Opera Suggestions

[SaSherka]

So... how about that "Las Vegas Rigoletto"? I wasn't thrilled with the idea initially, but it actually worked dramatically (except for maybe Gilda's impulsive gesture of sacrifice, which doesn't really fit in the 20th century mentality, but that's probably debatable). The set was effective in the final act especially. So, not only did I not mind the staging, but the singing was wonderful. Lucic and Damrau - fabulous, every one of their duets was gorgeous.

Just realized I never posted about my last weekend trip! I generally liked Las Vegas Rigoletto, but I was bored at times in house. This is why I love HDs - you get close ups, so you are not bored by lack of action on stage (or being too far from it). Curious to see the HD encore as poor Željko Lučić's Rigoletto seemed a poor fit for Las Vegas. Sadly, he sounded OK, but not better and possibly worse than Damrau/Beczala/Kocán - not good for a title role!
Not sure I was buying Sinatra-styled Beczala as the Duke-womanizer, but he was totally believable in his duet with Gilda
Also curious where the cameras were in the 3rd act when Maddalena seduces the Duke. There was some hot action going on on the couch =) (And I still can't forgive the camerawork in Les Troyens for robbing us of major Dido & Aeneas (i.e. Graham/Hymel) smooching

Štefan Kocán looked fantastic in his two Sparafucile costumes. And Abs of Steele Beczala did his own little gymnastics riff on the pole.

YES and not just looked - SOUNDED fantastic!
And Yes. Loved that little pole-swinging Pole moment

Three words for those of you who didn't make it to Carnegie Hall for Radamisto today:

Luca Pisaroni - swoon!

Not all of us live in NYC Ehh...

PS. I did see Parsifal on Monday. Musically, couldn't have asked for a better introduction. Need to read the production notes and prepare better for the HD.

[kwanfan1818]

Living vicariously through your , emason

[BlueRidge]

The Met has announced the 2013-14 season:

2013-14-Season-Announcement/

The Live in HD lineup:

2013-14-Live-in-HD/

Live in HD:
Eugene Onegin – Tchaikovsky - October 5, 2013 at 12:55 p.m. ET New Production

Cast: Mariusz Kwiecien (Eugene Onegin), Anna Netrebko (Tatiana), Oksana Volkova (Olga), Piotr Beczala (Lenski), Alexei Tanovitsky (Gremin)

The Nose – Shostakovich - October 26, 2013 at 12:55 p.m. ET

Cast: Paulo Szot (Kovalyov), Andrey Popov (Police Inspector), Alexander Lewis (The Nose)

Tosca – Puccini - November 9, 2013 at 12:55 p.m. ET

Cast: Patricia Racette (Tosca), Roberto Alagna (Cavaradossi), George Gagnidze (Scarpia), John Del Carlo (Sacristan)

Falstaff – Giuseppe Verdi – December 14, 2013 at 12:55 p.m. ET New Production

Cast: Ambrogio Maestri (Falstaff), Lisette Oropesa (Nannetta), Angela Meade (Alice Ford), Stephanie Blythe (Mistress Quickly), Jennifer Johnson Cano (Meg Page), Paolo Fanale (Fenton), Franco Vassallo (Ford)

Rusalka - Dvořák – February 8, 2014 at 12:55 p.m. ET

Cast: Renée Fleming (Rusalka), Emily Magee (Foreign Princess), Dolora Zajick (Ježibaba), Piotr Beczala (Prince), John Relyea (Water Sprite)

Prince Igor – Alexander Borodin – March 1, 2014 at 12:00 p.m. ET New Production

Cast: Ildar Abdrazakov (Prince Igor Svyatoslavich), Oksana Dyka (Yaroslavna), Anita Rachvelishvili (Konchakovna), Sergey Semishkur (Vladimir Igorevich), Mikhail Petrenko (Prince Galitsky), Štefan Kocán (Khan Konchak)

Werther – Jules Massenet – March 15, 2014 at 12:55 p.m. ET New Production

Cast: Jonas Kaufmann (Werther), Lisette Oropesa (Sophie), Elīna Garanča (Charlotte), David Bižić (Albert), Jonathan Summers (Le Bailli)

La Bohème - Puccini – April 5, 2014 at 12:55 p.m. ET

Cast: Anita Hartig (Mimì), Susanna Phillips (Musetta), Vittorio Grigolo (Rodolfo), Massimo Cavalletti (Marcello), Patrick Carfizzi (Schaunard), Oren Gradus (Colline), Donald Maxwell (Benoit/Alcindoro)

Così fan tutte - Mozart – April 26, 2014 at 12:55 p.m. ET

Cast: Susanna Phillips (Fiordiligi), Isabel Leonard (Dorabella), Danielle de Niese (Despina), Matthew Polenzani (Ferrando), Rodion Pogossov (Guglielmo), Maurizio Muraro (Don Alfonso)

La Cenerentola - Rossini – May 10, 2014 at 12:55 p.m. ET

Cast: Joyce DiDonato (Angelina), Juan Diego Flórez (Don Ramiro), Pietro Spagnoli (Dandini), Alessandro Corbelli (Don Magnifico), Luca Pisaroni (Alidoro)

[kwanfan1818]

Thank you for posting the HD schedule, BlueRidge

I'm most looking forward to "Eugene Onegin," "Falstaff," "Werther," and "La Cenerentola."

I'm spoiled out her with Seattle Opera's "La Boheme," a great production directed by Tomer Zhulun and sung by two splendid casts. Patrick Carfizzi will rock Schaunard in the Met's version.

[IoanaC]

Met's next season will be fabulous. There's not one HD production that I'm not looking forward to. Those four you mentioned are my favourite picks as well, Kwanfan1818. Plus, I'm incredibly happy for (my compatriot) Anita Hartig's Met debut in La Boheme, what a great opportunity for her!

[BlueRidge]

I wish they would have swapped out the Tosca for something else but I'm looking forward to the rest, especially Eugene Onegin, Rusalka, and Prince Igor. I'm not all that big on the opera itself but I cannot wait to see Elina Garanca in Werther.

I just wish I could see a bunch of the others that are not going Live in HD!

[kwanfan1818]

Every year they leave out a few operas I would kill to see on the series. This year it's "Two Boys" -- it would be on the schedule if Domingo was in it -- "Wozzeck", and the Radvanovsky "Norma." Even then, that means no Hvorostovsky "Rigoletto," Brownlee "I Puritani," or Damrau "La Sonnambula." If they were going to repeat something, it at least could have been "La Sonnambula," instead of "Tosca," or if they were going to feature Racette, it could have been in "Andrea Chenier," not "Tosca," even if the tenor has more arias.

From a box office point of view, I'm very surprised they skipped "Die Fledermaus."

[emason]

Saw Parsifal last night. Agree with SaSherka about it musically. Cast was amazing, chorus its usual fabulous self, etc. I'll keep my thoughts on the production to myself; I'll be charitable and say it was just not to my taste.

[kwanfan1818]

Did anyone go to the Met gift shop today to get CD's signed by Jonas Kaufmann ?

[emason]

Not I, sorry. Into the corner for me.

[kwanfan1818]

I wonder how many body parts he was asked to sign.

[BlueRidge]

I saw two Washington Opera productions in the past two weeks.

The first was Norma with Angela Meade. I was pretty impressed with her. The audience went pretty wild for her. The duets with Meade and Dolora Zajick were really great. The Washington Post's critic had dissed the production but I liked it.

I didn't think their Manon Lescaut was too good. It seemed pasted together and some of the singers could barely be heard over the orchestra. They went for too obvious camp in the second act it was The best part was the death scene. That was where Patricia Racette really reached her best and I thought the tenor quite decent.

I just got my subscription for next year. We get Deb Voigt in Tristan & Isolde so I get to give Wagner a try live. I'm excited about La Forza Del Destino, though I don't know the singers. We also have Moby Dick, Magic Flute, and L'Elisir D'Amore. Plus I got an extra optional ticket for a concert performance of the NSO of Der Rosenkavalier with Renee Fleming! Wheeee!

[reckless]

Update from LA.

Last night, I saw The Flying Dutchman. I think I just need to give up and admit that I will never like Wagner and just find someone to buy my subscription seats when Wagner is on the schedule. Two-and-a-half hours with no intermission, styling that seemed to mix steampunk and Star Wars, and intentionally turgid staging made the first two acts feel like they lasted four hours. The final scenes were an improvement, and I liked the soprano, Elisabete Matos, but I think I can pass -- or take a long break from Wagner.

Thursday night, I'm seeing La Cerentola for the first time. That should be a lot of fun.

I don't think I posted the LA Opera's 2013-14 season -- Carmen, Falstaff, The Magic Flute, Billy Budd, Lucia di Lammermoor, Thais, and Einstein on the Beach. I could do without another production of Carmen, but it's been years since we have had Falstaff and Lucia, and I've never seen Thais. We also have concerts by Audra McDonald and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. I'm not going to see Hvorostovsky, since he did a recital last year, but it's been a few years since I've seen Audra McDonald.

[kwanfan1818]

BlueRidge: if you can see Diana Damrau's upcoming concert, you wont regret it.

The first was Norma with Angela Meade. I was pretty impressed with her. The audience went pretty wild for her. The duets with Meade and Dolora Zajick were really great.

Meade sang "Casta Diva" as one of her arias for the 2007 Met Council Auditions.

I didn't think their Manon Lescaut was too good. It seemed pasted together and some of the singers could barely be heard over the orchestra.

Orchestras can be worse to the singers in Puccini than they are in Wagner, sadly.

We get Deb Voigt in Tristan & Isolde so I get to give Wagner a try live.

I didn't love Ian Storey's Siegfried in "Gotterdammerung," but his Tristan might be better. The Kurvenal is James Rutherford, who was one of two singers who won the Seattle Opera Wagner Competition in 2006, but he also won the Orchestra and Audience Prizes.

I'm excited about La Forza Del Destino, though I don't know the singers.

It has some of Verdi's best music. The singer I recognize is Amber Wagner, one of the Leonoras, who was in the same class of Met Council Audition winners as Angela Meade.

We also have Moby Dick

I saw it in Dallas, and I loved it, especially the first act. I think Jake Heggie was trying to make a political statement about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq at the end, and he and the librettist forced it. If it's the same production, the design team did a great job with projections. Stephen Costello was the original Greenhorn, and Talise Trevigne the original Pip.

Magic Flute

You're in for a treat: the Jun Kanako designs are beautiful. This slide show doesn't do them justice, but will give you a taste:
http://sfopera.com/Season-Tickets/20...gic-Flute.aspx

L'Elisir D'Amore.

Una furtiva lagrime... But YuNa Kim does not appear in the opera.

Plus I got an extra optional ticket for a concert performance of the NSO of Der Rosenkavalier with Renee Fleming! Wheeee!

Have a great time!

[BlueRidge]

Thanks for the information, Kwanfan1818. I thought about getting a ticket to the Diana Damrau concert but I'm kind of tapped out of funds, and its hard for me to get to events on week nights.

On the night I was at Manon Lescaut, Dmitri Hvorostovsky was giving a recital in the Concert Hall. At the intermission I kind of wished I could sneak in there!

[kwanfan1818]

Oh, Hvoro

He was so good that George Jellinek, who almost never featured young artists on his show "The Vocal Scene" devoted a whole show to a tape of an early recital.

[IoanaC]

Hvorostovsky is great (except when his breathing gets too loud), but this is a bit cringe-worthy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=uUVNihiKq9E

[kwanfan1818]

[dinakt]

But also . He'll rebound.

[BYTCH]

The duets with Meade and Dolora Zajick were really great.

I got a last minute ticket and got to see Norma. I've never seen it before, and enjoyed it; both the sopranos were excellent, their duet in act II was exquisite. The tenor did his best, but meh. The sets were "interesting", they kinda worked, in that they didn't get in the way, but they were certainly minimal and didn't add anything much to the story. I was in front on the left side; with the raked stage, I couldn't see what was in that big circle on the other side of the stage, where so much of the action took place.

I love those sets and costumes for the SFO Magic Flute!! Thank you for the link.