The Met Turns Up the Heat

Summer programming from The Metropolitan Opera.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Thousands watch Elina Garanca and Roberto Alagna in Carmen.
Image © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera is currently in the middle of its summer recital series, with three concerts around New York City next week. Upcoming concerts include appearances in the Bronx's Crotona Park (Tues, July 23)  Clove Lakes Park in Staten Island (July 25), Manhattan's Jackie Robinson Park (July 30) and Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens on Aug. 1.

Back in Business (and ain't it grand)

The Met reopens, concert halls are dark.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

With the subways down, Ariel (Audrey Luna) can ride a chandelier to work!
Scene from Act III of  Thomas Àdes' The Tempest.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

(Ed. Note: We here at Superconductor have weathered Hurricane Sandy and expect to be resuming a full schedule of classical music coverage, time and the restoration of the Metropolitan Transit Authority permitting. We will attempt to continue publishing the very best in classical music coverage, although you may see more DVD and CD reviews on here in the next few days.)

Along with the city's electrical grid and subway system, the New York classical music scene is slowly getting back on its feet. The Metropolitan Opera has announced that it will resume operations tonight. It is not the place of this blog to comment on the ironic coincidence that the work to reopen America's biggest opera house is Thomas Àdes' opera The Tempest.

The Met resumes business as usual on Friday and Saturday with further performances of Turandot, The Tempest and Le Nozze di Figaro.

Opera lovers who've already seen the Àdes opus have a choice tonight. At Lincoln Center's Rose Theater (located in the Time Warner Center at W. 59t St. and Broadway) Teatro Gratticielo will offer a rare performance of La Nave by Italo Montemezzi. This show is postponed from Monday night.

Opera Review: Practical Magic

Thomas Adés' The Tempest opens at the Met.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Ariel--aerialist: Audrey Luna flies high in The Tempest.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

In a dreary Metropolitan Opera fall season dominated so far by (dull-to-competent) revivals, the New York premiere of Thomas Adés' opera The Tempest (seen from the very last row of the house on opening night) provides a sorely needed breath of musical and dramatic innovation.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: The Tempest

(Reposted from the 2012-13 Metropolitan Opera Preview.)
The Met goes back to the...um..."ensorcelled atoll."
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Simon Keenlyside is Prospero, out for revenge--starting with his tattooist.
Promotional image for The Tempest. Photo by Anne Deniau © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Met unveils its first ever production of Thomas Ádes' Shakespearean opera, with the composer himself conducting. Simon Keenlyside sings the key role of Prospero, with talented young singers (Isabel Leonard, Iestyn Davies, Audrey Elizabeth Luna) filling out the cast.

The Tempest marks the return of Robert Lepage to the Met. The French-Canadian director may still be smarting over the critical backlash received by his staging of Wagner's Ring. According to the Met website, this staging "recreates the interior of 18th-century La Scala, including the hidden workings underneath the stage, where Prospero, the banished Duke of Milan, practices his otherworldly arts."

This is the second new opera at the Met this year to be based on William Shakespeare's final play. The Tempest (with a libretto by Meredith Oakes) is a far more serious take on the story of Prospero, the sorcerer who creates a brave new world on a mysterious, enchanted island. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

The Tempest will have its New York premiere on Oct. 23.

Prospero vs. The Machine

News about next year's Tempest, some of it even factual.

Simon Keenlyside (left) as Prospero menaces Ian Bostridge's Caliban in The Tempest.
Image © 2004 Royal Opera House of Covent Garden

Breaking news (and we mean that literally) from the Metropolitan Opera. In an interview with Toronto.com theater critic Richard Ouzounian, Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb has confirmed something that those of us who read Bradley Wilbur's now defunct Metropolitan Opera Futures Page already knew.

Robert Lepage will return to the theater to direct the company's first production of Thomas Ades' The Tempest.

Based on the Shakespeare play, Mr. Ades' new opera will feature Simon Keenlyside as Prospero, the wizard who creates a brave new world on a mysterious island. And yes, that's the same "enchanted island" featured in the Met's new pastiche opera, brilliantly titled The Enchanted Island.

I could at this point write something absurd about Mr. Lepage's dramatic vision for mounting The Tempest. And it would look like this:

This is not the set design for The Tempest.

"Worm Stage" is Met's Latest Challenge
Production of The Tempest will require construction of Lepage's latest stage idea: the "Worm," a 200-foot-long solar-powered stage set constructed entirely from dried rotini pasta, duct tape and glue. 


The set is advertised as the first "environmentally friendly, disposable opera set" and will create a "physically challenging" acting surface for the singers, including Mr. Keenlyside.

Asked about where the actors will stand on a stage made from 40 tons of pasta, a stagehand commented "that's what the duct tape is for." He asked to not be identified.

To build the $20-million-dollar contraption, the Metropolitan Opera's dogged stage crew will have to drill a 20-foot-wide accessway in the side of the opera house. This will accomodate a 75-foot high stanchion on either side of the building. When asked how the new supports will affect the neighboring Vivian Beaumont Theater, press representative T. Musquetier said: "I'm not too worried about it." 

The above isn't true. In fact this staging is being done in collaboration with La Scala, who will mount the opera in 2013.

 In another tidbit dropped by Mr. Gelb, the company's new production of Verdi's Falstaff will be directed by Des McAnuff, the Tony Award-winning director of Jersey Boys. Mr. McAnuff is currently putting the finishing touches on his new production of Jesus Christ Superstar.

The director will be back in New York to face the music (and the audience) tomorrow. His new production of Faust, (which updates Goethe's drama to the atomic age for some reason) has its premiere tomorrow night.