DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN:Strauss
Original Air Date: 04/01/1978
Böhm; Rysanek, King, Schröder-Feinen, Berry, Dunn
MOD Audio SID.18430317
This is the last of the 4 Bohm broadcasts starting in 1966 all with Rysanek and Berry; 3 of the 4 are with King, but the first three feature Ludwig and Dalis in their parts; Schroder-Feinen and Dunn are first rate presences as well. It is a shame that the 1966 premiere season and 1971 performances which have been on Sirius with some regularity have not made their way to MOoD. The 1969 broadcast is reported in the MetDatabase as having been on Sirius, but according to my records it has not been broadcast in the last four years. as has the 1971 Unfortunately Bohm never came close to the near completeness of his 1955 Decca recording at the Met, and a steady increase of cuts came with each revival. NEVERTHELESS, one could do much worse than hear one of the great Straussian ensembles he held together for over 2 decades in New York. Frau’s best moments are right up there with Ariadne, Elektra, and Rosenkavalier, and the weaker stuff is better than the weaker Rosenkavalier pages.
LA CLEMENZA DI TITO:Mozart
Original Air Date: 12/06/1997
Levine; Rolfe Johnson, von Otter, Vaness, Kirchschlager, Grant Murphy
SID.18430318
Vaness and von Otter team up with Levine for Idomeneo also. Clemenza has some glorious moments, but I like Idomeneo better. One of Carol Vaness’s best efforts at the Met.
SALOME:Strauss
Original Air Date: 03/18/1972
Böhm; Rysanek, Stolze, Dalis, Stewart, MacWherter
SID.18430319
Rysanek’s first Salomes at the Met came after the groundbreaking new production for Nilsson eight years earlier. Longtime Metgoers were still talking about Welitsch from the late 1940s.
My first Salome was the Met on tour with Brenda Lewis, who had broadcast it a few months earlier in February 1962. For my money the Met Salomes are Welitsch, Nilsson, Bumbry, Marton, and Mattila (first season). Rysanek, Silja, G. Jones and Behrens (who has a great studio performance with Karajan) just didn’t make it for me in live performance at the Met.
My memory says that Rysanek was significantly better five years later when Leinsdorf took the reins with Norman Bailey, Astrid Varnay and Ragnar Ulfung; the 1977 performance is available on Met Opera on Demand (MOoD). I will be listening next week to see if my memory of Rysanek is faulty.
The royal couple are distinctively portrayed by Stolze and Dalis (who had premiered the Nilsson production with Liebl). Stolze is on the Nilsson studio recording, and his voice is not for everyone. In this role, it works.
MESSA DA REQUIEM:Verdi
Original Air Date: 02/20/1982
Levine; Price, Quivar, Domingo, Cheek
MOD Audio SID.18430320
This broadcast is in memory of long-time Met Assistant Manager and Press representative, Francis Robinson. This is getting to be pretty late Price, and Domingo is not in my first tier of tenor soloists for the Requiem. Quivar is a very solid mezzo soloist, and for me to be preferred to many commercially recorded mezzos. Cheek is OK. On Met Opera on Demand (MOoD) you can listen to a 1964 Requiem (in memory of John F. Kennedy) under Solti with Price,Elias, Bergonzi, and Siepi. Sound is not digital, but the performance is splendid and marks Solti’s final appearance with the Met
MANON:Massenet
Original Air Date: 04/08/2006
López-Cobos; Fleming, Giordano, Chaignaud
MOD Audio SID.18430321
This is Fleming’s last Manon from the Met and her only full length Met broadcast. Fleming was more interesting in her telecast opening night St. Sulpice scene than here. She is even better in a Paris Opera DVD from the early 2000s with Alvarez. I love Manon, but she does not always have an easy time of it at the Met. Alvarez (from Paris, but who opened this run with Fleming) was much better than Giordano (not to be confused with Marcello Giordani who was in Fleming’s first Manons at the Met in 1997 and not broadcast).
LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN:Offenbach
Original Air Date: 01/26/1985
Rudel; Kraus, Malfitano, Morris, Bybee
SID.18430422
I always liked Kraus in the title role, and though Domingo, Shicoff, Gedda, and Tucker all have trumps to play, Kraus cedes nothing to them in terms of style. Malfitano does all the heroines, and in 1985 she was within hailing distance of doing that respectably. I’ll be taking a listen to see how my memory has been. Morris also appears to good effect 3 years later in a Met video with Shicoff. Rudel, after a lengthy association with the New York City Opera is the 2nd leading Met conductor of Hoffmann with 37 (Hasselmanns runs up 40 performances in the 20s)
PARSIFAL:Wagner
Original Air Date: 04/09/1960
Leinsdorf; Liebl, Harshaw, Uhde, Hines, Pechner
SID.18430423
This broadcast was from a 3 performance run that mark Leinsdorf’s only postwar Parsifals at the Met. Modl made her farewell at the previous performance, and Liebl, a name not especially well known, has several fine Met performances to his credit. The performance is not uncut, per the review attached to the Database listing for the premiere.
PARSIFAL:Wagner
Original Air Date: 04/09/1960
Leinsdorf; Liebl, Harshaw, Uhde, Hines, Pechner
SID.18430424
This broadcast was from a 3 performance run that mark Leinsdorf’s only postwar Parsifals at the Met. Modl made her farewell at the previous performance, and Liebl, a name not especially well known, has several fine Met performances to his credit. The performance is not uncut, per the review attached to the Database listing for the premiere.
LA FORZA DEL DESTINO:Verdi
Original Air Date: 03/11/2006
Noseda; Voigt, Licitra, Delavan, Ramey, Komlósi, Pons
MOD Audio SID.18430425
I love Forza del Destino, but it’s a rather disjointed work, and not an easy sing for ANYONE. I saw Voigt who did the part early in her Met career with the lamented Sergej Larin. For this broadcast, it’s Licitra, also destined to leave us too soon. For me it’s too late for Ramey, Delavan does not impress me and this 2006 broadcast does not catch Voigt in anything like the voice she had a decade earlier. What is MOoD doing featuring this performance when another Sirius Forza broadcast with Tebaldi and Tucker from 1960 only gets an occasional rotation and no presence for Tebaldi in this role in MOoD. Noseda is a quality conductor, but why such special pleading for Voigt and Licitra?
7/22/13 – Also on MOoD (thought I can hardly imagine WHY) Voigt had done a promising Leonora 10 years earlier with Larin, but this later revival with another tenor who died way before his time doesn’t show anyone particularly up to the task. I love Forza, but Milanov, Tebaldi, and Price are in a different world, not to mention Tucker, Bergonzi, or Corelli. The cast at hand are not worthy.
9/12/11 – I’m assuming this is some sort of tribute to the lamented Licitra who never quite fulfilled his promise (the Times paid obituary was one of the longest I can remember). Voigt, who had done a promising Leonora with Larin (who also left us much too soon) 10 years earlier (no broadcast) with Chernov, and a wobble free Plishka, did not bring an artistry to compensate for a significant loss of vocal freshness. I don’t feel a need to revisit this performance.
PETER GRIMES:Britten
Original Air Date: 01/10/1998
Atherton; Langridge, Racette, Opie, Christin, Blythe
MOD Audio SID.18430209
I remember listening to this and thought this a good part for Racette. Langridge is fine in the title role, but for those of us who saw Jon Vickers, he simply WAS Peter Grimes and his 38 Met performances exceed the 33 done by the other 8 interpreters starting back with Frederick Jagel in 1948 and ending with Anthony Dean Griffey in 2008 (with Racette again). 2/22/16
***
This is a good part for Racette, and Langridge’s death just a few years ago was a shock. Atherton is a strong Britten conductor. 8/12/12
***Racette’s first try at the Met as Ellen Orford and with Langridge as a distinguished Grimes. 11/14/11
L’ITALIANA IN ALGERI:Rossini
Original Air Date: 01/04/1986
Levine; Horne, Ahlstedt, Montarsolo, Monk
MOD Video SID.18430529
This performance precedes the telecast by one week and that telecast is available in MOoD. For me, the distinction of the performance is mostly Montarsolo. Isabella is Horne’s second most performed role at 37 (Carmen unsurprisingly is first at 49) Her 3d is Adalgisa in Norma (all with Sutherland). MOD is 1/11/86 performance with same cast.
LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN:Offenbach
Original Air Date: 01/26/1985
Rudel; Kraus, Malfitano, Morris, Bybee
SID.18430530
I always liked Kraus in the title role, and though Domingo, Shicoff, Gedda, and Tucker all have trumps to play, Kraus cedes nothing to them in terms of style. Malfitano does all the heroines, and in 1985 she was within hailing distance of doing that respectably. I’ll be taking a listen to see how my memory has been. Morris also appears to good effect 3 years later in a Met video with Shicoff. Rudel, after a lengthy association with the New York City Opera is the 2nd leading Met conductor of Hoffmann with 37 (Hasselmanns runs up 40 performances in the 20s)
MESSA DA REQUIEM:Verdi
Original Air Date: 02/20/1982
Levine; Price, Quivar, Domingo, Cheek
MOD Audio SID.18430531
This broadcast is in memory of long-time Met Assistant Manager and Press representative, Francis Robinson. This is getting to be pretty late Price, and Domingo is not in my first tier of tenor soloists for the Requiem. Quivar is a very solid mezzo soloist, and for me to be preferred to many commercially recorded mezzos. Cheek is OK. On Met Opera on Demand (MOoD) you can listen to a 1964 Requiem (in memory of John F. Kennedy) under Solti with Price,Elias, Bergonzi, and Siepi. Sound is not digital, but the performance is splendid and marks Solti’s final appearance with the Met
SUSANNAH:Floyd
Original Air Date: 04/03/1999
Conlon; Fleming, Hadley, Ramey
MOD Audio SID.18430316
This is the Met’s only broadcast of Susannah to date, and finds all three principals on especially fine form. I’ve seen the opera 4 times, and each time it is very successful and attention holding. Even without the visual appeal, the opera makes an impact from the music alone.
This was a highly successful Met repertory debut for the Carlisle Floyd opera and both Fleming and Ramey are extremely well cast. Conlon is very committed to the work, and it is a contemporary work that works almost as well in audio only as in the theatre with its sure-fire theatrics. One of the best efforts of the Met for both American and contemporary opera.
Very fine performances from both Fleming and Ramey under Conlon bring great credit to the Met and the artists. One of the most distinctive broadcasts of the week.
This is one of Fleming’s very best outings, and Ramey and Hadley are well cast as well. One of the better 20th century American operas.
DAS RHEINGOLD:Wagner
Original Air Date: 02/22/1969
Karajan; Adam, Reynolds, Stolze, Kelemen, Talvela, Ridderbusch
MOD Audio SID.18430533
One of Karajan’s only 2 broadcasts. This performance is available in MOoD, and if Adam is far from my favorite Wotan, Reynolds, Kelemen and Stolze are wonderful as Fricka, Alberich, and Loge respectively. Reynolds replaced Veasey who was will, and also sing Flosshilde (her originally scheduled role) with Shirley Love picking up the Rhinemaiden in the final scene. Milnes is an excellent Donner. I was in the theatre for this very special performance and still have wonderful memories of it. Karajan’s Met farewell is the following Saturday with the Walkure broadcast.
UN BALLO IN MASCHERA:Verdi
Original Air Date: 01/12/1963
Santi; Tucker, Nilsson, Merrill, Dobbs, Madeira
MOD Audio SID.18430534
This performance finds the principals in very strong form (Nilsson’s only broadcast from the Met of Amelia) and Tucker is an excellent match for her. Merrill is in his run of 8 of the 9 Ballo broadcasts between 1955 and 1985!!!! Definitely worth a listen.
SALOME:Strauss
Original Air Date: 03/18/1972
Böhm; Rysanek, Stolze, Dalis, Stewart, MacWherter
SID.18430535
Rysanek’s first Salomes at the Met came after the groundbreaking new production for Nilsson eight years earlier. Longtime Metgoers were still talking about Welitsch from the late 1940s. My first Salome was the Met on tour with Brenda Lewis, who had broadcast it a few months earlier in February 1962. For my money the Met Salomes are Welitsch, Nilsson, Bumbry, Marton, and Mattila (first season). Rysanek, Silja, G. Jones and Behrens (who has a great studio performance with Karajan) just didn’t make it for me in live performance at the Met. My memory says that Rysanek was significantly better five years later when Leinsdorf took the reins with Norman Bailey, Astrid Varnay and Ragnar Ulfung; the 1977 performance is available on Met Opera on Demand (MOoD). I will be listening next week to see if my memory of Rysanek is faulty. The royal couple are distinctively portrayed by Stolze and Dalis (who had premiered the Nilsson production with Liebl). Stolze is on the Nilsson studio recording, and his voice is not for everyone. In this role, it works.
LA CLEMENZA DI TITO:Mozart
Original Air Date: 12/06/1997
Levine; Rolfe Johnson, von Otter, Vaness, Kirchschlager, Grant Murphy
SID.18430636
Vaness and von Otter team up with Levine for Idomeneo also. Clemenza has some glorious moments, but I like Idomeneo better. One of Carol Vaness’s best efforts at the Met.
LA FORZA DEL DESTINO:Verdi
Original Air Date: 03/11/2006
Noseda; Voigt, Licitra, Delavan, Ramey, Komlósi, Pons
MOD Audio SID.18430637
I love Forza del Destino, but it’s a rather disjointed work, and not an easy sing for ANYONE. I saw Voigt who did the part early in her Met career with the lamented Sergej Larin. For this broadcast, it’s Licitra, also destined to leave us too soon. For me it’s too late for Ramey, Delavan does not impress me and this 2006 broadcast does not catch Voigt in anything like the voice she had a decade earlier. What is MOoD doing featuring this performance when another Sirius Forza broadcast with Tebaldi and Tucker from 1960 only gets an occasional rotation and no presence for Tebaldi in this role in MOoD. Noseda is a quality conductor, but why such special pleading for Voigt and Licitra?
7/22/13 – Also on MOoD (thought I can hardly imagine WHY) Voigt had done a promising Leonora 10 years earlier with Larin, but this later revival with another tenor who died way before his time doesn’t show anyone particularly up to the task. I love Forza, but Milanov, Tebaldi, and Price are in a different world, not to mention Tucker, Bergonzi, or Corelli. The cast at hand are not worthy.
9/12/11 – I’m assuming this is some sort of tribute to the lamented Licitra who never quite fulfilled his promise (the Times paid obituary was one of the longest I can remember). Voigt, who had done a promising Leonora with Larin (who also left us much too soon) 10 years earlier (no broadcast) with Chernov, and a wobble free Plishka, did not bring an artistry to compensate for a significant loss of vocal freshness. I don’t feel a need to revisit this performance.
FALSTAFF:Verdi
Original Air Date: 02/03/1996
Levine; Plishka, Daniels, Quilico, Horne, Bonney, Groves
MOD Audio SID.18430638
“Levine, Plishka, Bonney, and Horne are all in the 1992 revival which is on MOoD, but with Freni for Daniels, and Bruno Pola for Quilico. My experience with almost all of the Falstaff casting in the Levine era is OK, but not really an ensemble. We still keep having the Bernstein performance overlooked (LB’s only other Met broadcast beside Cavalleria) from 1964. The bad luck continues with Rosenstock’s conducting from 1965 and Amaducci’s conducting fom 1967. The Dohnanyi performance from 1972 features Gobbi in one of HIS two Met broadcasts (the other is Otello, no Scarpia on the Met airwaves alas) with Tebaldi, Resnik, Paskalis in sterling support. This performance has been on Sirius but by my records not in the last three years, but again should be in MOoD.”
L’ITALIANA IN ALGERI:Rossini
Original Air Date: 01/04/1986
Levine; Horne, Ahlstedt, Montarsolo, Monk
MOD Video SID.18430639
This performance precedes the telecast by one week and that telecast is available in MOoD. For me, the distinction of the performance is mostly Montarsolo. Isabella is Horne’s second most performed role at 37 (Carmen unsurprisingly is first at 49) Her 3d is Adalgisa in Norma (all with Sutherland). MOD is 1/11/86 performance with same cast.
MANON:Massenet
Original Air Date: 04/08/2006
López-Cobos; Fleming, Giordano, Chaignaud
MOD Audio SID.18430640
This is Fleming’s last Manon from the Met and her only full length Met broadcast. Fleming was more interesting in her telecast opening night St. Sulpice scene than here. She is even better in a Paris Opera DVD from the early 2000s with Alvarez. I love Manon, but she does not always have an easy time of it at the Met. Alvarez (from Paris, but who opened this run with Fleming) was much better than Giordano (not to be confused with Marcello Giordani who was in Fleming’s first Manons at the Met in 1997 and not broadcast).
PARSIFAL:Wagner
Original Air Date: 04/09/1960
Leinsdorf; Liebl, Harshaw, Uhde, Hines, Pechner
SID.18430641
This broadcast was from a 3 performance run that mark Leinsdorf’s only postwar Parsifals at the Met. Modl made her farewell at the previous performance, and Liebl, a name not especially well known, has several fine Met performances to his credit. The performance is not uncut, per the review attached to the Database listing for the premiere.
PARSIFAL:Wagner
Original Air Date: 04/09/1960
Leinsdorf; Liebl, Harshaw, Uhde, Hines, Pechner
SID.18430642
This broadcast was from a 3 performance run that mark Leinsdorf’s only postwar Parsifals at the Met. Modl made her farewell at the previous performance, and Liebl, a name not especially well known, has several fine Met performances to his credit. The performance is not uncut, per the review attached to the Database listing for the premiere.
PETER GRIMES:Britten
Original Air Date: 01/10/1998
Atherton; Langridge, Racette, Opie, Christin, Blythe
MOD Audio SID.18430426
I remember listening to this and thought this a good part for Racette. Langridge is fine in the title role, but for those of us who saw Jon Vickers, he simply WAS Peter Grimes and his 38 Met performances exceed the 33 done by the other 8 interpreters starting back with Frederick Jagel in 1948 and ending with Anthony Dean Griffey in 2008 (with Racette again). 2/22/16
This is a good part for Racette, and Langridge’s death just a few years ago was a shock. Atherton is a strong Britten conductor. 8/12/12
Racette’s first try at the Met as Ellen Orford and with Langridge as a distinguished Grimes. 11/14/11
UN BALLO IN MASCHERA:Verdi
Original Air Date: 01/12/1963
Santi; Tucker, Nilsson, Merrill, Dobbs, Madeira
MOD Audio SID.18430534
This performance finds the principals in very strong form (Nilsson’s only broadcast from the Met of Amelia) and Tucker is an excellent match for her. Merrill is in his run of 8 of the 9 Ballo broadcasts between 1955 and 1985!!!! Definitely worth a listen.
LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN:Offenbach
Original Air Date: 01/26/1985
Rudel; Kraus, Malfitano, Morris, Bybee
SID.18430530
I always liked Kraus in the title role, and though Domingo, Shicoff, Gedda, and Tucker all have trumps to play, Kraus cedes nothing to them in terms of style. Malfitano does all the heroines, and in 1985 she was within hailing distance of doing that respectably. I’ll be taking a listen to see how my memory has been. Morris also appears to good effect 3 years later in a Met video with Shicoff. Rudel, after a lengthy association with the New York City Opera is the 2nd leading Met conductor of Hoffmann with 37 (Hasselmanns runs up 40 performances in the 20s)
MESSA DA REQUIEM:Verdi
Original Air Date: 02/20/1982
Levine; Price, Quivar, Domingo, Cheek
MOD Audio SID.18430531
This performance was dedicated to the memory of Francis Robinson, who served the Metropolitan Opera for over three decades as tour director, chief of the press office and box office manager.
DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN:Strauss
Original Air Date: 04/01/1978
Böhm; Rysanek, King, Schröder-Feinen, Berry, Dunn
MOD Audio SID.18430107
This is the last of the 4 Bohm broadcasts starting in 1966 all with Rysanek and Berry; 3 of the 4 are with King, but the first three feature Ludwig and Dalis in their parts; Schroder-Feinen and Dunn are first rate presences as well. It is a shame that the 1966 premiere season and 1971 performances which have been on Sirius with some regularity have not made their way to MOoD. The 1969 broadcast is reported in the MetDatabase as having been on Sirius, but according to my records it has not been broadcast in the last four years. as has the 1971 Unfortunately Bohm never came close to the near completeness of his 1955 Decca recording at the Met, and a steady increase of cuts came with each revival. NEVERTHELESS, one could do much worse than hear one of the great Straussian ensembles he held together for over 2 decades in New York. Frau’s best moments are right up there with Ariadne, Elektra, and Rosenkavalier, and the weaker stuff is better than the weaker Rosenkavalier pages.
SUSANNAH:Floyd
Original Air Date: 04/03/1999
Conlon; Fleming, Hadley, Ramey
MOD Audio SID.18430316
This is the Met’s only broadcast of Susannah to date, and finds all three principals on especially fine form. I’ve seen the opera 4 times, and each time it is very successful and attention holding. Even without the visual appeal, the opera makes an impact from the music alone.
This was a highly successful Met repertory debut for the Carlisle Floyd opera and both Fleming and Ramey are extremely well cast. Conlon is very committed to the work, and it is a contemporary work that works almost as well in audio only as in the theatre with its sure-fire theatrics. One of the best efforts of the Met for both American and contemporary opera.
Very fine performances from both Fleming and Ramey under Conlon bring great credit to the Met and the artists. One of the most distinctive broadcasts of the week.
This is one of Fleming’s very best outings, and Ramey and Hadley are well cast as well. One of the better 20th century American operas.