Metropolitan Opera
Carmen (M/Th), Otello (T/SM), Trovatore (W/SE)
It's the last week for the current cast in Carmen -- the excellent Yonghoon Lee, the not-so-excellent Kate Royal, and the mostly-excellent Kyle Ketelsen all are gone when the show returns in February. Trovatore should also be good. Tomorrow is the last weeknight performance of Otello with the current cast.
Link for weekend ticket lottery drawing here; enter by midnight ET.
Carnegie Hall
World Orchestra for Peace Solti centennial concert (F)
It is, I think, entirely appropriate in its irony that an body called the "World Orchestra for Peace" will be conducted by the music world's most shameless Putin bootlicker, last seen celebrating the Russian invasion of Georgia. If your nose doesn't register such stenches, Angela Gheorghiu and Rene Pape offer delicacies for the ear.
Alice Tully Hall
Les Arts Florissants Charpentier motets (F)
William Christie's company offers, this time, not opera but French baroque sacred pieces.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Sunday, October 14, 2012
The standard
Jones, Giannattasio, Zajick, Vassallo, Robinson / Callegari
The premiere of McVicar's Trovatore at the Met had big stars; this revival lacked them, to the point of serious box office impairment. But the result this time reflected pretty well on the standards of the house even on lesser-name evenings.
Most impressive may have been baritone Franco Vassallo. I was decidedly unimpressed by his Belcore four seasons back, but his di Luna presented him in a totally different light. In fact, between his naturally robust sound, straightforward engagement in the character's villainy, and facility for both the lyric and declamatory sides of his music, Vassallo may have been the best di Luna I've seen in this production, outdoing both Hvorostovsky (intense but vocally taxed) and Lucic (alternately too lyric and not lyric enough).
Welsh tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones and Italian soprano Carmen Giannattasio had, depending on how you cared to look at it, either complementary strengths or complementary weaknesses. Jones gave basically a brighter-voiced version of Marcelo Alvarez's production-opening performance: intensely satisfying in the lyric and conversational portions of the role (thanks to a feel for the Verdian phrase that also served him well in ensembles), but lacking at climaxes. For Alvarez these punctuating high notes weren't easily reached; for Jones they just lacked force, particularly compared to his partners. How I would have liked him to break from expectation and sing both verses of "Di quella pira", giving pleasure more in the phrasing than in the obligatory high note... instead, of course, he sang one hasty verse before an impressively long but unimpressive-sounding high-note finish, the tone of which actually got away from him at the end.
Giannattasio does not lack for volume or high-note resonance: in fact her voice may rival Sondra Radvanovsky's wondrous instrument in natural scale. Just hearing her pop off big ensemble-capping high notes is a pleasure... but what leads up to that point is less exciting. She is not quite finished, both vocally (not entirely even in sound from top to bottom, still -- like most young singers -- unwilling to use chest voice) and musically, where she really could not compare to Jones. ("D'amor sull'ali rosee" was quite spoiled by her letting the end of each phrase sag.) The raw material for an excellent Verdi soprano is certainly there: besides the size and volume, she has a natural liquid flexibility that makes the cabalettas natural fodder. But she won Operalia a decade ago, has had major engagements for years and years, and though 34 isn't old, it's old enough to wonder if how and when she might make the last, oh-so-important refinements to turn her from a case of infuriatingly underutilized potential into a major and indispensable star.
Though she was, I believe, scheduled to debut the first week, this second performance of Trovatore turned out to be Gianattasio's debut -- perhaps this (or whatever caused the initial cancellation) affected her performance? In any case she seemed quite moved at her very positive curtain call reception (though perhaps she's a better actress in real life than Paula Williams' revival stage direction -- which put Gianattasio through McVicar's familiar postures for Leonora but had/let her recast them as hesitant instead of decisive -- let her express)...
Dolora Zajick of course carries over not only from the premiere of this production but from many years of false starts before that when casting anyone but Azucena properly seemed unlikely. The 2009 premiere found her showing, perhaps for the first time, some age: this revival finds her having adapted well to the years' changes. Her singing is again clear throughout, with no fraying tone to be heard, and if it's lightened a bit on top, the chest still hits with massive force.
Morris Robinson is a forceful -- if not dramatically onrushing -- Ferrando. Daniele Callegari conducts with a nice overall sweep and some fine ideas that may come to fruition later in the run -- when the ensemble hiccups that popped up in the show's second half will presumably have been exorcised. This same basic cast, with Chinese soprano Guanqun Yu in place of Giannattasio, has a few more peformances this month. Certainly worth catching.
Every good performance, like this one, convinces me a bit more that Il Trovatore is the most indispensable of operas. As I wrote after the premiere,
Verdi's much-derided opera has brothers, lovers, and a mother, but lacks one of his most persistent figures: the father. Whether divided and beset as in Rigoletto (both he and Monterone), stylish and daring (and metaphorical) as in Ballo, all-too-solid as in Traviata, or -- well, one could go on indefinitely -- the father sets the tone for his opera's world. Here, in Trovatore's story, he is wholly absent: dead of heartbreak, overthrown (in a sense) long ago by gypsy machinations. And so too in the piece itself: gone is the responsible worldly figure that makes our daylight world what it is -- ordered; rationally explainable and advancing; free from witchcraft, ghosts, and meaningful coincidence. But it is not just the shadowier stuff that he keeps off, but the oldest magics: rhythm - story - sacrifice. So here Verdi unleashes them all as no other could -- and too few since have at all dared to try -- for a nap-of-reason draught more intoxicating even than its near-contemporary Tristan's.An art incapable of such a potent, primeval draught seems hardly worth the trouble.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Return
The long post below alludes to it, but I should mention it as news: according to the Met, James Levine will conduct the orchestra again in May and three productions (Falstaff, Cosi, and Wozzeck -- three of his greatest pieces) next season.
Fingers crossed, knock on wood, etc.
Fingers crossed, knock on wood, etc.
Met season preview, part 3: life without
It is not a bad season -- to look at before the fact, anyway. But the most significant thing about the Metropolitan Opera's 2012-2013 is likely to be the most significant thing about its 2011-2012: the absence of James Levine.
A year ago the news came as... news, and in stages: a foretaste in spring, from the usual on-and-off issues; then the awful accident and cancellations for the first part of 2011-2012 in September; then the thud of no appearances at all. For many months -- until the announcement just last night of an eventual return, in fact -- Levine's absence has been the unspoken cloud hanging over the house. Fabio Luisi was appointed principal conductor last season, so the facade of continuity remained. And yet...
The problem for Peter Gelb and the Met is that Levine's work and presence in the pit was the core of the company's identity for decades. Singers, productions, production fads, and even general managers came and went, relying on the musical-sonic foundation provided by Levine and the orchestra he built and polished over many consecutive seasons. And not just his colleagues: for regular Met-goers, Levine's performances of Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, and the modernists were a pleasure one could anticipate as well as savor every year -- the one part of the experience that would not fail.
Yet it's not that Gelb and his administration have handled this crisis poorly: Luisi is as distinguished an emergency deputy as one could imagine, and circumstance has parked Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the first really plausible successor I can recall, just down the Turnpike at the Philadelphia Orchestra. The house continues its decade-long trend of trying out interesting new conducting talent, though with mixed results. But Levine's presence has been particularly important to Gelb's administration, because Levine maintained in his domain virtues Gelb otherwise is and has been reluctant to offer and value: warmth, attention to beautiful sound per se, and -- of course -- Americanness.
For all Fabio Luisi's prodigious skill and clarity, he's not that kind of counterweight. Luisi is, in fact, exactly of a piece with the Gelb administration's favored artists: a bit cerebral, a bit chilly even in his excitement, and impeccably European in pedigree. His substitution for Levine has put us now thoroughly in the Gelb era.
* * *
It's perhaps not quite coincidence that dissatisfaction with Gelb's administration is now part of the operagoing air. Spring's Opera News kerfuffle aired the extent of this development: not only did the public roundly slam the Met, but the press as well, with hints that even Tommasini at the Times may be growing tired of carrying the company's water. Why? Well, I noted at the start of Gelb's tenure that he holds a specific and far-from-universal vision of opera, and subsequent years seem to have borne this out. One could recognize the family resemblance in his productions years ago: tall blank walls, high narrow staircases and platforms, dim lighting and strong colors, near-doctrinaire avoidance/elimination of representational detail (as in Islamic art, words and abstract designs are permitted) in sets though not in costumes, and of course a general tilt to the crass and vulgar in stage direction. (Some house edict seems to have extended the latter element to revivals as well, creating the Obligatory Gelb-Era Humping Scene.) This can be fantastic -- as in, most recently, The Nose -- and is catnip to a certain segment of New Yorkers, but is contrary to the way a large (perhaps majority) portion of the Met audience takes in and appreciates visual information. And yet the alternatives -- though ever more important, as the Met rolls out its biggest and most war-horsey traditional productions (Turandot and Aida) many times this season to weather the poor economy -- are vanishing faster than they used to, thanks to the uptick in (new, Gelb-style) premieres from Gelb's co-production program.
Even the shows seemingly designed for traditional appeal do not quite scratch that itch. For not only do Bart Sher's comedic efforts (his louche Hoffmann -- the one show where he wasn't tasked with aiming for faux-traditional -- was quite good, though very much in the Gelb-era manner) and the Lepage Ring -- the most prominent efforts in this vein -- largely remix the same anti-traditional visual syntax, they in fact rely on theatrical distancing effects (video screens, frames, play-within-a-play additions) that present the story under glass, or in big quotation marks. Straightforward warmth, beauty, realism still aren't on the table, and so as traditional experiences, these new shows fail where their predecessors (often) succeeded. (Of course, they don't succeed as critic-pleasing fare either, and I can almost imagine Gelb striding bloodily onto the stage demanding "Are you not entertained!?" at their premieres.)
Some form of this complaint is now regularly aired with each premiere. But the corresponding trend in casting has been less remarked upon. For while respecting the biggest stars already in the house, Gelb brought a certain kind of singer to the fore from the start, and continues to do so today. His original favorites have largely run their course: Angela Gheorghiu crashed and burned with this administration as she did with Volpe's, Diana Damrau has failed to become an audience draw despite much exposure and press, and while Anna Netrebko still sells tickets, she does so now more as an opera celebrity than as notable artist or (as silly as it is to mention) sex symbol. Behind them, though, the Met continues to bring in and promote sopranos in their mold -- e.g. Nino Machaidze, Hibla Gerzmava, and of course the now-ubiquitous Marina Poplavskaya. As much as I like these interesting East-European singers with interesting voices, it would be an awful loss if their virtues displaced the Levine characteristics I mentioned above -- warmth, attention to beautiful sound per se, and Americanness -- in this aspect of opera as well.
The Met is closer to this point than one might think, at least among sopranos. Look at Faust: yes, Gheorghiu's cancellation/firing left the house looking for a late replacement, but Marguerite is a, perhaps the lyric soprano part, one that any singer with a voice and an iota of charm should carry off. (The greatest success in recent memory was classic soubrette-stimmdiva Ruth Ann Swenson.) And yet the Met chose Poplavskaya -- for all her virtues, the seemingly least-charming singer on its roster, and one with a functional rather than beautiful tone -- and not only let her sink the new production last season, but engaged her to ensure this season's revival is just as much of a dud. Why? When so many lyric sopranos with the classic lyric soprano virtues are out there, it's hard not to see this as a deliberate sign of what the house values and intends to value. (One might also take Kate Royal's unpleasant to hear Micaela in this vein.)
(Met Council winners do seem to get a shot, though, so let's hope Susanna Phillips seizes her long-in-coming Donna Anna and Janai Brugger turns out to be a hit as Liu.)
* * *
It's possible, of course, that Levine will, as the Met just announced, return next season hale and strong enough to make this interregnum a distant and unfortunate memory. I certainly hope so -- and even reading of his eventual return has chased off some of the gloom that inspired this piece. But even with Levine in the pit and assuring the vitality of his house, the artistic one-sidedness of the elements outside his domain will, if it continues, continue to frustrate and limit its success. For Gelb's problem, with or without Levine, remains what I noted five-and-a-half years back: the art form exists and is enjoyed in too many different ways for a single approach to be enough. Gelb's single way has shown its limits, and yet is growing ever closer to swallowing every other path. What now? Well, if I were Gelb I would look to find new approaches, with a few more shots at a real, sincere traditionalism -- beginning with a replacement for the worst production in the repertory, the unwatchable Traviata. And I'd think more about presenting beautiful voices... and I'd make sure Nezet-Seguin learns the Verdi canon as fast as possible.
I'm pretty sure the latter will be covered -- as for the rest? Unlikely, but we'll see. As I said, dissatisfaction is in the air.
A year ago the news came as... news, and in stages: a foretaste in spring, from the usual on-and-off issues; then the awful accident and cancellations for the first part of 2011-2012 in September; then the thud of no appearances at all. For many months -- until the announcement just last night of an eventual return, in fact -- Levine's absence has been the unspoken cloud hanging over the house. Fabio Luisi was appointed principal conductor last season, so the facade of continuity remained. And yet...
The problem for Peter Gelb and the Met is that Levine's work and presence in the pit was the core of the company's identity for decades. Singers, productions, production fads, and even general managers came and went, relying on the musical-sonic foundation provided by Levine and the orchestra he built and polished over many consecutive seasons. And not just his colleagues: for regular Met-goers, Levine's performances of Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, and the modernists were a pleasure one could anticipate as well as savor every year -- the one part of the experience that would not fail.
Yet it's not that Gelb and his administration have handled this crisis poorly: Luisi is as distinguished an emergency deputy as one could imagine, and circumstance has parked Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the first really plausible successor I can recall, just down the Turnpike at the Philadelphia Orchestra. The house continues its decade-long trend of trying out interesting new conducting talent, though with mixed results. But Levine's presence has been particularly important to Gelb's administration, because Levine maintained in his domain virtues Gelb otherwise is and has been reluctant to offer and value: warmth, attention to beautiful sound per se, and -- of course -- Americanness.
For all Fabio Luisi's prodigious skill and clarity, he's not that kind of counterweight. Luisi is, in fact, exactly of a piece with the Gelb administration's favored artists: a bit cerebral, a bit chilly even in his excitement, and impeccably European in pedigree. His substitution for Levine has put us now thoroughly in the Gelb era.
It's perhaps not quite coincidence that dissatisfaction with Gelb's administration is now part of the operagoing air. Spring's Opera News kerfuffle aired the extent of this development: not only did the public roundly slam the Met, but the press as well, with hints that even Tommasini at the Times may be growing tired of carrying the company's water. Why? Well, I noted at the start of Gelb's tenure that he holds a specific and far-from-universal vision of opera, and subsequent years seem to have borne this out. One could recognize the family resemblance in his productions years ago: tall blank walls, high narrow staircases and platforms, dim lighting and strong colors, near-doctrinaire avoidance/elimination of representational detail (as in Islamic art, words and abstract designs are permitted) in sets though not in costumes, and of course a general tilt to the crass and vulgar in stage direction. (Some house edict seems to have extended the latter element to revivals as well, creating the Obligatory Gelb-Era Humping Scene.) This can be fantastic -- as in, most recently, The Nose -- and is catnip to a certain segment of New Yorkers, but is contrary to the way a large (perhaps majority) portion of the Met audience takes in and appreciates visual information. And yet the alternatives -- though ever more important, as the Met rolls out its biggest and most war-horsey traditional productions (Turandot and Aida) many times this season to weather the poor economy -- are vanishing faster than they used to, thanks to the uptick in (new, Gelb-style) premieres from Gelb's co-production program.
Even the shows seemingly designed for traditional appeal do not quite scratch that itch. For not only do Bart Sher's comedic efforts (his louche Hoffmann -- the one show where he wasn't tasked with aiming for faux-traditional -- was quite good, though very much in the Gelb-era manner) and the Lepage Ring -- the most prominent efforts in this vein -- largely remix the same anti-traditional visual syntax, they in fact rely on theatrical distancing effects (video screens, frames, play-within-a-play additions) that present the story under glass, or in big quotation marks. Straightforward warmth, beauty, realism still aren't on the table, and so as traditional experiences, these new shows fail where their predecessors (often) succeeded. (Of course, they don't succeed as critic-pleasing fare either, and I can almost imagine Gelb striding bloodily onto the stage demanding "Are you not entertained!?" at their premieres.)
Some form of this complaint is now regularly aired with each premiere. But the corresponding trend in casting has been less remarked upon. For while respecting the biggest stars already in the house, Gelb brought a certain kind of singer to the fore from the start, and continues to do so today. His original favorites have largely run their course: Angela Gheorghiu crashed and burned with this administration as she did with Volpe's, Diana Damrau has failed to become an audience draw despite much exposure and press, and while Anna Netrebko still sells tickets, she does so now more as an opera celebrity than as notable artist or (as silly as it is to mention) sex symbol. Behind them, though, the Met continues to bring in and promote sopranos in their mold -- e.g. Nino Machaidze, Hibla Gerzmava, and of course the now-ubiquitous Marina Poplavskaya. As much as I like these interesting East-European singers with interesting voices, it would be an awful loss if their virtues displaced the Levine characteristics I mentioned above -- warmth, attention to beautiful sound per se, and Americanness -- in this aspect of opera as well.
The Met is closer to this point than one might think, at least among sopranos. Look at Faust: yes, Gheorghiu's cancellation/firing left the house looking for a late replacement, but Marguerite is a, perhaps the lyric soprano part, one that any singer with a voice and an iota of charm should carry off. (The greatest success in recent memory was classic soubrette-stimmdiva Ruth Ann Swenson.) And yet the Met chose Poplavskaya -- for all her virtues, the seemingly least-charming singer on its roster, and one with a functional rather than beautiful tone -- and not only let her sink the new production last season, but engaged her to ensure this season's revival is just as much of a dud. Why? When so many lyric sopranos with the classic lyric soprano virtues are out there, it's hard not to see this as a deliberate sign of what the house values and intends to value. (One might also take Kate Royal's unpleasant to hear Micaela in this vein.)
(Met Council winners do seem to get a shot, though, so let's hope Susanna Phillips seizes her long-in-coming Donna Anna and Janai Brugger turns out to be a hit as Liu.)
It's possible, of course, that Levine will, as the Met just announced, return next season hale and strong enough to make this interregnum a distant and unfortunate memory. I certainly hope so -- and even reading of his eventual return has chased off some of the gloom that inspired this piece. But even with Levine in the pit and assuring the vitality of his house, the artistic one-sidedness of the elements outside his domain will, if it continues, continue to frustrate and limit its success. For Gelb's problem, with or without Levine, remains what I noted five-and-a-half years back: the art form exists and is enjoyed in too many different ways for a single approach to be enough. Gelb's single way has shown its limits, and yet is growing ever closer to swallowing every other path. What now? Well, if I were Gelb I would look to find new approaches, with a few more shots at a real, sincere traditionalism -- beginning with a replacement for the worst production in the repertory, the unwatchable Traviata. And I'd think more about presenting beautiful voices... and I'd make sure Nezet-Seguin learns the Verdi canon as fast as possible.
I'm pretty sure the latter will be covered -- as for the rest? Unlikely, but we'll see. As I said, dissatisfaction is in the air.
Monday, October 08, 2012
The week in NY opera (October 8-14)
Metropolitan Opera
Trovatore (M/F), Otello (T/SE), Elisir (W*/SM), Carmen (Th)
The big event is, of course, the return of Botha, Fleming, and Bychkov in an Otello that was one of the highlights five seasons back. Trovatore, despite its relatively no-name cast, is pretty good -- elaboration to follow.
Link for weekend ticket lottery drawing here; enter by midnight ET.
* Wednesday's (starred) Elisir is the one just before this Saturday's matinee moviecast, which means that the camera equipment and lights will be out in force. Do not sit in side orchestra, front orchestra, or side parterre -- the house is not interested in optimizing patron experience on these nights, but in making the eventual broadcast go well.
Carnegie Hall
Met Orchestra concert (Sunday 3pm)
Bychkov again, this time in Wagner and Strauss. Eva-Maria Westbroek sings the former's Wesendonck songs.
Trovatore (M/F), Otello (T/SE), Elisir (W*/SM), Carmen (Th)
The big event is, of course, the return of Botha, Fleming, and Bychkov in an Otello that was one of the highlights five seasons back. Trovatore, despite its relatively no-name cast, is pretty good -- elaboration to follow.
Link for weekend ticket lottery drawing here; enter by midnight ET.
* Wednesday's (starred) Elisir is the one just before this Saturday's matinee moviecast, which means that the camera equipment and lights will be out in force. Do not sit in side orchestra, front orchestra, or side parterre -- the house is not interested in optimizing patron experience on these nights, but in making the eventual broadcast go well.
Carnegie Hall
Met Orchestra concert (Sunday 3pm)
Bychkov again, this time in Wagner and Strauss. Eva-Maria Westbroek sings the former's Wesendonck songs.
Monday, October 01, 2012
The week in NY opera (October 1-7)
Metropolitan Opera
Elisir (M/F), Carmen (T/SE), Turandot (W/SM), Trovatore (Th)
Same shows as last week. Carmen is good. Trovatore, which is hideously undersold and lacks star casting, at least has an excellent recent production.
Link for weekend ticket lottery drawing here; enter by midnight ET.
Le Poisson Rouge
Gotham Chamber Opera: Orientale (M/W)
A baroque-romantic-exotic traditional music/multimedia mashup.
Alexander Kasser Theater (Montclair State University)
Dog Days (F/S/SuM)
I feel a bit bad about not seeing or mentioning the premiere of this show last weekend, but the new opera by David T. Little and librettist Royce Vavrek plays again this week. The trailer below may help you judge for yourself whether it may merit an out-of-town trip (bus service does run from Port Authority):
Elisir (M/F), Carmen (T/SE), Turandot (W/SM), Trovatore (Th)
Same shows as last week. Carmen is good. Trovatore, which is hideously undersold and lacks star casting, at least has an excellent recent production.
Link for weekend ticket lottery drawing here; enter by midnight ET.
Le Poisson Rouge
Gotham Chamber Opera: Orientale (M/W)
A baroque-romantic-exotic traditional music/multimedia mashup.
Alexander Kasser Theater (Montclair State University)
Dog Days (F/S/SuM)
I feel a bit bad about not seeing or mentioning the premiere of this show last weekend, but the new opera by David T. Little and librettist Royce Vavrek plays again this week. The trailer below may help you judge for yourself whether it may merit an out-of-town trip (bus service does run from Port Authority):
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Slow burn
Carmen - Metropolitan Opera, 9/28/2012
Rachvelishvili, Royal, Lee, Ketelsen / Mariotti
Leads Anita Rachvelishvili and Yonghoon Lee are, it turns out, who we thought they were: a pair of astonishing-voiced singers who can carry any production. Rachvelishvili still hits some pitch issues at the top of her range, but the main body of her sound is as fully and gorgeously textured as any mezzo in this Golden Age. Lee, meanwhile, shows here as strongly as he did as Don Carlo that he's something like an ideal romantic spinto tenor: he feels -- and of course shapes -- these parts' great tragic phrases so strongly, so grandly, that the striking squillo of his tone and the full expansiveness of his high notes come almost as obvious corollaries. More, please.
The other headliners were mixed. Best was American bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen, who in addition to being an appropriately handsome Escamillo was the most vocally authoritative one since Rene Pape about a decade ago. Less good was the Micaela, Kate Royal. She phrased just fine, but even a vibrato-aficionado as I -- Calleja, Radvanovsky, and Röschmann may be my favorite operatic sounds -- found little to enjoy in Royal's actual singing. Unlike these other vibrati, Royal's does not seem the healthy individual expression of a strong support, but something less felicitous. I hope she's indisposed or not entirely recovered from her last pregnancy or... something, because otherwise I'm concerned for the state of English ears. Her sound did not blend at all well with Lee's, but that at least makes a sort of dramatic sense.
Debuting conductor Michele Mariotti was somewhere in between. The current principal conductor at Bologna showed a number of virtues: precise control of ensembles, firm rhythmic sense, and the wisdom not to get in his singers' way -- and, indeed, helping them make much of slow climaxes of the piece. And so on this night the highlights were the Micaela-Jose duet, the Flower Song, and similar still segments throughout, here done with a rare unity and concentration. But despite all that -- and despite fairly snappy accounts of the first- and last-act preludes -- Mariotti seemed to have little interest in giving the piece an overall shape, quite happy to let the colorful bits slack unhurriedly, as if in fact on a hot Spanish afternoon, and to let the more urgent portions approach but never quite cross over into excitement. This appears to be Mariotti's legitimate view of the piece, and he shows skill in bringing it to life, but it's a letdown after how Nézet-Séguin opened the production three seasons back.
So the show falls into scenes, which is not the worst thing given the way its cast brings them successively to life.
* * *
Lee will, it seems, be back in the not-too-distant future for revivals of Ballo (new later this season) and Trovatore. In this interview from last year (around the Nabucco revival) one can see him talk about the time before his big break: fascinating stuff.
Rachvelishvili, Royal, Lee, Ketelsen / Mariotti
Leads Anita Rachvelishvili and Yonghoon Lee are, it turns out, who we thought they were: a pair of astonishing-voiced singers who can carry any production. Rachvelishvili still hits some pitch issues at the top of her range, but the main body of her sound is as fully and gorgeously textured as any mezzo in this Golden Age. Lee, meanwhile, shows here as strongly as he did as Don Carlo that he's something like an ideal romantic spinto tenor: he feels -- and of course shapes -- these parts' great tragic phrases so strongly, so grandly, that the striking squillo of his tone and the full expansiveness of his high notes come almost as obvious corollaries. More, please.
The other headliners were mixed. Best was American bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen, who in addition to being an appropriately handsome Escamillo was the most vocally authoritative one since Rene Pape about a decade ago. Less good was the Micaela, Kate Royal. She phrased just fine, but even a vibrato-aficionado as I -- Calleja, Radvanovsky, and Röschmann may be my favorite operatic sounds -- found little to enjoy in Royal's actual singing. Unlike these other vibrati, Royal's does not seem the healthy individual expression of a strong support, but something less felicitous. I hope she's indisposed or not entirely recovered from her last pregnancy or... something, because otherwise I'm concerned for the state of English ears. Her sound did not blend at all well with Lee's, but that at least makes a sort of dramatic sense.
Debuting conductor Michele Mariotti was somewhere in between. The current principal conductor at Bologna showed a number of virtues: precise control of ensembles, firm rhythmic sense, and the wisdom not to get in his singers' way -- and, indeed, helping them make much of slow climaxes of the piece. And so on this night the highlights were the Micaela-Jose duet, the Flower Song, and similar still segments throughout, here done with a rare unity and concentration. But despite all that -- and despite fairly snappy accounts of the first- and last-act preludes -- Mariotti seemed to have little interest in giving the piece an overall shape, quite happy to let the colorful bits slack unhurriedly, as if in fact on a hot Spanish afternoon, and to let the more urgent portions approach but never quite cross over into excitement. This appears to be Mariotti's legitimate view of the piece, and he shows skill in bringing it to life, but it's a letdown after how Nézet-Séguin opened the production three seasons back.
So the show falls into scenes, which is not the worst thing given the way its cast brings them successively to life.
Lee will, it seems, be back in the not-too-distant future for revivals of Ballo (new later this season) and Trovatore. In this interview from last year (around the Nabucco revival) one can see him talk about the time before his big break: fascinating stuff.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Met season preview, part 2: who's on
Collated from the February and August posts, with some further noted changes. As in previous years, operas are listed in order of first appearance. Some one-off cast combinations are omitted.
L'Elisir d'Amore (new Bartlett Sher production)
Netrebko, Polenzani, Kwiecien, Maestri / Benini (opening night through October)
Netrebko, Polenzani, Kwiecien, Schrott / Benini (late January through early February)
Anna Netrebko gets a second consecutive opening night. Nemorino is an excellent part for Matthew Polenzani, but I don't expect this to be any more satisfying for non-Netrebko fans than her previous shot (when her voice was better suited to such parts) at Donizetti comedy. I'd grade Bartlett Sher as one-for-three at the Met so far (Hoffmann yes, Barber and Comte Ory no), but his misses are at least inoffensive. I suspect Maestri will be the more humane option as Dulcamara.
Turandot
Guleghina, Gerzmava, Berti, Morris / Ettinger (September through early October)
Theorin, Brugger, Giordani, Morris / Ettinger (October 30 through early November)
Theorin, Gerzmava, Fraccaro, Ramey / Ettinger (January)
Maria Guleghina seems to be herself again after an atrocious Turandot run several seasons ago, but the tenor lineup isn't exactly exciting. The Lius are more interesting: Hibla Gerzmava, an exciting live-voiced Antonia/Stella and Mimi here already, and Janai Brugger, debuting soon after showing off a glorious lyric soprano instrument in this year's Met Council Finals. Brugger replaces another young black soprano, Takesha Meshe Kizart, whose baby dramatic-coloratura sound I'd certainly still like to hear again.
Carmen
Royal, Rachvelishvili, Lee, Ketelsen / Mariotti (September 28 through October)
Scherbachenko, Rachvelishvili, Schukoff, Rhodes / Mariotti (February)
Scherbachenko, Rachvelishvili, Richards, Rhodes / Mariotti (February-March)
Young old-school mezzo Anita Rachvelishvili gets two runs, the first with excellent young Korean tenor Yonghoon Lee and the second with debutants Nikolai Schukoff and Andrew Richards... A much more appetizing revival than the Turandot.
Il Trovatore
Giannattasio, Zajick, Jones, Vassallo, Robinson / Callegari (September 29 through early October)
Yu, Zajick, Jones, Vassallo, Robinson / Callegari (October)
Racette, Blythe, Berti, Markov, Stamboglis / Callegari (January)
Wasn't Anja Harteros supposed to be in this? Sondra Radvanovsky definitely was (in October), but she'll now be rehearsing for Ballo instead. Now October brings Chinese soprano Guanqun Yu, a second-prize winner in this summer's Operalia competition.. Still, the men are more worrying, particularly for fall: Gwyn Hughes Jones hasn't done much, and it's hard to imagine the same Franco Vassallo who previously couldn't make an impact as Belcore now turning in a commanding di Luna. Angela Meade has a single performance as Leonora on January 16.
Otello
Fleming, Botha, Fabiano, Struckmann / Bychkov (October)
Stoyanova, Cura, Dolgov, Hampson / Altinoglu (March)
Fall run: revival of a classic 2008 cast, not to be missed.
Spring run: hallelujah, the Met's finally cut bait on Domingo's "conducting" travesties! Still a more odd cast, though now intriguing.
The Tempest (new Robert Lepage production)
Luna, Leonard, Davies, Shrader, Oke, Burden, Spence, Keenlyside / Adès (October-November)
I know nothing about this piece, but I'm pretty sure it can't be as irritating an attempt at unwriting the original Shakespeare as last season's Enchanted Island was.
Le Nozze di Figaro
Kovalevska, Erdmann, Schäfer, Finley, Abdrazakov / Robertson (October-November)
Very promising cast for this revival, though Mojca Erdmann is again in a part that's perhaps not quite high enough for her voice to shine.
Un Ballo in Maschera (new David Alden production)
Radvanovsky, Kim, Zajick, Álvarez, Hvorostovsky / Luisi (November)
Radvanovsky, Kim, Blythe, Álvarez, Hvorostovsky / Luisi (November-December)
Radvanovsky and Hvorostovsky: two great (contrasting) tastes that taste great together. If only the run had Calleja to round out a full dream cast... not that I expect Marcelo Alvarez to be any less than enjoyable & professional, as he was with these singers in the McVicar Trovatore premiere. Whether Alden's production will be helpful, incidental, or ruinous is another matter.
La Clemenza di Tito
Crowe, Frittoli, Garanca, Lindsey, Filianoti, Gradus / Bicket (November-December)
It's Garanca, not Lindsey, as Sesto. Not sure this is for the best.
Aida
Monastyrska, Borodina, Berti, Mastromarino, Kocán, Sebestyén / Luisi (November)
He, Borodina, Berti, Mastromarino, Kocán, Sebestyén / Luisi (December)
Monastyrska, Borodina, Alagna, Gagnidze, Kocán, Sebestyén / Luisi (December)
He, Borodina, Alagna, Gagnidze, Kocán, Sebestyén / Luisi (December)
Many different parts around Olga Borodina's Amneris. I suppose Fabio Luisi's appearance in this war-horse means he's serious about the Met commitment.
Don Giovanni
Phillips, Bell, Siurina, Castronovo, Abdrazakov, Schrott, Soar, Aceto / Gardner (late November through December)
After a spate of more baritonal Dons, Ildar Abdrazakov brings his bassy charisma to the part. Erwin Schrott, whom I've elsewhere found lacking in the humane element, is an interesting and perhaps inspired choice for Leporello. Exciting to see Susanna Phillips get a big Mozart part here again.
Les Troyens
Voigt, Graham, Cargill, Giordani, Cutler, Croft, Youn / Luisi (December-January)
It seems that Susan Graham has been waiting forever for this revival -- and in fact it will have been almost a decade since that magic first run with Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson's great Met triumph as Didon. Not sure what vocal form the other principals will show, but I think I'll miss Matthew Polenzani's utterly perfect Iopas this time...
The Barber of Seville (abridged holiday version)
Leonard, Shrader, Pogossov, Del Carlo, Bisch / Abel (December-January)
As usual for these holiday shows, the casting is pretty good.
Maria Stuarda (new David McVicar production)
van den Heever, DiDonato, Meli, Hopkins, Rose / Benini (New Year's Eve through January)
Finally, a big Joyce DiDonato bel canto vehicle -- and with the heralded debut of soprano Elza van den Heever to boot. McVicar's Anna Bolena was tasteful and literal and dull, but his promise of a "freer" physical production for this Donizetti installment is a good sign.
La Rondine
Opolais, Christy, Filianoti, Brenciu, Croft / Marin (January)
Kristine Opolais was supposed to have debut in last season's Boheme (as Musetta), but didn't for whatever reason. There's good music in this opera, but I'm not sure it will be half as interesting without the meta-angle that Angela Gheorghiu brought to its last run. Incidentally, Ion Marin hasn't conducted at the Met since 1993.
Le Comte Ory
Machaidze, Deshayes, Resmark, Flórez, Gunn, Ulivieri / Benini (January-February)
The least appealing Florez vehicle to date gets a revival with the impressive but perhaps miscast Nino Machaidze and no Joyce DiDonato.
Rigoletto (new Michael Mayer production)
Damrau, Volkova, Beczala, Lucic, Kocán / Mariotti (late January through February)
Oropesa, Herrera, Grigolo, Gagnidze, Iori / Armiliato (April through May 1)
I don't think the first cast can work (excellent singing, poor fit-to-part), and Vittorio Grigolo's unbearable and overhyped debut has me quite wary of the otherwise-promising spring lineup. As for the new Las Vegas-set production, who knows?
Parsifal (new François Girard production)
Dalayman, Kaufmann, Mattei, Nikitin, Pape / Gatti (February-March)
Dalayman, Kaufmann, Mattei, Nikitin, Pape / Fisch (March)
When the most doubtful part of a cast is Jonas Kaufmann (who wasn't that great in his last Wagner outing here), you've got one heck of a promising show. This is Girard's first big-house/standard-rep show; he of course directed the film 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould.
Don Carlo
Frittoli, Smirnova, Vargas, Hvorostovsky, Furlanetto, Halfvarson / Maazel (February-March)
A cast that perhaps should have been the premiere lineup... but is seriously diminished by Sondra Radvanovsky's replacement by Frittoli. (Not sure why, since it's two months after the final Ballo.) And too bad it's not the previous production that's being revived...
Francesca da Rimini
Westbroek, Giordani, Brubaker, Delavan / Armiliato (March)
Mark Delavan returns! Not sure how well the rest will go.
La Traviata
Damrau, Pirgu, Domingo / Nézet-Séguin (March-April)
Promising young tenor (Saimir Pirgu) and the season's only scheduled appearances by great conductorial hope Yannick Nézet-Séguin, but it's already past time for Gelb to kill this insultingly stupid & bathetic Willy Decker nonsense under the rubric of having many and rapid new productions. Violetta and papa Germont allow a range of voices, but Diana Damrau and Placido Domingo nevertheless aren't the most obvious choices for these either...
Faust
Poplavskaya, Boulianne, Beczala, Markov, Relyea / Altinoglu (March-April)
Another good tenor, but the rest isn't inspiring. I really liked Marina Poplavskaya's Elisabetta, but her utter humorlessness is a terrible fit for Marguerite.
Giulio Cesare
Dessay, Coote, Bardon, Daniels, Dumaux, Loconsolo / Bicket (April-May)
Dessay's Cleopatra worth the rest? Depends.
Dialogues des Carmélites
Leonard, Racette, Morley, Bishop, Palmer, Appleby / Langrée (May)
This show always works, but I'm not sure Louis Langree is the man to conduct it.
The Ring
Voigt, Morris, Delavan / Luisi (Cycle 1)
Dalayman, Morris, Delavan / Luisi (Cycle 2)
Voigt, Cleveman, Grimsley / Luisi (Cycle 3)
Mark Delavan's Met return is in fact rather huge, with two Ring cycles. The casting as a whole is a bit less starry than this year's, but the staging kinks may have been worked out by 2013.
L'Elisir d'Amore (new Bartlett Sher production)
Netrebko, Polenzani, Kwiecien, Maestri / Benini (opening night through October)
Netrebko, Polenzani, Kwiecien, Schrott / Benini (late January through early February)
Anna Netrebko gets a second consecutive opening night. Nemorino is an excellent part for Matthew Polenzani, but I don't expect this to be any more satisfying for non-Netrebko fans than her previous shot (when her voice was better suited to such parts) at Donizetti comedy. I'd grade Bartlett Sher as one-for-three at the Met so far (Hoffmann yes, Barber and Comte Ory no), but his misses are at least inoffensive. I suspect Maestri will be the more humane option as Dulcamara.
Turandot
Guleghina, Gerzmava, Berti, Morris / Ettinger (September through early October)
Theorin, Brugger, Giordani, Morris / Ettinger (October 30 through early November)
Theorin, Gerzmava, Fraccaro, Ramey / Ettinger (January)
Maria Guleghina seems to be herself again after an atrocious Turandot run several seasons ago, but the tenor lineup isn't exactly exciting. The Lius are more interesting: Hibla Gerzmava, an exciting live-voiced Antonia/Stella and Mimi here already, and Janai Brugger, debuting soon after showing off a glorious lyric soprano instrument in this year's Met Council Finals. Brugger replaces another young black soprano, Takesha Meshe Kizart, whose baby dramatic-coloratura sound I'd certainly still like to hear again.
Carmen
Royal, Rachvelishvili, Lee, Ketelsen / Mariotti (September 28 through October)
Scherbachenko, Rachvelishvili, Schukoff, Rhodes / Mariotti (February)
Scherbachenko, Rachvelishvili, Richards, Rhodes / Mariotti (February-March)
Young old-school mezzo Anita Rachvelishvili gets two runs, the first with excellent young Korean tenor Yonghoon Lee and the second with debutants Nikolai Schukoff and Andrew Richards... A much more appetizing revival than the Turandot.
Il Trovatore
Giannattasio, Zajick, Jones, Vassallo, Robinson / Callegari (September 29 through early October)
Yu, Zajick, Jones, Vassallo, Robinson / Callegari (October)
Racette, Blythe, Berti, Markov, Stamboglis / Callegari (January)
Wasn't Anja Harteros supposed to be in this? Sondra Radvanovsky definitely was (in October), but she'll now be rehearsing for Ballo instead. Now October brings Chinese soprano Guanqun Yu, a second-prize winner in this summer's Operalia competition.. Still, the men are more worrying, particularly for fall: Gwyn Hughes Jones hasn't done much, and it's hard to imagine the same Franco Vassallo who previously couldn't make an impact as Belcore now turning in a commanding di Luna. Angela Meade has a single performance as Leonora on January 16.
Otello
Fleming, Botha, Fabiano, Struckmann / Bychkov (October)
Stoyanova, Cura, Dolgov, Hampson / Altinoglu (March)
Fall run: revival of a classic 2008 cast, not to be missed.
Spring run: hallelujah, the Met's finally cut bait on Domingo's "conducting" travesties! Still a more odd cast, though now intriguing.
The Tempest (new Robert Lepage production)
Luna, Leonard, Davies, Shrader, Oke, Burden, Spence, Keenlyside / Adès (October-November)
I know nothing about this piece, but I'm pretty sure it can't be as irritating an attempt at unwriting the original Shakespeare as last season's Enchanted Island was.
Le Nozze di Figaro
Kovalevska, Erdmann, Schäfer, Finley, Abdrazakov / Robertson (October-November)
Very promising cast for this revival, though Mojca Erdmann is again in a part that's perhaps not quite high enough for her voice to shine.
Un Ballo in Maschera (new David Alden production)
Radvanovsky, Kim, Zajick, Álvarez, Hvorostovsky / Luisi (November)
Radvanovsky, Kim, Blythe, Álvarez, Hvorostovsky / Luisi (November-December)
Radvanovsky and Hvorostovsky: two great (contrasting) tastes that taste great together. If only the run had Calleja to round out a full dream cast... not that I expect Marcelo Alvarez to be any less than enjoyable & professional, as he was with these singers in the McVicar Trovatore premiere. Whether Alden's production will be helpful, incidental, or ruinous is another matter.
La Clemenza di Tito
Crowe, Frittoli, Garanca, Lindsey, Filianoti, Gradus / Bicket (November-December)
It's Garanca, not Lindsey, as Sesto. Not sure this is for the best.
Aida
Monastyrska, Borodina, Berti, Mastromarino, Kocán, Sebestyén / Luisi (November)
He, Borodina, Berti, Mastromarino, Kocán, Sebestyén / Luisi (December)
Monastyrska, Borodina, Alagna, Gagnidze, Kocán, Sebestyén / Luisi (December)
He, Borodina, Alagna, Gagnidze, Kocán, Sebestyén / Luisi (December)
Many different parts around Olga Borodina's Amneris. I suppose Fabio Luisi's appearance in this war-horse means he's serious about the Met commitment.
Don Giovanni
Phillips, Bell, Siurina, Castronovo, Abdrazakov, Schrott, Soar, Aceto / Gardner (late November through December)
After a spate of more baritonal Dons, Ildar Abdrazakov brings his bassy charisma to the part. Erwin Schrott, whom I've elsewhere found lacking in the humane element, is an interesting and perhaps inspired choice for Leporello. Exciting to see Susanna Phillips get a big Mozart part here again.
Les Troyens
Voigt, Graham, Cargill, Giordani, Cutler, Croft, Youn / Luisi (December-January)
It seems that Susan Graham has been waiting forever for this revival -- and in fact it will have been almost a decade since that magic first run with Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson's great Met triumph as Didon. Not sure what vocal form the other principals will show, but I think I'll miss Matthew Polenzani's utterly perfect Iopas this time...
The Barber of Seville (abridged holiday version)
Leonard, Shrader, Pogossov, Del Carlo, Bisch / Abel (December-January)
As usual for these holiday shows, the casting is pretty good.
Maria Stuarda (new David McVicar production)
van den Heever, DiDonato, Meli, Hopkins, Rose / Benini (New Year's Eve through January)
Finally, a big Joyce DiDonato bel canto vehicle -- and with the heralded debut of soprano Elza van den Heever to boot. McVicar's Anna Bolena was tasteful and literal and dull, but his promise of a "freer" physical production for this Donizetti installment is a good sign.
La Rondine
Opolais, Christy, Filianoti, Brenciu, Croft / Marin (January)
Kristine Opolais was supposed to have debut in last season's Boheme (as Musetta), but didn't for whatever reason. There's good music in this opera, but I'm not sure it will be half as interesting without the meta-angle that Angela Gheorghiu brought to its last run. Incidentally, Ion Marin hasn't conducted at the Met since 1993.
Le Comte Ory
Machaidze, Deshayes, Resmark, Flórez, Gunn, Ulivieri / Benini (January-February)
The least appealing Florez vehicle to date gets a revival with the impressive but perhaps miscast Nino Machaidze and no Joyce DiDonato.
Rigoletto (new Michael Mayer production)
Damrau, Volkova, Beczala, Lucic, Kocán / Mariotti (late January through February)
Oropesa, Herrera, Grigolo, Gagnidze, Iori / Armiliato (April through May 1)
I don't think the first cast can work (excellent singing, poor fit-to-part), and Vittorio Grigolo's unbearable and overhyped debut has me quite wary of the otherwise-promising spring lineup. As for the new Las Vegas-set production, who knows?
Parsifal (new François Girard production)
Dalayman, Kaufmann, Mattei, Nikitin, Pape / Gatti (February-March)
Dalayman, Kaufmann, Mattei, Nikitin, Pape / Fisch (March)
When the most doubtful part of a cast is Jonas Kaufmann (who wasn't that great in his last Wagner outing here), you've got one heck of a promising show. This is Girard's first big-house/standard-rep show; he of course directed the film 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould.
Don Carlo
Frittoli, Smirnova, Vargas, Hvorostovsky, Furlanetto, Halfvarson / Maazel (February-March)
A cast that perhaps should have been the premiere lineup... but is seriously diminished by Sondra Radvanovsky's replacement by Frittoli. (Not sure why, since it's two months after the final Ballo.) And too bad it's not the previous production that's being revived...
Francesca da Rimini
Westbroek, Giordani, Brubaker, Delavan / Armiliato (March)
Mark Delavan returns! Not sure how well the rest will go.
La Traviata
Damrau, Pirgu, Domingo / Nézet-Séguin (March-April)
Promising young tenor (Saimir Pirgu) and the season's only scheduled appearances by great conductorial hope Yannick Nézet-Séguin, but it's already past time for Gelb to kill this insultingly stupid & bathetic Willy Decker nonsense under the rubric of having many and rapid new productions. Violetta and papa Germont allow a range of voices, but Diana Damrau and Placido Domingo nevertheless aren't the most obvious choices for these either...
Faust
Poplavskaya, Boulianne, Beczala, Markov, Relyea / Altinoglu (March-April)
Another good tenor, but the rest isn't inspiring. I really liked Marina Poplavskaya's Elisabetta, but her utter humorlessness is a terrible fit for Marguerite.
Giulio Cesare
Dessay, Coote, Bardon, Daniels, Dumaux, Loconsolo / Bicket (April-May)
Dessay's Cleopatra worth the rest? Depends.
Dialogues des Carmélites
Leonard, Racette, Morley, Bishop, Palmer, Appleby / Langrée (May)
This show always works, but I'm not sure Louis Langree is the man to conduct it.
The Ring
Voigt, Morris, Delavan / Luisi (Cycle 1)
Dalayman, Morris, Delavan / Luisi (Cycle 2)
Voigt, Cleveman, Grimsley / Luisi (Cycle 3)
Mark Delavan's Met return is in fact rather huge, with two Ring cycles. The casting as a whole is a bit less starry than this year's, but the staging kinks may have been worked out by 2013.
Monday, September 24, 2012
The week in NY opera (September 24-30)
With City Opera reduced to a sadly shrunken half-existence, this will mostly be the Met this season.
Metropolitan Opera
Elisir (M/Th), Turandot (T/SE), Carmen (F), Trovatore (SM)
A new, opening-night production plus some grand warhorses. Carmen is probably the most promising of the bunch, with two young fantastic lead voices: Anita Rachvelishvili, who already seems a veteran in this, and Yonghoon Lee, who's impressed me more than any other middleweight tenor since his debut as Don Carlo two years ago -- Jonas Kaufmann very much included; in fact Kaufmann appearances since then have had me wishing it were Lee instead.
Turandot does have a promising lineup of shouters (and actually Hibla Gerzmava is rather more), if you'd like that. The rest? We'll see.
Metropolitan Opera
Elisir (M/Th), Turandot (T/SE), Carmen (F), Trovatore (SM)
A new, opening-night production plus some grand warhorses. Carmen is probably the most promising of the bunch, with two young fantastic lead voices: Anita Rachvelishvili, who already seems a veteran in this, and Yonghoon Lee, who's impressed me more than any other middleweight tenor since his debut as Don Carlo two years ago -- Jonas Kaufmann very much included; in fact Kaufmann appearances since then have had me wishing it were Lee instead.
Turandot does have a promising lineup of shouters (and actually Hibla Gerzmava is rather more), if you'd like that. The rest? We'll see.
Monday, September 17, 2012
Met season preview, part 1: getting in
The 2012-2013 season finds significant changes in the process of actually getting Metropolitan Opera tickets.
This post at "Superconductor" previewed the changes in detail when the Met first announced them months ago. In brief, there are three main alterations:
First, every level of the house has been carved up into "Premium", "Prime", and "Balance" designations, with the nicer boxes divided into "Front" and "Rear". This may sound like a mild continuation of the simple "Premium" carve-out that began five years ago, but a glance at the seat picker tells quite another story. The sections are now split approximately into thirds by distance from the stage. (In Dress Circle, though, the wheelchair seats have almost entirely swallowed Balance.)
This is, of course, a price increase -- the official claim is 7.6% average for single tickets -- but it's at least as importantly an attempt to eliminate the bargains in the house. (There's now, I think, only one area left that's worth much more than it costs -- and it's not very available anyway.) This has obvious short-term gain, but at an equally obvious cost to subscribers, subscription incentives, and general long-term goodwill of patrons. (The comments to the WSJ piece are telling.)
The second change is perhaps supposed to offset this a bit. Under the "dynamic pricing" model, ticket prices will actually increase as demand goes up. So prices may well rise if you don't lock in early.
The third change is probably more significant than the second, but appears to be hiding under talk thereof: the Met has actually already set varying initial prices for every show this season. (Information on this is in the subscription book, but doesn't appear in any easy to find place online, presumably because the house doesn't want you to know how much a show/seat initially cost.) Performances are categorized from A (cheap) to E (expensive), with special F (family -- kids' versions) and gala categories as well. This is both an outgrowth of the old "more expensive matinees/weekends" policy and an unprecedented price variation by cast and production.
Instead of going night by night, let's cross-reference the prices by run to the expectations set out last month:
This post at "Superconductor" previewed the changes in detail when the Met first announced them months ago. In brief, there are three main alterations:
First, every level of the house has been carved up into "Premium", "Prime", and "Balance" designations, with the nicer boxes divided into "Front" and "Rear". This may sound like a mild continuation of the simple "Premium" carve-out that began five years ago, but a glance at the seat picker tells quite another story. The sections are now split approximately into thirds by distance from the stage. (In Dress Circle, though, the wheelchair seats have almost entirely swallowed Balance.)
This is, of course, a price increase -- the official claim is 7.6% average for single tickets -- but it's at least as importantly an attempt to eliminate the bargains in the house. (There's now, I think, only one area left that's worth much more than it costs -- and it's not very available anyway.) This has obvious short-term gain, but at an equally obvious cost to subscribers, subscription incentives, and general long-term goodwill of patrons. (The comments to the WSJ piece are telling.)
The second change is perhaps supposed to offset this a bit. Under the "dynamic pricing" model, ticket prices will actually increase as demand goes up. So prices may well rise if you don't lock in early.
The third change is probably more significant than the second, but appears to be hiding under talk thereof: the Met has actually already set varying initial prices for every show this season. (Information on this is in the subscription book, but doesn't appear in any easy to find place online, presumably because the house doesn't want you to know how much a show/seat initially cost.) Performances are categorized from A (cheap) to E (expensive), with special F (family -- kids' versions) and gala categories as well. This is both an outgrowth of the old "more expensive matinees/weekends" policy and an unprecedented price variation by cast and production.Instead of going night by night, let's cross-reference the prices by run to the expectations set out last month:
Yes!... if the production doesn't bombWhat do we see? Well, Mozart is a bargain, matinees are still expensive (the A/D, A/B/E, and C/E shows are matinee-dependent), and that wretched Decker Traviata is an even worse idea than you might have thought.
Parsifal (E)
Ballo (C-E)
Maria Stuarda (C-E)
Sure to please
Otello (fall) (D-E)
Figaro / Don Giovanni (it's the season of Abdrazakov) (both A)
Carmen (don't miss Lee) (C-E)
Could really be something
Don Carlo (C)
Clemenza (A/D)
Aida (C/E)
Trovatore (C-E)
The Tempest (C-E)
Troyens (Graham for sure; who knows about Voigt and Giordani?) (C-E)
Otello (spring) (A-B)
Dialogues (A/B/E)
Rigoletto (spring) (D)
Only if you like that sort of thing
Elisir (Netrebko) (E)
Francesca da Rimini (Italian late-Romantic melodrama) (A/D)
Rigoletto (winter) (excellent singing + off-target acting) (C-D)
Giulio Cesare (David Daniels, or you really like Dessay) (C/E)
Rondine (rolling the dice on the lead soprano) (A/C)
Turandot (rolling the dice on lead tenors) (C-E)
Barber (kids' version) (special)
No, just no
Faust (A-B)
Comte Ory (A/B/E)
Traviata (C-E)
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Just another beautiful late-summer day
The polite fictions that order our lives seem strong and even true, because we imagine that the social equilibrium they protect and embody is permanent and universal and self-sustaining.
It is not. They are not. The world shifts under us even if we forget. This happened, even if there was (and remains) no polite space for it even to be contemplated.
It is not. They are not. The world shifts under us even if we forget. This happened, even if there was (and remains) no polite space for it even to be contemplated.
Saturday, September 08, 2012
Ring week
Monday evening begins a four-day run of Met moviecasts on TV (PBS): specifically, the four parts of Wagner's Ring cycle in Robert Lepage's flashily literal production. Friday's digestif is Susan Froemke's documentary on the development and implementation of this staging.
Review posts from the operas' initial runs:
Das RheingoldThe final segment, Götterdämmerung, was caught in my lost half-season of posts from 2011-2012 (which may yet be resurrected from notes). It was, production-wise, the most comically literal installment of all, and I wonder if the intimate HD treatment won't make this seem more silly rather than less.
Die Walküre
Siegfried
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Elsewhere
Though the "season" is still a ways off, this week brings a fully staged show to the city: Janacek's great Jenufa, last seen here five years ago. That was a starry Met cast featuring the greatest operatic performer, Karita Mattila; this is a more modest offering by William Hobbs' Opera Slavica. Two separate casts will perform this Thursday and Friday night at Czech Center New York's Bohemian National Hall.Real opera before Labor Day at a conveniently located UES venue? Seems like a good deal for $20 (advance) / $25 (door).
Meanwhile, Carnegie Hall has opened its box office to non-subscribers as of Monday. Your choices may vary -- there are plenty of non-vocal offerings of interest -- but highlights are likely to include Joyce DiDonato's Handel concert (November 18 in the big hall), Dorothea Röschmann's lieder recital (January 23 at Zankel), and -- if Rolando Villazon (or somebody...) can actually sing the tenor part -- Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra performing Verdi's Requiem (October 23).
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Met 2012-13 quick buyer's guide
Before tomorrow's opening of the Met box office to public single ticket sales (noon ET on the internet), a look at what's changed since the initial season announcement.
Elisir: TBA (as Dulcamara) is now Erwin Schrott for the January/February run. Interesting, though I suspect Maestri will be the more humane option.
Trovatore: TBA (as Manrico) is now Welsh tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones for the fall run. More significantly, Sondra Radvanovsky is now too busy with Ballo (see below) to sing Leonora mid-October, and we will instead see the debut of Chinese soprano Guanqun Yu, a second-prize winner in this summer's Operalia competition.
Otello: In perhaps the biggest announced improvement, Placido Domingo's semi-pro conducting will no longer mar the March run, with Alain Altinoglu instead on the podium. The March cast (Cura, Stoyanova, and Hampson) is still rather curious -- and a less sure bet than the fall lineup (Botha, Fleming, and Struckmann -- the former two fantastic together in 2008) -- but it will now at least be worth sampling.
Ballo: Karita Mattila is out as Amelia and Sondra Radvanovsky in. Doesn't take much luster off this particular show, but now the Met will have an entire season without Mattila. Radvanovsky and Hvorostovsky have made magic before in this music, though I expect their tenor co-star Alvarez to be more professional and admirable than electrifying.
Don Carlo: Not quite sure why (it's two months after the final Ballo), but Radvanovsky is also out as Elisabetta here, with Barbara Frittoli as the replacement. I'm not sure why she's still considered a star, but Frittoli is usually quite committed despite up-and-down vocalism. In any case, the male lineup here (Vargas, Hvorostovsky, Furlanetto, and Halfvarson) are still remarkable, though the production is not.
* * *
Quick classifications, in basic priority order both overall and within each category...
Yes!... if the production doesn't bomb
Parsifal
Ballo
Maria Stuarda
Sure to please
Otello (fall)
Figaro / Don Giovanni (it's the season of Abdrazakov)
Carmen (don't miss Lee)
Could really be something
Don Carlo
Clemenza
Aida
Trovatore
The Tempest
Troyens (Graham for sure; who knows about Voigt and Giordani?)
Otello (spring)
Dialogues
Rigoletto (spring)
Only if you like that sort of thing
Elisir (Netrebko)
Francesca da Rimini (Italian late-Romantic melodrama)
Rigoletto (winter) (excellent singing + off-target acting)
Giulio Cesare (David Daniels, or you really like Dessay)
Rondine (rolling the dice on the lead soprano)
Turandot (rolling the dice on lead tenors)
Barber (kids' version)
No, just no
Faust
Comte Ory
Traviata
Elisir: TBA (as Dulcamara) is now Erwin Schrott for the January/February run. Interesting, though I suspect Maestri will be the more humane option.
Trovatore: TBA (as Manrico) is now Welsh tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones for the fall run. More significantly, Sondra Radvanovsky is now too busy with Ballo (see below) to sing Leonora mid-October, and we will instead see the debut of Chinese soprano Guanqun Yu, a second-prize winner in this summer's Operalia competition.
Otello: In perhaps the biggest announced improvement, Placido Domingo's semi-pro conducting will no longer mar the March run, with Alain Altinoglu instead on the podium. The March cast (Cura, Stoyanova, and Hampson) is still rather curious -- and a less sure bet than the fall lineup (Botha, Fleming, and Struckmann -- the former two fantastic together in 2008) -- but it will now at least be worth sampling.
Ballo: Karita Mattila is out as Amelia and Sondra Radvanovsky in. Doesn't take much luster off this particular show, but now the Met will have an entire season without Mattila. Radvanovsky and Hvorostovsky have made magic before in this music, though I expect their tenor co-star Alvarez to be more professional and admirable than electrifying.
Don Carlo: Not quite sure why (it's two months after the final Ballo), but Radvanovsky is also out as Elisabetta here, with Barbara Frittoli as the replacement. I'm not sure why she's still considered a star, but Frittoli is usually quite committed despite up-and-down vocalism. In any case, the male lineup here (Vargas, Hvorostovsky, Furlanetto, and Halfvarson) are still remarkable, though the production is not.
Quick classifications, in basic priority order both overall and within each category...
Yes!... if the production doesn't bomb
Parsifal
Ballo
Maria Stuarda
Sure to please
Otello (fall)
Figaro / Don Giovanni (it's the season of Abdrazakov)
Carmen (don't miss Lee)
Could really be something
Don Carlo
Clemenza
Aida
Trovatore
The Tempest
Troyens (Graham for sure; who knows about Voigt and Giordani?)
Otello (spring)
Dialogues
Rigoletto (spring)
Only if you like that sort of thing
Elisir (Netrebko)
Francesca da Rimini (Italian late-Romantic melodrama)
Rigoletto (winter) (excellent singing + off-target acting)
Giulio Cesare (David Daniels, or you really like Dessay)
Rondine (rolling the dice on the lead soprano)
Turandot (rolling the dice on lead tenors)
Barber (kids' version)
No, just no
Faust
Comte Ory
Traviata
Friday, July 06, 2012
337 is the loneliest number
The Makropulos Case - Metropolitan Opera, 4/27/2012 & 5/1/2012 & 5/5/2012 & 5/8/2012 & 5/11/2012
Mattila, Leech, Reuter/Feigum, Fox, Oke, Savoy, Plenk / Belohlávek
Janacek's last complete opera builds to an astounding moment of revelation: not that the eponymous (anti-)heroine is who she is -- for the show makes little sense unless the audience, at least, has known it from the start -- but that she was once young and powerless and not over-full of the world's knowledge. She tells, at last, the story of her involuntary election at sixteen, transformed by an Emperor's fateful choice from a courtier's daughter into one both unattached and uniquely free from all ordinary necessity. Life, youth, money, prominence -- all are hers, without limit or effort for many ordinary lifetimes.
This much is entirely consistent with Karel Capek's original stage play, though absent Capek's over-elaborately arranged pseudo-courtroom setting. What comes next, however, quite diverges. Where Capek gives a clever but prolix account of E.M.'s disillusionment/boredom via long life -- inspiring an even more prolix (and rather duller) philosophical essay on the matter by Bernard Williams -- Janacek offers a tragedian's finale. This, this, and this happened, the heroine explains, and how empty and small all your aims have revealed themselves to be! (power [Prus], wealth/rich living [Gregor], order [Kolenaty], love [Kristina], lust [Hauk] and humanism [Vitek] per Capek's schematic per-character rendering) -- and yet... Death, a mere stage-clearer in the play (as it returns, with E.M. and the formula's destruction, to maintaining our illusions of value by shortening our perspectives), has the opera's real say: as the heroine awakes from short stupor to Orthodox liturgical (and, in Elijah Moshinsky's excellent staging touch, a curtain of stars that effaces the city interiors of all previous action) for her last and greatest outburst, she recognizes the grandeur of God's universe again in the undimmed and unsullied greatness of death.
This is catharsis not only for her but the opera audience, who leave with a sense of the world opposite the play's audience. Instead of a dry, black-comedic "be small and don't look too deeply, lest all your values evaporate", we are reminded that as low or ultimately futile the human values we're so torturously engaged in chasing may turn out to be, we were not born into a world so uninterestingly debaseable. For the secret of this show's appeal is that we know -- or suspect -- or fear -- that its nihilistic side is, if not entirely true, true at least in and about some very significant particulars. (Did Janacek feel this way about his futile but creatively productive love for Kamila Stosslova?) To probe this lurking but generally unspeakable thought in full-on tragic style is, among other things, intensely liberating.
* * *
In presenting this tragic Makropulos, Karita Mattila was -- as ever -- an unreservedly massive presence. She is, as in the last (movie) Salome but not in the 2004 original, showing bodily signs of age, but the spirit and voice are still as overpowering and clear as one expects. Her title character was not one to shrink from life by nature, and the most striking thing about the initial acts is the depth of sound and engagement one hears when she touches on something important. Just the fire and wistfulness in her voice as she talks about her dear Pepi Prus tells us from the first that it was not lack of personal inclination or sensibility that put her off sentimental attachment, and not mere necessity or compulsive habit that makes her such an effective meddler and seducer afterwards. As the grand old lady who doesn't give a crap (quasi-youthful edition), she is a worthy exponent of the god's-eye view (or devil's, if you like) on human aspiration, and a worthy apologist for death at the finish -- a tragic heroine for an ultimately tragic piece.
Her colleagues in the opera all remain the black-comic figures of Capek, though not lacking in sympathetic feeling for that. The Met, as it often does, cast these small parts superbly, not least young Lindemann soprano Emalie Savoy, whose arrestingly textured sound and presence made the naive and somewhat hapless Kristina nevertheless embryonically interesting. And if critics and the administration tired of the sometimes-bludgeoning forcefulness of the originally rather lyric tenor Richard Leech by the late 90s, that same quality was quite effective in this Janacek return as the earnestly impassioned Gregor.
* * *
The opera ends in a tragic one-woman show, but the contrasting mode before that point is comedy, and it was the comic timing and spirit of the ensemble that made May 8th's penultimate performance the greatest of the run, devastatingly precise in its skewering of human folly before the not-quite-"O Freunde, nicht diese Töne" of the conclusion. Meanwhile, as in previous appearances, Jiri Belohlávek's way with the orchestra became ever more rhapsodically free with repetition, making the flow of Janacek's music -- even here, in the urban setting, incorporating the surges one hears elsewhere as nature (e.g. the river in Jenufa) -- ever more irresistible and urgent over the course of the run.
With neither Mattila nor Belohlávek now scheduled at the Met next season, I hope all local readers got to see this show at least once.
Mattila, Leech, Reuter/Feigum, Fox, Oke, Savoy, Plenk / Belohlávek
Janacek's last complete opera builds to an astounding moment of revelation: not that the eponymous (anti-)heroine is who she is -- for the show makes little sense unless the audience, at least, has known it from the start -- but that she was once young and powerless and not over-full of the world's knowledge. She tells, at last, the story of her involuntary election at sixteen, transformed by an Emperor's fateful choice from a courtier's daughter into one both unattached and uniquely free from all ordinary necessity. Life, youth, money, prominence -- all are hers, without limit or effort for many ordinary lifetimes.
This much is entirely consistent with Karel Capek's original stage play, though absent Capek's over-elaborately arranged pseudo-courtroom setting. What comes next, however, quite diverges. Where Capek gives a clever but prolix account of E.M.'s disillusionment/boredom via long life -- inspiring an even more prolix (and rather duller) philosophical essay on the matter by Bernard Williams -- Janacek offers a tragedian's finale. This, this, and this happened, the heroine explains, and how empty and small all your aims have revealed themselves to be! (power [Prus], wealth/rich living [Gregor], order [Kolenaty], love [Kristina], lust [Hauk] and humanism [Vitek] per Capek's schematic per-character rendering) -- and yet... Death, a mere stage-clearer in the play (as it returns, with E.M. and the formula's destruction, to maintaining our illusions of value by shortening our perspectives), has the opera's real say: as the heroine awakes from short stupor to Orthodox liturgical (and, in Elijah Moshinsky's excellent staging touch, a curtain of stars that effaces the city interiors of all previous action) for her last and greatest outburst, she recognizes the grandeur of God's universe again in the undimmed and unsullied greatness of death.
This is catharsis not only for her but the opera audience, who leave with a sense of the world opposite the play's audience. Instead of a dry, black-comedic "be small and don't look too deeply, lest all your values evaporate", we are reminded that as low or ultimately futile the human values we're so torturously engaged in chasing may turn out to be, we were not born into a world so uninterestingly debaseable. For the secret of this show's appeal is that we know -- or suspect -- or fear -- that its nihilistic side is, if not entirely true, true at least in and about some very significant particulars. (Did Janacek feel this way about his futile but creatively productive love for Kamila Stosslova?) To probe this lurking but generally unspeakable thought in full-on tragic style is, among other things, intensely liberating.
In presenting this tragic Makropulos, Karita Mattila was -- as ever -- an unreservedly massive presence. She is, as in the last (movie) Salome but not in the 2004 original, showing bodily signs of age, but the spirit and voice are still as overpowering and clear as one expects. Her title character was not one to shrink from life by nature, and the most striking thing about the initial acts is the depth of sound and engagement one hears when she touches on something important. Just the fire and wistfulness in her voice as she talks about her dear Pepi Prus tells us from the first that it was not lack of personal inclination or sensibility that put her off sentimental attachment, and not mere necessity or compulsive habit that makes her such an effective meddler and seducer afterwards. As the grand old lady who doesn't give a crap (quasi-youthful edition), she is a worthy exponent of the god's-eye view (or devil's, if you like) on human aspiration, and a worthy apologist for death at the finish -- a tragic heroine for an ultimately tragic piece.
Her colleagues in the opera all remain the black-comic figures of Capek, though not lacking in sympathetic feeling for that. The Met, as it often does, cast these small parts superbly, not least young Lindemann soprano Emalie Savoy, whose arrestingly textured sound and presence made the naive and somewhat hapless Kristina nevertheless embryonically interesting. And if critics and the administration tired of the sometimes-bludgeoning forcefulness of the originally rather lyric tenor Richard Leech by the late 90s, that same quality was quite effective in this Janacek return as the earnestly impassioned Gregor.
The opera ends in a tragic one-woman show, but the contrasting mode before that point is comedy, and it was the comic timing and spirit of the ensemble that made May 8th's penultimate performance the greatest of the run, devastatingly precise in its skewering of human folly before the not-quite-"O Freunde, nicht diese Töne" of the conclusion. Meanwhile, as in previous appearances, Jiri Belohlávek's way with the orchestra became ever more rhapsodically free with repetition, making the flow of Janacek's music -- even here, in the urban setting, incorporating the surges one hears elsewhere as nature (e.g. the river in Jenufa) -- ever more irresistible and urgent over the course of the run.
With neither Mattila nor Belohlávek now scheduled at the Met next season, I hope all local readers got to see this show at least once.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)