Zandonai
Original Air Date: 04/07/1984
Levine; Scotto, Domingo, MacNeil, Lewis
MOD AudioMOD Video SID.18480212
Zandonai
Original Air Date: 04/07/1984
Levine; Scotto, Domingo, MacNeil, Lewis
MOD AudioMOD Video SID.18480428
Zandonai
Original Air Date: 04/07/1984
Levine; Scotto, Domingo, MacNeil, Lewis
MOD AudioMOD Video SID.18480531
LA TRAVIATA : Verdi
Original Air Date: 12/04/2018
Cast: Nézet-Séguin; Damrau, Flórez, Kelsey
Live Broadcast Program
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, in his debut as Met Opera Music Director, conducts Michael Mayer’s richly textured new production, featuring a dazzling 18th-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 in five seasons 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.
Production a gift of Eva-Marie and Ray Berry / The Paiko Foundation
Major additional funding from Mercedes T. Bass, Mr. and Mrs. Paul M. Montrone, and Rolex
Gounod
Original Air Date: 12/10/2011
Nézet-Séguin; Kaufmann, Poplavskaya, Pape, Braun, Losier
Live in HDMOD Video SID.18490317
Bizet
Original Air Date: 01/16/2010
Nezet-Seguin; Frittoli, Garanca, Alagna, Tahu Rhodes
Live in HDMOD Video SID.18490422
Bizet
Original Air Date: 01/16/2010
Nezet-Seguin; Frittoli, Garanca, Alagna, Tahu Rhodes
Live in HDMOD Video SID.18490427
Gounod
Original Air Date: 12/10/2011
Nézet-Séguin; Kaufmann, Poplavskaya, Pape, Braun, Losier
Live in HDMOD Video SID.18490533
Bizet
Original Air Date: 01/16/2010
Nezet-Seguin; Frittoli, Garanca, Alagna, Tahu Rhodes
Live in HDMOD Video SID.18490743
Gounod
Original Air Date: 12/10/2011
Nézet-Séguin; Kaufmann, Poplavskaya, Pape, Braun, Losier
Live in HDMOD Video SID.18500101
SIMON BOCCANEGRA Verdi
Original Air Date: 12/29/1984
Levine; Milnes, Tomowa-Sintow, Moldoveanu, Plishka, Clark
SID.18500210
The main attraction here is Tomowa-Sintow who has only 7 Met broadcasts. This performance is also available on DVD. This performance lacks a certain spark, but the singing is very solid.
SIMON BOCCANEGRA Verdi
Original Air Date: 12/29/1984
Levine; Milnes, Tomowa-Sintow, Moldoveanu, Plishka, Clark
SID.18500529
The main attraction here is Tomowa-Sintow who has only 7 Met broadcasts. This performance is also available on DVD. This performance lacks a certain spark, but the singing is very solid.
OTELLO : Verdi
Dudamel; Yoncheva, Johnson Cano, Skelton (cancelled), Tanner (role debut), Dolgov, Lucic, Morris
SEASON PREMIERE – Live Broadcast
SYNOPSIS – PROGRAM
MET OPERA PRESS RELEASE: Carl Tanner will sing the title role in Verdi’s Otello in tonight’s season premiere performance, replacing Stuart Skelton, who is ill. American tenor Carl Tanner makes his Met role debut as Otello. He made his Met debut as Dick Johnson in Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West in 2010, followed by performances as Radamès in Verdi’s Aida and Turiddu in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana. Recent performances have included Radamès at Washington National Opera, Otello at Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, and Luigi in Puccini’s Il Tabarro at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He was seen earlier this season singing the title role of Otello at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and at the Savonlinna Festival in Finland.
Conducting sensation Gustavo Dudamel makes his Met debut leading Verdi’s towering Shakespearean masterpiece, in the first revival of Bartlett Sher’s gripping 2015 production. The cast includes dynamic tenor Stuart Skelton in the title role*, star soprano Sonya Yoncheva as the devoted but doomed Desdemona, and outstanding baritone Željko Lučić as the treacherous Iago.
*(cancelled for opening night, replaced by Carl Tanner)
Production a gift of Jacqueline Desmarais, in memory of Paul G. Desmarais Sr.
Revival a gift of Rolex
SIMON BOCCANEGRA Verdi
Original Air Date: 12/29/1984
Levine; Milnes, Tomowa-Sintow, Moldoveanu, Plishka, Clark
SID.18500747
The main attraction here is Tomowa-Sintow who has only 7 Met broadcasts. This performance is also available on DVD. This performance lacks a certain spark, but the singing is very solid.
Mozart
Original Air Date: 12/14/1985
Levine; Raimondi, Battle, Vaness, Allen, von Stade
MOD VideoMOD Audio SID.18510213
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).
THE MAGIC FLUTE : Mozart
Original Air Date: 12/29/2018
Cast: Bicket; Morley, Lewek, Bliss, Ryan, Gunn, Walker, Robinson
SID.18510000
Now a holiday tradition, Julie Taymor’s beloved production of Mozart’s enchanting fairy tale returns in its abridged, English-language version for families. Soprano Erin Morley, last seen at the Met as a brilliant Olympia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, is the empowered Pamina, and tenor Ben Bliss is the valiant Tamino. Baritone Nathan Gunn is the comic birdcatcher Papageno, and soprano Kathryn Lewek reprises her hair-raising rendition of the malevolent Queen of the Night. Harry Bicket conducts.
On Saturday, December 29, all ticket holders for the 1 PM matinee of The Magic Flute are invited to a free pre-performance open house beginning at 11 AM. Met artists and craftspeople lead a variety of hands-on activities and demonstrations for the whole family.
Abridged production of The Magic Flute a gift of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Bill Rollnick and Nancy Ellison Rollnick
Original production of Die Zauberflöte a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Henry R. Kravis
Additional funding from John Van Meter, The Annenberg Foundation, Karen and Kevin Kennedy, Bill Rollnick and Nancy Ellison Rollnick, Mr. and Mrs. William R. Miller, Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman, and Mr. and Mrs. Ezra K. Zilkha
Mozart
Original Air Date: 12/14/1985
Levine; Raimondi, Battle, Vaness, Allen, von Stade
MOD VideoMOD Audio SID.18510532
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).
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).
RODELINDA:Handel
Original Air Date: 05/06/2006
Summers; Fleming, Scholl, van Rensburg, Blythe, Dumaux, Relyea
MOD Video SID.18520427
This performance in the second season of the production and Scholl’s first appearance at the Met. There was a third broadcast which includes an HD moviecast of Rodelinda with Fleming and Scholl under Bicket (whom I prefer to Summers) but the intervening 4 years do not benefit either Fleming or Scholl. This video is available also in MOoD so you can compare for yourself. I like Scholl much more than David Daniels so this is my preferred Rodelinda.
RODELINDA:Handel
Original Air Date: 05/06/2006
Summers; Fleming, Scholl, van Rensburg, Blythe, Dumaux, Relyea
MOD Video SID.18520427
This performance in the second season of the production and Scholl’s first appearance at the Met. There was a third broadcast which includes an HD moviecast of Rodelinda with Fleming and Scholl under Bicket (whom I prefer to Summers) but the intervening 4 years do not benefit either Fleming or Scholl. This video is available also in MOoD so you can compare for yourself. I like Scholl much more than David Daniels so this is my preferred Rodelinda.
RODELINDA:Handel
Original Air Date: 05/06/2006
Summers; Fleming, Scholl, van Rensburg, Blythe, Dumaux, Relyea
MOD Video SID.18520427
This performance in the second season of the production and Scholl’s first appearance at the Met. There was a third broadcast which includes an HD moviecast of Rodelinda with Fleming and Scholl under Bicket (whom I prefer to Summers) but the intervening 4 years do not benefit either Fleming or Scholl. This video is available also in MOoD so you can compare for yourself. I like Scholl much more than David Daniels so this is my preferred Rodelinda.
RODELINDA:Handel
Original Air Date: 05/06/2006
Summers; Fleming, Scholl, van Rensburg, Blythe, Dumaux, Relyea
MOD Video SID.18520427
This performance in the second season of the production and Scholl’s first appearance at the Met. There was a third broadcast which includes an HD moviecast of Rodelinda with Fleming and Scholl under Bicket (whom I prefer to Summers) but the intervening 4 years do not benefit either Fleming or Scholl. This video is available also in MOoD so you can compare for yourself. I like Scholl much more than David Daniels so this is my preferred Rodelinda.
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
PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE : Debussy
Original Air Date: 01/15/2019
Nézet-Séguin; Leonard, Lemieux, Appleby, Ketelsen, Furlanetto
Live Broadcast SID.19030000
READ SYNOPSIS
Debussy’s only opera, a mesmerizing meditation on love and betrayal, returns to the Met stage for the first time in almost a decade, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting the landmark score. A pair of brilliant young Met stars, tenor Paul Appleby and mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, are the naïve title lovers, and baritone Kyle Ketelsen is the imperious Prince Golaud. Ferruccio Furlanetto, as Arkel, and Marie-Nicole Lemieux, as Geneviève, complete the cast.
Production a gift of Pierre and Ailene Claeyssens
IOLANTA / BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE:Tchaikovsky/Bartók
Original Air Date: 01/24/2019
Nanasi; Yoncheva, Polenzani, Markov, Azizov, Kowaljow, Denoke, Finley
SID.19040428
Mariusz Treliński’s haunting production of the pairing of Tchaikovsky’s and Bartók’s one-act operas makes its first return to the stage since its Met premiere in the 2014–15 season. Soprano Sonya Yoncheva—following her triumphant 2017–18 performances as Tosca—is the blind princess, Iolanta, who discovers love for the first time, opposite tenor Matthew Polenzani as the dashing knight Vaudémont. In Bartók’s chilling Bluebeard’s Castle, baritone Gerald Finley is the menacing Bluebeard, and soprano Angela Denoke is his initially unsuspecting new wife. Henrik Nánási conducts. Co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and Teatr Wielki-Polish National Opera Production a gift of Ambassador and Mrs. Nicholas F. Taubman; Additional funding from Mrs. Veronica Atkins; Dr. Magdalena Berenyi, in memory of Dr. Kalman Berenyi; and the National Endowment for the Arts
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.
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.
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).
DON GIOVANNI:Mozart
Original Air Date: 01/30/2019
Meister; Willis-Sørensen, Lombardi, Garifullina, de Barbeyrac, Pisaroni, Abdrazakov, Cedel, Kocán
SID.19050321
SEASON PREMIERE
PROGRAM
Baritone Peter Mattei and bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni star as opera’s most notorious seducer in Mozart’s masterpiece of dark comedy. Cornelius Meister makes his Met debut conducting performances that also include sopranos Rachel Willis-Sørensen and Guanqun Yu as Donna Anna, sopranos Federica Lombardi and Susanna Phillips as Donna Elvira, and basses Ildar Abdrazakov and Adam Plachetka as Leporello. Production a gift of the Richard and Susan Braddock Family Foundation, and Sarah and Howard Solomon Additional funding from Jane and Jerry del Missier, and Mr. and Mrs. Ezra K. Zilkha Revival a gift of the Metropolitan Opera Club
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.