Opera Suggestions

[jollibee]

For those who enjoyed the Live in HD broadcasts, just letting you know that, there will be more operas available this summer in your movie theaters!


As a continuation of the HD series, they will show a 'best of' operas from recent seasons, I guess. They will be Aida, Romeo &Juliet, Eugene Onegin, La Boheme, Turandot, Madame Butterfly, and Carmen. Six of them will be shown in the US meanwhile only four will be shown in Canada. More info is at the Met's site.



Although I saw Aida and Carmen, I think I will see all the 4 that's showing here. It's worth it to see them on the big screen.

[kwanfan1818]

Thank you for the heads up -- I just bought at ticket for "Carmen" this Monday. I'm really looking forward to hearing Garanca.

Next season's HD broadcast list is great:

"Das Rheingold" (Richard Wagner) with Stephanie Blythe (Fricka) and Bryn Terfel (Wotan). It's part of the new Ring Cycle that Robert Lepage ("Damnation of Faust") is directing.

"Boris Godunov" (Modest Mussorgsky) with Rene Pape (Boris).

"Don Pasquale" (Gaetano Donizetti) with Anna Netrebko (Norina), Matthew Polenzani (Ernesto), Mariusz Kwiecien (Don Pasquale; this season's HD Escamillo)

"Don Carlo" (Giuseppe Verdi) with Marina Poplavskaya (Elisabetta), Roberto Alagna (Don Carlo), and Simon Keenlyside (Marquis de Posa, this season's HD Hamlet). Young Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin is getting lots of great reviews.

"La Fanciulla Del West" (Giacomo Puccini) with Deborah Voigt (Minnie) and Marcello Giordani (Dick Johnson)

"Iphigénie en Tauride" (Christoph Willibald Gluck) with Susan Graham (Iphigenie), Plácido Domingo (Oreste), and Paul Groves (Pylade). Graham was gorgeous when this was done a couple of season ago.

"Lucia di Lammermoor" (Gaetano Donizetti) with Natalie Dessay (Lucia) and Joseph Calleja (Edgardo).

"Le Comte Ory" (Gioachino Rossini) with Diana Damrau (La Comtesse Adèle), Joyce DiDonato (Isolier, en travesti), and Juan Diego Flórez (Le Comte Ory, in drag as a nun).

"Capriccio" (Richard Strauss) with Renée Fleming (The Countess)

"Il Trovatore" (Giuseppe Verdi) with Sondra Radvanovsky (Leonora), Dolora Zajick (Azucena), Marcelo Álvarez (Manrico), and Dmitri Hvorostovsky (Count di Luna). This opera is notoriously difficult to cast, and this cast got raves last season.

"Die Walküre" (Richard Wagner) with Deborah Voigt (Brunhilde), Eva Maria Westbroek (Sieglinde), Stephanie Blythe (Fricka), Jonas Kaufmann ( Siegmund), and Bryn Terfel (Wotan).

http://www.metoperafamily.org/metope....aspx?id=11526

27 August is the day New York time that tickets go on sale to donors, with general sales in September (TBA).

[LadyNit]

Not a suggestion...but I'm off to the premiere of Amelia tonight at Seattle Opera.

With an intensely personal libretto by American poet Gardner McFall (The Pilot’s Daughter), whose father was a Navy pilot lost during Vietnam, this new American opera moves from loss to recuperation, paralysis to flight, as the protagonist, Amelia, ultimately embraces her life and the creative force of love and family.

Fingers crossed that it lives up to word of mouth.

[kwanfan1818]

Not a suggestion...but I'm off to the premiere of Amelia tonight at Seattle Opera.

Fingers crossed that it lives up to word of mouth.

The snippets I've heard from the Seattle Opera website and via the SO Facebook page are very impressive.

[Jot the Dot Dot]

I'm surprized I'm the first to mention "What's Opera Doc?

[kwanfan1818]

And here is a link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJAXJWm8G4A

[SaSherka]

Please, don't be alarmed if you're having a déjà vu! I got the OK to resurrect this oldie, but goodie operatic thread to see if there's any interest in continuing the discussion.

Since this thread is mainly centered on the ever-expanding NYC's Metropolitan Opera Live in HD series, I thought it would be appropriate to start with the new season listing!

Who is going? What are you seeing?

2011-2012 MetOpera Saturdays Live in HD schedule

Donizetti’s Anna Bolena October 15, 2011, 12:55 pm ET

Mozart’s Don Giovanni October 29, 2011, 12:55 pm ET

Wagner’s Siegfried November 5, 2011, 12 pm ET

Glass’s Satyagraha November 19, 2011, 12:55 pm ET

Handel’s Rodelinda December 3, 2011, 12:30 pm ET

Gounod’s Faust December 10, 2011, 12:55 pm ET

The Enchanted Island January 21, 2012, 12:55 pm ET

Wagner’s Götterdämmerung February 11, 2012, 12 pm ET

Verdi’s Ernani February 25, 2012, 12:55 pm ET

Massenet’s Manon April 7, 2012, 12 pm ET

Verdi’s La Traviata April 14, 2012, 12:55 pm ET

[BlueRidge]

I'm going to Don Giovanni, Rodelinda, and Faust. I really want to see Anna Bolena and may try for the encore on that one.

The Met's Live in HD series totally has gotten me excited about opera since I first went in '07. Its so fun!

[maatTheViking]

I would love to see the Ring ones ( I have seen two full Rings live; in Copenhagen and in Seattle), but I think my husband is still travelling the 5th, so I have to stay home with the baby. Maybe I can go see Ragnarok (sorry long German name is long)

I would like to try and make La Traviata too.

I have never made it to the live in HD performances, but I really should, I know my parents are watching them - it would be so fun to see the same production even if we are 5000 miles apart!

I need to get my opera buddy excited - I need to look at live tickets for Seattle Opera as well for this season.

[Civic]

"Amahl and the Night Visitors" by Gian Carlo Menotti and "Hansel und Gretel" by Engelbert Humperdink (the classical composer not the pop singer) are two other kid-friendly operas.

[emason]

I'm not going to any HD broadcasts but I have opera house tickets for Don Giovanni, Aida and The Enchanted Island. I may also try to pick up a ticket for Rodelinda if I think my budget allows.

[SaSherka]

I'm not going to any HD broadcasts but I have opera house tickets for Don Giovanni, Aida and The Enchanted Island. I may also try to pick up a ticket for Rodelinda if I think my budget allows.

I am going to The Enchanted Island as well, preceded by the opening night of Götterdämmerung. I also have tickets to L'Elisir d'Amore (-worthy cast). I saw Anna Bolena dress rehearsal and I will most likely end up seeing all HDs either live or as an encore (cheaper than going to NYC)

[emason]

We must talk about The Enchanted Island after we have seen/heard it. It is either going to work or it isn't; I don't think there will be any in-between.

[michiruwater]

Anne Boleyn is my favorite historical figure, but I was honestly unaware of the opera! I fully plan on seeing it.

I also want to get to the cinema to see the live broadcasts of at least Don Giovanni, Siegfried, and Faust. What I'm doing next semester is totally up in the air, as I will be student teaching finally

Nothing could make me go to the Glass though. Shudder.

[emason]

Nothing could make me go to the Glass though. Shudder.

That is what I thought until I went to see it the last time the Met did it, maybe 3 years or so ago.

To say it was fabulous is an understatement; Richard Croft sings like a dream and the production is very theatrical and interesting. I cannot recommend it enough and I am not the biggest Glass fan around.

[michiruwater]

I have a friend who did Einstein on the Beach for our music history final paper. She had me listen to one track. I only lasted about 30 seconds before I decided I was never listening to any of it ever again. Especially when she told me that the whole damned things sounds like those 30 seconds.

[SaSherka]

Anna Bolena with Anna Netrebko Live HD broadcast is in 1.5 hours! Who is going?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69atpi_K5zA

[Vash01]

I am a late comer to this thread, but Glass's 'Satyagraha' sounds very interesting.

[emason]

I am a late comer to this thread, but Glass's 'Satyagraha' sounds very interesting.

It's fabulous, really fabulous; I was totally shocked by how much I loved it when I saw it 3 + years ago. IIRC, it's sung in Sanskrit and visually it is arresting, with interesting stage design and use of puppets.

Most importantly, the Glass music is wonderful and does not drone on the way some of his compositions do.

[SaSherka]

It's fabulous, really fabulous; I was totally shocked by how much I loved it when I saw it 3 + years ago. IIRC, it's sung in Sanskrit and visually it is arresting, with interesting stage design and use of puppets.

Most importantly, the Glass music is wonderful and does not drone on the way some of his compositions do.

I haven't seen it, but I am afraid it won't translate well into the HD broadcast, with all the close-ups and angle changes... I may try to get a ticket during this run.

Speaking of HDs, I really wanted to like Anna Bolena broadcast, but gave in to the darkness in the theater and started falling asleep in the last hour or so... Bummer...