COSÌ FAN TUTTE:Mozart
Bicket; Car, Malfi, Stober, Bliss, Pisaroni, Finley
Original Air Date: 02/18/2020
SID.20080000
Coney Island once again comes to the stage of the Met with the first revival of Phelim McDermott’s popular staging inspired by the side shows of the boardwalk. The pairs of young lovers are a casting dream: soprano Nicole Car, mezzo-soprano Serena Malfi, tenor Ben Bliss, and bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni, with the glorious bass-baritone Gerald Finley as the cynical Don Alfonso and the charming soprano Heidi Stober as the mischievous maid Despina. Harry Bicket conducts. Co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and English National Opera In collaboration with Improbable
COSÌ FAN TUTTE:Mozart
Bicket; Car, Malfi, Stober, Bliss, Pisaroni, Finley
Original Air Date: 02/18/2020
SID.20080214
Coney Island once again comes to the stage of the Met with the first revival of Phelim McDermott’s popular staging inspired by the side shows of the boardwalk. The pairs of young lovers are a casting dream: soprano Nicole Car, mezzo-soprano Serena Malfi, tenor Ben Bliss, and bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni, with the glorious bass-baritone Gerald Finley as the cynical Don Alfonso and the charming soprano Heidi Stober as the mischievous maid Despina. Harry Bicket conducts. Co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and English National Opera In collaboration with Improbable
DER ROSENKAVALIER:Strauss
Levine; von Otter, Gessendorf, Hawlata, Grant Murphy, Hornik, Elias, Senechal, Olsen
Original Air Date: 03/04/1995
SID.20080315
Murphy is the main drag on this performance, but Gessendorf who has almost no commercial recording career is a creditable vocal Marschallin. Because Rosenkavalier seems to still be hobbled on rights, we still don’t have Steber with Reiner, Ludwig as Oktavian in 1959, and Tomowa-Sintow or Gwyneth Jones as Marschallin.
THE MERRY WIDOW:Lehár
Fisch; von Stade, Hagegård, Welch-Babidge, Groves
Original Air Date: 12/23/2000
SID.20080316
This is the second year of the production originally mounted for Von Stade with Domingo. The production is by Tim Albery who was also responsible for Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Britten centenary. It’s not often that anything in English translation is on Sirius, but this is. Now if only they could have some of much worthier English translation evenings like Arabella and Cosi fan tutte with Steber and some of the great Boris Godunovs of the 1950s and 60s.
IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA:Rossini
Benini; Mattei, DiDonato, Flórez, Del Carlo, Relyea
Original Air Date: 03/24/2007
Live in HDMOD Video
SID.20080317
This is a simulcast of the first season Live in HD videocast. It’s the only matinee broadcast appearance of Mattei, DiDonato and Florez together, and they are a splendid trio.
LE NOZZE DI FIGARO:Mozart
Meister; Woodbury, Müller, Crebassa, McCormick, Dupuis, Plachetka, Muraro
Original Air Date: 02/22/2020
SID.20080640
Two outstanding casts—including sopranos Nadine Sierra, Anita Hartig, Susanna Phillips, and Hanna-Elisabeth Müller; mezzo-sopranos Gaëlle Arquez and Marianne Crebassa; baritone Mariusz Kwiecien; and bass-baritones Luca Pisaroni and Adam Plachetka—come together for Mozart’s scintillating class comedy. Antonello Manacorda and Cornelius Meister conduct Sir Richard Eyre’s fast-paced production. Production a gift of Mercedes T. Bass, and Jerry and Jane del Missier Revival a gift of the Metropolitan Opera Club
Intermission
Backstage Pass – Loren Toolajian interviews Amanda Woodbury, Hanna-Elisabeth Müller, Etienne Dupuis, Adam Plachetka
Mary Jo Hearth interviews General Manager Peter Gelb about the 2020-2021 Season
SIMON BOCCANEGRA:Verdi
Molinari-Pradelli; MacNeil, Tucci, Shirley, Hines, Milnes
Original Air Date: 12/14/1968
SID.20090102
This is MacNeil’s only broadcast Doge, and is almost as notable for Milnes’ turn as Paolo emulating Leonard Warren who had debuted as Paolo in 1939 and premiered a new Met production less than a week before his untimely death onstage. Hines lacks the profile if not the voice for one of the most interesting of Verdi’s bass roles. Tucci and Shirley are decent if not as megawatt as Tebaldi and Tucker or Milanov and Bergonzi in past times, and Te Kanawa and Domingo in more recent times (though even that is more than 25 years ago now). It should be in MOoD. In two complete misses on Boccanegra, the 1974 revival had two outstanding portrayals under Eherling: Ingvar Wixell in the title role, and Maliponte as Amelia. Tucker is on exceptional late form as well. Historically there are only two broadcasts 1935 and 1939 with Lawrence Tibbett and Ezio Pinza under Panizza should be added to the MOoD archive.
LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR:Donizetti
Cleva; Callas, Votipka, McCracken, Sordello, Campora, Franke, Moscona
Original Air Date: 12/08/1956
MOD Audio
SID.20090103
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.
CARMEN:Bizet
Abel; Dunleavy, Knoop Very, Graves, Perez, Shicoff, Stevenson, Tézier, Josephson, Boutros, Wells
Original Air Date: 01/18/2003
SID.20090104
Shicoff is not a bad Jose, but this is not the most exciting Carmen. In the house, Graves could be quite an attractive Carmen.
LA FORZA DEL DESTINO:Verdi
Schippers; Tebaldi, Tucker, Sereni, Hines, Dunn, Baccaloni
Original Air Date: 03/12/1960
MOD Audio
SID.20090105
Tebaldi and Tucker are famous for their roles in FORZA, but except for two performances in 1956, and the FORZA preceding this broadcast which was halted because of the onstage death of Leonard Warren, these are their only appearances together in it. Tebaldi is not at the vocal peak of her 1958 Naples video (with Corelli and Bastianini) or her Florence performances with Mitropoulos and Del Monaco, but there is still much to enjoy. Leonora is one of Verdi’s greatest challenges, and most performers just don’t have the stuff.
LA BOHÈME:Puccini
Schippers; Albanese, Hurley, Bergonzi, Sereni, Scott
Original Air Date: 02/15/1958
MOD Audio
SID.20090106
This classic performance has been issued on Sony Classical Historical Met CD series as well as MOoD. Albanese goes back more than two decades for her recorded Mimi with Gigli, the classic Toscanini set with Peerce, and this solid performance from Bergonzi. Sereni was the first choice Marcello most evenings, though there are a few appearances by Bastianini and Merrill, but after Scotti’s 146 Marcellos, Sereni is next with 76 and Frank Guarrera third at 71. MacNeil had four park concert Marcellos with the Met, but never in the house onstage. The August 2014 rebroadcast was part of the extensive memorial the Met and Sirius broadcast that week on the occasion of Bergonzi’s passing. A Met singer most beloved. Worth tracking down that 2014 citation for the whole week as many of his broadcasts are on MOoD.
LULU:Berg
Levine; Malfitano, Mazura, Troyanos, Hamilton, Foldi
Original Air Date: 04/02/1988
SID.20090107
Lulu is not a regular item for many, but Mazura and Troyanos were specialists, and Leighton Kerner, the late Village Voice critic found her the most satisfying of 11 Lulus he had encountered. It’s sad that the Dexter production which was telecast with Migenes (replacing Stratas) has not made its way to Met OperaonDemand, but is on a Met issued DVD in the Levine 40th anniversary DVD box.
DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE:Mozart
Foster; Popp, Kuebler, Duesing, Donat, Macurdy
Original Air Date: 02/07/1981
MOD Audio
SID.20090208
Lucia Popp made her debut with the Chagall Flute as Queen of the Night, the first season in the new house. She didn’t broadcast the role until three years later, and then 11 years later moves down to Pamina in this broadcast She’s a very fine Pamina, but overall not impressed by the remainder of the cast. The main distinction here is Popp’s Pamina, and she is one of the best. The rest of the cast is OK, but there are other broadcasts of more distinction in the other roles.
MACBETH:Verdi
Leinsdorf; Warren, Rysanek, Hines, Bergonzi
Original Air Date: 02/21/1959
MOD Audio
SID.20090209
This is the Met premiere broadcast of Macbeth, and at least three of the principals are as good as you’re going to get. Mitropoulos was originally scheduled for this production but because of health problems it moved on to Leinsdorf. It’s a loss, but Rysanek more than holds up her end. This performance is also on Met Player for regular listening. Only the second year broadcast from 1960 has not appeared on Sirius (Barioni for Bergonzi) and it also has the duet on the heath cut. Still it would be interesting to hear as the contemporary reviews found the performance even better integrated. This cast was recorded by RCA shortly after the premiere, and this broadcast is available on Met Player. Very solid casting from top to bottom. Bergonzi really is luxury casting singing one of the great Verdi tenor arias, Ah, la paterna mano. Highly recommended.
MANON LESCAUT:Puccini
Santi; Freni, Dvorsk, Schexnayder, Tajo
Original Air Date: 03/17/1990
SID.20090210
This is Freni’s only Met broadcast of Manon Lescaut (she did three performances in 1984 as well), and she is one of my favorite Manons even though she is well into the veteran stage. Dvorsky is acceptable, but not lots of good Des Grieux available in 1990 (a much more challenging part than the Massenet). Santi understands the tradition well. Freni saved Manon for close to the end of her career. Luckily she made a great recording with Pavarotti and Levine under Met auspices (Bartoli as the madrigal singer! Taddei as Lescaut) Still, she’s a fine Manon Lescaut, and deserves a better supporting cast and conductor than she gets. The Met has some great broadcasts including two Bjorlings that have been on Sirius and are in MetOpera on Demand.
LA JUIVE:Halévy
Viotti; Isokoski, Shicoff, Futral, Cutler, Furlanetto
Original Air Date: 12/13/2003
MOD Audio
SID.20090211
Viotti died only a year or so after premiering the Juive. He was a real talent, and Shicoff, Isokoski and Furlanetto all bring their considerable talents in a production transferred from Vienna. This is the Met’s first season since the mid 1930s and its only broadcast to date. Some early 1930s operas were broadcast but don’t exist. La Juive was never broadcast until 2003.
L’ASSEDIO DI CORINTO:Rossini
Schippers; Sills, Verrett, Di Giuseppe, Díaz
Original Air Date: 01/17/1976
SID.20090212
The following season also with Sills and Verrett under Woitach) are the Met broadcast history of this problematic Rossini work, and both are on MOoD. Verrett is in top form, but I find Sills too late for these assumptions. The work seems to be edited for these performances and is a jumble. Barbiere remains a miracle and though done to death, still sparkles.
Saint-Saëns
Cooper; Vinay, Stevens, Merrill
Original Air Date: 11/26/1949
SID.20090213
I like Samson, but not quite as much as Sirius. Some listeners don’t cotton to Vinay, but I find him OK. This is Merrill’s first Met High Priest, and if not Gabriel Bacquier or Martial Singher, he has some major vocal trumps to play. I find Stevens a bit lacking on tonal voluptuousness for the part. Visually of course she had a lot to offer.
FAUST:Gounod
Monteux; Peerce, de los Angeles, Siepi, Merrill, Miller
Original Air Date: 02/19/1955
MOD Audio
SID.20090214
This is the second of Monteux’s three Faust broadcasts, the first one also including DeLosAngeles and Merrill. Paul Jackson, in is second volume reviewing Met broadcasts, Sign-off for the Old Met, is very favorable towards all three of them, a bit less so for Peerce and Siepi. I don’t have his reticence about Siepi and am glad this performance isvavailable on MOoD.
LULU:Berg
Levine; Malfitano, Mazura, Troyanos, Hamilton, Foldi
Original Air Date: 04/02/1988
SID.20090316
Lulu is not a regular item for many, but Mazura and Troyanos were specialists, and Leighton Kerner, the late Village Voice critic found her the most satisfying of 11 Lulus he had encountered. It’s sad that the Dexter production which was telecast with Migenes (replacing Stratas) has not made its way to Met OperaonDemand, but is on a Met issued DVD in the Levine 40th anniversary DVD box.
WERTHER:Massenet
Runnicles; Hampson, Graham, Evans, Robertson
Original Air Date: 01/23/1999
MOD Audio
SID.20090321
This revival had the title role moving to baritone hands (in Massenet’s own transposition) (still too high for Domingo?), but this broadcast catches Susan Graham in one of her very best afternoons. This is the baritone version Massenet wrote for Battistini. It however catches Susan Graham in particularly splendid voice. This is a novelty for if there were ever a tenor opera it is Werther, but the composer did arrange for baritone for Battistini. Hampson is very earnest.
COSÌ FAN TUTTE:Mozart
Bicket; Car, Malfi, Stober, Bliss, Pisaroni, Finley
Original Air Date: 02/27/2020
SID.20090428
Coney Island once again comes to the stage of the Met with the first revival of Phelim McDermott’s popular staging inspired by the side shows of the boardwalk. The pairs of young lovers are a casting dream: soprano Nicole Car, mezzo-soprano Serena Malfi, tenor Ben Bliss, and bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni, with the glorious bass-baritone Gerald Finley as the cynical Don Alfonso and the charming soprano Heidi Stober as the mischievous maid Despina. Harry Bicket conducts. Co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and English National Opera In collaboration with Improbable
AGRIPPINA:Handel
Harry Bicket: Joyce DiDonato, Brenda Rae, Kate Lindsey, Iestyn Davies, Matthew Rose
Original Air Date: 02/29/2020
Live in HD
SID.20090640
Handel’s tale of intrigue and impropriety in ancient Rome receives its first Met performances, with star mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato as the controlling, power-hungry Agrippina and Harry Bicket conducting. Sir David McVicar’s production ingeniously reframes the action of this black comedy about the abuse of power to “the present,” where it should loudly resonate. The all-star cast features mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey as Agrippina’s son and future emperor Nerone, soprano Brenda Rae as the seductive Poppea, countertenor Iestyn Davies as the ambitious officer Ottone, and bass Matthew Rose as the weary emperor Claudius. This production was originally created by the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie / De Munt Brussels and adapted by the Metropolitan Opera
Intermission
Backstage Pass 1 – HD Host Deborah Voigt interviews Joyce DiDonato
Backstage Pass 2 – HD Host Deborah Voigt interviews Brenda Rae and Iestyn Davies
Mary Jo Hearth interviews Evgeny Nikitin about Der Fliegende Hollände
Backstage Pass 3 – HD Host Deborah Voigt interviews Kate Lindsey and Matthew Rose
LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN:Offenbach
Cambreling; Lima, Van Dam, Mills, Forst, Malfitano, Boozer
Original Air Date: 12/23/1989
SID.20100102
Lima is much stretched by Hoffmann, but he was very sympathetic on stage. The three lady casting is good, and Van Dam is excellent as the villains, his only Met season in them.
TOSCA:Puccini
Schick; Nilsson, Domingo, Dooley
Original Air Date: 02/15/1969
SID.20100103
This is Domingo’s Met broadcast debut. Check Nilsson five years earlier in a Met broadcast from Boston with Corelli and George London (interestingly also with Schick). Nilsson’s a great singer, she had premiered a new production five months earlier than this broadcast with Corelli and Bacquier. This is Nilsson’s first Met performance with Domingo; their total remaining Met are three Turandots culminating in the broadcast the following season. This is her second and last Met Tosca broadcast—her earlier one in 1964 was from Boston with Corelli, and has not been on Sirius. She premiered the 1968 production with Corelli the fall before this broadcast with Bacquier.
DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL:Mozart
Rudel; Malfitano, Araiza, Korn, Blegen, Creech
Original Air Date: 03/31/1984
SID.20100104
Malfitano sings well if not finally in the commanding manner the music requires and so rarely gets. Korn is pretty weak tea after Moll’s unbeatable Osmin that had premiered the production. Araiza is an interesting figure. Moving on to Walther in Meistersinger was a mistake. Karajan picked him for his Tamino, this was his Met debut season.
NABUCCO:Verdi
Levine; Pons, Guleghina, Ramey, Casanova
Original Air Date: 03/24/2001
SID.20100105
The telecast (on MOoD) and DVD replace Casanova with Gwyn Hughes Jones. Chorus is solid (but better since Palumbo) and Pons, Guleghina, and Ramey are all ok, with Ramey beginning his wobble phase. He has Zaccarias in other houses that are better, but this is pretty much ok, just defintely not his peak (which is very good indeed). Check the broadcast with Susan Neves and Ataneli from 2003 also with Ramey. What is on MOoD is the Met premiere season of Nabucco with MacNeil and Siepi in excellent form and Rysanek doing full engagement with Abigaille, not always successfully.
DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER:Wagner
Gergiev; Kampe, Fujimura, Skorokhodov, Portillo, Nikitin, Selig
Original Air Date: 03/02/2020
SID.20100107
François Girard, whose revelatory 2013 take on Parsifal set the recent Met standard for Wagner stagings, now unveils a spellbinding new vision of the composer’s tale of a cursed sea captain doomed to sail the open ocean for eternity. With sweeping sets by John Macfarlane, Girard’s new production turns the Met stage into a rich, layered tableau reminiscent of a vast oil painting. Valery Gergiev conducts a brilliant cast led by bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin as the Dutchman, with German soprano Anja Kampe making her anticipated Met debut as the devoted Senta, whose selfless love is what the Dutchman seeks. Bass Franz-Josef Selig is her father, Daland, and tenor Sergey Skorokhodov is her deserted former lover, Erik. A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera; Dutch National Opera, Amsterdam; The Abu Dhabi Festival; and Opéra de Québec
THE GAMBLER:Prokofiev
Gergiev; Galouzine, Guryakova, Alexashkin, Obraztsova
Original Air Date: 03/31/2001
SID.20100208
This is the Met broadcast premiere of this work. Seven years later Galouzine and Gergiev are together again for another broadcast at the Met, but with Diadkova in for Obraztsova. Galouzine has been through a lot of heavy singing in the seven years, so this is overall the best bet for experiencing the Prokofiev. Unfortunately, the MOoD only has the 2008 broadcast. In the theatre with lot of intense visuals, this was a most enjoyable production. Even with audio only Gergiev and Galouzine are still powerhouses.
SIEGFRIED:Wagner
Levine; Jones, Johns, Morris, Gjevang, Zednik, Wlaschiha
Original Air Date: 04/10/1993
SID.20100209
This 1993 cycle catches at least three performers in splendid voice: Morris, Zednik, Wlaschiha. Siegfried has not been especially well served on the airwaves. Melchior only has one complete from 1937 (not yet broadcast on Sirius), and the 1951 with Svanholdm and Traubel has also not been heard. Surprisingly Nilsson’s first cycle (1962) Siegfried has also not been heard, and Hopf possibly excepted, the remainder of the cast is extremely strong. Let’s hear prime Frick, Kuen, London, Nilsson, Arroyo (Forest BIrd).This is Gwyneth Jones’ only broadcast Siegfried Brunnhilde from the Met, and my memory is that Johns is a solid Siegfried. This should be in MOoD. This cycle found her in more satisfying voice than usual. Morris (James), Zednik, Wlaschiha, Salminen are just about as well as you can do.