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 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.
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).
CARMEN : Bizet
Original Air Date: 02/02/2019
Langrée; Phillips, Margaine, Alagna, Simpson
Live in HD SID.19050640
INTERMISSION FEATURES
-Backstage Pass: HD Host Ailyn Pérez interviews Clémentine Margaine
-Backstage Pass: HD Host Ailyn Pérez interviews Children’s Chorus Master Anthony Piccolo and Members of the Children’s Chorus
-Commentator William Berger interviews Luca Pisaroni about Don Giovanni
-Backstage Pass: HD Host Ailyn Pérez interviews Alexander Vinogradov
-Backstage Pass: HD Host Ailyn Pérez interviews Aleksandra Kurzak and Roberto Alagna
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.
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).
THE MAGIC FLUTE:Mozart
Original Air Date: 12/30/2006
Levine; Huang, Polenzani, Gunn, Miklósa, Pape
MOD Video SID.19070106
This is the inaugural Met Live in HD performance and is an abridgement with new English translation by J.D. McClatchy. Miklosa has both her arias and she delivers them very well indeed. The video is available as a commercial DVD also.
THE MAGIC FLUTE:Mozart
Original Air Date: 12/30/2006
Levine; Huang, Polenzani, Gunn, Miklósa, Pape
MOD Video SID.19070530
This is the inaugural Met Live in HD performance and is an abridgement with new English translation by J.D. McClatchy. Miklosa has both her arias and she delivers them very well indeed. The video is available as a commercial DVD also.
THE MAGIC FLUTE:Mozart
Original Air Date: 12/30/2006
Levine; Huang, Polenzani, Gunn, Miklósa, Pape
MOD Video SID.19070106
This is the inaugural Met Live in HD performance and is an abridgement with new English translation by J.D. McClatchy. Miklosa has both her arias and she delivers them very well indeed. The video is available as a commercial DVD also.
I PURITANI:Bellini
Original Air Date: 01/06/2007
Summers; Netrebko, Cutler, Vassallo, Relyea
Live in HDMOD Video SID.19090212
This Puritani run launched Netrebko into superstardom, but also engendered some controversy from some bel cantists and Callas widows. Netrebko is a controversial singer in bel canto, but she had a huge success following her premiere of the new Don Pasquale the previous season. Netrebko is very fresh of voice, and will impress many. Her supporting cast is no more than OK, and for Callas fanatics she is totally inadequate. Watch and hear for yourself. I did see Sutherland in 1976, which was well up to her standard even though she had just turned 50. Netrebko in the second Live in HD performance (the English Flute had kicked the series off) was uisually electrifying, and that performance is available on DG Blu-Ray. This audio broadcast is also available in MOoD. This performance duplicates the HD transmission and the DVD cast. This performance is best experience in its simultaneous HD video which is on Met Opera on Demand (MOoD) or on DVD or BLu-Ray.
I PURITANI:Bellini
Original Air Date: 01/06/2007
Summers; Netrebko, Cutler, Vassallo, Relyea
Live in HDMOD Video SID.19090428
This Puritani run launched Netrebko into superstardom, but also engendered some controversy from some bel cantists and Callas widows. Netrebko is a controversial singer in bel canto, but she had a huge success following her premiere of the new Don Pasquale the previous season. Netrebko is very fresh of voice, and will impress many. Her supporting cast is no more than OK, and for Callas fanatics she is totally inadequate. Watch and hear for yourself. I did see Sutherland in 1976, which was well up to her standard even though she had just turned 50. Netrebko in the second Live in HD performance (the English Flute had kicked the series off) was uisually electrifying, and that performance is available on DG Blu-Ray. This audio broadcast is also available in MOoD. This performance duplicates the HD transmission and the DVD cast. This performance is best experience in its simultaneous HD video which is on Met Opera on Demand (MOoD) or on DVD or BLu-Ray.
I PURITANI:Bellini
Original Air Date: 01/06/2007
Summers; Netrebko, Cutler, Vassallo, Relyea
Live in HDMOD Video SID.19090531
This Puritani run launched Netrebko into superstardom, but also engendered some controversy from some bel cantists and Callas widows. Netrebko is a controversial singer in bel canto, but she had a huge success following her premiere of the new Don Pasquale the previous season. Netrebko is very fresh of voice, and will impress many. Her supporting cast is no more than OK, and for Callas fanatics she is totally inadequate. Watch and hear for yourself. I did see Sutherland in 1976, which was well up to her standard even though she had just turned 50. Netrebko in the second Live in HD performance (the English Flute had kicked the series off) was uisually electrifying, and that performance is available on DG Blu-Ray. This audio broadcast is also available in MOoD. This performance duplicates the HD transmission and the DVD cast. This performance is best experience in its simultaneous HD video which is on Met Opera on Demand (MOoD) or on DVD or BLu-Ray.
LA FILLE DU RÉGIMENT:Donizetti
Original Air Date: 03/02/2019
Mazzola; Yende, Blythe, Camarena, Corbelli, Muraro
Live in HD SID.19090640
Intermission
-Backstage Pass – HD Host Nadine Sierra interviews Pretty Yende
-William Berger interviews Ailyn Pérez, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, and Golda Schultz about Falstaff
-Backstage Pass – HD Host Nadine Sierra interviews Stephanie Blythe and Maurizio Muraro
-Backstage Pass – HD Host Nadine Sierra interviews Javier Camarena
Tenor Javier Camarena and soprano Pretty Yende team up for a feast of bel canto vocal fireworks—including the show-stopping tenor aria “Ah! Mes amis … Pour mon âme,” with its nine high Cs. Alessandro Corbelli and Maurizio Muraro trade off as the comic Sergeant Sulpice, with mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe as the outlandish Marquise of Berkenfield. And in an exciting piece of casting, stage and screen icon Kathleen Turner makes her Met debut in the speaking role of the Duchess of Krakenthorp. Enrique Mazzola conducts. A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera; the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London; and the Wiener Staatsoper, Vienna
IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA:Rossini
Original Air Date: 03/24/2007
Benini; Mattei, DiDonato, Flórez, Del Carlo, Relyea
Live in HD MOD Video SID.19120212
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.
IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA:Rossini
Original Air Date: 03/24/2007
Benini; Mattei, DiDonato, Flórez, Del Carlo, Relyea
Live in HDMOD Video SID.19120428
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.
IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA:Rossini
Original Air Date: 03/24/2007
Benini; Mattei, DiDonato, Flórez, Del Carlo, Relyea
Live in HDMOD Video SID.19120531
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.
DIE WALKÜRE:Wagner
Original Air Date: 03/30/2019
Jordan; Goerke, Westbroek, Barton, Skelton, Grimsley, Groissböck
Live in HD SID.19130638
In what is expected to be a Wagnerian event for the ages, soprano Christine Goerke, in her MET role debut, plays Brünnhilde, Wotan’s willful warrior daughter, who loses her immortality in opera’s most famous act of filial defiance. Tenor Stuart Skelton and soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek play the incestuous twins Siegmund and Sieglinde. Greer Grimsley sings Wotan. Philippe Jordan conducts.
HAMLET:Thomas
Original Air Date: 03/27/2010
Langrée; Keenlyside, Petersen, Larmore, Morris, Spence
MOD Video SID.19150209
This is the only Met broadcast of the Thomas work. Keenlyside has a commercial DVD in the same production with Dessay from Barcelona 2004. Petersen was a late substitute for Dessay for the whole run. Larmoreis especially vivid as Gertrude, part of her movement into dramatic mezzo/soprano parts.
HAMLET:Thomas
Original Air Date: 03/27/2010
Langrée; Keenlyside, Petersen, Larmore, Morris, Spence
MOD Video SID.19150425
This is the only Met broadcast of the Thomas work. Keenlyside has a commercial DVD in the same production with Dessay from Barcelona 2004. Petersen was a late substitute for Dessay for the whole run. Larmoreis especially vivid as Gertrude, part of her movement into dramatic mezzo/soprano parts.
HAMLET:Thomas
Original Air Date: 03/27/2010
Langrée; Keenlyside, Petersen, Larmore, Morris, Spence
MOD Video SID.19150641
This is the only Met broadcast of the Thomas work. Keenlyside has a commercial DVD in the same production with Dessay from Barcelona 2004. Petersen was a late substitute for Dessay for the whole run. Larmoreis especially vivid as Gertrude, part of her movement into dramatic mezzo/soprano parts.
FEDORA:Giordano
OAD: 04/26/1997
Abbado; Freni, Domingo, Croft, Arteta
MOD Video SID.19190107
This is the Met’s only broadcast of this verismo work, and is available on DVD also. This is a solid performance even if it catches Freni in the extreme twilight of a very long career. This is Freni’s penultimate opera performance at the Met, with another Fedora 5 days later. She appears 5 years later in an opening night gala doing Act 2 of Fedora, and she returns 3 years later for an end of season concert that marks her last vocal appearance on any stage.
FEDORA:Giordano
OAD: 04/26/1997
Abbado; Freni, Domingo, Croft, Arteta
MOD Video SID.19190316
This is the Met’s only broadcast of this verismo work, and is available on DVD also. This is a solid performance even if it catches Freni in the extreme twilight of a very long career. This is Freni’s penultimate opera performance at the Met, with another Fedora 5 days later. She appears 5 years later in an opening night gala doing Act 2 of Fedora, and she returns 3 years later for an end of season concert that marks her last vocal appearance on any stage.
DIALOGUES DES CARMÉLITES : Poulenc
OAD: 05/11/2019 SID.19190638
Nézet-Séguin; Leonard, Pieczonka, Morley, Cargill, Mattila, Portillo, LaPointe
THAÏS:Massenet
Original Air Date: 12/20/2008
López-Cobos; Fleming, Hampson, Schade
Live in HDMOD Video SID.19200208
Although the video has been available almost continuously on MOoD, I find this performance preferable to the Sills Milnes, which was massively overplayed in the first years of Sirius Radio. I rather like Thais as a break from other titles in the repertory.Although the video has been available almost continuously on MOoD, I find this performance preferable to the Sills Milnes, which was massively overplayed in the first years of Sirius Radio. I rather like Thais as a break from other titles in the repertory.
THAÏS:Massenet
Original Air Date: 12/20/2008
López-Cobos; Fleming, Hampson, Schade
Live in HDMOD Video SID.19200424
Although the video has been available almost continuously on MOoD, I find this performance preferable to the Sills Milnes, which was massively overplayed in the first years of Sirius Radio. I rather like Thais as a break from other titles in the repertory.Although the video has been available almost continuously on MOoD, I find this performance preferable to the Sills Milnes, which was massively overplayed in the first years of Sirius Radio. I rather like Thais as a break from other titles in the repertory.
THAÏS:Massenet
Original Air Date: 12/20/2008
López-Cobos; Fleming, Hampson, Schade
Live in HDMOD Video SID.19200640
Although the video has been available almost continuously on MOoD, I find this performance preferable to the Sills Milnes, which was massively overplayed in the first years of Sirius Radio. I rather like Thais as a break from other titles in the repertory.Although the video has been available almost continuously on MOoD, I find this performance preferable to the Sills Milnes, which was massively overplayed in the first years of Sirius Radio. I rather like Thais as a break from other titles in the repertory.
THE QUEEN OF SPADES:Tchaikovsky
Original Air Date: 04/10/1999
Gergiev; Domingo, Gorchakova, Söderström, Hvorostovsky, Borodina, Putilin
MOD AudioMOD Video SID.19260102
This performance is too late for Soderstrom, too late for Domingo, and too late for Gorchakova. You can see the video of from five days later on MOoD as well. Better to hear the first season of the production with Gregorian who succeeded Heppner, Guleghina who succeeded Mattila with Rysanek. That has been on Sirius, but is not on MOoD. If Sirius had been at work when the production premiered we would have a broadcast of Heppner and Mattila at their very best. MOD is from 4-15-99 performance.
THE QUEEN OF SPADES:Tchaikovsky
Original Air Date: 04/10/1999
Gergiev; Domingo, Gorchakova, Söderström, Hvorostovsky, Borodina, Putilin
MOD AudioMOD Video SID.19260318
This performance is too late for Soderstrom, too late for Domingo, and too late for Gorchakova. You can see the video of from five days later on MOoD as well. Better to hear the first season of the production with Gregorian who succeeded Heppner, Guleghina who succeeded Mattila with Rysanek. That has been on Sirius, but is not on MOoD. If Sirius had been at work when the production premiered we would have a broadcast of Heppner and Mattila at their very best. MOD is from 4-15-99 performance.
MARNIE:Muhly
Original Air Date: 11/10/2018
Spano; Leonard, Kelly, Graves, Davies, Maltman
Live in HDMOD Video SID.19260535
THE QUEEN OF SPADES:Tchaikovsky
Original Air Date: 04/10/1999
Gergiev; Domingo, Gorchakova, Söderström, Hvorostovsky, Borodina, Putilin
MOD AudioMOD Video SID.19260636
This performance is too late for Soderstrom, too late for Domingo, and too late for Gorchakova. You can see the video of from five days later on MOoD as well. Better to hear the first season of the production with Gregorian who succeeded Heppner, Guleghina who succeeded Mattila with Rysanek. That has been on Sirius, but is not on MOoD. If Sirius had been at work when the production premiered we would have a broadcast of Heppner and Mattila at their very best. MOD is from 4-15-99 performance.
THE QUEEN OF SPADES:Tchaikovsky
Original Air Date: 04/10/1999
Gergiev; Domingo, Gorchakova, Söderström, Hvorostovsky, Borodina, Putilin
MOD AudioMOD Video SID.19260748
This performance is too late for Soderstrom, too late for Domingo, and too late for Gorchakova. You can see the video of from five days later on MOoD as well. Better to hear the first season of the production with Gregorian who succeeded Heppner, Guleghina who succeeded Mattila with Rysanek. That has been on Sirius, but is not on MOoD. If Sirius had been at work when the production premiered we would have a broadcast of Heppner and Mattila at their very best. MOD is from 4-15-99 performance.