EUGENE ONEGIN:Tchaikovsky
Jurowski; Hampson, Kringelborn, Giordani, Karnéus, Lloyd
Original Air Date: 02/23/2002
MOD Audio
SID.19520529
Jurowski is on especially congenial turf, but my memories of Kringelborn are not quite so positive. Hampson has a commercial Onegin in English with te Kanawa under Mackerras. I love the opera, but my favorite Met archival broadcasts are with Yuri Mazurok –he has two Onegin broadcasts from 1979 (adjacent season).
DAS RHEINGOLD:Wagner
Levine; Morris, Schwarz, Langridge, Wlaschiha, Hölle, Koptchak
Original Air Date: 03/27/1993
MOD Audio
SID.19520530
This is close to the end of Schwarz’s Met career. Not quite. She is back for the 2016 season for Buryja in Jenufa after an absence of 14 years. She has an earlier Rheingold Fricka in 1993, and I saw her in the Chereau Ring in 1978 and she closes her Met career with a 2002 Klytemnestra with Schnaut. There is also an excellent Erda in Madrid in 2007. One also encounters Phillip Langridge’s fine Loge.
SALOME:Strauss
Runnicles; Malfitano, Riegel, Schwarz, Weikl, Baker
Original Air Date: 03/30/1996
SID.19520531
This performance is notable as Weikl’s last Met season and his last staged performance was four days later. Schwarz is a forceful Herodias, but Riegel is a bit light for my taste as Herod. Malfitano is OK, but I never want to return to her work very much.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM:Britten
Atherton; McNair, Kowalski, Rose, Streit, Bunnell, Gilfry, Gustafson
Original Air Date: 12/21/1996
MOD Audio
SID.19520532
The work was revived under Conlon in 2013 for 3 Sirius streamed live broadcasts, one of which was rebroadcast on Sirius as part of their June Friday night encores, but no national free network. I saw a lovely production at the original Sadler’s Wells Theatre almost 20 years ago under the late Richard Hickox. It’s one of those works I seem to like less as the years go on, but that may be just me.
Verdi
Levine; Tomowa-Sintow, Pavarotti, Cossotto, Manuguerra, Kavrakos
Original Air Date: 03/29/1986
SID.19520533
This is Pavarotti’s third performance at the Met as Radames and first broadcast, and surprisingly it is NOT on MOoD. Tomowa-Sintow is strong casting for Aida, but it’s getting late for Cossotto whose only 2 broadcast Amnerises from the Met are the Price farewell in 1985 and this performance a few months later. Manuguerra is an Amonasro such as we can only dream about today. Pavarotti has a second broadcast 15 years later with Voigt Borodina, and Delavan. I think this 1986 performance is more deserving of immortalization (but at the minimum should be included). I would also note this is the last broadcast of Robert Nagy asMessenger,though he does another dozen over the coming year. His 172 total is the Met record exceeding by a healthy margin Pietro Audisio at 113 and Giordano Paltrinieri (100) both from early in the century. Met operagoers for almost 4 decades heard (it was one of the more penetrating voices to ever grace the Met stage and who went on to leads such as Emperor in Frau and 3 Otellos on the Met tour in 1972 replacing McCracken.
Various:Various
Various Artists
Original Air Date: 01/01/9999
SID.19520534
Wagner
Levine; Domingo, Tomowa-Sintow, Marton, McIntyre, Macurdy
Original Air Date: 02/16/1985
SID.19520636
This performance is also available in MOoD. Domingo sings very well, but for me the special excitement of this performance comes from the two ladies. Marton had not yet started her heavy round of Elektra performances, and her singing is commanding without ever being less than very feminine. Lohengrin is one of Levine’s best efforts, and here’s the cast for it. The ladies are simply splendid, among the best exponents of their roles in the last 3 decades. Lohengrin is one of Levine’s best Wagner efforts.
LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN:Offenbach
Morel; Gedda, London, Dobbs, Elias, Amara, Vanni
Original Air Date: 02/07/1959
MOD Audio
SID.19520637
This performance is always welcome on Sirius, for it is one of Gedda’s very best broadcasts. Morel’s style is also welcome. I’m not a huge fan of London’s villains (I prefer Singher’s) but this is a solid performance from top to bottom.
EUGENE ONEGIN:Tchaikovsky
Jurowski; Hampson, Kringelborn, Giordani, Karnéus, Lloyd
Original Air Date: 02/23/2002
MOD Audio
SID.19520638
Jurowski is on especially congenial turf, but my memories of Kringelborn are not quite so positive. Hampson has a commercial Onegin in English with te Kanawa under Mackerras. I love the opera, but my favorite Met archival broadcasts are with Yuri Mazurok –he has two Onegin broadcasts from 1979 (adjacent season).
Various:Various
Various Artists
Original Air Date: 01/01/9999
SID.19520639
ERNANI:Verdi
Schippers; Bergonzi, Price, MacNeil, Tozzi, Ordassy, Nagy, Reitan
Original Air Date: 12/01/1962
MOD Audio
SID.19520641
This is one of the classic Met broadcasts, and on balance the best of the Ernani broadcasts. Corelli was more of an in-house Ernani, but for the broadcast mikes, Bergonzi is close to ideal. MacNeil, one of the Met mainstay baritones on this occasion delivers an absolutely historic performance with a seemingly unending upper register, but also a command of the style that surpassed any modern baritone at the Met. Price is not ideal as Elvira, but she has many superb moments, especially as captured by the mikes. Fortunately this performance as well as the 1965 with Corelli, Sereni, and Siepi joining Price are BOTH on MOoD, and both performances serve Verdi very well indeed. Available in a Sony historical CD and on MOoD. As much as I love Bergonzi, the most remarkable performance of the afternoon is MacNeil in one of his greatest if not greatest broadcast appearance. Do not miss.
DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN:Strauss
Perick; Meier, Schunk, Martin, Courtney, Dernesch
Original Air Date: 12/09/1989
MOD Audio
SID.19520642
The big gap is Courtney being a late fill-in for Weikl as Barak. Dernesch finds some tough sledding in a lot of the Nurse’s part. I love the work, and Perick works hard. Though Johanna Meier is no Rysanek or Marton, she still has her moments. Listening to the COMPLETE performance under Jurowski from last season finds the Met and Frau particularly congenial partners. Maybe this is a minor hommage to Janis Martin who passed away, and got no paid obituary from the Met in the NYTimes [rechecked this afternoon and still so]
VANESSA:Barber
Steinberg; Costa, Alexander, Elias, Thebom, Tozzi
Original Air Date: 04/03/1965
MOD Audio
SID.19520743
The Met does well by Samuel Barber, and regularly programs on Sirius the Steber world premiere season broadcast from 1958. Elias and Tozzi remain from the original cast under William Steinberg. The skating aria for Vanessa is gone by this revival, another reason to check out the Steber broadcast in MOoD.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM:Britten
Atherton; McNair, Kowalski, Rose, Streit, Bunnell, Gilfry, Gustafson
Original Air Date: 12/21/1996
MOD Audio
SID.19520744
The work was revived under Conlon in 2013 for 3 Sirius streamed live broadcasts, one of which was rebroadcast on Sirius as part of their June Friday night encores, but no national free network. I saw a lovely production at the original Sadler’s Wells Theatre almost 20 years ago under the late Richard Hickox. It’s one of those works I seem to like less as the years go on, but that may be just me.
MADAMA BUTTERFLY:Puccini
Armiliato; Dessì, Armiliato, Bunnell, Shimell, Fracker
Original Air Date: 03/30/2002
SID.19520745
Dessi has focused her career primarily in Europe so she could regularly sing with her husband, Fabio Armiliato. She has only 20 Met performances covering a span of 15 years, and this is her final Met broadcast to date. Her brother-in-law is in the pit, who has 10 x the number of Met appearances. I relistened to the first act of this yesterday, and what a pleasure to two native Italians in the leads. Fabio’s absence from the Met tenor roster has been much felt in the last decade, and conductor Mario seemed much more detailed and involved than has been the norm from some of his recent Met outings. What IS missing us and MOOd are two broadcasts featuring native Italian speakers in the lead roles– Stella and Fernandi in 1958 and Tucci and Bergonzi from 1962.
DAS RHEINGOLD:Wagner
Levine; Morris, Schwarz, Langridge, Wlaschiha, Hölle, Koptchak
Original Air Date: 03/27/1993
MOD Audio
SID.19520746
This is close to the end of Schwarz’s Met career. Not quite. She is back for the 2016 season for Buryja in Jenufa after an absence of 14 years. She has an earlier Rheingold Fricka in 1993, and I saw her in the Chereau Ring in 1978 and she closes her Met career with a 2002 Klytemnestra with Schnaut. There is also an excellent Erda in Madrid in 2007. One also encounters Phillip Langridge’s fine Loge.
SALOME:Strauss
Runnicles; Malfitano, Riegel, Schwarz, Weikl, Baker
Original Air Date: 03/30/1996
SID.19520747
This performance is notable as Weikl’s last Met season and his last staged performance was four days later. Schwarz is a forceful Herodias, but Riegel is a bit light for my taste as Herod. Malfitano is OK, but I never want to return to her work very much.
Donizetti
Varviso; Sutherland, Tucker, Guarrera, Moscona
Original Air Date: 12/09/1961
SID.19520749
This was played around the time of Sutherland’s death in October 2010, but has not been in the rotation often. Sutherland and Tucker are quite a team in her debut role and season. I saw her in Dallas as Lucia about a month before the first Met appearance ( I think she also did San Francisco and Chicago in a jampacked American fall). The size of her voice in the early years still had the remnants of her dramatic soprano beginnings. Zeffirelli had taught her well in terms of movement, and the coloratura — to steal the Italians’ description for her– stupendous. Don’t miss this. Luckily all four of Sutherland’s broadcast seasons are in MOoD. She has her points in all of them. She has Tucker in two of the broadcasts, and Kraus in the telecast. The quality over a 21 period (1961-1983) from her is really remarkable.
TBA:TBA
TBA
Original Air Date: 01/01/9999
SID.20010101
CARMEN:Bizet
Domingo; Horne, Luchetti, Freni, Ramey
Original Air Date: 12/17/1988
SID.20010102
I love Carmen, but Horne does two of her three Met broadcasts with her ex-husband, Henry Lewis, and this performance rather late in her career. Horne’s collaboration with Bernstein is at least partially transferred to the studio. Her live performance that fall with Lenny was one of the best things I ever saw from her. Luchetti was more often encountered in Verdi Requiems when Bergonzi, Pavarotti, and Richard Lewis were not available. This is his final Met performance in a one season, one role Met career (his wife Mietta Sighele Met debuted in an earlier performance in the run as Micaela and two Micaelas are her Met total; I saw her do an excellent Butterfly in Philadelphia 21 years earlier– much in the Tucci lyric mod). Luchetti is rather a good Jose, as they go. Ramey is an excellent Escamillo. Domingo, despite many fine Don Joses, is not the Carmen conductor I want. Freni is quite good for a 50+ Micaela, having brought the house down 20 years earlier and stealing the show from Verrett (debut) and Vickers.
PARSIFAL:Wagner
Stiedry; Svanholm, Harshaw, Schöffler, Edelmann, Pechner
Original Air Date: 03/24/1956
SID.20010103
I only heard parts of this performance, so I checked Jackson to see where he was. Except for a glancing mention of Svanholm, this performance is ignored in favor of the 1954 Stiedry performance which he doesn’t much care for which features Hotter’s farewell to the Met (very few appearances). Only Hotter comes in for considerable praise. A few pages later he takes great pleasure in the Pretre 1966 Parsifal with Konya , Crespin and Hines. This is one of Crespin’s very best broadcast efforts, and belongs both on Sirius and in MOoD.
PARSIFAL:Wagner
Stiedry; Svanholm, Harshaw, Schöffler, Edelmann, Pechner
Original Air Date: 03/24/1956
SID.20010104
Except for a glancing mention of Svanholm, this performance is ignored in favor of the 1954 Stiedry performance which he doesn’t much care for which features Hotter’s farewell to the Met (very few appearances). Only Hotter comes in for considerable praise. A few pages later he takes great pleasure in the Pretre 1966 Parsifal with Konya , Crespin and Hines. This is one of Crespin’s very best broadcast efforts, and belongs both on Sirius and in MOoD.
MACBETH:Verdi
Levine; Milnes, Scotto, Plishka, Ciannella
Original Air Date: 01/28/1984
SID.20010105
This is the second season of the infamous Peter Hall Macbeth. The first season broadcast also with Levine, Scotto, Milnes and Plishka is available on (MOoD). Generally with Scotto, earlier is better. This part, despite many insightful line readings, is simply not for her.
COSÌ FAN TUTTE:Mozart
Tate; Vaness, Rendall, Murray, Holloay, Hamari, MacNeil
Original Air Date: 12/22/1984
SID.20010106
This is Vaness’ first of four Cosi broadcasts, and amazingly, the only one with Levine in the pit is 1996 when the opera gets a new production and features the debut of Cecilia Bartoli as Despina. This 1984 on the Sirius airwaves features Cornell MacNeil in his only Mozartean appearance (a run of 14 including a tour) all with Vaness who has the house record for Fiordiligi at 44 (Steber is not a close 2nd at 29, but Te Kanawa a very distant 3d at 16) in a line of very distinguished Fiordiligis. It’s a shame that none of the 4 Steber broadcsts (1952-1955, 3 with Tucker,one with Valletti) have made it to the Sirius airwaves. The Columbia studio recording made during the opening season is a fine memento, but a LIVE performance record of one of the great Met productions should be heard. Translation rights again appears to be the stumbling block.
DIE ÄGYPTISCHE HELENA:Strauss
Luisi; Voigt, Kerl, Damrau, Grove, Brendel
Original Air Date: 03/31/2007
MOD Audio
SID.20010107
This is the Met’s only broadcast of the Strauss work and Kerl and Damrau are very impressive. I don’t love the work, but like most Strauss, it has its moments. It’s repeated too often in rotation which in no way approximates its importance in the Strauss canon. This was the first Met production in more than eight decades. I love the awakening scene, but for me it’s one of the weaker Strauss works. I shouldn’t complain. No Strauss at all this season or next. To date this is the only Met matinee broadcast of this uncommon Strauss work. The strongest profile is from Damrau who is an excellent Aithra. The opera has some great moments, and was one of Met audience’s first chances to encounter Luisi, now the Principal Conductor.
THE QUEEN OF SPADES:Tchaikovsky
Gergiev; Grigorian, Guleghina, Rysanek, Hvorostovsky, Svendén, Putilin
Original Air Date: 12/30/1995
SID.20010208
This was the year of the new production which had starred Mattila and Heppner along with Rysanek in her last Met role. This is Rysanek’s broadcast farewell, and her final Met performance took place three days later. Guleghina and Grigorian are very solid and Gergiev is at his best. and oh yes, there’s Hvorostovsky in absolute prime. This performance should really be in MOoD. This is Rysanek’s broadcast farewell, and Hvorostovsky’s broadcast debut. Rysanek’s farewell to the Met is three days later after a career spanning five decades (38 years). A shame the cameras did not catch the opening run with Mattila and Heppner at their best, but this is a very solid broadcast. Heppner and Mattila were replaced by Guleghina and Greigorian. Both pairs were very good. The two baritones are also outstanding. Among the very best of Queen of Spades’ broadcasts. The 1966 English language (we’ll never hear it ;(((( ) with McCracken and Stratas should really be heard; I’m sorry Resnik didn’t have the broadcast instead of Madeira, but would really like to break the Sirius logjam on translations.
LA FORZA DEL DESTINO:Verdi
Stiedry; Milanov, Penno, Warren, Hines, Madeira, Pechner
Original Air Date: 03/20/1954
SID.20010209
Milanov’s four broadcast Leonoras begin in 1952 with much of the above cast except Tucker for Penno. That performance is on MOoD and there are many fine moments. Penno is the point of interest in this week’s Forza, and clearly he must have had one of the largest tenor voices in an era of big voiced singers. His Met career was not long, but he is long remembered as well for several appearances with Callas– Macbeth and Medea. He is also the Pollione at the Met in Milanov’s final series of Normas. Milanov’s Norma has not appeared in the Sirius series, and while the 2 1940s performances will catch her in smoother voice, I would love to hear the 1954 performance as well. If memory serves, this is the best of MIlanov’s 50s Forza Leonoras. Penno is a comet that didn’t turn out so well, but other than not being Tucker or Del Monaco, he’s fine.
L’ITALIANA IN ALGERI:Rossini
Campanella; Larmore, Polenzani, Ramey, Corbelli
Original Air Date: 02/17/2001
MOD Audio
SID.20010210
This is Ramey’s only Mustafa broadcast, and early appearances by Polenzani and Kwiecien who are Met regulars in star parts these days. My own favorite Isabella is Borodina whose performance with Florez and Furlanetto is also on MOoD.
LA BOHÈME:Puccini
Cleva; Sayão, Di Stefano, Hunt, Valdengo, Siepi
Original Air Date: 03/17/1951
MOD Audio
SID.20010211
The oldest BOHEME in the MOD catalog, it’s Siepi’s debut MET season. Although Sayao is Brazilian, she is certainly at one with the idiom and the luxury of Di Stefano, Valdengo, and Siepi among the Bohemians is pleasure indeed. Paul Jackson in his survey of Met broadcasts isn’t thrilled with Cleva, but listening to the MOoD is quite a dose of sunshine, and the sound for a 65 year old broadcast is quite clear.