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 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."

No Roads Lead to Rome

Sir Bryn Terfel pulls out of the new Met Tosca.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Sir Bryn Terfel (center) has exited the Met's troubled new Tosca, opening Dec. 31.
Photo by Cory Weaver © 2010 The Metropolitan Opera.

First they lost their leading lady. Then the conductor. The Cavaradossi quit. And then the second conductor. Now, Sir Bryn Terfel has become the latest artist to pull out of the Metropolitan Opera's increasingly troubled new production of Puccini's Tosca.

New Head on the Block

Puccini's Turandot claims yet another victim.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The Princess Turandot. Art from the original cover of the score as published by Ricordi.

The title character of Puccini's final opera Turandot is a fabulous Chinese princess, and possibly the most bloodthirsty heroine in opera. Y'see, Turandot, the daughter of the Chinese Emperor, is a single girl. And in a vow to her ancestor, she has her would-be suitors decapitated when they fail to answer three riddles. One could view this work as an exotic vision of ancient China through the eyes of a late Romantic Italian composer...or a game show gone horribly wrong.

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.

Hvorostovsky Withdraws from Met Production

The singer has bowed out of the upcoming Eugene Onegin for health reasons.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Singer Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Photo from his website

This morning, baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky announced that he is withdrawing from fully staged opera performances "for the foreseeable future."

Opera Review: The Ringer Cycle

Matthias Goerne's surprise Wozzeck at the Met.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

He knows where his towel is: Matthias Goerne in the title role of Wozzeck.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2014 The Metropolitan Opera.

At 2:10 yesterday afternoon, the Metropolitan Opera announced that Thomas Hampson had withdrawn from Wozzeck. Mr. Hampson's substitute would not be the scheduled (and already contracted) cover, but baritone Matthias Goerne. Mr. Goerne, who has sung the title role to acclaim at other houses, was in New York to sing a lieder recital at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday night. Smoke signals went up on the Internet, and a hastily written press release was slipped into thousands of copies of Playbill.

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.

Plácido Domingo Hospitalized

Tenor diagnosed with pulmonary embolism.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Plácido Domingo in the title role of Rigoletto in Mantua.Film still © 2011 Emerging Pictures.

According to a story on Norman Lebrecht's classical music blog Slipped Disc, 72-year old tenor-turned-baritone Plácido Domingo is in a Madrid hospital with a pulmonary embolism.

When the Trojan Breaks

Casting changes in Les Troyens, Comte Ory.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A wanderer no more: Marcello Giordani has announced he will cancel the four remaining Troyens
appearances and remove the role of Enée from his repertory.
Photo by Cory Weaver © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

It's Saturday morning with the Christmas holiday right around the corner. And that means it's time to write about under-the-radar cast changes at the Metropolitan Opera.

According to a report published by our friends at parterre box (and sourced from the Met press office) Marcello Giordani has dropped out of the current revival of Les Troyens. The Italian tenor (whose other Berlioz operas at the Met have included the title roles in Benvenuto Cellini and La Damnation de Faust will "retire" the role of Enée from his repertory.

The exciting news: Mr. Giordani's replacement in this five-hour Berlioz-a-thon is tenor Bryan Hymel, a promising American tenor who just finished a Covent Garden run in Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable. The performances affected are Dec. 26 and 29, Jan. 1 and Jan. 5, which is the Live in HD broadcast of the opera.

Ink-a Dinka Doo

Controversy continues over Evgeny Nikitin's tattoo.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Evgeny Nikitin: the completed, controversial tattoo is to the left of his chin.

The new Bayreuth production of Der Fliegende Holländer is open but the story of Russian bass Evegny Nikitin and his unfortunate choice of tattoo art refuses to die.

The Wagner festival made July headlines in Germany when bass Evgeny Nikitin made a hasty exit after it was revealed that the singer's chest tattoo, an elaborate black heraldic crest, was an attempt to cover up a large swastika.

Mr. Nikitin issued a press statement and was replaced by Korean bass Samuel Youn in the title role of The Flying Dutchman. However, since the Russian singer engaged to sing Klingsor in the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Wagner's final opera Parsifal, the tattoo story refuses to die.

Bass Booted from Bayreuth

Bass Evgeny Nikitin loses starring role over chest tattoo.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Bass Evgeny Nikitin's chest tattoo (left) has cost him a starring role at the Bayreuth Festival.
Photo from Intermezzo.

The sins of Germany's past are very much on the mind of opera-goers as the Bayreuth Festival opens next week. The big story from the Green Hill: Russian bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin cancelled  his appearance at this year's festival, due to a tattoo that originally depicted a swastika.

Mr. Nikitin, 38 was scheduled to sing the title role in the Festival's lone new offering this season, a staging of Der Fliegende Holländer. His cancellation was announced two days ago. A replacement, Korean bass Samuel Youn as named yesterday for the new production, which opens July 25.

A tattoo on Mr. Nikitin's chest originally depicted the symbol of Hitler's Germany, along with Germanic runes that the singer, a native of the Russian city of Murmansk, picked out in a tattoo parlor many years ago. The symbols have absolutely no political significance for me, but a spiritual one. I was never a member of a political party and am still not today," he said in an e-mail to the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag. 

Karita Mattila Drops the Ball

The Finnish diva cancels Verdi.
by Paul Pelkonen

Before TV and the Internet, this is what we'd sit around and watch when there was no opera.
Wood-burning stove courtesy of Fireplace Village.  

In the sport of baseball, the "hot stove league" is used to describe the sport's off-season, when fans would gather around said heating device in the depths of winter to discuss the personnel changes made by their favorite teams. Now, as the Met opera's off-season is from mid-May to late September (making stoves impractical) maybe we need a new phrase? "Dormant air conditioner?"

The Metropolitan Opera's 2011-2012 has been closed for five days now, and roster changes are already being made, affecting next season's slate of Verdi productions. According to a report on Parterre Box, Finnish soprano Karita Mattila has announced her withdrawal from the company's upcoming David Alden production of Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera. Ms. Mattila was scheduled to sing Amelia, the love interest of King Gustavo of Sweden (Marcélo Àlvarez).

Natalie Dessay Out of Traviata Premiere

Hei-Kyung Hong gets the nod as Violetta.
by Paul Pelkonen

A trip to IKEA, on gossamer wings: Act I of La Traviata at the Met.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

The saga of the Little Red Dress continues. 

Last night the Metropolitan Opera press office quietly announced that tonight's performance of La Traviata will be sung by soprano Hei-Kyung Hong. Ms. Hong will replace Natalie Dessay, who is ill.

It is not known at press time whether Ms. Dessay will be available to sing the remaining seven performances in the run, starting with next Tuesday night and leading up to the Met Live in HD broadcast on April 14. 

Willy Decker's production of La Traviata, which bowed at the Met on December 31, 2010, is more physical than most productions of this Verdi opera. Violetta is required to careen across a slanted, curved acting surface, to be hoisted on a red couch by the choristers, and to meet the physical challenges of the characters medical condition (she is dying of tubeculosis) head-on. 

The production, which was originally mounted at Salzburg with Anna Netrebko (currently singing Manon at the Met) premiered with Marina Poplavskaya making a splash in the title role. Ms. Hong was the "cover" for those performances, and also sang the dress rehearsal earlier this week when Ms. Dessay announced that she was ill.

Regulars at the Metropolitan Opera are familiar with this talented Korean soprano, who has been something of a fixture at the house over a long career. She has sung over 300 performances at the theater, starting in 1984. Her wide repertory includes Butterfly, Gilda, the Countess (in the Marriage of Figaro), Liu, and of course, Violetta.

Last season, Ms. Hong was thrust into the limelight as Juliette in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette  after soprano Angela Gheorghiu abruptly cancelled her entire run, claiming illness. 

This year's cast also features Matthew Polenzani as Alfredo Germont, and baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Giorgio Germont.

Violetta Succumbs to Illness

Red dress drama as Natalie Dessay cancels rehearsal.

While the Clock Ticked: a scene from La Traviata.

The Metropolitan Opera's revival of La Traviata (scheduled to take the stage on Friday night) just got a little more interesting. French soprano Natalie Dessay pulled out of today's dress rehearsal, claiming that she was ill.

According to the singer's Paris management, the singer is suffering from a cold.

Another source confirmed, saying that the singer was not feeling well and "didn't want to push it."

Soprano Hei-Kyung Hong, who is currently the contracted cover for the run of performances, sang the dress rehearsal, which was not open to the general public.

 The Met's production of La Traviata opened on Dec. 31, 2010, to a mixture of acclaim from critics and bafflement from traditionalists. The show is mounted in a claustrophobic, curved room, and places great emphasis on Violetta's rapid deterioration, with a large clock at one end of the room symbolizing time running out for the Verdi heroine.

Originally directed by Willy Decker, this show is noted for its heavy physical requirements for singers, including a tough confrontation with Giorgio Germont in the second act and the "couch surfing" scene, where Violetta is hoisted into the air by the chorus, balanced on what appears to be a red IKEA® "Klippan" sofa.

The singer's management added that Ms. Dessay "intends to sing all of her performances."

La Traviata opens Friday. To read more about the production, check out out the Superconductor preview.

Egyptian Plague Strikes Soprano

Sondra Radvanovsky, Latonia Moore to platoon in Aida at the Met.
by Paul Pelkonen.

She's in the Egyptian business: Sondra Radvanovsky.

The winter flu bug has struck Egypt--and the Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera press office announced earlier this week that Violeta Urmana, scheduled to sing Aida at the Met this week, was ill.

Her replacement on Tuesday night was soprano Sondra Radvanovsky. Saturday's matinee broadcast will be sung by Latonia Moore.

Ms. Radvanovsky rose to stardom at the Met with the company's 2009 production of Il Trovatore. She has sung Aida before, but in the much smaller role of the (offstage) Priestess in Act I.

Her last appearances at the Met were in the spring of 2011, where she sang the title role in Tosca and reprised the role of Leonora in Trovatore. Next season, she will sing the role of Elisabetta de Valois in Don Carlo.

Latonia Moore is a recipient of the 2005 Richard Tucker Foundation grant. She has sung the role at the Hamburg State Opera in 2009 and at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in 2011. This performance is her Metropolitan Opera debut.

In other news, tenor Marcelo Giordani will sing Radames, taking over for Marcelo Àlvarez. Stephanie Blythe, who has drawn strong reviews for her fiery portrayal of the Egyptian princess Amneris, will sing as scheduled.

For a full review of the Met's Aida starring Ms. Urmana and Ms. Blythe, visit this page on Superconductor.
Contact the author: E-mail Superconductor editor Paul Pelkonen

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.

Only the Hunter...Survives

Jay Hunter Morris as Siegfried.
He will sing Götterdämmerung in 2012.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

Substitute tenor to take leading role in Götterdämmerung.

Jay Hunter Morris, the Texan heldentenor whose debut in the title role of Siegfried is one of the more successful elements of the Met's new Ring Cycle, has been inked to reprise the role in the Jan. 27 premiere of Götterdämmerung. 

Götterdämmerung is the final chapter of the Ring, and the most technically challenging to bring off onstage. Although the vocal demands of the tenor part are not as demanding as in Siegfried, there are some treacherous passages that are the terror of any would-be heldentenor. The Jan. 27 premiere will be Mr. Morris' debut in this opera.

The first of these comes at the end of Act I, after our hero has dominated the action of the opera for about 90 minutes. In the last scene of the act, a drugged, amnesiac Siegfried uses the Tarnhelm (a magic helmet, acquired in the previous opera) to disguise himself as Gunther, the king of the Gibichungs in order to abduct Brünnhilde.

The problem is, that the singer has to then take the helmet off and sing in his natural register, revealing his identity as Siegfried. In other words, Wagner requires his tenor to turn himself into a baritone for  singing in a dark, hollow register that sounds vaguely Gunther-like.

The second pitfall comes in Act II, when Siegfried's drug-induced treachery is revealed. After singing the arduous oath on Hagen's spear (which is then matched by the soprano in a higher register) Siegfried addresses the stunned assembly of wedding guests, inviting them into the hall. In a cruelly written phrase, he must navigate a full octave drop, over a 16th-note. The effect makes most singers' voices crack, although a smart conductor will slow the orchestra at this point and allow the tenor to safely navigate this tricky passage.

According to a New York Times report by Daniel J. Wakin, Mr. Morris will replace Gary Lehman. Mr. Lehman is still suffering from the effects of a virus, contracted one year ago after consuming shellfish. Mr. Morris will platoon the role with tenor Stephen Gould, and will be featured in the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD broadcast, to be shown in movie theaters on Feb. 11. The two singers will act as each other's covers for the winter performances of Götterdämmerung.

The change in cast has caused a shake-up at the San Diego Opera, where Mr. Morris was slotted to sing the demanding role of Captain Ahab in Jake Heggie's opera Moby-Dick. His replacement will be tenor Ben Heppner, who created the role of Ahab in the opera's 2010 premiere. Ironically, Mr. Heppner was the first singer under contract at the Met to sing Siegfried this season, but cancelled in February of 2011.

The Queen's Throat

Anna Netrebko Cancels Carnegie Hall Recital.

Fabulous, glamorous, cancelled. Anna Netrebko

Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, whose appearances as Anna Bolena have provided a thrilling start to the Metropolitan Opera's 2011 fall season has bowed out of her Carnegie Hall debut. She was scheduled to perform a program of Russian songs by Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, accompanied by pianist Elena Bashikirova.

A press release issued this morning by Carnegie Hall, revealed that Ms. Netrebko has been ordered to go on ten days of rest by her doctor.  No replacement artist is scheduled. Ticket-holders can receive a full refund through CarnegieCharge.

In the statement, Ms. Netrebko said: "I love this program of music from my home country, and no one is more disappointed and frustrated than me that I won't be able to perform for New York audiences next week."

This is the second time Ms. Netrebko has disappointed Carnegie Hall audiences. She nixed a recital in 2006, saying at the time that she did not feel "artistically ready" for the performance.

Ms. Netrebko sang the title role in seven performances of the taxing Donizetti opera this fall, starting with opening night on Sept. 26. She is the first singer to play Anne Boleyn at the Met. Ms. Netrebko also appeared before an international audience in the Met Live in HD broadcast of the opera on Oct. 15.

Angela Meade is scheduled to sing the next three performances of Anna Bolena at the Met this month. Ms. Netrebko returning for a three-opera encore in February.

Anna Bolena is just one role that Ms. Netrebko is singing this year at the Met. On March 29, she goes on the boards as Manon in a new co-production (with the Royal Opera House of Covent Garden) of the Massenet opera. Ms. Netrebko sang in this same production during its run at Covent Garden last year.

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.