CAPRICCIO:Strauss
Original Air Date: 01/31/1998
Davis; Te Kanawa, Rootering, Kuebler, Keenlyside, Brendel, Harries
MOD Audio SID.19040746
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.
CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA / PAGLIACCI:Mascagni / Leoncavallo
Original Air Date: 03/03/1951
Erede; Milanov, Tucker, Harvuot / Rigal, Baum, Warren
MOD Audio SID.19040748
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.
CARMEN:Bizet
Original Air Date: 03/22/1986
Levine; Ewing, Domingo, Malfitano, Devlin
MOD Audio SID.19050101
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 Domingo 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.
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.
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.
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.
LA CENERENTOLA:Rossini
Original Air Date: 01/24/1998
Levine; Larmore, Vargas, Alaimo, Corbelli
MOD Audio SID.19050213
The 2000 broadcast with Larmore features Campanella and Gimenez. This 1998 broadcast is the original cast from the fall 1997 premiere except with Larmore for Bartoli. The Bartoli performance is preserved on video on MOoD. New York has seen a lot of Cenerentola in the 17 years since it premiered– Bartoli, Larmore,Borodina, Ganassi, Garanca, DiDonato. Neither Borodina nor Ganassi were broadcast– I liked Borodina very much and the Ganassi performances featured Florez’ first NYC Ramiros.
IL TROVATORE:Verdi
Original Air Date: 03/17/1973
Cillario; Domingo, Caballé, Cossotto, Merrill, Vinco
MOD Audio SID.19050533
Caballe only has one broadcast among her 8 Leonoras, but she’s not the only one bidding farewell to Trovatore on the airwaves with this run-Domingo and Merrill were also concluding. The most successful performer for the afternoon is Cossotto in her first Azucena broadcast. She has two more concluding with her 16 years later effort with Millo, Pavarotti and Milnes (available on MOoD). It’s one of her best parts and she was one of the pre-eminent interpreters worldwide for three decades.
THE FIRST EMPEROR:Dun
Original Air Date: 01/13/2007
Dun; Domingo, Futral, Groves, Tian, DeYoung
Live in HDMOD Video SID.19050316
This is Domingo’s vehicle and the broadcast and HD performance from its premiere season. Sony issued a commercial DVD. Better to watch than listen to. I enjoyed seeing the production, and while it’s not on my weekly rotation, it held my interest more than Glass’ The Voyage. The simultaneous broadcast/HD moviecast is available on commercial DVD and MOoD (Metropolitan Opera on Demand).
SAMSON ET DALILA:Saint-Saëns
Original Air Date: 02/28/1998
Slatkin; Domingo, Graves, Leiferkus
MOD Audio SID.19050317
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.
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.19050423
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.
DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL:Mozart
Original Air Date: 03/24/1990
Levine; Devia, Heilmann, Moll, Mills, Magnusson
MOD Audio SID.19050424
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)
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.
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.
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.
LA CENERENTOLA:Rossini
Original Air Date: 01/24/1998
Levine; Larmore, Vargas, Alaimo, Corbelli
MOD Audio SID.19050532
The 2000 broadcast with Larmore features Campanella and Gimenez. This 1998 broadcast is the original cast from the fall 1997 premiere except with Larmore for Bartoli. The Bartoli performance is preserved on video on MOoD. New York has seen a lot of Cenerentola in the 17 years since it premiered– Bartoli, Larmore,Borodina, Ganassi, Garanca, DiDonato. Neither Borodina nor Ganassi were broadcast– I liked Borodina very much and the Ganassi performances featured Florez’ first NYC Ramiros.
IL TROVATORE:Verdi
Original Air Date: 03/17/1973
Cillario; Domingo, Caballé, Cossotto, Merrill, Vinco
MOD Audio SID.19050533
Caballe only has one broadcast among her 8 Leonoras, but she’s not the only one bidding farewell to Trovatore on the airwaves with this run-Domingo and Merrill were also concluding. The most successful performer for the afternoon is Cossotto in her first Azucena broadcast. She has two more concluding with her 16 years later effort with Millo, Pavarotti and Milnes (available on MOoD). It’s one of her best parts and she was one of the pre-eminent interpreters worldwide for three decades.
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.
SAMSON ET DALILA:Saint-Saëns
Original Air Date: 02/28/1998
Slatkin; Domingo, Graves, Leiferkus
MOD Audio SID.19050535
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.
THE FIRST EMPEROR:Dun
Original Air Date: 01/13/2007
Dun; Domingo, Futral, Groves, Tian, DeYoung
Live in HDMOD Video SID.19050636
This is Domingo’s vehicle and the broadcast and HD performance from its premiere season. Sony issued a commercial DVD. Better to watch than listen to. I enjoyed seeing the production, and while it’s not on my weekly rotation, it held my interest more than Glass’ The Voyage. The simultaneous broadcast/HD moviecast is available on commercial DVD and MOoD (Metropolitan Opera on Demand).
DER ROSENKAVALIER:Strauss
Original Air Date: 12/19/1964
Schippers; Della Casa, Schwarzkopf, Edelmann, Raskin, Dönch
MOD Audio SID.19050743
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.
IL TROVATORE:Verdi
Original Air Date: 03/17/1973
Cillario; Domingo, Caballé, Cossotto, Merrill, Vinco
MOD Audio SID.19050533
Caballe only has one broadcast among her 8 Leonoras, but she’s not the only one bidding farewell to Trovatore on the airwaves with this run-Domingo and Merrill were also concluding. The most successful performer for the afternoon is Cossotto in her first Azucena broadcast. She has two more concluding with her 16 years later effort with Millo, Pavarotti and Milnes (available on MOoD). It’s one of her best parts and she was one of the pre-eminent interpreters worldwide for three decades.
LA CENERENTOLA:Rossini
Original Air Date: 01/24/1998
Levine; Larmore, Vargas, Alaimo, Corbelli
MOD Audio SID.19050745
The 2000 broadcast with Larmore features Campanella and Gimenez. This 1998 broadcast is the original cast from the fall 1997 premiere except with Larmore for Bartoli. The Bartoli performance is preserved on video on MOoD. New York has seen a lot of Cenerentola in the 17 years since it premiered– Bartoli, Larmore,Borodina, Ganassi, Garanca, DiDonato. Neither Borodina nor Ganassi were broadcast– I liked Borodina very much and the Ganassi performances featured Florez’ first NYC Ramiros.
DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL:Mozart
Original Air Date: 03/24/1990
Levine; Devia, Heilmann, Moll, Mills, Magnusson
MOD Audio SID.19050747
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.
Lucia Broadcast 12/8/1956
THE FIRST EMPEROR:Dun
Original Air Date: 01/13/2007
Dun; Domingo, Futral, Groves, Tian, DeYoung
Live in HDMOD Video SID.19050749
This is Domingo’s vehicle and the broadcast and HD performance from its premiere season. Sony issued a commercial DVD. Better to watch than listen to. I enjoyed seeing the production, and while it’s not on my weekly rotation, it held my interest more than Glass’ The Voyage. The simultaneous broadcast/HD moviecast is available on commercial DVD and MOoD (Metropolitan Opera on Demand).