Metropolitan Opera Preview: Adriana Lecouvreur

A new production for a New Year, with Anna Netrebko.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

All About Anna and Anita: a scene from Adriana Lecouvereur.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2019 The Metropolitan Opera.

Anna Netrebko stars in the title role of this wonderful but somewhat old-fashioned drama: the story of the lives, loves and demise (by truly bizarre means, more on that in a minute) of a famed Parisian stage actress. This glamorous new production pairs the diva with Piotr Beczala.

Opera Review: The Passing of the Torch

The Met's Luisa Miller shows a company in transition.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Take my daughter, please: Sonya Yoncheva, Placido Domingo and Piotr Beczala in Luisa Miller.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2018 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera's revival of its 2001 production of Luisa Miller looks backwards and forwards at once. It features Placido Domingo singing the latest in a line of Verdi baritone roles that the aging tenor has used to extend his already distinguished career. (It was also supposed to reunite the singer with James Levine, but the conductor's firing due to repeated accusations of sexual misconduct by multiple parties spoiled that happy event.) It looks forward in that its two leads, Piotr Beczala and Sondra Yoncheva, represent the cutting edge of a new generation of opera singers that are having their well-deserved moment in the spotlight.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Luisa Miller

Placido Domingo returns (but not as the tenor lead) in Verdi's opera.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

We're the Millers: Sonya Yoncheva (right) is Luisa and Placido Domingo is her ill-starred father in Verdi's Luisa Miller.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2018 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera marketing department is trumpeting that this year's revival of Luisa Miller features soprano Sonya Yoncheva paired with a very familiar name: Placido Domingo. However, those materials neglect to mention that Mr. Domingo is not playing Rodolfo, the handsome young hero in Verdi's Luisa Miller, but rather the role of Luisa's father, a part usually taken by a baritone of the first rank.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: La Bohéme

The Met brings back its meal ticket featuring four starving artists.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

If the shoe fits...Susanna Philips (center) as Musetta in a scene from Act II of La Bohéme.
Photo by Cory Weaver © 2016 The Metropolitan Opera.

A brace of young, talented tenors, sopranos and baritones portray Puccini's Paris bohemians, trying to stay warm through a long cold winter and a massive Act Three cascade of fake stage snow. This is the Met's most-performed and most revived show, back for another year.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Rigoletto

A new cast takes over the Met's "Vegas" Verdi revue.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Shake it baby: Piotr Beczala goes Vegas in Rigoletto.
Photo © 2015 The Metropolitan Opera.

This year's revival features Simon Keenlyside's return to the Met stage in the title role. He'll be relieved by Željko Lučić who sang this production when it premiered in 2013. The Duke will be sung by original lounge lizard Piotr Beczala, who will eventually be replaced by Stephen Costello. The key role of Gilda--Rigoletto's treasured daughter and the latest object of the Duke's depredations--is sung by Olga Peretyatko, who made a splash a few seasons back in I Puritani. Nadine Sierra sings the later performances.

Opera Review: Taking the Plunge

Renée Fleming returns as Rusalka.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Her kisses can kill: Rusalka (Renée Fleming) woos the Prince (Piotr Beczala)
in Act III of Rusalka at the Metropolitan Opera.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2014 The Metropolitan Opera.

The title role of Rusalka, Antonín Dvořák's long-suffering aquatic sprite, has effectively belonged to soprano Renée Fleming for nearly two decades. From her first performances of the role at the Seattle Opera to the start of her reign in the Metropolitan Operas's handsome, elaborate staging, she has been inextricably linked with Dvořák's most successful opera.  Now, with the advent of the Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD broadcasts, Ms. Fleming has plunged once more into Rusalka, with the goal of preserving her interpretation for posterity and eventual release on home video.

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.

Opera Review: Where's the Kaboom?

The Met revives Dez McAnuff's “atomic age” Faust.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Failure to detonate: Piotr Beczala (left) and John Relyea confer over a nuke
in Act V of the Met's revival of Gounod's Faust. Photo by Cory Weaver © 2013 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera’s current version of Charles Gounod’s 1859 grand opera Faust has, (like the atomic bombs that inspired its director Dez McAnuff) emerged once more from the opera house’s top-secret laboratories for another round of testing. On Thursday night, the performance failed to reach critical mass.