2011-2012 at the Met: The Year of the Snake

Wrapping up the Met Season

by Paul Pelkonen

Our hero (Jay Hunter Morris) battles Fafner (right) in Act II of Siegfried.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

I wrote a lot of stuff this year about the 2011-2012 Metropolitan Opera season. From previews of every production to reviews of almost every show, the big house on W. 64th St. gets a lot of coverage on this blog.

The good news: this year had some exceptional revivals, including Satyagraha, The Makropulos Case and L'Elisir d'Amore.

The bad news: some new productions that ranged from decent (Anna Bolena) to disastrous. (For more on that, keep reading.)

The season's over and it's time to highlight the good and the bad of this season which saw the completion of the Robert Lepage Ring, the launch of several exciting new productions, and two, (count 'em, two!) premieres starring Anna Netrebko. All links will lead to Superconductor reviews of the operas in question.

The Year in Reviews: The Best Singers of 2011

Eleven individual performances worth mentioning.

By Paul Pelkonen.

Sanford Sylvan as Cardillac.
Photo by Clive Grainger for
Opera Boston

We continue our ramble through the back pages of this blog with a year-end look at the eleven best opera performances of 2011. Again, this is sorted chronologically, so it's a pure (but weird) coincidence that the first five entries are male and the latter six are female. (No sexist, I.) And there's no organization by voice-type either. Just really good singing and acting.
Enjoy.

Kevin Burdette as Death/The Loudspeaker 
(The Emperor of Atlantis at Boston Lyric Opera.)
"Kevin Burdette made an impressive company debut as Death, mugging with John Cleese-like abandon and delivering his noble, impressive music with flair.  Mr. Burdette doubled in the role of the Loudspeaker. This allowed director David Schweizer to re-imagne the dialogue between the Emperor and his underlings as a series of prank phone calls as Death repeatedly "punked" the Emperor."


Alexander Lewis as Vacal
(The Bartered Bride at Juilliard Opera.)
As played by Alexander Lewis, Vacal's handicap became a source of charm, and the opera's most uplifting moment comes when the singer overcomes his alalia syllabaris and sings out. When he starts dancing in the third act, it is a moment of real joy.


Sanford Sylvan as Cardillac
(Cardillac at Opera Boston.)
"Sanford Sylvan showed exceptional versatility and range in the title part, taking his baritone down to the depths of Cardillac's depravity and floating pianissimo high notes when needed. His portrayal made the jeweler's decision to kill his customers seem almost reasonable, pulling the audience in as co-conspirators as he preyed upon the elite."

Alan Held as Wozzeck
(Wozzeck at the Metropolitan Opera.)
"Mr. Held sang with dark nobility in the opening act of the opera, creating a defensive barrier around the character that was slowly torn down. Things shattered completely when he was cuckolded in the second act, and then beaten brutally by the Drum Major. In the final act, he brought whoops of despair and madness into his performance, making his final drowning a poignant, pathetic spectacle."

Jonas Kaufmann as Siegmund
(Die Walküre at the Metropolitan Opera.)
Mr. Kaufmann's sturdy stage presence and perfect German diction make him the best Siegmund to sing at this house in many years. As he seized both the sword and his sister Sieglinde, his final cry of "so blühe denn, Wälsungen-Blut!" rose to an ecstatic, swelling high note. Then, he held it, riding over the crashing wave of the orchestra and drawing a storm of applause.

Isabel Bayrakdarian as (the vixen) Sharp-Ears
(The Cunning Little Vixen at the New York Philharmonic.)
Ms. Bayrakdarian displayed an agile soprano instrument with a pleasing tone and the right amounts of light and shade. She also manipulated the complex costume (including a nearly prehinsile fox-tail) easily, coping with the challenging choreography on the somewhat limited stage.

Yva Kihlberg as Selma Jezková
(Selma Jezková at Lincoln Center Festival)
"The long, arching phrases sung by her character recall the writing of Richard Strauss, and the sheer animal panic as she is marched to the scaffold recalled the frantic fate of a certain Puccini heroine. This was a devastating performance combined with difficult physical acting, particularly in the heart-stopping stunt of Selma's execution."

Meagan Miller as Danaë
(Die Liebe der Danaë at Bard Summerscape.)
"The soprano part is both long and treacherous, all the way up to a high C# at the very end. Meagan Miller, a past grand finalist at the Metropolitan Opera's vocal competitions, handled the part with power and beauty of tone."

Jennifer Rosetti as Zerbinetta
(Ariadne auf Naxos at dell'arte Opera Ensemble)
"Jennifer Rossetti met the challenges of the ten-minute "Grossmachtige Prinzessin", including the high F notes called for on the fioratura passages. More importantly, she imbued the part with an easy sexuality and had good chemistry with the four players in the troupe."

Anna Netrebko as Anna Bolena
(Anna Bolena at the Metropolitan Opera.)
"Ms. Netrebko is currently a jewel among international opera stars: she is a woman of great pulchritude, and no mean singer. But what impressed in Anna was how the soprano brought dramatic weight to the small, seemingly insignificant lines of dialogue that drive the plot forward. Her attention to detail helped elevate Anna from bel canto pot-boiler to the realm of music drama."

Eve Gigliotti as Ruth
(Dark Sisters at Gotham Chamber Opera.)
"We mourn when she tells how her children died. And when she tries to follow Eliza and leave the ranch, we grieve when she throws herself from a cliff. This is not a Tosca suicide. It is more along the lines of Butterfly."

Visit the rest of the 2011 Year in Reviews, our account of the year that went to "'11".


Contact the author: E-mail Superconductor editor Paul Pelkonen.

One Louder: 2011 The Year in Reviews

We look back at 2011, the year that turned it up.

Like Nigel Tufnel's amplifier, this was a year that went over the edge.
Image from This is Spinal Tap © 1984 Embassy Pictures.

We're at the end of another year here at Superconductor. There were a total of 467 posts (or an approximate average of one and a half articles a day.) Not bad when your ambition is to write publish and edit a daily blog. More are coming.

There were also posts that had little to do with reality: a privilege of being one's own editor.

• Dragons being paid (in English gold coins) to live on top of the Metropolitan Opera House and sing in Siegfried.
• The New York City Opera's plan to move to a Brooklyn water treatment plant. 
• A Live-at-Occupy-Wall-Street performance of Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat. (That one actually happened.)

So we're going to use this opportunity to look back (mostly fondly) at a very busy year. It started a New Year's Day review of Palestrina, and will (eventually) include this week's forthcoming reviews in the grand total.

The guide is in five (formerly four) sections:

Opera Reviews:

I went to the opera 70 times, if you count a few live telecasts and broadcasts. Includes Strauss, Rossini, but surprisingly, no Wagner. Eleven reviews of great performances from different companies, with honorable mentions at the end.

Opera Singers:
When you see almost six dozen operas, you're bound to catch some good performances. We break down the 11 best, in all vocal shapes, sizes and styles.

Concerts and Recitals: 

Attended 95 of these this year. A recount of the eleven best experiences to be had sitting in a concert hall and not fidgeting. Features piano recitals and orchestral concerts in four different cities.

Recordings and DVDs:

The recording industry is not dead. It's just changing shape, with the best opera recordings coming out on home video long before they're released on CD, and whole symphony boxed sets repackaged as dime-store downloads.

The Worst of 2011: 

Our chamber of horrors. This year, instead of rehashing lousy performances, this section focuses on backstage drama and news coverage of a very strange year. Includes tales of injured conductors, on- and offstage drama, and the journey into the infinite undertaken by the New York City Opera. Plus singers falling off of stage sets.

The end of the guitar room scene. 

Footage, dialogue from This is Spinal Tap © 1984 Embassy Pictures.

Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...
Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
NT: Exactly.
MDB: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
NT: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
MDB: I don't know.
NT: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
MDB: Put it up to eleven.
NT: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
MDB: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
NT: [pause] These go to eleven.

The Year in Reviews: Recordings and DVDs in 2011

"These go to eleven."
By Paul Pelkonen.

Weird scenes inside the gold mine: Scene I of the Valencia production of Das Rheingold.
Pictures © the Palau de les Arts, Valencia © 2011 Unitel. 

Despite rumors to the contrary, the market for recorded music isn't dead--and neither are the record companies. There were some really good issues and reissues this year, including an exciting Ring Cycle on DVD and more Beethoven and Liszt than you can shake an ear trumpet at. Here's the 11 best recordings (audio and video) of the year that went to 11.


Best Complete Opera Recording
Frankfurt Opera cond. Sebastian Wiegl: Die Tote Stadt (2 CDs) (Oehm)
"The effect is one of Wagnerian longing in this famous tune, drawing out the characters' nostalgia and inner anguish, expressed through this inspired melody. Elsewhere, the giant orchestra is adeptly led in the dance music for Marietta and the phantasmagoric carnival scene in Act II. "

Best Orchestral Disc
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra cond. Robert Spano, Garrick Ohlsson, Piano: Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3, Symphonic Dances (ASO Media)
"This exciting disc of Rachmaninoff's most challenging concerto features Garrick Ohlsson meeting the work head-on. Mr. Ohlsson interlocks smoothly with Atlanta Music Director Robert Spano. They craft a thrilling ride through the work's three movements. An energetic set of Symphonic Dances demonstrates the quality of this Southern orchestra."


Best Recital Disc
Henri Sigriddsson, Piano Sibelius Symphony No. 2, 5 (Piano Transcriptions) (Ondine)
"Hearing a symphonic score rebuilt for the piano often allows the listener to experience fresh details of tone and color that may be obscured by the wash of strings or the stentorian force of brass. For Sibelius, whose compositional style is focused on simplicity and clarity, the transcription process sharpens each musical idea to a diamond edge."

Best Boxed Set 
Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich cond. David Zinman: Mahler Symphonies Nos. 1-10 (RCA Red Seal 15 discs, 1 DVD)
The opening "bloc" ofWunderhorn symphonies (Nos. 1-4) are solidly performed, with rich brass playing and energetic strings and winds. Mr. Zinman has a firm grasp of Mahler's treacherous rhythms, making the sudden celebratory dance in the middle of the Symphony No. 1 Marcia funebre lurch to playful life.

Best Compilation
Lang Lang: My Piano Hero (Sony Classical)
In this year of Liszt-o-mania (the man turned 200) Lang Lang unleashed this disc pairing solo piano excursions with an exciting recording of the First Piano Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic under Valery Gergiev.


Best Reissue
Chicago Symphony Orchestra cond. Daniel Barenboim Bruckner: Symphonies 0-9 (10 discs, DG)
"This set has been out of print for almost two decades, mostly because Daniel Barenboim decided to record a second Bruckner cycle in the 1990s with the Berlin Philharmonic. This older, analog set made in the 1970s offers the conductor's fiery first take on these classic works. It allows the listener to hear the early relationship between the young Barenboim and this great American orchestra."

Best Opera DVD
Vienna State Opera cond. Bertrand de Billy: Don Carlos 
"The Princess imagines a happy domestic life as a '50s sitcom housewife. Carlo is her hard-working white-collar hubby, King Philip and Queen Elisabeth are their dinner guests, and Posa as the pizza delivery guy who shows up after Eboli burns the roast."

Best Orchestral DVD
Vienna Philharmonic cond. Christian Thielemann:
The Beethoven Symphonies
"The whole endeavor is a bit of a throwback, to an age before tonmeisters and record company suits crammed the record shelves with mediocre Beethoven cycles led by egotistical conductors at the height of an unsustainable boom. By making honest music without the aid of modern machinery, the Viennese have done the impossible: they have come up with a fresh take on this well-known, well-loved music."


Best DVD Boxed Set
Valencia Opera Orchestra and Chorus cond. Zubin Mehta:
Der Ring des Nibelungen.
"Behind all the flash (and java) is a solid retelling of the myths, steered by Mr. Mehta's steady hand in the pit and Carlos Padrissa's innovative (but not intrusive) directorial ideas."

Best Bargain (Download):
Lahti Symphony Orchestra cond. Osmo Vanska
Sibelius Symphonies 1-7, Orchestral favorites (Amazon download, originally on BIS)
A near-complete Sibelius box set led by one of the finest Finnish conductors of our modern age. Originally issued by the Finnish label BIS, these sparkling, authentic recordings rise to starry heights and sink to dark, Arctic lows. Did we mention it costs five bucks?

Best Complete Edition
Leslie Howard: The Complete Liszt Piano Works (Hyperion, 99 Discs)
This heavyweight box features all the Liszt piano music. The sonatas, poems, concertos. The Années de la Pelerinage. The Hungarian Rhapsodies. Even the opera transcriptions and piano versions of orchestral works by Beethoven, Berlioz and Wagner. Alternate versions are included. Everything is played by the brilliant, scholarly Mr. Howard, who has dedicated his life and his piano careers to making this massive aural document.


Visit the rest of the 2011 Year in Reviews, our account of the year that went to "'11".


Contact the author: E-mail Superconductor editor Paul Pelkonen.

The Year in Reviews: Concerts and Recitals in 2011

The year of the "new jack" maestro.

Life saver: Sean Newhouse (left) stepped in for James Levine.
Here, he conducts Prokofiev with pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.
Photo by Stu Rosner © 2011 Boston Symphony Orchestra.

With disasters striking down a number of prominent conductors this year (Seiji Ozawa's battle with cancer, Riccardo Muti's fall and injury, and a whole stack of misfortunes for James Levine), 2011 was the year that young conductors stepped up to the podium and took charge. From Sean Newhouse in Boston to Yannick Nézet-Séguin in Philadelphia, this was the year of a continued youth movement on North American podiums.

It was also a busy season for your favorite classical music blog. 94 concerts in four different cities. And seeing one more this week to make it 95. On to 2012!


Budapest Festival Orchestra: The Rite of Spring (Jan. 27)
"Under Iván Fischer's direction, the taut polyrhythms and blasts of brass acquired a fearsome, battering force, hammering at the senses in a frenzied dance. A reprieve came with the second section of the ballet, but it was not to last."

Boston Symphony Orchestra: Sean Newhouse's Boston debut (Feb. 27)
"Mr. Newhouse proved himself up to the task on Saturday night, leading a vigorous performance that balanced the extremes of this long, difficult work. The young conductor did more than just beat time--he offered his own interpretation of the work, making Mahler's last completed symphony a profound and deeply humanistic statement."

Louis Lortie plays Liszt (March 11)
"The pianist took his audience on a detailed tour of Liszt's travels in Switzerland. He drove the piano, playing from his shoulders, crossing hands for the most difficult passages and ranging across his instrument as Liszt traversed the Alps."

Leif Ove Andsnes at Carnegie Hall (April 9) 
"Mr. Andsnes brought a fiery approach to the first movement, conjuring up the stormy figures and near-fugal textures common to late Beethoven. The second movement was far more lyrical. The slow Arietta was played with quiet, poetic restraint."


Cleveland Orchestra: Bruckner Eighth. (July 17)
"Mr. Welser-Möst took a surprising, fast tempo for the opening movement, creating driving figures in the strings that moved the work forward and opened vast sonic vistas for the listener. This enabled the full 18-piece Cleveland brass section to cut loose with massive, block chords, voiced in stately, organ-like tones by horns, trombones and Wagner tubas."

New York Philharmonic: A Concert for New York (Sept. 11)
"The heavy, stentorian opening blared out with emphatic force. Mr. Gilbert drew inspired music-making from the veteran winds and strings, playing the uplifting main themes with emotion missing with some other conductors."

Cleveland Orchestra: Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky (Oct. 9)
Mr. Welser-Möst brought maximum clarity to this work, which had not been heard at Severance Hall in nearly four decades. The orchestra responded brilliantly, as the knotty musical lines untangled themselves and the work coalesced. The brass, asked to make difficult contributions in this work, responded admirably, as did the superb woodwind section.


Yuja Wang's Debut at Carnegie Hall (Oct. 21)
"Ms. Wang dived into the opening theme (a representation of Mephistopheles) and brought the wild energy of Faust's ill-fated adventures out in the early pages. The plunge into the abyss was chilling, ending in grim, matter-of-fact low notes."

London Symphony Orchestra And Chorus: War Requiem (Oct. 24)
"The London Symphony Chorus was a force unto itself, declaiming the Latin text of the mass with the authority of the Metatron. The fiery incantations of the Dies Irae blazed forth with power. They were also key contributors to the success of the later movements, especially the slow-moving setting of the Agnus Dei."

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Garrick Ohlsson: Rachmaninoff Three (Nov. 7)
"The first movement's complicated cadenza held the audience breathless. The slow Intermezzo sang a sad Russian song. And the pell-mell finale, calling for the greatest degree of virtuosity from the pianist proved a thrilling experience."

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher (Nov. 21)
"Actress Caroline Dhavernas was a powerful, dramatic force. Her hair bound up and her dress plain (historically accurate, as Joan was tried wearing men's clothing), Ms. Dhavernas became a simple figure of faith standing up for injustice."


Visit the rest of the 2011 Year in Reviews, our account of the year that went to "'11".

The Year in Reviews: Opera in 2011

The 11 Best Operas of 2011
By Paul Pelkonen.

They are the 99%. Tenor Roger Honeywell, soprano Meagan Miller and fine four-fendered friend.
Act III of Die Liebe der Danäe at the Bard SummerScape. Photo by Corey Weaver © 2011 Bard Festival.

This was a busy year. I saw a total of 69 opera performances. 5 of those were broadcasts or live telecasts, but they count. Anyway it's a sexier number than 64. Here's the 11 best opera performances of 2011. Chronological order.


Boston Lyric Opera: The Emperor of Atlantis (Feb. 6)
"Kevin Burdette made an impressive company debut as Death, mugging with John Cleese-like abandon and delivering his noble, impressive music with flair. Heroic tenor John Mac Master was a good choice for Harlequin, Death's companion and a representation (I think) of the madness of war."

Opera Lafayette: Le Magnifique (Feb. 22)
"As the heroine Clémentine, soprano Elizabeth Calleo displayed a pleasing soprano with an unusual, woody timbre. She sounded best in the ensembles, paired with mezzo Marguerite Krull or the paired villains, played by Jeffrey Thompson and Karim Sulayman."

New York Philharmonic: The Cunning Little Vixen (June 24)
"Isabel Bayrakdarian displayed an agile soprano instrument with a pleasing tone and the right amounts of light and shade. She also manipulated the complex costume (including a nearly prehinsile fox-tail) easily, coping with the challenging choreography on the somewhat limited stage."

Royal Danish Opera: Selma Jezkova  (July 30)
"Ylva Kihlberg was a magnetic, heart-tugging presence in the title role, a character created for the film by Icelandic singer Björk. Under Michael Schønwandt's skilled baton, Ms. Kihlberg seduced the listener, leading the audience in Selma's downward spiral."

Bard SummerScape: Die Liebe der Danäe (Aug. 1)
"The soprano part is both long and treacherous, all the way up to a high C# at the very end. Meagan Miller, a past grand finalist at the Metropolitan Opera's vocal competitions, handled the part with power and beauty of tone. Baritone Carsten Witmoser was a moving presence as Jupiter, a high baritonal part that is a mirror of Strauss himself."


Budapest Festival Orchestra: Don Giovanni Aug. 8
"Tassis Christoyannis sang with pleasing tone, tripping nimbly through the Champagne Aria and breaking out an unexpected, sweet head voice for his canzonetta in Act II. His death scene was well played: defiance turned to curiosity but never to fear as he met his fate."

Berlin Ensemble: Der Dreigroschen Oper (Oct. 6)
This is not your standard opera-style singing, but Mr. Kurt embodied the character with cynicism, warmth and energy. His Macheath was a homicidal dandy-about-town who owed something to Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the Joker in the 1989 Tim Burton film Batman.

Metropolitan Opera: Satyagraha (Nov. 9)
"Richard Croft combines his powerful tenor voice and skilled acting to inhabit the part of Mr. Gandhi. Although the nature of the text prohibits dialogue in the manner of a conventional biography, the singer uses movement and gesture to convey the story. He makes a physical transition as well, from suited, briefcase-toting lawyer to the more familiar figure of the Mahatma, clad in a homespun dhoti and carrying a staff."


Gotham Chamber Opera: Dark Sisters (Nov. 13)
"Mr. Muhly writes  for different types of female voices. He explores the different combinations effectively, having the five women sing in canon, or breaking them out into duets and later, arias. The musical idiom incorporates American hymns, folk music, Adams-style melodic fragments and straight melodic lines."

Juilliard Opera: Kommilitonen! (Nov. 17)
Conductor Anne Manson held this complex score together with tight, sprung rhythms in the orchestra and clear delineation of tone-rows in the woodwinds. Add in  the marching band, the offstage chorus and singers up in the balconies, and Peter Maxwell Davies' opera becomes a tough set of challenges. It came off razor-sharp.

Collegiate Chorale: Moïse et Pharon (Dec. 1)
(Mr. Cutler is) an old-fashioned bel canto tenor who can sing with pliability, accuracy and still be heard over the orchestra. He did a splendid job, despite looking corralled in the close quarters of the concert seating.

Honorable mentions: The Bartered Bride at Juilliard, Cardillac at Opera Boston (R.I.P.), Otello with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Ariadne Auf Naxos at dell'Arte Opera Ensemble, Moshe at HERE, Les Contes d'Hoffmann at Regina Opera, Bluebeard's Castle and Erwartung at the New York Philharmonic, L'Elisir d'Amore at New York City Opera, Guillaume Tell at Caramoor, Faust, La Traviata, Le Comte Ory at the Met, La Calista at Vertical Player Repertory.

Visit the rest of the 2011 Year in Reviews, our account of the year that went to "'11".


Contact the author: E-mail Superconductor editor Paul Pelkonen.

Metropolitan Opera Top Ten 2010-2011 Edition

And the winner...in a wimple, is...

Juan Diego Flórez in the Met production of Le Comte Ory.

Photo by Marty Sohl © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera

It's been an interesting season at the big house on W. 64th Street, with the usual blend of new productions, classic revivals and cancellations by Angela Gheorghiu. This season was marked by the launch of the new Robert Lepage staging of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen.

The star of that show, the $16 million dollar clattering, cantankerous collection of cogs and camshafts that serves as a treacherous unit set for this production. (By our count, there were two onstage accidents and two malfunctions.) Oh well, at least there were no conductors fired because of last-minute schedule changes.

I saw every production at the Met this year, except for The Magic Flute and The Queen of Spades. Missed that one due to illness. So here's a look at the top ten performances at the Met this season, with links to the full reviews and quotes from my sharp-penned blog posts. Enjoy, and watch for the summer festival preview coming later this week.

10) Boris Godunov
"The stage became a killing ground, with choristers wielding knives and ropes, killing police officers, nobles, Jesuits, and each other in an orgy of rage and violence. The rabble was quelled by the apperance of Marina and her advisor Rangoni on horseback, with the Pretender, "Dmitri" being significantly forced to walk."

9) Die Walküre
"The performances are so absorbing that you simply forget about the hype and the problematic multi-million dollar set, and get pulled into the great drama of the Wälsungs, Wotan, and Brünnhilde."

8) Capriccio
"Ms. Fleming brought intelligence and candor to the complex, ambiguous role of the Countess. Her voice isn't quite as golden as it once was, but she still sings Strauss with a burnished sheen and an intelligence of articulation that has become the trademark of her later career."

7) La Traviata
"Whirling about the stage in high scarlet pumps and a red dress, Ms. Poplavskaya went from being every man's fantasy to every man's victim--a potent interpretation that will resonate in the minds of opera lovers for years to come.

6) Ariadne auf Naxos
"Ariadne has four fearsome leading roles, and the Tuesday night cast matched the composer's exacting requirements. Joyce DiDonato sang the Composer in the opera's Prologue. This was yet another trouser role for the American mezzo, as the Mozart-like author of the Ariadne opera who learns that his work will be "improved" upon by the artistic whims of his patron, the unnamed "richest man in Vienna."

5) Lucia di Lammermoor
"It goes beyond the superficial warbling of the leading lady and explores Lucia as what it really is: a rock-ribbed, full-blooded family drama with as much excitement and stagecraft as the mature works of Giuseppe Verdi."

4) Pelléas et Mélisande
"Magdalena Kozena was a strong, unconventional Mélisande, not the wilting flower associated with this role. There was something of the destructive faerie bride about her performance, something unearthly in her Act III solo in the tower."

3) Wozzeck
Mr. Held sang with dark nobility in the opening act of the opera, creating a defensive barrier around the character that was slowly torn down by the Captain, his Doctor (the excellent Walter Fink) and his rapidly deteriorating relationship with Marie."

2) Don Pasquale
"When she turned on Pasquale, Ms. Netrebko acted out every opera house manager's worst backstage nightmare to great comic effect. The Met has seen its share of diva drama over its long history, and many in the house last night enjoyed the inside joke."

...and the winner is....

1) Le Comte Ory
"Mr. Flórez, now decked out in a nun's habit and wimple, sang a glorious duet with Ms. Damrau, letting their remarkable voices fly free."

The Year in Reviews Part I: Opera

Our wrap-up of The Year We Made Blog Posts.


This was an exciting year for classical music lovers. There were some exceptional orchestral concerts, some great operas, and even a few new productions worth noting. So let's take a look back with some links back at the year in music.

Honk if you loved The Nose. Photo by Ken Howard © 2010 The Metropolitan Opera

We start with opera. This was a year of highs and lows. It included great performances by smaller opera companies, some epic evenings at the Met, and the continued survival of the New York City Opera. Also, the Opera Orchestra of New York returned to Carnegie Hall, staging an engaging double-bill of Cavalleria Rusticana and La Navarraise.

The list below is by no means definitive--and there were plenty of performances considered. Here's Part I of the Best of 2010

Best Opera Performance: L'Incoronazione d'Poppea at Juilliard.
"The student cast met the opera's decadence with a lush performance that caressed the ears for three hours."

Best New Production: The Nose at the Met.
"From the strident opening chords (which sound suspiciously like "Ah-choo!") the work lurches forward in a kaleidoscopic style...."

Worst New Production: Attila at the Met.
"The chorus are relegated to a Nibelheim-like "pit of despair" below the main level of the stage."

Best Revival: Intermezzo at New York City Opera.
"All ends happily as husband and wife sing a twenty-five minute duet in which they work out all their problems in full Straussian sound."

Best Star Turn: Anna Netrebko as Norina in Don Pasquale at the Met.
"Ms. Netrebko acted out every opera house manager's worst backstage nightmare to great comic effect."

Opera Singer of the Year: Elīna Garanča
For her performances in Carmen at the Met and La Navarraise at Carnegie Hall.
"The highlight of her performance was the "Card Song," sung with intelligence and resonant low notes from the chest."

Opera Conductor of the Year: Sir Simon Rattle leading Pelléas et Mélisande at the Met.
"Sir Simon Rattle stretched the textures of this work to their Wagnerian breaking point, taking very slow tempos at the outset."

Top Five Opera Productions of the 2009-2010 Season

Bunnies having wild sex, Siberian prisoners and a hot, sexy Carmen. Here's the best of the 2009-2010 opera season. And even the Tosca I saw wasn't bad--with the cuts and the second cast.

The Fairy Queen at BAM
"As the mind-bending masques began, a lake, a Monet haystack and even the Garden of Eden appeared. Not to mention the tableau of two dozen dancers in Easter bunny costumes enacting the Kama Sutra on the BAM stage...."

The Nose at the Met
"Most entertaining are the animations featuring the Nose's adventures as it grows to human size, acquires legs, dresses up as a State Councillor, and leads its owner a merry chase around the city. A memorable image: old film of Shostakovich himself playing the piano, his face obscured by the black bulk of the runaway Nose."


Don Giovanni at City Opera
"By putting all the actors onstage during the overture, the director forces the audience to "play detective" and figure out who everybody is as the drama develops. But there was no missing the excellent assembly of voices."

From The House of the Dead at the Met
"The lights came up to reveal Richard Peduzzi's set, which consisted of moving, bleak gray walls, placing the prisoners in a bizarre B.F. Skinner box."

Carmen at the Met
"Each act opens with a scena played out by two dancers, an idealized version of the relationship between Carmen and Don José. The opera's action is compressed in and around a crumbling, Romanesque arena that moves and rotates with the needs of the staging."