TRISTAN UND ISOLDE:Wagner
Levine; Heppner, Eaglen, Dalayman, Pape, Ketelsen
Original Air Date: 12/18/1999
MOD Audio
SID.19440105
The highlight of this performance is Pape’s stupendous Marke. His voice is at his peak, and worth your time. The video of a performance from one week earlier with the same cast is is available on DVD and MOoD (in addition). Heppner is a decent Tristan and Dalayman an excellent Brangane. Eaglen is Ok, but she was better when she first did it in Seattle a few years earlier.
TRISTAN UND ISOLDE:Wagner
Levine; Heppner, Eaglen, Dalayman, Pape, Ketelsen
Original Air Date: 12/18/1999
MOD Audio
SID.19440106
The highlight of this performance is Pape’s stupendous Marke. His voice is at his peak, and worth your time. The video of a performance from one week earlier with the same cast is is available on DVD and MOoD (in addition). Heppner is a decent Tristan and Dalayman an excellent Brangane. Eaglen is Ok, but she was better when she first did it in Seattle a few years earlier.
RUSALKA:Dvorák
Fiore; Benacková, Heppner, Martin, Toczyska, Koptchak
Original Air Date: 12/11/1993
MOD Audio
SID.19440208
This is from the first Met season for Rusalka and Benackova is a worthy heroine. For the broadcast a young Ben Heppner is the Prince replacing Neil Rosenshein. Zajick did the Jezibaba premiere but ceded the broadcast to Toczyska who is a very fine artist. This is quite a wonderful performance with Benackova, Heppner, and Koptchak especially strong. This premiere Met season of it, the ensemble is of high quality. This is a performance that belongs in MOoD. This is its only broadcast until Fleming’s 2009 run where three performances were on Sirius, and one of them was in the matinee series on the Met International network. Benackova was the first broadcast Rusalka at the Met, and this performance captures her very well. Heppner early in his Met career is on fine form as is the lesser known Koptchak as the Water Sprite. Martin is a bit tested as the Foreign Princess– a very difficult part, no one makes it sound easy. Still, a lovely opera in a fine performance, and this is well deserving being added to the Met Player repertory besides its visibility on Sirius.
ERNANI:Verdi
Mitropoulos; Del Monaco, Milanov, Warren, Siepi
Original Air Date: 12/29/1956
MOD Audio
SID.19440210
Elvira is definitely a bit late for Milanov, but the men are the best in the business for these roles in 1956, and all among the greatest ever in these roles. It is the first Met broadcast of Ernani, and although Del Monaco is slightly better in his Florence broadcast with Cerquetti, he is the Verdian bandit to the life. This is a bit late for Milanov, but Warren and Siepi are certainly top drawer as well. Mitropoulos brings his accustomed fire and a few odd choices in musical text. Mitropoulos and Del Monaco are better represented from Florence, and this part is simply too late for Milanov. This part is HARD– check Freni’s challenge at La Scala. Ernani involvami demands full blown coloratura mastery from the moment you open your mouth, and while the rest of the role is mostly ensembles, it’s challenging. Leona Mitchell is mostly very up to the challenges. Two good stabs at the part were NOT broadcast, Arroyo’s opening night with Bergonzi and Milnes, and Millo, (two in the house, four in the parks very early in her Met career). The good news on Ernani is the complete Met broadcast history is documented on Sirius.
DON GIOVANNI:Mozart
Böhm; London, Steber, Flagello, Della Casa, Valletti, Hurley
Original Air Date: 02/14/1959
MOD Audio
SID.19440213
SR: This broadcast is especially notable as it was George London’s only broadcast outing as the Don. His Don was very different from Siepi’s, but just as impressive a portrayal. We also enjoy the two Donna’s..sung by Steber and Della Casa, Ezio Flagello’s Leporello (often overshadowed by Corena’s more broadly comic portrayal) and the sweet tenor of Cesare Valletti. Dr. Karl Böhm leads a to-the-Viennese-manner-born performance. RWW: This is a fine performance; my only cavil is I would have preferred a Siepi broadcast which is available (though not yet on Sirius) from 1957 with the original cast which includes Corena as Leporello. Still, this is one of Steber’s best parts in a treasurable performance and Della Casa is a major Elvira. Flagello is an excellent Leporello. And while I am mentioning lacunae. Bohm’s 1967 broadcast with Sutherland and Lorengar also with Siepi is still missing from the Sirius broadcast stable as well.
DAS RHEINGOLD:Wagner
Stiedry; Hotter, Harshaw, Svanholm, Davidson, Hines, Ernster
Original Air Date: 01/27/1951
MOD Audio
SID.19440214
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. Hopefully this means we will hear the rest of the 1951 Ring on Sirius – 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
Levine; Cotrubas, Domingo, MacNeil
Original Air Date: 03/28/1981
MOD Audio
SID.19440315
This is Cotrubas’s Violetta and wasalso simulcast. MOoD now offers BOTH the audio version of this (which has been available for some time, but now the video as well. Cotrubas is very much in the mainstream of interpretation MOoD offers audios of Ponselle, Steber, Fleming, Gheorghiu (another fine Romanian and she has TWO versions one with Valenti, and another one with Kaufman , but amazingly there is no Albanese (really two AG and no LA?), Sutherland, Moffo, in MOoD and neither Maliponte or Cruz-Romo or Chiara even on Sirius (though they all had broadcasts.
HÄNSEL UND GRETEL:Humperdinck
Mackerras; Larmore, Upshaw, Forst, Blythe, Josephson
Original Air Date: 12/29/2001
MOD Audio
SID.19440318
This performance is indeed in German and yet is performed by a 100% Anglophone cast. Irony indeed. Mackerras is the most distinctive contributor to a work whose orchestral passages are among its most interesting. Also worth noting is there is a separate listing in MOoD for the English language versions and the German version. But though the language was German it was the same production as premiered in English in 1967-1968 by O’Hearn and Merrill and concluded with these performances in 2001-2. Hansel returned in a new also English language production by Richard Jones in 2007-2008.
L’ELISIR D’AMORE:Donizetti
Rudolf; Pavarotti, Blegen, Flagello, Reardon
Original Air Date: 04/06/1974
MOD Audio
SID.19440320
“NY Post S Jenkins: In last night’s “”L’Elisir d’Amore”” the Metropolitan Opera pulled off the equivalent of a grand slam home run: a performance that must have delighted the tired businessman, satisfied the opera buff and absolutely satiated the voice lover. And all this wonder came from the musical and dramatic ability of the two leads: Judith Blegen and Luciano Pavarotti.
Gaetano Donizetti’s “”L’Elisir,”” though one of the most popular of Italian comic operas, does not play itself. To be successful, the principals must constantly work to make the audience see that these are real people caught in a comic situation.
Brilliantly crafted by Felice Romani, the librettist of “”Norma,”” “”L’Elisir’s”” book contains the classic tear through a smile: several moments when all the buffoonery is ripped away and the audience sees that Nemorino really loves Adina, and she returns his love.
Miss Blegen and Mr. Pavarotti never ceased to create their characters. Though they sang superlatively, their greatest triumph lay in their complete believability.
Pavarotti, now tipping the scales at around 300, moves on stage with the lightness of a man a quarter of his size, and his marvelously expressive face constantly emotes. Nemorino’s frustrations, his joy and his ultimate victory passed as a motion picture on the. tenor’s countenance.
And what do you say about Miss Blegen except that she is just about the prettiest girl to appear on the Met stage, ever. She also manages to be a coquette without ever once being overcute or too coy. The face, the figure, the attractiveness, how lucky is opera not to have lost her to Broadway!
Vocally, Pavarotti proved himself again the emperor of lyric tenors. Style, finesse, musical taste and a faultless vocal instrument all coalesced in his Nemorino. Some roles fit even a great voice better than others, and from first to last Nemorino is his property. In “”Una furtiva lagrima”” the sheen of his voice seemed to be encircled in a column of air, and his concluding high C in the “”Venti Scudi”” duet sang with ease.
Miss Blegen, whose tone is bright where a more Italianate soprano might be mellow, sang with such authority and finesse that she silenced any possible caviling. Her “”Prendi per me sei libero”” in the last scene, with its descending two-octave run from a high C, glistened as does dew on summer grass.
Mario Sereni contributed his familiar Belcore, one of the baritone’s best roles at the Met, and Ezio Flagello offered up his Dulcamara. Though he sings more of the role than some others who perform it, he has little humor in his voice or presence. It is a solid performance, but lacks the element that makes the old quack really lovable.
The greatest tributes to the brilliance of Miss Blegen, who learned her role in Italian in about 10 days, and Pavarotti were that they overcame the heavyhanded, rather Germanic but solid performance by Max Rudolf. A distinguished maestro with many great performances at the Met in the early Bing years, Rudolf was never known for his Donizetti.
And in almost every way, he seemed to try to knock the bubbles out of the singer’s champagne. With this cast he couldn’t, and there were no unhappy patrons visible.”
TRISTAN UND ISOLDE:Wagner
Levine; Heppner, Eaglen, Dalayman, Pape, Ketelsen
Original Air Date: 12/18/1999
MOD Audio
SID.19440321
The highlight of this performance is Pape’s stupendous Marke. His voice is at his peak, and worth your time. The video of a performance from one week earlier with the same cast is is available on DVD and MOoD (in addition). Heppner is a decent Tristan and Dalayman an excellent Brangane. Eaglen is Ok, but she was better when she first did it in Seattle a few years earlier.
TRISTAN UND ISOLDE:Wagner
Levine; Heppner, Eaglen, Dalayman, Pape, Ketelsen
Original Air Date: 12/18/1999
MOD Audio
SID.19440422
The highlight of this performance is Pape’s stupendous Marke. His voice is at his peak, and worth your time. The video of a performance from one week earlier with the same cast is is available on DVD and MOoD (in addition). Heppner is a decent Tristan and Dalayman an excellent Brangane. Eaglen is Ok, but she was better when she first did it in Seattle a few years earlier.
DAS RHEINGOLD:Wagner
Stiedry; Hotter, Harshaw, Svanholm, Davidson, Hines, Ernster
Original Air Date: 01/27/1951
MOD Audio
SID.19440423
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. Hopefully this means we will hear the rest of the 1951 Ring on Sirius – 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.
RUSALKA:Dvorák
Fiore; Benacková, Heppner, Martin, Toczyska, Koptchak
Original Air Date: 12/11/1993
MOD Audio
SID.19440424
This is from the first Met season for Rusalka and Benackova is a worthy heroine. For the broadcast a young Ben Heppner is the Prince replacing Neil Rosenshein. Zajick did the Jezibaba premiere but ceded the broadcast to Toczyska who is a very fine artist. This is quite a wonderful performance with Benackova, Heppner, and Koptchak especially strong. This premiere Met season of it, the ensemble is of high quality. This is a performance that belongs in MOoD. This is its only broadcast until Fleming’s 2009 run where three performances were on Sirius, and one of them was in the matinee series on the Met International network. Benackova was the first broadcast Rusalka at the Met, and this performance captures her very well. Heppner early in his Met career is on fine form as is the lesser known Koptchak as the Water Sprite. Martin is a bit tested as the Foreign Princess– a very difficult part, no one makes it sound easy. Still, a lovely opera in a fine performance, and this is well deserving being added to the Met Player repertory besides its visibility on Sirius.
ERNANI:Verdi
Mitropoulos; Del Monaco, Milanov, Warren, Siepi
Original Air Date: 12/29/1956
MOD Audio
SID.19440426
Elvira is definitely a bit late for Milanov, but the men are the best in the business for these roles in 1956, and all among the greatest ever in these roles. It is the first Met broadcast of Ernani, and although Del Monaco is slightly better in his Florence broadcast with Cerquetti, he is the Verdian bandit to the life. This is a bit late for Milanov, but Warren and Siepi are certainly top drawer as well. Mitropoulos brings his accustomed fire and a few odd choices in musical text. Mitropoulos and Del Monaco are better represented from Florence, and this part is simply too late for Milanov. This part is HARD– check Freni’s challenge at La Scala. Ernani involvami demands full blown coloratura mastery from the moment you open your mouth, and while the rest of the role is mostly ensembles, it’s challenging. Leona Mitchell is mostly very up to the challenges. Two good stabs at the part were NOT broadcast, Arroyo’s opening night with Bergonzi and Milnes, and Millo, (two in the house, four in the parks very early in her Met career). The good news on Ernani is the complete Met broadcast history is documented on Sirius.
DON GIOVANNI:Mozart
Böhm; London, Steber, Flagello, Della Casa, Valletti, Hurley
Original Air Date: 02/14/1959
MOD Audio
SID.19440529
SR: This broadcast is especially notable as it was George London’s only broadcast outing as the Don. His Don was very different from Siepi’s, but just as impressive a portrayal. We also enjoy the two Donna’s..sung by Steber and Della Casa, Ezio Flagello’s Leporello (often overshadowed by Corena’s more broadly comic portrayal) and the sweet tenor of Cesare Valletti. Dr. Karl Böhm leads a to-the-Viennese-manner-born performance. RWW: This is a fine performance; my only cavil is I would have preferred a Siepi broadcast which is available (though not yet on Sirius) from 1957 with the original cast which includes Corena as Leporello. Still, this is one of Steber’s best parts in a treasurable performance and Della Casa is a major Elvira. Flagello is an excellent Leporello. And while I am mentioning lacunae. Bohm’s 1967 broadcast with Sutherland and Lorengar also with Siepi is still missing from the Sirius broadcast stable as well.
L’ELISIR D’AMORE:Donizetti
Rudolf; Pavarotti, Blegen, Flagello, Reardon
Original Air Date: 04/06/1974
MOD Audio
SID.19440530
“NY Post S Jenkins: In last night’s “”L’Elisir d’Amore”” the Metropolitan Opera pulled off the equivalent of a grand slam home run: a performance that must have delighted the tired businessman, satisfied the opera buff and absolutely satiated the voice lover. And all this wonder came from the musical and dramatic ability of the two leads: Judith Blegen and Luciano Pavarotti.
Gaetano Donizetti’s “”L’Elisir,”” though one of the most popular of Italian comic operas, does not play itself. To be successful, the principals must constantly work to make the audience see that these are real people caught in a comic situation.
Brilliantly crafted by Felice Romani, the librettist of “”Norma,”” “”L’Elisir’s”” book contains the classic tear through a smile: several moments when all the buffoonery is ripped away and the audience sees that Nemorino really loves Adina, and she returns his love.
Miss Blegen and Mr. Pavarotti never ceased to create their characters. Though they sang superlatively, their greatest triumph lay in their complete believability.
Pavarotti, now tipping the scales at around 300, moves on stage with the lightness of a man a quarter of his size, and his marvelously expressive face constantly emotes. Nemorino’s frustrations, his joy and his ultimate victory passed as a motion picture on the. tenor’s countenance.
And what do you say about Miss Blegen except that she is just about the prettiest girl to appear on the Met stage, ever. She also manages to be a coquette without ever once being overcute or too coy. The face, the figure, the attractiveness, how lucky is opera not to have lost her to Broadway!
Vocally, Pavarotti proved himself again the emperor of lyric tenors. Style, finesse, musical taste and a faultless vocal instrument all coalesced in his Nemorino. Some roles fit even a great voice better than others, and from first to last Nemorino is his property. In “”Una furtiva lagrima”” the sheen of his voice seemed to be encircled in a column of air, and his concluding high C in the “”Venti Scudi”” duet sang with ease.
Miss Blegen, whose tone is bright where a more Italianate soprano might be mellow, sang with such authority and finesse that she silenced any possible caviling. Her “”Prendi per me sei libero”” in the last scene, with its descending two-octave run from a high C, glistened as does dew on summer grass.
Mario Sereni contributed his familiar Belcore, one of the baritone’s best roles at the Met, and Ezio Flagello offered up his Dulcamara. Though he sings more of the role than some others who perform it, he has little humor in his voice or presence. It is a solid performance, but lacks the element that makes the old quack really lovable.
The greatest tributes to the brilliance of Miss Blegen, who learned her role in Italian in about 10 days, and Pavarotti were that they overcame the heavyhanded, rather Germanic but solid performance by Max Rudolf. A distinguished maestro with many great performances at the Met in the early Bing years, Rudolf was never known for his Donizetti.
And in almost every way, he seemed to try to knock the bubbles out of the singer’s champagne. With this cast he couldn’t, and there were no unhappy patrons visible.”
LA TRAVIATA:Verdi
Levine; Cotrubas, Domingo, MacNeil
Original Air Date: 03/28/1981
MOD Audio
SID.19440531
This is Cotrubas’s Violetta and wasalso simulcast. MOoD now offers BOTH the audio version of this (which has been available for some time, but now the video as well. Cotrubas is very much in the mainstream of interpretation MOoD offers audios of Ponselle, Steber, Fleming, Gheorghiu (another fine Romanian and she has TWO versions one with Valenti, and another one with Kaufman , but amazingly there is no Albanese (really two AG and no LA?), Sutherland, Moffo, in MOoD and neither Maliponte or Cruz-Romo or Chiara even on Sirius (though they all had broadcasts.
HÄNSEL UND GRETEL:Humperdinck
Mackerras; Larmore, Upshaw, Forst, Blythe, Josephson
Original Air Date: 12/29/2001
MOD Audio
SID.19440636
This performance is indeed in German and yet is performed by a 100% Anglophone cast. Irony indeed. Mackerras is the most distinctive contributor to a work whose orchestral passages are among its most interesting. Also worth noting is there is a separate listing in MOoD for the English language versions and the German version. But though the language was German it was the same production as premiered in English in 1967-1968 by O’Hearn and Merrill and concluded with these performances in 2001-2. Hansel returned in a new also English language production by Richard Jones in 2007-2008.
TRISTAN UND ISOLDE:Wagner
Levine; Heppner, Eaglen, Dalayman, Pape, Ketelsen
Original Air Date: 12/18/1999
MOD Audio
SID.19440638
The highlight of this performance is Pape’s stupendous Marke. His voice is at his peak, and worth your time. The video of a performance from one week earlier with the same cast is is available on DVD and MOoD (in addition). Heppner is a decent Tristan and Dalayman an excellent Brangane. Eaglen is Ok, but she was better when she first did it in Seattle a few years earlier.
TRISTAN UND ISOLDE:Wagner
Levine; Heppner, Eaglen, Dalayman, Pape, Ketelsen
Original Air Date: 12/18/1999
MOD Audio
SID.19440639
The highlight of this performance is Pape’s stupendous Marke. His voice is at his peak, and worth your time. The video of a performance from one week earlier with the same cast is is available on DVD and MOoD (in addition). Heppner is a decent Tristan and Dalayman an excellent Brangane. Eaglen is Ok, but she was better when she first did it in Seattle a few years earlier.
L’ELISIR D’AMORE:Donizetti
Rudolf; Pavarotti, Blegen, Flagello, Reardon
Original Air Date: 04/06/1974
MOD Audio
SID.19440640
“NY Post S Jenkins: In last night’s “”L’Elisir d’Amore”” the Metropolitan Opera pulled off the equivalent of a grand slam home run: a performance that must have delighted the tired businessman, satisfied the opera buff and absolutely satiated the voice lover. And all this wonder came from the musical and dramatic ability of the two leads: Judith Blegen and Luciano Pavarotti.
Gaetano Donizetti’s “”L’Elisir,”” though one of the most popular of Italian comic operas, does not play itself. To be successful, the principals must constantly work to make the audience see that these are real people caught in a comic situation.
Brilliantly crafted by Felice Romani, the librettist of “”Norma,”” “”L’Elisir’s”” book contains the classic tear through a smile: several moments when all the buffoonery is ripped away and the audience sees that Nemorino really loves Adina, and she returns his love.
Miss Blegen and Mr. Pavarotti never ceased to create their characters. Though they sang superlatively, their greatest triumph lay in their complete believability.
Pavarotti, now tipping the scales at around 300, moves on stage with the lightness of a man a quarter of his size, and his marvelously expressive face constantly emotes. Nemorino’s frustrations, his joy and his ultimate victory passed as a motion picture on the. tenor’s countenance.
And what do you say about Miss Blegen except that she is just about the prettiest girl to appear on the Met stage, ever. She also manages to be a coquette without ever once being overcute or too coy. The face, the figure, the attractiveness, how lucky is opera not to have lost her to Broadway!
Vocally, Pavarotti proved himself again the emperor of lyric tenors. Style, finesse, musical taste and a faultless vocal instrument all coalesced in his Nemorino. Some roles fit even a great voice better than others, and from first to last Nemorino is his property. In “”Una furtiva lagrima”” the sheen of his voice seemed to be encircled in a column of air, and his concluding high C in the “”Venti Scudi”” duet sang with ease.
Miss Blegen, whose tone is bright where a more Italianate soprano might be mellow, sang with such authority and finesse that she silenced any possible caviling. Her “”Prendi per me sei libero”” in the last scene, with its descending two-octave run from a high C, glistened as does dew on summer grass.
Mario Sereni contributed his familiar Belcore, one of the baritone’s best roles at the Met, and Ezio Flagello offered up his Dulcamara. Though he sings more of the role than some others who perform it, he has little humor in his voice or presence. It is a solid performance, but lacks the element that makes the old quack really lovable.
The greatest tributes to the brilliance of Miss Blegen, who learned her role in Italian in about 10 days, and Pavarotti were that they overcame the heavyhanded, rather Germanic but solid performance by Max Rudolf. A distinguished maestro with many great performances at the Met in the early Bing years, Rudolf was never known for his Donizetti.
And in almost every way, he seemed to try to knock the bubbles out of the singer’s champagne. With this cast he couldn’t, and there were no unhappy patrons visible.”
ERNANI:Verdi
Mitropoulos; Del Monaco, Milanov, Warren, Siepi
Original Air Date: 12/29/1956
MOD Audio
SID.19440642
Elvira is definitely a bit late for Milanov, but the men are the best in the business for these roles in 1956, and all among the greatest ever in these roles. It is the first Met broadcast of Ernani, and although Del Monaco is slightly better in his Florence broadcast with Cerquetti, he is the Verdian bandit to the life. This is a bit late for Milanov, but Warren and Siepi are certainly top drawer as well. Mitropoulos brings his accustomed fire and a few odd choices in musical text. Mitropoulos and Del Monaco are better represented from Florence, and this part is simply too late for Milanov. This part is HARD– check Freni’s challenge at La Scala. Ernani involvami demands full blown coloratura mastery from the moment you open your mouth, and while the rest of the role is mostly ensembles, it’s challenging. Leona Mitchell is mostly very up to the challenges. Two good stabs at the part were NOT broadcast, Arroyo’s opening night with Bergonzi and Milnes, and Millo, (two in the house, four in the parks very early in her Met career). The good news on Ernani is the complete Met broadcast history is documented on Sirius.
DON GIOVANNI:Mozart
Böhm; London, Steber, Flagello, Della Casa, Valletti, Hurley
Original Air Date: 02/14/1959
MOD Audio
SID.19440743
SR: This broadcast is especially notable as it was George London’s only broadcast outing as the Don. His Don was very different from Siepi’s, but just as impressive a portrayal. We also enjoy the two Donna’s..sung by Steber and Della Casa, Ezio Flagello’s Leporello (often overshadowed by Corena’s more broadly comic portrayal) and the sweet tenor of Cesare Valletti. Dr. Karl Böhm leads a to-the-Viennese-manner-born performance. RWW: This is a fine performance; my only cavil is I would have preferred a Siepi broadcast which is available (though not yet on Sirius) from 1957 with the original cast which includes Corena as Leporello. Still, this is one of Steber’s best parts in a treasurable performance and Della Casa is a major Elvira. Flagello is an excellent Leporello. And while I am mentioning lacunae. Bohm’s 1967 broadcast with Sutherland and Lorengar also with Siepi is still missing from the Sirius broadcast stable as well.
DAS RHEINGOLD:Wagner
Stiedry; Hotter, Harshaw, Svanholm, Davidson, Hines, Ernster
Original Air Date: 01/27/1951
MOD Audio
SID.19440214
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. Hopefully this means we will hear the rest of the 1951 Ring on Sirius – 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
Levine; Cotrubas, Domingo, MacNeil
Original Air Date: 03/28/1981
MOD Audio
SID.19440315
This is Cotrubas’s Violetta and wasalso simulcast. MOoD now offers BOTH the audio version of this (which has been available for some time, but now the video as well. Cotrubas is very much in the mainstream of interpretation MOoD offers audios of Ponselle, Steber, Fleming, Gheorghiu (another fine Romanian and she has TWO versions one with Valenti, and another one with Kaufman , but amazingly there is no Albanese (really two AG and no LA?), Sutherland, Moffo, in MOoD and neither Maliponte or Cruz-Romo or Chiara even on Sirius (though they all had broadcasts.
RUSALKA:Dvorák
Fiore; Benacková, Heppner, Martin, Toczyska, Koptchak
Original Air Date: 12/11/1993
MOD Audio
SID.19440424
This is from the first Met season for Rusalka and Benackova is a worthy heroine. For the broadcast a young Ben Heppner is the Prince replacing Neil Rosenshein. Zajick did the Jezibaba premiere but ceded the broadcast to Toczyska who is a very fine artist. This is quite a wonderful performance with Benackova, Heppner, and Koptchak especially strong. This premiere Met season of it, the ensemble is of high quality. This is a performance that belongs in MOoD. This is its only broadcast until Fleming’s 2009 run where three performances were on Sirius, and one of them was in the matinee series on the Met International network. Benackova was the first broadcast Rusalka at the Met, and this performance captures her very well. Heppner early in his Met career is on fine form as is the lesser known Koptchak as the Water Sprite. Martin is a bit tested as the Foreign Princess– a very difficult part, no one makes it sound easy. Still, a lovely opera in a fine performance, and this is well deserving being added to the Met Player repertory besides its visibility on Sirius.
I VESPRI SICILIANI:Verdi
Chaslin; Radvanovsky, Casanova, Nucci, Ramey
Original Air Date: 12/11/2004
MOD Audio
SID.19450102
Elena was a major breakout role for Radvanovsky, and she was the deserved star of this revival. Nucci, who has appeared irregularly but continuously since his debut in 1980 last appeared at the Met in this 2004 broadcast where he is in fine voice as he was on the Nabucco broadcast six months earlier (prior season). His current engagements show him as busy as any Verdi baritone before the public with an appearance in January 2016 at La Scala as Rigoletto with Nadine Sierra, where they encored the Si, vendetta duet (!!!!). Casanova has good style in arguably Verdi’s most challenging tenor part. This revival catches Ramey after the wobble had started to set in (I date at around 2002). He’s still very commanding, but it’s just a bit too late to be top quality. Procida is one of the greatest of Verdi bass roles right up there with Fiesco, if not quite at the level of Filippo II. Chaslin conducts a well prepared performance, and so nice to have this performance in the Sirius rotation. With Radvanovsky’s new status, this performance should be added to MOoD. This is true two years ago, and is still the case.
LE NOZZE DI FIGARO:Mozart
Rudel; Morris, McLaughlin, Fleming, Croft, Bunnell
Original Air Date: 02/12/1994
MOD Audio
SID.19450103
This is is Fleming’s first featured broadcast and it’s one of her best roles. The previous broadcast appearance was in the small role of Rosina (Countess) in Ghosts of Versailles. Fleming’s Countess is rarer than you might think. She only has nine performances since her Met debut (in this role) in 1991. This broadcast is only her third. She premieres the new production with Terfel and Bartoli, but only does the telecast (MOD). Rudel is a fine Mozartean with plenty of fine Figaros over at NYCO before moving over to the Met. He is too often underestimated, but he presided over many a fine Figaro at the NYCO before taking up residence at the Met. Morris and McLaughlin are an interesting servant pair and any performance with Senechal is guaranteed some attention. As for missing historic broadcasts, the original Texaco broadcast with Albanese and Pinza from 1940 should certainly be rebroadcast, and the Countesses of Eleanor Steber (five from 1943-50) and Victoria de los Angeles (1952) with the superb Count of Giuseppe Valdengo. Jarmila Novotna is a superb Cherubino on many of those Steber Countesses.
L’ITALIANA IN ALGERI:Rossini
Levine; Borodina, Flórez, Furlanetto, Patriarco
Original Air Date: 02/28/2004
MOD Audio
SID.19450107
Levine is always ready to take the podium when a major star or a video is handy, even if Rossini does not figure prominently in his normally outsized totals– 6 Barbieres, 12 Cenerentolas, and 19 Italianas (he does the Horne video revival in 1986 and this sunny revival from 2004. Borodina is a delightful Isabella, and Furlanetto brings more than the normal amount of voice to Mustafa. Having Florez and Kwiecien (one of his first major roles with the company) makes sure that this performance will have plenty to please the ear and the eye.
IDOMENEO:Mozart
Levine; van Rensburg, Röschmann, Deshorties, Kozená. Francis
Original Air Date: 12/09/2006
MOD Audio
SID.19450210
This is Levine’s last run of Idomeneo at the Met, which included several streamed performances before the matinee with Heppner in the title role. Not sure why Rensburg has the last two, but the title role has had Pavarotti, Domingo, and the young Heppner (1991). Deshorties has had not one, but two Elettras, and the part calls for a Vaness (two excellent broadcasts) or Studer (never broadcast from the Met but in a fall series of performances.) Kozena is a quality Idamante, and Levine’s Mozart is among his very best.