Strauss
Original Air Date: 03/20/1993
Marin; Norman, Moser, Swenson, Mentzer, Stewart, Oswald
MOD Audio SID.18510535
For my money Jessye Norman is much better in her two earlier broadcasts (the first with Andrew Davis conducting, the second with Levine and subsequently telecast). Moser is not my preferred Bacchus, but Swenson featuring more of a lyric Zerbinetta (a la Guden) is very fine. 11/21/16
***
This is Norman’s last Ariadne broadcast and in the new production for her. I prefer the 1988 video (which is on DVD from DG) with Troyanos and Battle under Levine. Swenson has her moments as well. 4/23/12
***
I’m not sure about the interest in this performance. Norman five years earlier under Levine has a sterling broadcast and telecast with King, Troyanos, and Battle. What has NOT been broadcast on Sirius is either Bohm Ariadne : the Met premiere season in 1963 with Rysanek (supposed to have been Della Casa, but with the opera switch from Dutchman, it went to LR). Seven years later features Bohm and Rysanek with King and a delectable performance from Reri Grist. 11 July 2011
Offenbach
Original Air Date: 02/07/1959
Morel; Gedda, London, Dobbs, Elias, Amara, Vanni
MOD Audio SID.18510636
This performance is always welcome on Sirius, for it is one of Gedda’s very best broadcasts. Morel’s style is also welcome. I’m not a huge fan of London’s villains (I prefer Singher’s) but this is a solid performance from top to bottom.
LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST : Puccini
Armiliato; Westbroek, Kaufmann, Bosi, Lucic, Simpson, Rose, Gradus
Original Air Date: 10/27/2018; Broadcast Air Date 12/22/2018
SID.18510000
First Intermission
Host Mary Jo Heath interviews Eva-Maria Westbroek
Host Mary Jo Heath interviews Maestro Marco Armiliato
Second Intermission
HD Host Susanna Phillips interviews Jonas Kaufmann
Host Mary Jo Heath interviews Stuart Skelton about Otello
Soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek sings Puccini’s gun-slinging heroine in this romantic epic of the Wild West. Tenor Yusif Eyvazov portrays Dick Johnson for opening night (Oct 4, 8, 12) Jonas Kaufmann returns to the MET for performances on Oct 17, 20, 23, and 27. Baritone Željko Lučić is the vigilante sheriff Jack Rance, and Marco Armiliato conducts.
NYTimes Review: Jonas Kaufmann, Back at the Met, Is Good, Not Great by Anthony Tommasini Oct. 18, 2018
Observer Review: Puccini’s Wild West Opera Will Shatter Your Heart (Even With the Met’s Subpar Staging) by James Jorden • 10/08/18
BWW Review: Kaufmann Returns to the Met with a ‘Heigh-ho Silver’ in Puccini’s FANCIULLA DEL WEST
Verdi
Original Air Date: 04/05/1975
Levine; MacNeil, Lear, Stewart, Barbieri, Valente, Ahlstedt
MOD Audio SID.18510422
This performance is Levine’s first Falstaff broadcast and Barbieri’s penultimate company broadcast (she returns for Trittico (minus Frugola) 2 years later. MacNeil is a very good Falstaff which I think is his only run in the part– he is a stellar Ford on a Chicago broadcast with Gobbi in 1958. Lear is in better form than her husband– Stewart is not really a Verdian, and the monologue is among the showiest music in the opera.
Boito
Original Air Date: 02/19/2000
Elder; Ramey, Villarroel, Margison
MOD Audio SID.18510642
So far this is the only Met broadcast of Mefistofele, as its 1925 previous Met performance precedes the Met matinee series, and Bing had mostly ceded the work to NYCO first with Treigle, and later with Ramey. Here is Ramey at close to his twilight from the Met in a very solid performance, and a good delivery from the Met chorus. Margison and Villaroel are OK, but much better tenor casting was certainly available during the Bing years.
Ramey was still in good voice for this broadcast, but this Robert Carsen production which had been practically everywhere (I saw it in SF as well as NYC) could not attract the great tenors of the day to Faust. A pity. I saw Kraus in Philadelphia, and Bergonzi has distinguished performances as well. Margerita deserves better than Villaroel as well.
Time for the Met to revive again with or without the Carsen production. Lots of good casting around for this. even if no one at Ghiaurov/ Siepi vocal accomplishment for the title role.
These days, the basso ranks are even more depleted than 13 years ago, but lots of interesting tenors and sopranos for these two roles. Calleja would be my first choice for Faust, but there are others who could do fine work, including Fabiano. Radvanovsky would be a most interesting combo Margerita/Helen and the Met chorus is several cuts above their work a dozen years ago.
I’m not wild about the Carsen production (there are worse), but a rumored revival seems to have disappeared.
Mefistofele is not represented in MOoD and should be available there, starting with capturing prime Ramey
Rossini
Original Air Date: 02/21/1981
Rescigno; Horne, Blake, Berberian, Bruscantini
MOD Audio SID.18510744
This is the third of Horne’s four Met Isabellas. She is a noted Rossinian, a great advocate for young singers, but just not to my taste. She totally dominates the Isabella roster at the Met, but I prefer Borodina with Furlanetto in the 21st century. Baltsa who has
a very limited Met career did bring her Rossini heroines to Chicago (which I did not see) but I find her recordings more interesting, and Berganza even more so.
—
Not my favorite opera, and Horne is not for me in this. WIsh the 2004 Italiana with Borodina, Florez, and Furlanetto would be rebroadcast. The men especially are extremely fine.
Mozart
Original Air Date: 12/14/1985
Levine; Raimondi, Battle, Vaness, Allen, von Stade
MOD VideoMOD Audio SID.18510745
This performance surfaced in its video format both on MOoD, and in the Levine 40th anniversary DVD box. This is a Ponnelle production, and has its usual pluses and minuses. Vaness misses just a bit of superstar quality (her Fiordiligi and Donna Anna are more distinctive).
Raimondi is not my favorite singer, but Levine is at his best in Mozart and the ensemble is very strong. I’ve enjoyed re-acquainting myself with this performance over the last year and have played it several times. This is his first season of Figaro at the Met, an opera he would conduct more than 77 times in 3 new productions (Ponnelle, Jonathan Miller, Richard Eyre.). Amazingly 3 of the matinee broadcasts have not been done again.
For the record: March 21, 1992 features Upshaw , Schuman, Von Stade, Furlanetto, Hampson, Moll December 5, 1998 features Bonney/Guyer, Lott, Mentzer, Croft, Terfel Feb. 12, 2005 features Rost, Watson, Perez, Relyea, Kwiecien.
One run of Nozze with Levine was not broadcast and that featured Dorothea Roschmann and Anja Harteros in their Met debuts. I remember these performances very well, and in the current Gelb/Sirius era, we would have had at least one if not a couple of these on the radio, The 1992 would be especially welcome for the Furlanetto/Hampson combination (which is also on their complete DG recording).
Donizetti
Original Air Date: 03/05/1966
Schippers; Bergonzi, Peters, Corena, Guarrera
MOD Audio SID.18510746
This performance has been issued in Sony’s Historic Met CD series. Also on MOoD is Bergonzi and Corena partnered by Scotto and Sereni who I think are better matches in this opera.One cannot lose with Bergonzi and Corena.
Mozart
Original Air Date: 03/25/1978
Bonynge; Morris, Sutherland, Bacquier, Varady, Brecknock, Tourangeau
MOD Audio SID.18510641
This is Julia Varady’s only season and broadcast from the Met, and earns a well-deserved place in MOoD. The missing piece is that 9 days earlier the Met telecast this, and it operatic stage. Traubel has never appeared in any form. There is so little Sutherland video from the Met. Of particular interest is Bacquier in his only season as Leporello and Morris makes a youthful but powerful Don. It also captures the last of the Berman production. The video please! Also Sutherland’s only other Donna Anna from the Met is from opening season of the new house at Lincoln Center under Karl Bohm with Siepi, Flagello, and Giaiotti with Lorengar as the Elvira. This has not been recently discussed on SIrius in 5 years and should be in MOoD.
LA BOHÈME:Puccini
Original Air Date: 12/19/1953
Erede; Güden, Conley, Fenn, Merrill, Scott
MOD Audio SID.18520103
This is the only season Merrill has Marcello, and broadcasts it twice, once in English, and once in Italian. I would love to hear the English language broadcast with Nadine Conner and Richard Tucker (whom Virgil Thomson thinks is ill matched to Conner), but among our many denials, translations are basically off-limits unless they are Janacek or the Dietz/Kanin Fledermaus from 1950.
EUGENE ONEGIN:Tchaikovsky
Original Air Date: 02/23/2002
Jurowski; Hampson, Kringelborn, Giordani, Karnéus, Lloyd
MOD Audio SID.18520104
Jurowski is on especially congenial turf, but my memories of Kringelborn are not quite so positive. Hampson has a commercial Onegin in English with te Kanawa under Mackerras. I love the opera, but my favorite Met archival broadcasts are with Yuri Mazurok –he has two Onegin broadcasts from 1979 (adjacent season).
ESCLARMONDE:Massenet
Original Air Date: 12/11/1976
Bonynge; Sutherland, Aragall, Tourangeau, Grant
MOD Audio SID.18520211
This is the Met’s only broadcast of Esclarmonde, and the performance in addition to the predictable glitter from Sutherland, captures Aragall in one of his best performances. For many, his material was the best of absolute best, and the new generation of tenors in the 1970s, but it never quite all came together. Here is the exception. Enjoy.
DAS RHEINGOLD:Wagner
Original Air Date: 01/27/1951
Stiedry; Hotter, Harshaw, Svanholm, Davidson, Hines, Ernster
MOD Audio SID.18520214
Hans Hotter’s MET debut season. This performance is taken from the “Wagner at the Met” CD box set. The chief vocal interest lies in Hotter’s broadcast of Wotan – one of only two Ring performances he broadcast from the Met; the other was Hunding (not Wotan) in Walkure in 1954. Branzell returns to the Met after a seven year absence and moves down from Fricka to Erda, appearing in two Rheingolds and three Siegfrieds in 1951. Her Met career spans 27 years from 1924 -1951 and 412 performances. Paul Jackson, in his survey of Met broadcasts, is not enamored of Stiedry’s conducting. I still hope this means we will hear the rest of the 1951 Ring on Sirius soon – which includes Traubel’s Siegfried & Gotterdammerung Brunnhildes; Jackson is especially fond of her Siegfried even though she omits the few Bs and Cs of the role..
LA TRAVIATA:Verdi
Original Air Date: 12/26/2018
Nézet-Séguin; Damrau, Flórez (cancelled), Costello, Kelsey
SID.18520321
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Michael Mayer’s richly textured new production, featuring a dazzling 19th-century setting that changes with the seasons. Soprano Diana Damrau plays the tragic heroine, Violetta, and tenor Juan Diego Flórez returns to the Met for the first time since 2015 to sing the role of Alfredo, Violetta’s hapless lover. Baritone Quinn Kelsey is Alfredo’s father, Germont, who destroys their love. Later performances feature Anita Hartig, Stephen Costello, Artur Ruciński, and Plácido Domingo.
REVIEW: The Met Turns the Tragedy of ‘Traviata’ Into Dull Disney Schmaltz By James Jorden • 12/05/18 – Well, you have to give the Met credit for accomplishing a feat no other opera company in the world could—or should. At Tuesday’s gala new production of La Traviata, the company managed to downgrade Verdi’s masterpiece of musical drama to a kitschy Disney musical. The prime culprit in this act of artistic vandalism is director Michael Mayer, who seems to have no handle at all on this classic tale of a courtesan inspired by true love to make the most profound sacrifice. In the great duet in the second act, for example, when the penitent Violetta confronts Germont, the morally outraged father of her lover, the singers circled listlessly around a bed that hogged center stage through all three acts.
Review: La Traviata’ Opens a New Era at the Met Opera By Anthony Tommasini Dec. 5, 2018 ….””To begin his tenure as the company’s music director, Mr. Nézet-Séguin led an uncommonly fine rendition of Verdi’s “La Traviata,” in a new staging by Michael Mayer that stars the soprano Diana Damrau and the tenor Juan Diego Flórez. And in a rare gesture of respect and good will, the Met’s musicians joined Mr. Nézet-Séguin on stage for a bow after the show.
“
LA BOHÈME:Puccini
Original Air Date: 12/19/1953
Erede; Güden, Conley, Fenn, Merrill, Scott
MOD Audio SID.18520103
This is the only season Merrill has Marcello, and broadcasts it twice, once in English, and once in Italian. I would love to hear the English language broadcast with Nadine Conner and Richard Tucker (whom Virgil Thomson thinks is ill matched to Conner), but among our many denials, translations are basically off-limits unless they are Janacek or the Dietz/Kanin Fledermaus from 1950.
EUGENE ONEGIN:Tchaikovsky
Original Air Date: 02/23/2002
Jurowski; Hampson, Kringelborn, Giordani, Karnéus, Lloyd
MOD Audio SID.18520423
Jurowski is on especially congenial turf, but my memories of Kringelborn are not quite so positive. Hampson has a commercial Onegin in English with te Kanawa under Mackerras. I love the opera, but my favorite Met archival broadcasts are with Yuri Mazurok –he has two Onegin broadcasts from 1979 (adjacent season).
AIDA:Verdi
Original Air Date: 03/06/1976
Levine; Price, Domingo, Horne, MacNeil, Giaiotti
MOD Audio SID.18520424
Three of Domingo’s 14 Met Radames were over the airwaves, and this is the first. In the Sirius listing, James Morris is left off as King. This is the kind of Aida bass tandem we were used to until the last two decades. Giaiotti is one of the best Ramfis around. I’m not a fan of Horne’s Amneris, and this is her only Met season in the role. She’s a major artist, but not a Verdi mezzo. Price is heard to better advantage in earlier performances, especially 1963 and 1965.
ESCLARMONDE:Massenet
Original Air Date: 12/11/1976
Bonynge; Sutherland, Aragall, Tourangeau, Grant
MOD Audio SID.18520530
This is the Met’s only broadcast of Esclarmonde, and the performance in addition to the predictable glitter from Sutherland, captures Aragall in one of his best performances. For many, his material was the best of absolute best, and the new generation of tenors in the 1970s, but it never quite all came together. Here is the exception. Enjoy.
DAS RHEINGOLD:Wagner
Original Air Date: 01/27/1951
Stiedry; Hotter, Harshaw, Svanholm, Davidson, Hines, Ernster
MOD Audio SID.18520533
Hans Hotter’s MET debut season. This performance is taken from the “Wagner at the Met” CD box set. The chief vocal interest lies in Hotter’s broadcast of Wotan – one of only two Ring performances he broadcast from the Met; the other was Hunding (not Wotan) in Walkure in 1954. Branzell returns to the Met after a seven year absence and moves down from Fricka to Erda, appearing in two Rheingolds and three Siegfrieds in 1951. Her Met career spans 27 years from 1924 -1951 and 412 performances. Paul Jackson, in his survey of Met broadcasts, is not enamored of Stiedry’s conducting. I still hope this means we will hear the rest of the 1951 Ring on Sirius soon – which includes Traubel’s Siegfried & Gotterdammerung Brunnhildes; Jackson is especially fond of her Siegfried even though she omits the few Bs and Cs of the role..
LA BOHÈME:Puccini
Original Air Date: 12/19/1953
Erede; Güden, Conley, Fenn, Merrill, Scott
MOD Audio SID.18520534
This is the only season Merrill has Marcello, and broadcasts it twice, once in English, and once in Italian. I would love to hear the English language broadcast with Nadine Conner and Richard Tucker (whom Virgil Thomson thinks is ill matched to Conner), but among our many denials, translations are basically off-limits unless they are Janacek or the Dietz/Kanin Fledermaus from 1950.
DON CARLO:Verdi
Original Air Date: 04/05/1952
Stiedry; Tucker, Rigal, Silveri, Barbieri, Hines, Hotter
MOD Audio SID.18520636
This is most distinctive for being Tucker’s first Don Carlo broadcast and one of Hotter’s few. This is the first of Tucker’s three Don Carlo broadcasts, and I find his 1955 preferable. What I’ve never heard, but also from 1952 (but next season) is his second which has a better supporting cast with Merrill for Silveri, and Siepi for Hines as Filippo; Erede is in the pit for his only Don Carlo broadcast. Also unusual is that though Tucker went on to sing the opera for 15 more years after his 1955 broadcast with Steber, he never went to the airwaves for it again. At 26 performances, he is by far the Don Carlo champion– I saw him in it three times. most notably at a fall 1968 matinee not broadcast with (Orlandi, Verrett, Merrill, Ghiaurov, and Talvela under Abbado). Bing did not see Hotter in leading roles and in Walkure he was cast as Hunding, not Wotan. What has not been rebroadcast on Sirius is Hotter’s farewell which is a 1954 Parsifal with Svanholm, Varnay, and London, and Hotter as Gurnemanz under Stiedry. I would love to hear that.
THE MAGIC FLUTE:Mozart
Original Air Date: 12/29/2018
Bicket; Morley, Lewek, Bliss, Ryan, Gunn, Walker, Robinson
SID.18520000
Now a holiday tradition, Julie Taymor’s beloved production of Mozart’s enchanting fairy tale returns in its abridged, English-language version for families.
Program 122918-magic-flute
EUGENE ONEGIN:Tchaikovsky
Original Air Date: 02/23/2002
Jurowski; Hampson, Kringelborn, Giordani, Karnéus, Lloyd
MOD Audio SID.18520743
Jurowski is on especially congenial turf, but my memories of Kringelborn are not quite so positive. Hampson has a commercial Onegin in English with te Kanawa under Mackerras. I love the opera, but my favorite Met archival broadcasts are with Yuri Mazurok –he has two Onegin broadcasts from 1979 (adjacent season).
DAS RHEINGOLD:Wagner
Original Air Date: 01/27/1951
Stiedry; Hotter, Harshaw, Svanholm, Davidson, Hines, Ernster
MOD Audio SID.18520744
Hans Hotter’s MET debut season. This performance is taken from the “Wagner at the Met” CD box set. The chief vocal interest lies in Hotter’s broadcast of Wotan – one of only two Ring performances he broadcast from the Met; the other was Hunding (not Wotan) in Walkure in 1954. Branzell returns to the Met after a seven year absence and moves down from Fricka to Erda, appearing in two Rheingolds and three Siegfrieds in 1951. Her Met career spans 27 years from 1924 -1951 and 412 performances. Paul Jackson, in his survey of Met broadcasts, is not enamored of Stiedry’s conducting. I still hope this means we will hear the rest of the 1951 Ring on Sirius soon – which includes Traubel’s Siegfried & Gotterdammerung Brunnhildes; Jackson is especially fond of her Siegfried even though she omits the few Bs and Cs of the role..
AIDA:Verdi
Original Air Date: 03/06/1976
Levine; Price, Domingo, Horne, MacNeil, Giaiotti
MOD Audio SID.18520747
Three of Domingo’s 14 Met Radames were over the airwaves, and this is the first. In the Sirius listing, James Morris is left off as King. This is the kind of Aida bass tandem we were used to until the last two decades. Giaiotti is one of the best Ramfis around. I’m not a fan of Horne’s Amneris, and this is her only Met season in the role. She’s a major artist, but not a Verdi mezzo. Price is heard to better advantage in earlier performances, especially 1963 and 1965.
DON CARLO:Verdi
Original Air Date: 04/05/1952
Stiedry; Tucker, Rigal, Silveri, Barbieri, Hines, Hotter
MOD Audio SID.18520749
This is most distinctive for being Tucker’s first Don Carlo broadcast and one of Hotter’s few. This is the first of Tucker’s three Don Carlo broadcasts, and I find his 1955 preferable. What I’ve never heard, but also from 1952 (but next season) is his second which has a better supporting cast with Merrill for Silveri, and Siepi for Hines as Filippo; Erede is in the pit for his only Don Carlo broadcast. Also unusual is that though Tucker went on to sing the opera for 15 more years after his 1955 broadcast with Steber, he never went to the airwaves for it again. At 26 performances, he is by far the Don Carlo champion– I saw him in it three times. most notably at a fall 1968 matinee not broadcast with (Orlandi, Verrett, Merrill, Ghiaurov, and Talvela under Abbado). Bing did not see Hotter in leading roles and in Walkure he was cast as Hunding, not Wotan. What has not been rebroadcast on Sirius is Hotter’s farewell which is a 1954 Parsifal with Svanholm, Varnay, and London, and Hotter as Gurnemanz under Stiedry. I would love to hear that.
ESCLARMONDE:Massenet
Original Air Date: 12/11/1976
Bonynge; Sutherland, Aragall, Tourangeau, Grant
MOD Audio SID.19010101
This is the Met’s only broadcast of Esclarmonde, and the performance in addition to the predictable glitter from Sutherland, captures Aragall in one of his best performances. For many, his material was the best of absolute best, and the new generation of tenors in the 1970s, but it never quite all came together. Here is the exception. Enjoy.
LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN:Offenbach
Original Air Date: 03/27/1982
Chailly; Domingo, Morris, Welting, Troyanos, Eda-Pierre, Howells
MOD Audio SID.19380101
This is Chailly’s only Met appearance, and is the premiere year of the Schenk, Schneider-Siemssen production. I’m surprised this performance is not the one in MOoD instead of the Levine from 1993. Much as I like Vaness and Held, an 11 year younger Domingo with the above cast (and especially Senechal) would seem more likely. Still, this performance is a welcome choice for the Sirius rotation (it’s not new this week, but not often included).
Saint-Saëns
Original Air Date: 12/26/1936
Abravanel; Maison, Wettergren, Pinza
MOD Audio SID.19010103
This is the second oldest Met performance to have been rebroadcast on Sirius — the Lawrence/Melchior Gotterdammerung also from 1936 (but previous season) is the oldest. Abravanel is more remembered as longtime conductor of the Utah Symphony, but his three Met seasons beginning with this broadcast showed him as a sure hand in the French and German wings of the repertory. The principals have plenty of profile, and Pinza is an excellent High Priest.
ADRIANA LECOUVREUR : Cilea
Original Air Date: 12/31/2018
Noseda; Netrebko, Rachvelishvili, Beczala, Bosi, Maestri, Muraro
Live Broadcast
New Year’s Eve Gala
New Production Premiere
Program
Based on a play by Eugène Scribe, the story was inspired by the real-life intrigues of famed actress Adrienne Lecouvreur and the legendary soldier—and lover—Maurice of Saxony. Cilea’s operatic retelling quickly became a favorite of charismatic soloists. The title character in particular is a quintessential diva role.
Drama Queen (Article by William Berger)
“On New Year’s Eve, Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur returns to the Met with soprano Anna Netrebko in the touchstone title role. She teams up with tenor Piotr Beczała as her lover, Maurizio—a brilliant pairing of stars fresh off a joint triumph in performances of Adriana in Vienna. Mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili rounds out the all-star principal trio, and maestro Gianandrea Noseda is on the podium. Sir David McVicar’s new staging—the Met’s first new production of the work in more than half a century—embraces Cilea’s glamorous 18th-century Parisian setting but also mines for deeper artistic significance in an opera that is often underestimated.” (William Berger)
Co-Production of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London; Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona; Wiener Staatsoper; San Francisco Opera; and L’Opéra National de Paris Production a gift of The Sybil B. Harrington Endowment Fund