season scorecard
Cher public, the Met is expected to unveil the specifics of their 2008-2009 season later today. While we’re waiting for all the luscious and/or gory details, La Cieca thought it might be fun to do a quick recap of the season as is is predicted on Brad Wilber‘s MetManiac site.
Brad (who historically is spot-on to the point of clairvoyance in his predictions) surmises that the next season at the Met will feature six new productions:Â
Il trovatore (co-production Lyric Opera of Chicago) Director David McVicar; conductor Gianandrea Noseda. Opening night cast to include Sondra Radvanovsky, Salvatore Licitra, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Dolora Zajick.
La Damnation De Faust (from Paris Opera) Director Robert LePage; conductor James Levine. (Susan Graham, Marcello Giordani, John Reylea)
Dr. Atomic (San Francisco Opera production) Director Penny Woolcock [not Peter Sellars], conductor Alan Gilbert. (Gerard Finley, Eric Owens.)
La sonnambula, director Mary Zimmerman, conductor Evelino Pido. (Natalie Dessay, Juan Diego Florez, Michele Pertusi)
La rondine (Covent Garden Production), director Nicolas Joel, condutor Marco Armiliato. (Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagna, Sam Ramey)
Thais (Lyric Opera of Chicago production), director John Cox, conductor Jesus Lopez-Cobos. (Renee Fleming, Thomas Hampson, Michael Schade)
And now for the revivals, again as predicted by the MetManiac brain trust (with La Cieca’s comments and emendations in [brackets].)
- Tristan (Dalayman, Seiffert; Barenboim)
- Ring (Brewer, Franz, Dohmen, W. Meier, Botha, Tomlinson, Pape; Levine)
- Butterfly (Racette/Gallardo-Domas[!]; Summers)
- Gioconda (Voigt, Podles, Guelfi; Calegari)
- Onegin (Hampson, Mattila, Beczala; Belohlavek)
- Rusalka (Fleming, Blythe; Belohlavek)
- Orfeo ([Blythe?], De Niese)
- Rigoletto (Lucic, Damrau, Filianoti/Calleja)
- Don Giovanni (Mattei/Schrott)
- Lucia (
Netrebko[Damrau], Villazon/Beczala; Armiliato) - The Queen of Spades (Guleghina, Heppner, [Felicity Palmer?]; Ozawa)
- Salome (Mattila)
- Flute (Family version with Nicole Cabell)
- Cenerentola (Garanca; Benini)
- L’elisir (Gheorghiu/Cabell, Vargas/Calleja, Terfel; Benini)
- Manon (Netrebko, Vargas)
- Traviata (Harteros, Kwiecien, Giordano)
- Cav/Pag (Alagna/Cura)
- Adriana (Guleghina, Borodina)
Do be sure to check back here at parterre.com later this afternoon for a fuller report on the season to come!
Yeah, we could just dump the entire 20th century, opera-wise. We might want to leave a few titles that people might miss, though. Like Salome, Elektra, Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos, Arabella, Capriccio, Wozzeck, Lulu, Moses und Aron, Butterfly, Fanciulla, Rondine, Trittico, Turandot, Jenufa, Kat’a Kabanova, From the House of the Dead, Makropoulos Case, Rake, Lady Macbeth, Pelleas, L’enfant et les sortilèges, War and Peace, Love of Three Oranges, The Gambler, Porgy and Bess, Peter Grimes, Death in Venice, Turn of the Screw, Billy Budd, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Vanessa, Einstein on the Beach, Nixon in China…
Excuse me if I’m not convinced. My list is probably not complete and I doubt very many people like all of the above, but how many people like all of 17th-19th-century opera equally? BTW, I love my twentieth century but also my 17th, and while I don’t want that rep happening at the Met, I would like it to happen more frequently somewhere else.
Since the HD transmissions will begin in October rather than with the regular radio broadcast season, I see the following ten as the Met HD season (based on Gelb’s tendency to use ‘stars’ for these telecasts and the Saturday matinee schedule):
Lucia di Lammermoor – Damrau, Beczala (10/25)
La traviata – Harteros, Giordano, Lucic (11/15)
Le damnation de Faust – Graham, Giordani, Relyea (11/29)
Thais – Fleming, Schade, Hampson (12/20)
Rigoletto – Kurzak, Filianoti, Lucic (1/31)
Adriana Lecouvreuer – Guleghina, Borodina, Alvarez (2/21)
Madama Butterfly – Gallardo-Domas, Giordani (3/7)
La sonnambula – Dessay, Florez, Pertusi (3/21)
L’elisir d’amore – Gheorghiu, Vargas, Terfel (4/4)
La Cenerentola – Garanca, Brownlee (5/9)
I can find no Saturday scheduling of the Netrebko/Villazon Manon, which would be an obvious choice instead of the Berlioz.
This is a cool idea for a quiz, or at the very least a game like the Birthday Opera thread.
My candidates for the HD broadcasts are:
La Traviata – 15 Nov
Thais – 20 Dec
La Rondine – 10 Jan
Rigoletto – 31 Jan
Lucia di Lammermoor – 7 Feb
Madama Butterfly – 7 Mar
Rusalka – 14 Mar
La Sonnambula – 21 Mar
L’Elisir d’Amore – 4 Apr
Il Trovatore – 25 Apr
There is no Netrebko/Villazon Manon this season; presumably, Gelb decided to wait until the new production is mounted for her a few seasons down the line. Netrebko’s doing Boheme instead, alternating with Kovalevska.
I won’t go as far as predicting the HD candidates, but I’ll say that I hope Gelb will transmit Racette’s Butterfly, rather than Gallardo-Domas.
And since there is already a recent transmission of this exact production of La Rondine, with Gheorghiu in SF, floating around, wouldn’t another be superfluous?
Cameron – didn’t know the Manon had been cancelled. I agree that La Rondine will probably not be broadcast during the MET season due to this weekend’s SFO transmission. Let’s hope Racette gets the broadcast – I suspect this will happen because Gelb is no fool. And guarany, as much as I love Rusalka and hope that it will be shown, I don’t think Fleming will get two HD transmissions – too bad. Her recording of this work is one of the great recordings of the last few years. I would be pleased with trovatore as well, but I hear Gelb does not like Radvanovsky – finds her too uneven. Hopefully this is working slowly toward a full season of transmissions – better start saving the pfennigen!
The story going around was that Netrebko was to get a revival of the old Ponnelle production with Ramon Vargas and then a new production with Villazon. I don’t know if this production will be the one from L.A. and Berlin directed by the MTV guy or one that is new and created for the Met. Remember all you Regie fans out there that the Willy Decker “little red dress and big red sofa” Traviata is wending its way to the Met! (with Villazon and Keenlyside) Hopefully the Zeffirelli production will remain in the repertory for less babealicious divas.
Also, il_guarany, the April 25 TROVATORE is an evening performance; the Met only simulcasts matinees. Plus, it’s a second-cast performance.
I didn’t notice the double Reneeing on my list, though I did know she is in both operas. Surely one of them will be broadcast, but which one? I am partial to Rusalka as well.
As for picking a soiree of Il Trovatore, mea culpa – but I’m sure Trov will be there somewhere, as they will want to show off a new production after their current garbaggio. I must have mistakenly identified the 25th as a matinee. It’s hard to put together at list in the office when your boss expects you to do less important things (like, you know, work).