'll leave out No. 12. After all, it's the holidays, and there should be no "L."

Attila: No wonder he's out to sack Italy--the hungry Hun wants revenge for sticking him in those god-awful Prada costumes.

Bluebeard's Castle: Love, marriage and interior decorating issues predominate Béla Bartók's one-act drama. Now where will she put the couch?

La Cenerentola: Censors forced Rossini to remove the foot fetishism, but the work's still got "sole."

Daphne: "And early next summer, turned into a tree."

Ernani: Re-written for Broadway as Come Blow Your Horn.

La Forza del Destino: Say, is that thing loaded?

Götterdämmerung:
There once was a young man named Siggy.
He had a hot aunt, rather wiggy
She got him whacked out,
by a half-dwarven lout
And leapt in the fire: go figgy.

Les Huguenots: The Energizer bunny of French grand opera. It keeps going, and going....

I Pagliacci:
"What kind of clown are you?"
"The 'crying on the inside' kind, I guess."

Dick Johnson: Alias of the bandit hero of Puccini's La Fanciulla del West. And a heck of a "porn name."

Kát'a Kabanová: It would be pretty snarky to make a joke about a tormented heroine who throws herself into a river. After all, this isn't the Ring....

Macbeth: We're not really allowed to mention the name of this opera. We won't tell you that it's about a Scottish king who seeks to consolidate his hold on the throne. No. Not Andrew Carnegie.

Nabucco: More than just an opera, it's also an Italian biscotti company!

Otello: The story of a Moorish general, the murder of the woman he loved, and a white Ford Bronco....

Parsifal: There are a million Parsifal jokes. They all start with "So this idiot walks into a forest and whacks the swan...."

The Queen of Spades: And then Ghermann gets offed by casino employees, who find out he knows the secret of the three cards.

Das Rheingold: Richard Wagner's opera about a small Brooklyn-based brewery struggling to compete in 1960's New York.

Simon Boccanegra: Free glass of water to whoever figures out the political plot of this opera set in Renaissance Genoa. Take it from the pitcher on the left.

The Turn of the Screw: Like 'The Nanny' but without Fran Drescher.

Un Ballo in Maschera Sex and murder in Sweden. Sounds like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Valzacchi and Annina: Operators of a "black newspaper" in Der Rosenkavalier and onstage inspiration to all of us opera bloggers.

Wozzeck: The only opera to ever use the word "Oxyaldehydanhydride." In German, no less.

Xerxes: Tree-hugger.

Young Siegfried: He runs away from home, kills his stepfather, beats up grandpa and then seduces his aunt. Who said romance was dead?

Die Zauberflöte: Alright. I'll be yours forever. But first, take off that bird costume!