Met: Adriana Lecouvreur

[+ WilliamM]

New production for New Year's Eve with Anna Netreko

 

According to the Met Opera, there are still some $100 seats available

[+ g56whiz]

Early curtain that I didn’t know about so I only caught the end of the second act and the third on SerriusXM. What fireworks. Can’t wait for the live in HD performance on Sat 1/12.

[+ WilliamM]

I am seeing the opera in New York on Friday night. Decent review from The New York Times.

[+ g56whiz]

I am seeing the opera in New York on Friday night. Decent review from The New York Times.

Decent? That’s about as rapturous as Tommasini has ever been!

[+ WilliamM]

Decent? That’s about as rapturous as Tommasini has ever been!

 

I am not familiar with the opera, but expect to like it very much.

 

But, I would prefer to see it before giving it an A+.

[+ g56whiz]

I am not familiar with the opera, but expect to like it very much.

 

But, I would prefer to see it before giving it an A+.

My bad. The opera itself is rather flimsy. There’s a reason it’s not in the standard repertory. Tommasini was being rapturous about the performances. And from what I heard he was spot on.

[sydneyboy]

“Opera” magazine used to have an excellent New York reviewer Martin Bernheimer. Has there ever been an opera critic with such a wonderful way with words?

[bostonman]

The opera itself is rather flimsy.

 

I disagree. I think it's just fine. I've never understood why so many people dismiss it so easily. It's tuneful (and often quite playfully so), the plot is no less credible than most opera plots lol, the arias/duets are musically and dramatically satisfying, and it even requires that the title character have a moment of deliciously over-the-top recitation (we can gripe about soprano X or Y overdoing Violetta's reading of the letter, or Tosca's traditionally spoken lines, etc, but Adriana HAS to go there with the Phadre scene, and it's great fun.)

 

There are other operas like this - La Rondine is one example - operas that tend to get stuck in the fringes of the repertoire, but that I think deserve much better reputations than they seem to have.

[sydneyboy]

Opera Australia mounted a production of this piece as a vehicle for Joan Sutherland in the 1980’s. I vividly remember the sub editors headline on the review in “The Australian “ newspaper. “Chilea’s Trashy Score”.

[+ g56whiz]

I disagree. I think it's just fine. I've never understood why so many people dismiss it so easily. It's tuneful (and often quite playfully so), the plot is no less credible than most opera plots lol, the arias/duets are musically and dramatically satisfying, and it even requires that the title character have a moment of deliciously over-the-top recitation (we can gripe about soprano X or Y overdoing Violetta's reading of the letter, or Tosca's traditionally spoken lines, etc, but Adriana HAS to go there with the Phadre scene, and it's great fun.)

 

There are other operas like this - La Rondine is one example - operas that tend to get stuck in the fringes of the repertoire, but that I think deserve much better reputations than they seem to have.

And that is what causes horse races.

[+ Charlie]

The other day I listened to my 40 year old recording of Adriana, with Scotto and Domingo, and decided that it was more fun than I remembered.

[+ g56whiz]

Musical America’s review of Adriana

 

From what I heard on the radio broadcast New Years Eve, the Netrebko Rashvelishvili confrontation in Aida earlier in the season is a mere tea party compared how they go at it in the second act of Adriana.

Edited January 5, 2019 by g56whiz

[gallahadesquire]

My step-sister and I were in Greater Chicago for a family death (her sister). She had had to forfeit tickets to see Adriana Lecouvreur: The Met in HD or whatever they call it in San Francisco.

 

She went online and found three theaters that were presenting it. Despite the snow (!) and the cold (!!), we went. Theater sat about 250. Fewer than 20 were there. HUGE screen, WONDERFUL acoustics, and INCREDIBLE singing! But what an odd opera, and who IS Duclos?