Met Opera HD Summer Schedule

[doitb4ugo]

When watching Die Valkurie the other day, there were a number of excepts from their summer repeats...It seemed that a number of them did not play during the year but maybe the year before (not sure of this) but wanted some opinions on some performances that should not be missed....besides what better way to spend a beautiful summer day than cooped up in a theatre....Thanks for any feedback.

[whipped guy]

One of the performances is Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment from 2008 with Juan Diego Florez and Natalie Dessay. I am a fan of Florez and he is right on target hitting all 9 high Cs in his first act aria... alas he was not allowed an encore of the cabaletta section of his aria for the broadcast... but still it is a feat not not to be missed. Natalie Dessay is Marie and is also fabulous. Now I am not a Dessay fan, but I have to admit that she acts and sings the part quite well... I heard Sutherland do this many years ago and Dessay comes quite close to that level. In fact it is the best thing that I have ever seen or heard her do. So that would get my vote. I have the audio track of this particular performance in my ipod, but the visuals of the production are quite entertaining as well even in spite of the staging being updated from the era of Napoleon to World War I.

 

The other HD Encores are of Butterfly (decent production), Tosca (production did not get good reviews), Simon Boccanegra (deep Verdi with Placido Domingo singing a baritone role), Don Carlo (long winded grand opera Verdi with Roberto Alagna in the title role), and Don Pasquale (with Anna Netrebko)... the last two being from this past season.

[leigh.bess.toad]

I hate to say it, but I have to agree with WG -- the higlight of the summer has to be La Fille. A role right up Florez's alley.

 

I'm definitely headed to the Butterfly (I think Racette would be a step up from Gallardo-Domas) and probably the Bocanegra (but I'd probably pay to see Domingo sing the Yellow Pages). Don Carlo leaves me wondering -- it is an opera that absolutely demands all 6 lead roles be great vocally. I think anyone of them missing can drag it down. And I'm not sure this cast is up to it. I've never been a big Alagna fan except for very limited repertoire, and this ain't it. I do love Tosca but the production got such horrible reviews as well as pretty awful audience response as well, I just don't know. It may be one to go see, sort of like watching a train wreck. And then just go to Pasquale to watch Nebs.

 

All in all a pretty good summer filler. And with the exception of Don Carlo, all the operas clock in at under 2:30. I do wish they'd have thrown in T&I from a couple of years ago, but I'm a slut for T&I, what do you want?

[whipped guy]

I hate to say it, but I have to agree with WG --

Well I hate to say it, but I mostly agree with Lee... well except for the T&I that is... (Though give me the Liebestod anytime...and especially as sung by Nilsson.) However, he is spot on regarding Don Carlo, Alagna, and the rest of the cast. Also, as far as Butterfly is concerned, while Racette would definitely be a step up, I am not sure that she would be the ideal Cio Cio San. Actually I recall that she was a weak sounding Elisabetta di Valois in Don Carlo from a few seasons back (proving Lee's point about all the principals needing to be on top of their game)... and Butterfly is a much more intense role. As for Domingo and Nebs, they would certainly be the attractions and are most likely the reasons those particular operas were chosen.

[leigh.bess.toad]

(Though give me the Liebestod anytime.

 

Why thank you WG. I didn't know you cared. What? Oh, you meant the music. Well damn.

 

I am not sure that she would be the ideal Cio Cio San.

 

No, the ideal Cio-Cio-San stopped singing quite a few years ago. Renata Scotto was Butterfly to me. Her recording with Bergonzi is one of the 2 or 3 best operating recordings of all time. And I got to see her do it once live, and it waws a historic event although we didn't know it at the time. It was at Wolf Trap Farm Park when the Met was on tour. But Scotto wasn't the history. It was the last performance with the compnay of a tenor by the name of Franco Correlli. Not bad for a Saturday matinee while on tour though -- Scotto and Correlli.

 

As for Domingo and Nebs, they would certainly be the attractions and are most likely the reasons those particular operas were chosen.

 

I think we know that Bocanegra was chosen simply because Domingo wanted to do it. Which is fine. Operatic history is full of performances simply because the star wanted to do the role. A lot of "undiscovered" operas wouldn't be performed at all without the star's insistence. One that immediately jumps to mind was La Juive. Richard Tucker I think all but insisted on it.

[+ Charlie]

And how many performances of Adriana LeCouvreur would we have if some prima donna didn't insist on it?

[leigh.bess.toad]

And how many performances of Adriana LeCouvreur would we have if some prima donna didn't insist on it?

 

Ah, an easy quesiton. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Niente. Goose egg.

[whipped guy]

And how many performances of Adriana LeCouvreur would we have if some prima donna didn't insist on it?

A "Laugh Out Loud" question of there ever was one!

[+ Charlie]

My question was, of course, rhetorical, since I knew the purist (and correct) answer would be leigh's. Confessing a taste for Cilea nowadays is equivalent to admitting an interest in scat. However, if I were offered a ticket to see Magda Olivero in her prime singing Adriana in Palermo, I would be booking my Alitalia ticket right now.

[Karl-G]

Thank You

 

Thanks very much for the note about summer repeats. That is great news, especially with the information that the performances run without intermissions. For those of us in locales without much classical music during the summer, this is a wonderful treat.

 

You might also note that Gustavo Dudamel and the L.A. Philharmonic will be broadcast live with an all Brahms program on June, June 5 at 2:30 PDT and 5:30 EDT.

[trilingual]

Saw the Don Carlo during the regular season and enjoyed it thoroughly -- it's one of my very favorite operas, with superb music and a compelling plot, plus one of the most homoerotic duets ever! It was a handsome production and I thought everyone sang well. And it was a treat because the opera here in Kansas City isn't likely to do it soon, if ever! Haven't seen Patricia Racette in years, but she performed regularly in San Francisco when I was living there and I thought she was excellent, as well as being a good actress. I think she'd be a good Cio-Cio-San, and the music is so glorious it's always a treat to see a performance.

[+ honcho]

The bay area classical radio station can be gotten on the web at http://www.kdfc.com ... on sunday nights other than the first sunday at 8pm

they transmit a program called ``symphonycast'' if you want a sampling of orchestras from around the world.

 

on the first sunday of the month they've been transmitting San Francisco Opera productions.

[Karl-G]

Symphonycast

 

Actually, Symphonycast is a two hour program broadcast on publicradio every Sunday night. (Apparently San Francisco does not get the whole series but does some programming of its own once a month on Sunday.) You can get it anyplace that has public radio, like 89.7 here in South Florida. They broadcast a live program by a different major world orchestra every week. The programs are then archived on-line, so you can listen to any of them at any any time on your computer. It is an amazing source of aural pleasure. The host is Brian Newhouse.

 

The webpage listing all programs for the year and link to the archived performances is at

http://www.symphonycast.publicradio.org

 

I'm not sure how this all works. It is a part of "American Public Media" (APM), which is not exactly the same as PublicRadio nor the old APR American Public Radio. It is supported in part by NEA, which is very nice. All the announcers are from the old WCAL classical music station at St. Olaf's in Northfield, Minnesota. They went off the air in 2003 when the college stopped funding them, and I think they formed this new umbrella group which does a wonderful job of presenting classical music on the radio. The same announcers, for example, work the San Diego market and the South Florida market, and maybe others. As far as I can tell, they looked for medium sized American cities which did not have a classical music station and offered them programming on an hourly or daily or monthly basis. But local stations did not need to have a studio or announcers or an office or anything! Just a name and a link to Minnesota! The programming is all produced in Minnesota. So San Diego has some of its own announcers as well as the "general" ones. I think all those "in" South Florida are actually in Minnesota. But they talk about the weather as if they are looking out the window. At first they would announce the temperatures in South Florida = "upper 90's during the day and 82 low at night" as an announcer in Minnesota might do, with great incredulity. They have since been taught to read these numbers as the most normal of temperatures. (All the announcers can now do it except for Jeff Essworthy (of Minnesota) whose tone of voice exudes utter disbelief and "You must be kidding!")

 

While we're talking about public radio, if you enjoy Garrison Keillor (America's Greatest Living Humorist) and his program, Prairie Home Companion, you can find all of the programs in their entirety (audially) on the internet. There are also many you tube clips of various acts during the programs. If you don't know this well, try going to the Mother's Day Program of May 8, and listen to the five minute monologue about bringing a present to mother. Or listen to one of the monologues from Lake Woebegon. It is an incredible archive, and now that Garrison is retiring, I don't know if they will keep the archives. The monologues, the music, the skits, the ads are some of the greatest ever by an American humorist. If you don't know it, you should try it. The program is presented live most Saturday evenings from St. Paul, Minnesota, from 5:00-7:00 p.m. It is then rebroadcast on Sundays (in Minnesota) from noon to 2:00 p.m. The times vary in other parts of the country. Here is South Florida it is from 6:00-8:00 p.m. But all shows are then archived and available on the web.