LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR:Donizetti
Original Air Date: 01/15/1977
Woitach; Sills, Gedda, Edwards, Flagello
SID.19310531
This broadcast captures Sills mid-way in her four year Met career. Would be nice to hear Gedda eight years earlier (2/1/1969) with Moffo and Bruson and Giaiotti which is one of the strongest male contingents for Lucia (Charles Anthony is the Arturo). but glad to be able to hear Sills for a change instead of the overplayed Sutherland/Tucker 1966 performance. still prefer to hear Gedda nine years earlier with Moffo from Feb. 1, 1969, which alas is also not on MOoD nor been rebroadcast by Sirius.
LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS / LE ROSSIGNOL / OEDIPUS REX:Stravinsky
Original Air Date: 02/21/2004
Gergiev; Trifonova, Banks, Zifchak / Forbis, Blythe, Nikitin
SID.19310532
The Stravinsky evening as originally done by Levine with Hockney designs and Dexter direction was not as big a hit as the French evening, Parade, from Dexter and Hockney, but I prefer this to Rake’s Progress. Gergiev has a distinctive take on Stravinsky and always worth a listen in the Russian repertoire.
SAMSON ET DALILA:Saint-Saens
Original Air Date: 12/26/1964
Prêtre; Thomas, Dalis, Bacquier
SID.19310533
This is the broadcast from the first season of the new production; Gorr had premiered the production triumphantly (I was there), but the two debutants Bacquier and Pretre were also of high quality. Thomas despite cutting a nice stage figure really wasn’t up to such rarefied company. Dalis is in very good voice, and the high point is her duet with Bacquier. Even Bacquier has a start when she delivers her final lines in the duet. Pretre’s long career has ended up being mostly at La Scala, but when it came to the Saint-Saens score, he had no superiors. Dalis is the subject of a new biography by Linda Riebel which focuses on Dalis’ role in the founding of Opera San Jose. Her major Met career is not omitted.
Various:Various
Original Air Date: 01/01/9999
Various Artists
SID.19310534
Various selections between scheduled operas. Siriusxm Radio and web player will show the Composer and Title.
MACBETH:Verdi
Original Air Date: 04/04/1964
Santi; MacNeil, Dalis, Giaiotti, Morell
SID.19310637
Dalis is a replacement for Nilsson, and except for a wayward D flat in alt as conclusion to the Sleepwalking Scene, she delivers one of the most incisive Lady Macbeths to hit the Met airwaves. MacNeil and Giaiotti are both on excellent form, and Morell if not Bergonzi is quite solid. Santi is not always to my taste, but he has a good afternoon here. A worthy performance of an often jinxed opera.
Mozart
Original Air Date: 03/10/1984
Tate; Morris, Behrens, Plishka, Neblett, Winbergh, Ewing
SID.19310638
This is Neblett’s final Elvira, but she must have been in a bad patch because shortly before this Elivra, two of the Don Giovannis had featured Eleanor Bergquist, usually a Met chorister. And we think casting today is on the weak side. Behrens is a major singer, but her career is not memorable for either her Anna (for me that’s Steber or Sutherland) or her Idomeneo Elektra.
MOSES UND ARON:Schoenberg
Original Air Date: 12/20/2003
Levine; Tomlinson, Langridge
SID.19310639
This performance was issued in Levine’s 40th anniversary CD box, and is also available in MOoD. This performance is well regarded.Both the MOoD and the CD issued in the Levine 40th anniversary CD box are from the first Met season of MuA in 1999. Both performances have been on Sirius, and here is the 2003 again.
LOHENGRIN:Wagner
Original Air Date: 01/02/1943
Leinsdorf; Melchior, Varnay, Thorborg, Sved, Cordon
SID.19310640
1940s broadcasts are uncommon. very solid casting. Practically the same cast does it twice again in 1945. Busch conducts the last one with Janssen replacing Sved. This is standard wartime Wagner with Melchior at the center and a solid ensemble. Cuts were common in these years, but it still is nice to have a 40s broadcast in the mix.
Verdi
Original Air Date: 04/08/1967
Gardelli; MacNeil, Gedda, Peters, Giaiotti, Amparan
MOD Audio SID.19310641
MacNeil made his Met debut as Rigoletto in 1959, his overwhelming performance an instant sensation. With a silvery, pinpoint voice, Peters had become virtually the Met’s resident lyric soprano and would go on to sing 88 performances of Gilda with the company, more than any other artist. This was one of only five performances Gedda gave as the Duke at the Met. Review of Fred Kirby in Billboard – MacNeil Is Outstanding In the Met’s Rigoletto Cornell MacNeil, cast in the title role of Rigoletto, definitely is the outstanding singer in this season’s performances of the Verdi warhorse at the Metropolitan Opera. MacNeil’s rich baritone made up for some spotty singing by other principals last Saturday (19). An exception was Bonaldi Giaiotti’s Sparafucile, which was a tower of strength. Giaiotti clearly is one of the company’s most dependable artists. Roberta Peters, as sweet a Gilda as ever, sang prettily, but sounded thin in spots, especially the Caro nome ending, while John Alexander, the possessor of a rich lyric tenor voice, seemed more interested in demonstrating it than in portraying the Duke. This was really evident at the ending of La donna e mobile, when he lost Lamberto Gardelli, an experienced operatic conductor leading the opera for the first time at the Met this season. The opera house’s wealth of basses again was apparent in the fine job by Raymond Michalski in the small, but important role of Monterone. Nedda Cassei again was a competent Maddalena. The serviceable production seemed at home in the new house, but, MacNeil, in his two arias and in duets, was the afternoon’s star. What a voice!The Metropolitan Opera recently lost one of its most cherished artists, soprano Roberta Peters, who passed away in January at the age of 86. Peters graced the Met stage for 515 performances over 35 years, specializing in lyric coloratura roles to which her silvery voice brought a special radiance. Met Opera Radio on SiriusXM celebrates her remarkable contribution to the company with a pair of special broadcasts that feature Peters in two of her signature roles. The first, a newly remastered 1967 performance of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte from the Met’s inaugural season at its new home in Lincoln Center, captures her dazzling interpretation of the Queen of the Night. The second, the Sirius premiere of a broadcast recorded just a month later, offers a glimpse of Peters as Gilda in Rigoletto, a role she sang more times at the Met than any other artist in the company’s history.
MANON LESCAUT:Puccini
Original Air Date: 03/02/1985
Santi; Maliponte, Moldoveanu, Carlson, Berberian
SID.19310642
This is Maliponte’s final Met broadcast, and only a fall group of Alice Fords remain in her Met career. Moldoveanu is getting some additional exposure with the release of the Levine DVDs of Tabarro and Don Carlo in his anniversary box. Moldoveanu won’t be mistaken for Bjorling, but he holds up his end, and Santi is well versed in the tradition. Maliponte is a favorite as she is one of the most distinctive lyric sopranos of the 1970s and 1980s. Moldoveanu is no Bjorling, he is a very solid Des Grieux. Caruso, creator of the role is the Met House champion and seond place is a tie between Richard Tucker and Ermanno Mauro. Corelli never sang the part (though he did do the duet) and Domingo has only the broadcast/telecast season of 1980. Bjorling only has eight at the Met, but two are legendary broadcasts, 1949 with Dorothy Kirsten and 1956 with Albanese which utterly eclipses their studio effort from the same period.
TURANDOT:Puccini
Original Air Date: 12/03/1966
Mehta; Nilsson, Freni, Corelli, Giaiotti
MOD Audio SID.19310743
This performance is Included in the Met’s 50th Anniversary collection. Turandot: The Best To Date at New Met [Unsigned review in the Journal-American of opening night September 26, 1966] The celebrating the opening of the new opera house over, the Metropolitan Opera settled for repertory last night and put on its best show to date. Puccini’s Turandot began the regular subscription season as a five-year old production that readily adjusted itself to new surroundings. It looked handsome, and it moved handsomely. Sighs. Birgit Nilsson and Franco Corelli took the leading roles as usual, the singing was magnificent. What else is there to say! This was a beautifully knit performance. Cecil Beaton’s sets and costumes rate among the best creations. Nathaniel Merrill has achieved some of the most imaginative staging. The cast is excellent. A new element entered with Zubin Mehta taking the conductor’s assignment. He imparts vitality and usually comprehends everything he does. The live acoustics of the pit led to overloud playing, but most interestingly he restrained himself in giving full rein to Puccini’s romanticism.
THE MAKROPULOS CASE:Janácek
Original Air Date: 01/20/1996
Robertson; Norman, Clark, Hagegård, McIntyre
SID.19310744
This was the cursed production which premiered the opera at the Met a few weeks earlier, and was stopped in minutes due to the death of Richard Versalle. The English version is by Moshinsky (the director), Robertson When the opera is revived two years later, it is in Czech with Malfitano and Mackerras conducting. Norman is sui generis, and so is her performance of this part. This is the premiere season for Makropulos with Norman filling out the Janacek lines (in an English translation partially attributed to her). She sings gloriously, even if it misses some of the angularity inherent in the score. This is one broadcast in a translation that regularly makes it to the airwaves if not MOoD.
ELEKTRA:Strauss
Original Air Date: 02/16/1980
Levine; Nilsson, Rysanek, Dunn, McIntyre, Nagy
SID.19310745
This run of Elektras marked Nilsson’s return to the house after an absence of four years. It is also Levine’s first go at Elektra at the Met (maybe his first staged ones). Nilsson, by her standards is somewhat diminished compared to the 1971 performance under Bohm which catches her in much fresher form and under arguably one of the great Strauss conductors in history and luckily is available in MOoD. This 1980 performance was filmed and is available on DVD on Deutsche Grammophon. Nilsson’s Elektra, this is not the way to remember her. The video of this performance at least gives you some visuals. The 1971 despite Madeira’s unfortunate Met farewell Klytemnestra (she died not long thereafter) is the Met broadcast to hear Nilsson’s Elektra.
IDOMENEO:Mozart
Original Air Date: 02/25/1989
Stivender; Jerusalem, Martin, Griffel, Quittmeyer, Lewis
SID.19310746
This broadcast finds Siegfried Jerusalem in unfamiliar repertoire, and less stellar than usual casting surrounding him. Of greater interest in my view is the 1991 broadcast with Heppner partnered by Upshaw, Mentzer, and especially Vaness as Elettra in one of Levine’s signature operas. This 1991 performance is on MOoD. Not nearly as strong as the original production under Levine. Stivender is a lamented former chorus master. Marvis Martin now sings in the Met Chorus after spending a decade or more as a lyric soprano soloist at the Met. Stivender was a much beloved chorus master and sometime conductor., who died in 1990. Jerusalem, a marquee name in Wagner roles, is tested by the Idomeneo, and has hefty competition from Pavarotti, Domingo, and Heppner among others.
LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR:Donizetti
Original Air Date: 01/15/1977
Woitach; Sills, Gedda, Edwards, Flagello
SID.19310747
This broadcast captures Sills mid-way in her four year Met career. Would be nice to hear Gedda eight years earlier (2/1/1969) with Moffo and Bruson and Giaiotti which is one of the strongest male contingents for Lucia (Charles Anthony is the Arturo). but glad to be able to hear Sills for a change instead of the overplayed Sutherland/Tucker 1966 performance. still prefer to hear Gedda nine years earlier with Moffo from Feb. 1, 1969, which alas is also not on MOoD nor been rebroadcast by Sirius.
LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS / LE ROSSIGNOL / OEDIPUS REX:Stravinsky
Original Air Date: 02/21/2004
Gergiev; Trifonova, Banks, Zifchak / Forbis, Blythe, Nikitin
SID.19320101
The Stravinsky evening as originally done by Levine with Hockney designs and Dexter direction was not as big a hit as the French evening, Parade, from Dexter and Hockney, but I prefer this to Rake’s Progress. Gergiev has a distinctive take on Stravinsky and always worth a listen in the Russian repertoire.
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DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG:Wagner
Original Air Date: 01/23/1993
Levine; McIntyre, Mattila, Araiza, Prey, Rootering, Magnusson
SID.19320102
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.19320103
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.19320104
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.19320105
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.19320106
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.
PETER GRIMES:Britten
Original Air Date: 12/10/1977
Pritchard; Vickers, Harper, Gramm, Kraft, Chookasian
SID.19320107
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.
LA BOHÈME:Puccini
Original Air Date: 03/08/2003
Viotti; Evseeva, Vargas, Arteta, Gerello, Bernstein
SID.19320208
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.19320209
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.19320210
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.19320211
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.19320212
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.