PETER GRIMES:Britten
Original Air Date: 12/10/1977
Pritchard; Vickers, Harper, Gramm, Kraft, Chookasian
SID.19320317
This is Jon Vickers’ fourth and final Peter Grimes broadcast from the Met. Pritchard is an old hand and did the first run of Vickers’ final season as Grimes at the Met (no broadcast) in 1983-84 and David Atherton did the tour. Heather Harper appears on the Covent Garden video with Vickers and the Phillips audio recording. Grimes as much as anyone made the opera into standard repertory, whatever the deviations from the composer’s original intentions. All are experienced hands (Pritchard not at the Met, but elsewhere) and it is indeed a powerful work. He was not Britten’s preferred Grimes, but Vickers regularly trouped this role around the world’s major opera houses and laid much of the foundation for the regular performance of Britten. This is Harper’s Met farewell (two seasons, nine performances) What is missing for Peter Grimes is the 1948 or 1949 broadcast (Jagel and Harrell in 1948, and Sullivan and Tibbett in 1949). These are early performances of a 20th century classic and should be re-heard.
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DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG:Wagner
Original Air Date: 01/23/1993
Levine; McIntyre, Mattila, Araiza, Prey, Rootering, Magnusson
SID.19320318
With the exception of Levine’s masterful conducting and Prey’s Beckmesser, the 2001 broadcast with Mattila (in better voice), Heppner, Morris and (above all) Polenzani as David is to be preferred. Certainly nothing shameful happens here..and there is much to enjoy. Sadly we don’t find Araiza’s Walther or Magnusson’s David in that category. However, for Levine and Prey alone this is worth your time. [S Rich]
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DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG:Wagner
Original Air Date: 01/23/1993
Levine; McIntyre, Mattila, Araiza, Prey, Rootering, Magnusson
SID.19320319
With the exception of Levine’s masterful conducting and Prey’s Beckmesser, the 2001 broadcast with Mattila (in better voice), Heppner, Morris and (above all) Polenzani as David is to be preferred. Certainly nothing shameful happens here..and there is much to enjoy. Sadly we don’t find Araiza’s Walther or Magnusson’s David in that category. However, for Levine and Prey alone this is worth your time. [S Rich]
FAUST:Gounod
Original Air Date: 04/30/2005
Levine; Alagna, Isokoski, Pape, Hvorostovsky, Jepson
MOD Audio SID.19320320
I still don’t understand why this production had to be scrapped for the McAnuff . Isokoski while in no way effacing De Los Angeles or Steber (she’s on the Met recording, but she doesn’t have a broadcast) or Freni who did 6 Fausts first season at Lincoln Center, but none of them broadcast to me is still to be preferred to Poplavskaya. Alagna is a solid Faust, but unfortunately he and his then wife Gheorghiu left before the 2003 broadcast. This is Levine’s only year doing Faust. The continuing absence of the two Bjorling Fausts (1950 and 1959) both with Siepi is a major gap in the rebroadcast efforts on Sirius. I am also wondering why when the Fleming Leech Ramey Faust was on the air this past week, Faust as a work couldn’t have waited a week.
AIDA:Verdi
Original Air Date: 01/03/1970
Molinari-Pradelli; Price, Thomas, Dalis, Merrill, Macurdy
SID.19320321
This is far from the best of Price’s 6 audio broadcasts of Aida. Her first two from the old house were in 1963 – with Gorr, Bergonzi, Sereni, Siepi, under Solti in his farewell Met opera (his actual farewell is in the spring with a Verdi Requiem (also with Price, Bergonzi and Siepi and Good Friday spell from Parsifal) Price’s second broadcast is 1966 under Mehta with Tucker, Dalis, Merrill, Ghiuselev. The Solti has primacy, but would be good to hear the Mehta very much as well. Price’s other rebroadcasts are the 1967 with Bumbry, Bergonzi, Merrill, this 1970, the 1976 with Horne, Domingo, and MacNeil under Levine, and her farewell in 1985 with Cossotto, McCracken, and MacNeil under Levine. Though Price and Dalis were frequent partners in Aida, they only have 12 together and only 2 are broadcast, this and one in 1966 with Tucker under Mehta which according to Met data base has not been on Sirius at all. 1966 would generally be a better year for Price, so why not get that on the airwaves?
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA:Barber
Original Air Date: 09/16/1966
Schippers; Díaz, Price, Thomas, Flagello, Elias
MOD Audio SID.19320422
This is the opening of the new Met at Lincoln Center and the world premiere of the opera. Leontyne never sang better than this night, and luckily it is well preserved for all to hear. Lady Bird Johnson and Imelda Marcos were among the dignitaries that night. From MOD: Expectations were high when the Metropolitan Opera announced that the world premiere of Samuel Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra would christen its new house at Lincoln Center in the fall of 1966—a suitably grand work based on Shakespeare’s tragedy and written specifically for Leontyne Price as Cleopatra. A singer himself, the composer knew Price’s voice and what it could do, shaping his conception of the opera’s heroine around this iconic American diva. The 26-year-old Puerto Rican–born bass Justino Díaz starred alongside Price as Antony while Ezio Flagello portrayed Antony’s friend Enobarbus. Tenor Jess Thomas brought his heroic presence to the role of Octavius Caesar, and the beloved mezzo-soprano Rosalind Elias, already a Met veteran in her 30s, sang the role of Cleopatra’s attendant Charmian. Thanks to a Texaco–Metropolitan Opera Radio Network broadcast from the opera’s world premiere, this indelible piece of Met history has been preserved for generations.
FIDELIO:Beethoven
Original Air Date: 01/07/1984
Tennstedt; Marton, Vickers, Mazura, Plishka, Peters, Atherton
SID.19320423
This is an outstanding performance form all concerned and should be on MOoD. Marton is a fine Leonore and Vickers is an unsurpassed partner. Tennstedt keeps the fire going in the orchestra.
LA BOHÈME:Puccini
Original Air Date: 03/08/2003
Viotti; Evseeva, Vargas, Arteta, Gerello, Bernstein
SID.19320424
Not sure the reason for recycling this performance other than as a memorial to Viotti who died prematurely
DER ROSENKAVALIER:Strauss
Original Air Date: 12/22/1962
Maazel; Töpper, Crespin, Edelmann, Rothenberger, Herbert
SID.19320425
Crespin I saw for the first time in Dallas a month before the broadcast which introduced her to the USA at large. One either gets her or does not. She is not a perfect singer, though this Marschallin contains very few vocal flaws, and a monologue that ranks with the absolute best. She sounds and performs like no other singer, and that individuality showed up as Dido in the Boston Troyens, the Sieglinde on numerous occasions, her Met Walkure Brunnhildes, and her Madame de Croissy having moved up from Lidoine afforded Met operagoers a special interpretation. Edelmann and Rothenberger are very much up to their task, as Maazel’s interpretation is not exactly a Viennese dessert. A week with two Crespin performances is special indeed.
TANNHÄUSER:Wagner
Original Air Date: 02/15/1992
Perick; Johns, Evans, Troyanos, Schmidt, Rootering
SID.19320426
The only performer of special interest is William Johns. Jon Fredric West (later Tannhauser with Sharon Sweet) is the Walther. Johns has some good outings in his Wagnerian assignments, and I love Tannhauser but my memory of Anne Evans and Andreas Schmidt is limited. Tannhauser is an impossible role, Elisabeth and Wolfram are not. A shame Bryn Terfel never broadcast or recorded it, I saw a terrific matinee with him, Sharon Sweet, and JF West under a very hot Levine in 1997.
LA FORZA DEL DESTINO:Verdi
Original Air Date: 02/12/1972
Veltri; Price, Bergonzi, Paskalis, Siepi, Casei, Corena
SID.19320427
This is Bergonzi’s only broadcast of Alvaro, and it is one of his best roles. Paskalis had a notable career mostly based in Vienna, but his Macbeth got to many theatres (I saw him under the auspices of the Met in Newport in concert in 1967, though he does not have any Met stage performances. His Glyndebourne video of Macbeth with Barstow and a very young James Morris as Banquo is highly recommended. Siepi is simply the most important Verdi bass after Pinza, and Guardiano is one of his best roles. Price has several Met broadcasts, and generally the earlier the better. Corena is a top quality Melitone.
Strauss
Original Air Date: 02/17/1962
Rosenstock; Lewis, Vinay, Thebom, Cassel, Olvis
SID.19320428
Brenda Lewis has two Met Salomes, this broadcast, and an appearance three months later on tour in Dallas with Liebl for Vinay, and Morley Meredith for Cassel. Nilsson’s recording with Solti had appeared about a month before the Dallas performance, and I had fairly devoured the recording listening to its many felicities dozens of times ( and to be rewarded with three performances with Nilsson three years later in New York). Lewis had done yeoman work at NYCO, and premiered Blitzstein’s Regina and Beeson’s Lizzie Borden (which I did see years later). The broadcast mikes do not paint a pretty picture of Lewis’ efforts. If this is going to be offered in rotation (and I am glad it is), then we must bring on other notable afternoons like the Moffo Lucia, 2/1/69. Nilsson’s inimitable recording had come out only a few weeks before the Dallas performances, and it was like two worlds apart. Three years later Nilsson brought her live Salome to the Met. That is on Met Player, and cannot be recommended highly enough.
L’ELISIR D’AMORE:Donizetti
Original Air Date: 02/19/1972
Franci, Bergonzi, Scotto, Corena, Sereni
MOD Audio SID.19320529
This is as good as it gets. Bergonzi is just that scintilla more seductive than Kraus, and the other 3 Italians are close to perfection. I miss Sereni and Corena a lot when I hear the current crop of buffos. Don’t miss.
FAUST:Gounod
Original Air Date: 04/30/2005
Levine; Alagna, Isokoski, Pape, Hvorostovsky, Jepson
MOD Audio SID.19320530
I still don’t understand why this production had to be scrapped for the McAnuff . Isokoski while in no way effacing De Los Angeles or Steber (she’s on the Met recording, but she doesn’t have a broadcast) or Freni who did 6 Fausts first season at Lincoln Center, but none of them broadcast to me is still to be preferred to Poplavskaya. Alagna is a solid Faust, but unfortunately he and his then wife Gheorghiu left before the 2003 broadcast. This is Levine’s only year doing Faust. The continuing absence of the two Bjorling Fausts (1950 and 1959) both with Siepi is a major gap in the rebroadcast efforts on Sirius. I am also wondering why when the Fleming Leech Ramey Faust was on the air this past week, Faust as a work couldn’t have waited a week.
LUISA MILLER:Verdi
Original Air Date: 02/17/1968
Schippers; Caballé, Tucker, Milnes, Tozzi, Flagello, Pearl
MOD Audio SID.19320531
This production brought Luisa Miller into the mainstream repertory. Caballe is caught at close to her very best, Tucker in tremendous Indian summer form, and Milnes a big breakthrough for him into the core Verdi parts. This is also available on Sony Historical CD as well and its regular appearance is well deserved.
OTELLO:Verdi
Original Air Date: 10/13/1995
Levine; Domingo, Fleming, Morris, Croft
MOD Video SID.19320532
This performance is also available as a DVD from Deutsche Grammophon. This was Fleming’s first big success at the Met, and she is a splendid Desdemona.This performance is also available as a DVD from Deutsche Grammophon. This was Fleming’s first big success at the Met, and she is a splendid Desdemona.
PETER GRIMES:Britten
Original Air Date: 12/10/1977
Pritchard; Vickers, Harper, Gramm, Kraft, Chookasian
SID.19320533
This is Jon Vickers’ fourth and final Peter Grimes broadcast from the Met. Pritchard is an old hand and did the first run of Vickers’ final season as Grimes at the Met (no broadcast) in 1983-84 and David Atherton did the tour. Heather Harper appears on the Covent Garden video with Vickers and the Phillips audio recording. Grimes as much as anyone made the opera into standard repertory, whatever the deviations from the composer’s original intentions. All are experienced hands (Pritchard not at the Met, but elsewhere) and it is indeed a powerful work. He was not Britten’s preferred Grimes, but Vickers regularly trouped this role around the world’s major opera houses and laid much of the foundation for the regular performance of Britten. This is Harper’s Met farewell (two seasons, nine performances) What is missing for Peter Grimes is the 1948 or 1949 broadcast (Jagel and Harrell in 1948, and Sullivan and Tibbett in 1949). These are early performances of a 20th century classic and should be re-heard.
Various:Various
Original Air Date: 01/01/9999
Various Artists
SID.19320534
Various selections between scheduled operas. Siriusxm Radio and web player will show the Composer and Title.
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DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG:Wagner
Original Air Date: 01/23/1993
Levine; McIntyre, Mattila, Araiza, Prey, Rootering, Magnusson
SID.19320636
With the exception of Levine’s masterful conducting and Prey’s Beckmesser, the 2001 broadcast with Mattila (in better voice), Heppner, Morris and (above all) Polenzani as David is to be preferred. Certainly nothing shameful happens here..and there is much to enjoy. Sadly we don’t find Araiza’s Walther or Magnusson’s David in that category. However, for Levine and Prey alone this is worth your time. [S Rich]
Strauss
Original Air Date: 02/17/1962
Rosenstock; Lewis, Vinay, Thebom, Cassel, Olvis
SID.19320637
Brenda Lewis has two Met Salomes, this broadcast, and an appearance three months later on tour in Dallas with Liebl for Vinay, and Morley Meredith for Cassel. Nilsson’s recording with Solti had appeared about a month before the Dallas performance, and I had fairly devoured the recording listening to its many felicities dozens of times ( and to be rewarded with three performances with Nilsson three years later in New York). Lewis had done yeoman work at NYCO, and premiered Blitzstein’s Regina and Beeson’s Lizzie Borden (which I did see years later). The broadcast mikes do not paint a pretty picture of Lewis’ efforts. If this is going to be offered in rotation (and I am glad it is), then we must bring on other notable afternoons like the Moffo Lucia, 2/1/69. Nilsson’s inimitable recording had come out only a few weeks before the Dallas performances, and it was like two worlds apart. Three years later Nilsson brought her live Salome to the Met. That is on Met Player, and cannot be recommended highly enough.
AIDA:Verdi
Original Air Date: 01/03/1970
Molinari-Pradelli; Price, Thomas, Dalis, Merrill, Macurdy
SID.19320638
This is far from the best of Price’s 6 audio broadcasts of Aida. Her first two from the old house were in 1963 – with Gorr, Bergonzi, Sereni, Siepi, under Solti in his farewell Met opera (his actual farewell is in the spring with a Verdi Requiem (also with Price, Bergonzi and Siepi and Good Friday spell from Parsifal) Price’s second broadcast is 1966 under Mehta with Tucker, Dalis, Merrill, Ghiuselev. The Solti has primacy, but would be good to hear the Mehta very much as well. Price’s other rebroadcasts are the 1967 with Bumbry, Bergonzi, Merrill, this 1970, the 1976 with Horne, Domingo, and MacNeil under Levine, and her farewell in 1985 with Cossotto, McCracken, and MacNeil under Levine. Though Price and Dalis were frequent partners in Aida, they only have 12 together and only 2 are broadcast, this and one in 1966 with Tucker under Mehta which according to Met data base has not been on Sirius at all. 1966 would generally be a better year for Price, so why not get that on the airwaves?
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA:Barber
Original Air Date: 09/16/1966
Schippers; Díaz, Price, Thomas, Flagello, Elias
MOD Audio SID.19320639
This is the opening of the new Met at Lincoln Center and the world premiere of the opera. Leontyne never sang better than this night, and luckily it is well preserved for all to hear. Lady Bird Johnson and Imelda Marcos were among the dignitaries that night. From MOD: Expectations were high when the Metropolitan Opera announced that the world premiere of Samuel Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra would christen its new house at Lincoln Center in the fall of 1966—a suitably grand work based on Shakespeare’s tragedy and written specifically for Leontyne Price as Cleopatra. A singer himself, the composer knew Price’s voice and what it could do, shaping his conception of the opera’s heroine around this iconic American diva. The 26-year-old Puerto Rican–born bass Justino Díaz starred alongside Price as Antony while Ezio Flagello portrayed Antony’s friend Enobarbus. Tenor Jess Thomas brought his heroic presence to the role of Octavius Caesar, and the beloved mezzo-soprano Rosalind Elias, already a Met veteran in her 30s, sang the role of Cleopatra’s attendant Charmian. Thanks to a Texaco–Metropolitan Opera Radio Network broadcast from the opera’s world premiere, this indelible piece of Met history has been preserved for generations.
LA BOHÈME:Puccini
Original Air Date: 03/08/2003
Viotti; Evseeva, Vargas, Arteta, Gerello, Bernstein
SID.19320640
Not sure the reason for recycling this performance other than as a memorial to Viotti who died prematurely
DER ROSENKAVALIER:Strauss
Original Air Date: 12/22/1962
Maazel; Töpper, Crespin, Edelmann, Rothenberger, Herbert
SID.19320641
Crespin I saw for the first time in Dallas a month before the broadcast which introduced her to the USA at large. One either gets her or does not. She is not a perfect singer, though this Marschallin contains very few vocal flaws, and a monologue that ranks with the absolute best. She sounds and performs like no other singer, and that individuality showed up as Dido in the Boston Troyens, the Sieglinde on numerous occasions, her Met Walkure Brunnhildes, and her Madame de Croissy having moved up from Lidoine afforded Met operagoers a special interpretation. Edelmann and Rothenberger are very much up to their task, as Maazel’s interpretation is not exactly a Viennese dessert. A week with two Crespin performances is special indeed.
TANNHÄUSER:Wagner
Original Air Date: 02/15/1992
Perick; Johns, Evans, Troyanos, Schmidt, Rootering
SID.19320642
The only performer of special interest is William Johns. Jon Fredric West (later Tannhauser with Sharon Sweet) is the Walther. Johns has some good outings in his Wagnerian assignments, and I love Tannhauser but my memory of Anne Evans and Andreas Schmidt is limited. Tannhauser is an impossible role, Elisabeth and Wolfram are not. A shame Bryn Terfel never broadcast or recorded it, I saw a terrific matinee with him, Sharon Sweet, and JF West under a very hot Levine in 1997.
FAUST:Gounod
Original Air Date: 04/30/2005
Levine; Alagna, Isokoski, Pape, Hvorostovsky, Jepson
MOD Audio SID.19320743
I still don’t understand why this production had to be scrapped for the McAnuff . Isokoski while in no way effacing De Los Angeles or Steber (she’s on the Met recording, but she doesn’t have a broadcast) or Freni who did 6 Fausts first season at Lincoln Center, but none of them broadcast to me is still to be preferred to Poplavskaya. Alagna is a solid Faust, but unfortunately he and his then wife Gheorghiu left before the 2003 broadcast. This is Levine’s only year doing Faust. The continuing absence of the two Bjorling Fausts (1950 and 1959) both with Siepi is a major gap in the rebroadcast efforts on Sirius. I am also wondering why when the Fleming Leech Ramey Faust was on the air this past week, Faust as a work couldn’t have waited a week.
LA FORZA DEL DESTINO:Verdi
Original Air Date: 02/12/1972
Veltri; Price, Bergonzi, Paskalis, Siepi, Casei, Corena
SID.19320744
This is Bergonzi’s only broadcast of Alvaro, and it is one of his best roles. Paskalis had a notable career mostly based in Vienna, but his Macbeth got to many theatres (I saw him under the auspices of the Met in Newport in concert in 1967, though he does not have any Met stage performances. His Glyndebourne video of Macbeth with Barstow and a very young James Morris as Banquo is highly recommended. Siepi is simply the most important Verdi bass after Pinza, and Guardiano is one of his best roles. Price has several Met broadcasts, and generally the earlier the better. Corena is a top quality Melitone.
L’ELISIR D’AMORE:Donizetti
Original Air Date: 02/19/1972
Franci, Bergonzi, Scotto, Corena, Sereni
MOD Audio SID.19320745
This is as good as it gets. Bergonzi is just that scintilla more seductive than Kraus, and the other 3 Italians are close to perfection. I miss Sereni and Corena a lot when I hear the current crop of buffos. Don’t miss.
FIDELIO:Beethoven
Original Air Date: 01/07/1984
Tennstedt; Marton, Vickers, Mazura, Plishka, Peters, Atherton
SID.19320746
This is an outstanding performance form all concerned and should be on MOoD. Marton is a fine Leonore and Vickers is an unsurpassed partner. Tennstedt keeps the fire going in the orchestra.
LUISA MILLER:Verdi
Original Air Date: 02/17/1968
Schippers; Caballé, Tucker, Milnes, Tozzi, Flagello, Pearl
MOD Audio SID.19320747
This production brought Luisa Miller into the mainstream repertory. Caballe is caught at close to her very best, Tucker in tremendous Indian summer form, and Milnes a big breakthrough for him into the core Verdi parts. This is also available on Sony Historical CD as well and its regular appearance is well deserved.