GIULIO CESARE:Handel
Original Air Date: 04/17/1999
Nelson; Larmore, McNair, Daniels, Blythe, Asawa
MOD Audio SID.19030422
This is the first Met broadcast of Cesare as the 1988 production with Troyanos and Battle was not broadcast (a special shame because of Troyanos’ way with Handel) This was an early success for both Blythe and Daniels, but this is still not my work — too many countertenors and too few ensembles. Brian Asawa recently passed away, and was one of the major groundbreaking countertenors.
CARMEN:Bizet
Original Air Date: 01/17/2019
Langrée; Phillips, Margaine, Alagna, Simpson
SID.19030000
Mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine reprises her remarkable portrayal of opera’s ultimate seductress, a triumph in her 2017 debut performances, with impassioned tenors Yonghoon Lee and Roberto Alagna as her lover, Don José. Omer Meir Wellber and Louis Langrée share conducting duties for Sir Richard Eyre’s powerful production, a Met favorite since its 2009 premiere.
PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE:Debussy
Original Air Date: 01/15/2019
Nézet-Séguin; Leonard, Lemieux, Appleby, Ketelsen, Furlanetto
SID.19030640
First Intermission
Backstage Pass: Loren Toolajian interviews tenor Paul Appleby
Pelléas et Mélisande feature with Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Second Intermission
Backstage Pass: Loren Toolajian interviews mezzo Isabel Leonard
Backstage Pass: Loren Toolajian interviews Kyle Ketelsen and Ferruccio Furlanetto
Mary Jo Heath interviews Roberto Alagna about Carmen
Debussy’s only opera, a mesmerizing meditation on love and betrayal, returns to the Met stage for the first time in almost a decade, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting the landmark score. A pair of brilliant young Met stars, tenor Paul Appleby and mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, are the naïve title lovers, and baritone Kyle Ketelsen is the imperious Prince Golaud. Ferruccio Furlanetto, as Arkel, and Marie-Nicole Lemieux, as Geneviève, complete the cast.
LA BOHÈME:Puccini
Original Air Date: 03/14/1964
Cleva; Tebaldi, Kónya, Hurley, Guarrera, Hines
SID.19040102
This is Tebaldi’s first of two broadcast Mimis, the other being from 1970 with Tucker and available on MOoD. She still notched 36 Met performances which puts her 9th in Mimi totals. Konya gets a good review from Peter G. Davis for this performance, and the supporting cast is solid. A nice pre-Gioconda memory of Tebaldi.
LE NOZZE DI FIGARO:Mozart
Original Air Date: 02/07/1987
Levine; Van Dam, Battle, Söderström, Hynninen, von Stade
SID.19040103
This is the second year of the Ponnelle production, and plenty of interesting casting with Battle and von Stade the only holdovers. This is Montarsolo’s farewell, but for me the real star is Levine welding the whole ensemble together.
DIE WALKÜRE:Wagner
Original Air Date: 02/02/1957
Mitropoulos; Harshaw, Edelmann, Schech, Vinay, Thebom, Böhme
MOD Audio SID.19040104
Mitropoulos is not often heard in Wagner, but he is alert to the drama at all times. Unfortunately, there are a number of cuts even in parts of the Todesverkundigung (about 4.5 minutes there by my check). Still, this is a performance worth hearing. Harshaw is a stalwart Brunnhilde, and Edelmann was not yet in terminal Ochs voice. I also like Vinay very much, but he is not to everyone’s taste. One of MY highlights for the week.
OTELLO:Verdi
Original Air Date: 04/02/1994
Gergiev; Domingo, Vaness, Leiferkus, Croft
SID.19040105
Vaness’ Desdemona is professional and musical without being especially memorable. In the current controversy [this was over Gergiev’s close support of Putin and around the time of the Onegin opening night, where will Ukraine be in January 2015 when Gergiev is back at the house?] Gergiev was hardly deserving of an Otello production, but he was Joe Volpe’s counterbalance to Levine. His participation here is not a plus. Domingo’s Otello is a known quantity and he’s heard better elsewhere. though surprisingly streaming only features one audio performance and two videos; his actual broadcast total from the Met is two videos and four audios.
CARMEN:Bizet
Original Air Date: 03/22/1986
Levine; Ewing, Domingo, Malfitano, Devlin
MOD Audio SID.19040106
This is the second of Domingo’s three Jose broadcasts the first is 1971 with Ruza Baldani and Robert Merrill under Jean Morel which has not been rebroadcast on Sirius he also conducts a Carmen (not while singing Jose) and also has a telecast with Waltraud Meier, available on MOoD. Three days before the telecast is his last matinee broadcast, also not rebroadcast on Sirius. I was not a big fan of the Ewing Carmen, but for a change this is an interesting cast despite thinking Deomingo was always in Carmen, at the Met he was not– his 26 rank well behind Martinelli at 74 , Tucker at 60, or even McCracken at 47; not far behind PD are Del Monaco and Vickers at 18 each and Alagna at 20.
CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA / PAGLIACCI:Mascagni / Leoncavallo
Original Air Date: 03/03/1951
Erede; Milanov, Tucker, Harvuot / Rigal, Baum, Warren
MOD Audio SID.19040107
The Cavalleria is strongly cast, and Warren was the major Tonio of the 1950s in Pagliacci. 1/18/2012 – For me the two highlight vocal performances are Tucker in the Cavalleria and Warren in the Pagliacci. Milanov has a later broadcast on MetPlayer with Baum as Turiddu and Del Monaco as Canio. 1/12/2011 – Representative Met performance, especially in Cavalleria, but Warren’s Prologue is something to hear as well.
FIDELIO:Beethoven
Original Air Date: 04/01/2006
Nadler; Sunnegårdh, Heppner, Held, Sigmundsson, Welch-Babidge, Turay
SID.19040208
This was Volpe’s attempt at A Star is Born. Though Sunnegardh is still singing, her Met career barely encompasses two seasons (but maybe there’s more cover work before and since) She has four Turandot Sirius broadcasts(none in the matinee series from Toll Brothers). As for this Fidelio, it is not special in any department, and as much as I love Fidelio, when the first adjective coming to mind is workaday, it’s best passed over. One who has played out a similar scenario who I think is getting better and better is Lise Lindstrom who after consistent Turandot successes in many major theatres, has also now had a success as Salome (her Tosca at Glimmerglass a few seasons ago didn’t impress me quite as much), she has three Sirius (not Toll Brothers matinees) Turandots– the matinee and HD went to Guleghina. Keep on the lookout for Lindstrom, and she returned again in 2015 for more Turandots at the Met including Eyvazov (Mr. Netrebko)’s debut. Sunnegardh was a Volpe protege who didn’t quite take off– Waitress debuts at the Met. There have been worse Fidelios however, but no need for a special search for this.
DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG:Wagner
Original Air Date: 01/10/1953
Reiner; Schöffler, de los Angeles, Hopf, Pechner, Greindl, Holm
MOD Audio SID.19040209
De los Angeles is one of my favorite singers, and Reiner is one of my favorite conductors, and Schoffler still has some youth on him. For me, the distinctions are chiefly Reiner, Schoffler, and de los Angeles. Greindl, the Pogner, Holm, the David make their final Met appearances on this broadcast. This performance has been on Sirius before and is in the Sony Wagner at the Met box.
DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG:Wagner
Original Air Date: 01/10/1953
Reiner; Schöffler, de los Angeles, Hopf, Pechner, Greindl, Holm
MOD Audio SID.19040210
De los Angeles is one of my favorite singers, and Reiner is one of my favorite conductors, and Schoffler still has some youth on him. For me, the distinctions are chiefly Reiner, Schoffler, and de los Angeles. Greindl, the Pogner, Holm, the David make their final Met appearances on this broadcast. This performance has been on Sirius before and is in the Sony Wagner at the Met box.
BILLY BUDD:Britten
Original Air Date: 04/04/1992
Mackerras; Hampson, Clark, Morris, Held, Courtney
MOD Audio SID.19040211
Morris has sung almost every Claggart in the production and it is one of his best parts. Hampson isn’t always ideal as an innocent, but he’s a fine musician and the cast under Mackerras is top drawer. There is also an excellent Met video of the production with Dwayne Croft on MOoD.
RIGOLETTO:Verdi
Original Air Date: 02/22/1964
Cleva; Merrill, Peters, Tucker, Giaiotti, Dunn
MOD Audio SID.19040212
Amazingly Merrill (debut 1946) and Tucker (debut 1945) are also around eight years later in 1972 for them sharing their final Rigoletto broadcast. Peters who sang Gilda at the Met as late as 1985 did not broadcast it after 1967. Dunn,Giaiotti, and Macurdy are outstandingly strong support. 1/16/12 – This has recently been released in the Sony Historic Broadcasts. All of the singers are fine, and the technical command of these full voiced singers could teach some more lyric singers the art of bel canto. Giaiotti was a stalwart of the Met bass contingent in the 60s, 70s, 80s. Giaiotti also has one broadcast Monterone which also includes Dunn, and MacNeil in his first Rigoletto broadcast. This has not been on Sirius and I would love to hear it. The performance is also on MetPlayer.
CAPRICCIO:Strauss
Original Air Date: 01/31/1998
Davis; Te Kanawa, Rootering, Kuebler, Keenlyside, Brendel, Harries
MOD Audio SID.19040213
The Met has only had two matinee broadcasts for Strauss’ final work: this one with Te Kanawa and Fleming in 2012. Andrew Davis conducted both revivals. Clairon was a famous role for Troyanos and luckily it is captured on a San Francisco telecast with Te Kanawa, but she died in 1993, which I guess is one reason for the more lightweight casting. Te Kanawa is definitely worth hearing.
SIMON BOCCANEGRA:Verdi
Original Air Date: 02/06/1999
Levine; Agache, Mattila, Sylvester, Scandiuzzi, Fu
SID.19040214
This performance is very close to the same cast as the Covent Garden performance under Solti with te Kanawa for Mattila. Scandiuzzi did not turn out to be the successor to the lion Siepi. Sylvester is better with Solti ; his only remaining Met performances are a Radames the Fall of 1999, and 2 Calafs in the Fall of 2000. To me the best recent performance was from 2010 with Hvorostovsky, Frittoli, Vargas, and Furlanetto with Levine in particularly inspired form.This performance is very close to the same cast as the Covent Garden performance under Solti with te Kanawa for Mattila. Scandiuzzi did not turn out to be the successor to the lion Siepi. Sylvester is better with Solti ; his only remaining Met performances are a Radames the Fall of 1999, and 2 Calafs in the Fall of 2000. To me the best recent performance was from 2010 with Hvorostovsky, Frittoli, Vargas, and Furlanetto with Levine in particularly inspired form.
SALOME:Strauss
Original Air Date: 02/12/1977
Leinsdorf; Rysanek, Ulfung, Varnay, Bailey, Riegel
MOD Audio SID.19040321
Along with the 1972 Bohm Salome, these are Rysanek’s only two Met broadcasts of the role. My memory says that Rysanek is in better voice for this performance. Completely recast except for Rysanek, the most interesting personage is Norman Bailey, who is usually heard within the English language confines of the ENO. He has some good outings at the Met, and one I would particularly like to hear which has not been on Sirius is also from Winter 1977 Walkure with Rita Hunter, Janis Martin, James King, Mignon Dunn, and Manfred Schenk. Almost a complete Anglophone cast also under Leinsdorf. I wouldn’t mind Bailey’s Amfortas broadcast (with Levine) also joining the Sirius airwaves.
IOLANTA / BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE:Tchaikovsky/Bartók
Original Air Date: 01/24/2019
Nanasi; Yoncheva, Polenzani, Markov, Azizov, Kowaljow, Denoke, Finley
SID.19040428
Mariusz Treliński’s haunting production of the pairing of Tchaikovsky’s and Bartók’s one-act operas makes its first return to the stage since its Met premiere in the 2014–15 season. Soprano Sonya Yoncheva—following her triumphant 2017–18 performances as Tosca—is the blind princess, Iolanta, who discovers love for the first time, opposite tenor Matthew Polenzani as the dashing knight Vaudémont. In Bartók’s chilling Bluebeard’s Castle, baritone Gerald Finley is the menacing Bluebeard, and soprano Angela Denoke is his initially unsuspecting new wife. Henrik Nánási conducts. Co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and Teatr Wielki-Polish National Opera Production a gift of Ambassador and Mrs. Nicholas F. Taubman; Additional funding from Mrs. Veronica Atkins; Dr. Magdalena Berenyi, in memory of Dr. Kalman Berenyi; and the National Endowment for the Arts
MARNIE:Nico Muhly
Original Air Date: 11/10/2018
Broadcast Date: 1/10
Spano; Leonard, Kelly, Graves, Davies, Maltman
SID.19040640
INTERMISSION
-Marnie composer Nico Muhly with Elena Park
-Director Michael Mayer, mezzo Isabel Leonard and baritone Christopher Maltman discuss the making of Marnie
-Mary Jo Heath interviews Gerald Finley about Bluebeard’s Castle
Composer Nico Muhly unveils his second new opera for the Met with this gripping reimagining of Winston Graham’s novel, set in the 1950s, about a beautiful, mysterious young woman who assumes multiple identities. Director Michael Mayer and his creative team have devised a fast-moving, cinematic world for this exhilarating story of denial and deceit, which also inspired a film by Alfred Hitchcock. Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard sings the enigmatic Marnie, and baritone Christopher Maltman is the man who pursues her—with disastrous results. Robert Spano conducts. Music by Nico Muhly, libretto by Nicholas Wright, based on the novel by Winston Graham Production: Michael Mayer; Set/Projection Designers: Julian Crouch, 59 Productions; Costume Designer: Arianne Phillips; Lighting Designer: Kevin Adams, Choreographer: Lynne Page Commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and English National Opera By special arrangement with Universal Pictures
FALSTAFF:Verdi
Original Air Date: 02/26/1949
Reiner; Warren, Resnik, Valdengo, Elmo, Albanese, Di Stefano
SID.19050102
This revival (Warren’s first in Italian) is Reiner’s second opera at the Met coming only a few weeks after his debut Salome. Strongest of the supporting players are Elmo and Valdengo, but overall everyone in the cast contributes positively to the ensemble. This performance was reissued in the Met’s Verdi bicentenary box, but has still not appeared in MOoD. To me there are three missing broadcasts of Falstaff that we should hear. Warren and Steber with Beecham in 1944 is also in English, so we are unlikely to ever encounter. Bernstein’s 1964 debut of the Zeffirelli production has not been rebroadcast– it should be. Von Dohnanyi’s 1972 broadcast with Gobbi, Tebaldi, Paskalis, Resnik, and Alva has not yet appeared on Sirius, though I can find no record of it being broadcast on Sirius in the last four years, even though it is marked in the Met Database as rebroadcast on Sirius.
THE BARTERED BRIDE:Smetana
Original Air Date: 12/02/1978
Levine; Stratas, Gedda, Talvela, Vickers
MOD Video SID.19050103
This same cast telecast the opera 11 days earlier. The video of this performance is available in MOoD. Levine is very devoted to this score and did the joint production with Juilliard and the Met Young Artists in 2010. Vickers is cast very much against type and successful. To me one of the main downers is Talvela. My aural image of this opera is forever colored by the German language studio recording with Lorengar, Wunderlich, and Frick. Though in the “wrong” language, everything works there.
DER ROSENKAVALIER:Strauss
Original Air Date: 12/19/1964
Schippers; Della Casa, Schwarzkopf, Edelmann, Raskin, Dönch
MOD Audio SID.19050104
Della Casa, a famous Marschallin in her own right, does her first Octavian with the Met in this series of performances. It’s not quite an ideal fit even if very starry. Schwarzkopf was certainly the most famous postwar Marschallin and is here in one of her only two Met broadcast appearances– the latter an unintentional Met farewell in a most unsatisfactory Donna Elvira two years later.
SAMSON ET DALILA:Saint-Saëns
Original Air Date: 02/28/1998
Slatkin; Domingo, Graves, Leiferkus
MOD Audio SID.19050105
This is the broadcast from the first year of the new production. Graves’ considerable beauty was not captured by the video cameras which is a shame. The telecast comes on opening night the following season when Borodina and Levine take over for Graves and Slatkin.
SIEGFRIED:Wagner
Original Air Date: 02/16/1957
Stiedry; Windgassen, Mödl, Edelmann, Madeira, Kelley, Pechner
SID.19050106
This is one of Windgassen’s two Met broadcasts (Gotterdammerung two weeks later is the other). The winter of 1957 is his only time at the Met (scheduled for Tannhauser in 1966 but did not appear) and did 7 Ring appearances over a two month period. He is arguably the best postwar Siegfried after Melchior. This is a brisk performance. Modl does the best she can, but New York wanted Flagstad, Traubel, or Nilsson. I’ve listened to large chunks of this performance several times on Sirius, and I enjoy it. It’s not one for the pantheon. This is on regularly, but not excessively. Edelmann is not ideal as the Wanderer, but this is Modl’s only appearance on the Met airwaves. In addition to the three Brunnhildes, she also did Isolde and Kundry in her three Met seasons. Almost everyone whoever saw her never forgot her. Audio only encounters are sometimes more of a mixed bag.
SIEGFRIED:Wagner
Original Air Date: 02/16/1957
Stiedry; Windgassen, Mödl, Edelmann, Madeira, Kelley, Pechner
SID.19050107
This is one of Windgassen’s two Met broadcasts (Gotterdammerung two weeks later is the other). The winter of 1957 is his only time at the Met (scheduled for Tannhauser in 1966 but did not appear) and did 7 Ring appearances over a two month period. He is arguably the best postwar Siegfried after Melchior. This is a brisk performance. Modl does the best she can, but New York wanted Flagstad, Traubel, or Nilsson. I’ve listened to large chunks of this performance several times on Sirius, and I enjoy it. It’s not one for the pantheon. This is on regularly, but not excessively. Edelmann is not ideal as the Wanderer, but this is Modl’s only appearance on the Met airwaves. In addition to the three Brunnhildes, she also did Isolde and Kundry in her three Met seasons. Almost everyone whoever saw her never forgot her. Audio only encounters are sometimes more of a mixed bag.
DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL:Mozart
Original Air Date: 03/24/1990
Levine; Devia, Heilmann, Moll, Mills, Magnusson
MOD Audio SID.19050208
This performance is most notable for Moll’s matchless Osmin which he had premiered at the Met 10 years earlier, but Berberian did the spring broadcast and Levine’s authoritative conducting. Devia is a fine Constanze if not as interesting as Steber in the Met premiere in 1947 (in English, so that among many reasons will probably prevent us from ever hearing it in the Sirius series), Sills (not at the Met, but at NYCO and also in English. The production in 1980 was originally to have been with Sutherland in her only effort with Levine, but the Bonynges were holding out for a Merry Widow production in addition to the Constanze, and the casting ended up with Edda Moser, a fine Mozartean just a few years after her peak — she has a recording of Mozart concert arias that rank up with the very best. Heilmann is in his premiere Met season after some successful recordings (including Solti’s second Flute with Moll and Sumi Jo)
LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR:Donizetti
Original Air Date: 12/08/1956
Cleva; Callas, Votipka, McCracken, Sordello, Campora, Franke, Moscona
MOD Audio SID.19050529
The matinée of Lucia di Lammermoor on December 8, 1956, represents the sole Met broadcast of Maria Callas (1923-77). Callas’s Met career was frustratingly meager: in three seasons, she sang just twenty-one performances. Her company debut, in Norma, on October 29, 1956, was preceded by artistic triumphs in Europe and Chicago and an avalanche of pre-opening publicity; in his memoirs, Met general manager Rudolf Bing called Callas’s debut “undoubtedly the most exciting of all such in my time at the Metropolitan.” The soprano’s first two Met seasons were colored by her dissatisfaction with some of the aging stagings in which the company presented her: the Lucia, for example, dated from 1942, although the soprano wore costumes designed by Ebe Colciaghi for a 1954 La Scala production. A disagreement with Bing over proposed repertory for 1958-59 ended with the diva’s well-publicized “firing”; Callas did not return to the Met until 1965, when she sang two Toscas, her final opera performances in the U.S.
Callas’s Lucia conductor was Fausto Cleva (1902-71), the Trieste-born maestro who led seventeen of her Met appearances. The afternoon’s Edgardo was Italian lyric tenor Giuseppe Campora (1923-2004), who had joined the Met roster in 1955, as Rodolfo. Enzo Sordello (b. 1927), Callas’s Enrico, was the focus of the soprano’s wrath when she claimed that the Italian baritone held the final note of the “Se tradirmi” duet too long; heard today, Sordello’s action seems the result of confusion rather than malice. Nevertheless, in his memoirs, Bing claims that he canceled the balance of the baritone’s contract after the Lucia matinée contretemps. Greek bass Nicola Moscona (1907-75) sang fifty-seven Lucia Raimondos during his twenty-five seasons with the company; the first of his more than 700 Met performances was as Ramfis in 1937. An even more impressive Lucia record-holder was Ohio-born soprano Thelma Votipka (1906-72), whose more than 1,400 Met performances during her twenty-nine seasons with the company included 116 Alisas. Another American, tenor James McCracken (1926-88), shone as the afternoon’s Normanno; then in his fourth season of singing comprimario parts at the Met, McCracken would leave the company to build his resumé in Europe in the late 1950s. McCracken returned to the Met in triumph in 1963 as the Moor in a new production of Otello and remained one of the company’s best-loved stars until his death.
MADAMA BUTTERFLY:Puccini
Original Air Date: 02/26/2000
Rudel; Crider, Larin, White, Josephson, Fitch
SID.19050210
I saw Crider’s Butterfly, and she didn’t make it for me. Arroyo, who was not a great Butterfly, sang it very well. Crider is several vocal grades below. The Met has had many wonderful Butterflys, but this is not among them, and to leave Stella, Tucci (with Bergonzi, Lorengar and Gorchakova (don’t laugh, when she first came I was overwhelmed by her Butterfly, and Gatti conducted slowly, but thrillingly). Better to re-run the excellent Soviero Butterfly– she has two broadcasts, the 1994 has been on Sirius, but the 1996 has not. Both are with Leech as is the Gorchakova. There are other forgettable Butterflys that follow Crider, but there are fine Butterflys, and I’ve listed five.
THE QUEEN OF SPADES:Tchaikovsky
Original Air Date: 02/14/2004
Jurowski; Domingo, Dalayman, Palmer, Chernov, Zaremba, Putilin
SID.19050211
This is Domingo’s last round out as Gherman, which seemed like yesterday but is now over a decade gone. Jurowski is an interesting conductor and I like Dalayman’s Lisa. Chernov does not have the finish of Hvorostovsky, but it all depends on one’s reaction to Domingo’s Gherman. This is Domingo’s second Gherman, and I much prefer Palmer to Soderstrom and Dalayman to Gorchakova. This is late Chernov, and I must take a listen to see how he is. Jurowski is a top drawer conductor in my view. Not a short work, but a lot of thrilling music. I like Jurowski very much as a conductor, and the cast is not without interest. It’s a shame the first year of the production with Mattila and Heppner at their peak and the final role at the Met for Rysanek, that no broadcast exists– one of the many reasons I love the live Sirius three times a week.
MANON:Massenet
Original Air Date: 04/07/2012
Luisi; Netrebko, Beczala, Szot
MOD Video SID.19050212
This audio was the first time the Met has rebroadcast the audio track of a Live in HD. This was a bit of a breakout part for Beczala who had slimmed down and certainly made an effective foil for the Netrebko Manon. I enjoyed her in the theatre even if she were no Patricia Brooks , or Faith Esham (both at City Opera, Wagner broadcast, and for me both better than the very good and much more famous Manon it finds him far from his two decade mastery of Sills.) When I want to listen to Manon, I need go no further than the early 19250s recording on EMI with Victoria de los Angeles and Henri LeGay under Pierre Monteux. Sirius does play the 1954 Met performance with VDLA and Cesare Valletti also under Monteux (and is available on MOoD). Still unbroadcast is the 1959 with VDLA and Gedda under Jean Morel. Wagner.