CARMEN:Bizet
Original Air Date: 10/30/2018
Wellber; Yu, Margaine, Lee, Ketelsen
SID.18440214
Live Broadcast * PROGRAM
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.
Production a gift of Mrs. Paul Desmarais Sr.
MACBETH:Verdi
Original Air Date: 12/18/1982
Levine; Milnes, Scotto, Plishka, Jenkins
MOD Audio SID.18440315
“This is the first year of the new production by Peter Hall, which was heavily booed (deservedly– i was there) on its opening night. There is a second year of the production with the cast repeating except with Ciannella for Jenkins. Scotto never had the right voice for the part, and though Deutekom was a very successful Lady Macbeth (not at the Met) she had a knife edge upper register which was not Scotto’s.
Milnes is almost two decades into his Met career, and he is better heard earlier with Arroyo (one of the most securely vocalized of Lady Macbeths in Met history; she was not especially memorable dramatically, but Verdi’s notes are well honored.)
Met Macbeths with Netrebko , Rysanek (first season especially), and Dalis (despite a very wayward D flat) are all to be preferred to Scotto’s effort.”This is the first year of the new production by Peter Hall, which was heavily booed (deservedly– i was there) on its opening night. There is a second year of the production with the cast repeating except with Ciannella for Jenkins. Scotto never had the right voice for the part, and though Deutekom was a very successful Lady Macbeth (not at the Met) she had a knife edge upper register which was not Scotto’s.
Milnes is almost two decades into his Met career, and he is better heard earlier with Arroyo (one of the most securely vocalized of Lady Macbeths in Met history; she was not especially memorable dramatically, but Verdi’s notes are well honored.)
Met Macbeths with Netrebko , Rysanek (first season especially), and Dalis (despite a very wayward D flat) are all to be preferred to Scotto’s effort.
ARABELLA:Strauss
Original Air Date: 03/05/1983
Leinsdorf; Te Kanawa, Weikl, Battle, Rendall, Dunn, Gramm
MOD Audio SID.18440316
This new production was the first time in German at the Met. Te Kanawa sings beautifully but for anyone who has heard the prior broadcasts from Steber and Della Casa, it’s just not in the same league. Battle and Weikl are strong vocal support.
THE GREAT GATSBY:Harbison
Original Air Date: 01/01/2000
Levine; Hadley, Upshaw, Croft, Graham, Baker, Lieberson
MOD Audio SID.18440320
Levine is a great promoter of Harbison’s work, but I miss the appeal.
First appearance of Hunt Lieberson whose only other role was Didon in the new Troyens production whose broadcast marks Hunt Lieberson’s Met farewell in February 2003 before her untimely death in July 2006.
SAMSON ET DALILA:Saint-Saëns
Original Air Date: 04/12/1958
Cleva; Del Monaco, Stevens, Singher
MOD Audio SID.18440321
Del Monaco never did a studio version of Samson so this performance is welcome. Stevens I never saw live, but I want a more settled, glamorous sound for Dalila.
Singher came in 1943 to the Met and makes his farewell eight months after this Samson broadcast doing the two performances of the four Hoffmann villains. He’s an important part of the Met’s French wing with both Pelleas and Golaud in two different revivals. He went on to be a major teacher at the Curtis Institute, with James King his most notable student.
This performance is available on MOoD, and I am happy to have it since Del Monaco never did a studio version
12/5/16 ***I am not a huge fan of the audio only Stevens’ Dalila, but this performance with a fine High Priest from Singher certainly is not wanting for vocal voltage. This performance is available on MetPlayer as well. 1/16/12
TOSCA:Puccini
Original Air Date: 11/02/2018
Rizzi; Radvanovsky, Calleja, Koch, Carfizzi
Live Broadcast SID.18440535
Donizetti
Original Air Date: 12/05/1964
Varviso; Sutherland; Kónya, Herlea, Giaiotti
MOD Audio SID.18450102
Mozart
Original Air Date: 12/09/2006
Levine; van Rensburg, Röschmann, Deshorties, Kozená. Francis
MOD Audio SID.18450103
Tchaikovsky
Original Air Date: 04/10/1999
Gergiev; Domingo, Gorchakova, Söderström, Hvorostovsky, Borodina, Putilin
MOD AudioMOD Video SID.18450104
Verdi
Original Air Date: 04/04/1959
Cleva; Gari, Rysanek, Merrill, Thebom, Hines, Uhde
MOD Audio SID.18450105
Puccini
Original Air Date: 03/21/1981
Levine; Zylis-Gara, Ciannella, Elvira, Capecchi
SID.18450106
Gounod
Original Air Date: 04/13/1968
Molinari-Pradelli; Gedda, Freni, Macurdy, Baldwin, Reardon
SID.18450107
Verdi
Original Air Date: 12/19/1987
Bonynge; Pavarotti, Sutherland, Verrett, Nucci, De Grandis
MOD Audio SID.18450208
Wagner
Original Air Date: 12/04/1976
Levine; Kollo, Lorengar, Dunn, McIntyre, Giaiotti
SID.18450209
Wagner
Original Air Date: 12/04/1976
Levine; Kollo, Lorengar, Dunn, McIntyre, Giaiotti
SID.18450210
Rossini
Original Air Date: 01/17/1976
Schippers; Sills, Verrett, Di Giuseppe, Díaz
SID.18450211
Wagner
Original Air Date: 12/02/1944
Szell; Traubel, Janssen, Bampton, Melchior, Thorborg, Kipnis
MOD Audio SID.18450212
Giordano
Original Air Date: 04/26/1997
Abbado; Freni, Domingo, Croft, Arteta
MOD Video SID.18450213
Mozart
Original Air Date: 03/04/1967
Krips; Raskin, Shirley, Uppman, Peters, Macurdy
MOD Audio SID.18450214
Strauss
Original Air Date: 03/09/1991
Kout; Ziegler, Gessendorf, Haugland, Kilduff, Meredith
SID.18450316
Verdi
Original Air Date: 03/11/1995
Levine; Chernov, Millo, Domingo, Scandiuzzi, Pola
SID.18450318
MARNIE : Nico Muhly
Original Air Date: 11/07/2018
Cast: Spano; Leonard, Kelly, Graves, Davies, Maltman
Media: Live Broadcast SID.
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
Commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera
A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and English National Opera
By special arrangement with Universal Pictures
MEFISTOFELE : Boito
Original Air Date: 11/08/2018
Cast: Rizzi; Meade, Fabiano, Van Horn, Check
SID.18450000
* Live Broadcast * Program
The spectacular Robert Carsen production returns to the Met for the first time since 2000, with bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as the diabolical title character, tenor Michael Fabiano as Faust, and soprano Angela Meade as Margherita. Mefistofele is the celebrated and only completed opera by Arrigo Boito—who famously collaborated with Verdi on the libretti for Otello and Falstaff.
Production co-owned by the Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco
OperaProduction a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Julian H. Robertson, Jr. and Mrs. and
Mrs. Wilmer J. Thomas, Jr.
Additional funding by the Rose and Robert Edelman Foundation, Inc.
MARNIE : Nico Muhly
Original Air Date: 11/10/2018
Cast: Spano; Leonard, Kelly, Graves, Davies, Maltman
Media: Live Broadcast SID.18450600
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
Commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera
A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and English National Opera
By special arrangement with Universal Pictures
Verdi
Original Air Date: 01/05/1935
Panizza; Ponselle, Jagel, Tibbett
SID.18460102
Rossini
Original Air Date: 04/07/1973
Levine; Prey, Horne, Di Giuseppe, Corena, Tozzi
MOD Audio SID.18460103
Tchaikovsky
Original Air Date: 02/24/2007
Gergiev; Hvorostovsky, Fleming, Vargas, Zaremba, Aleksashkin
Live in HDMOD AudioMOD Video SID.18460104
Donizetti
Original Air Date: 04/15/2006
Benini; Alaimo, Netrebko, Flórez, Kwiecien
MOD Audio SID.18460105
Wagner
Original Air Date: 12/18/1999
Levine; Heppner, Eaglen, Dalayman, Pape, Ketelsen
SID.18460106
Wagner
Original Air Date: 12/18/1999
Levine; Heppner, Eaglen, Dalayman, Pape, Ketelsen
SID.18460107