Please, Louise
My post about Nielsen’s Maskarade outraged only a few of you, and inspired a passionate discussion about what works we’d like to see at the New New Met. (Thank you, Hans Lick, for your very complete wish list!)
You are each now invited to vote for your three most longed-for revivals or premieres at the Met.
Rules after the jump.
- Only three operas! In no particular order.
- Support your argument, if you wish, but be brief! (A couple of sentences for each is fine.)
- The work must be have never been performed at the Met, or not performed since 1950, or must be Weber’s Der Freischütz.
The operas receiving the most votes will be tallied and announced here.
There are no prizes.
Now get to work!
(Photo: Friedrich Schorr as Schwanda der Dudelsackpfeifer)
Welcome to Squirrel.com.
I’m thinking of looking or another blog to follow. This new “superdelegate” system to fill the space is getting rather tedious.
1. Sorry, not Freischutz, but Oberon. Let a really great modern playwright work out the in between bits and cast Kaufmann as Huon.
2. The Mother of Us All. In a few years have Zajick go out with a bang.
3. Go Opera Comique. Do a new Belle Helene or Orphee aux Enfers.
Didn’t OONY “do” Oberon a few yrs ago with Lauren Flanigan and was it Stuart Neil? I think they had Roger Rees narrating the elaborate plot between musical numbers or, actually, sending it up in a rather piss elegant, satirical way…not a bad choice.
Mme. Scusi, it was Collegiate Chorale, conducted by that fellow that recently died. Yes, indeed with Flanigan (subbing for Voigt for whom it was largely revived, I gathered), and it featured Anthony Dean Griffey as Oberon. Done in the original English.
I am not crazy about Flanigan but she acquitted herself very well with the Big Aria. .
Oops! my bad, and, Yes! I remembered that Flanigan had replaced someone at the last moment, even though Voigt had a different understudy who was left in the dust.
Oh hm. I missed the original melee but I’ll play just the same. Only I think I’m ignoring some of the rules and not actually checking to see if my choices 1) have been done at the Met specifically since 1950 or 2) are Les Huguenots, though safe to say at least three of the three will not be.
Ok. Deep breath. Here we go.
1) Premiere: Výlet pana Broucka do Mesíce, perhaps known to you by the name they use when they do it at small town opera companies and high schools: The Adventures of Mr. Broucek on the Moon. Because I am curious about it and keep on cheaping out on buying the recording, that’s why. Also: it’s set on the moon. Get Zeffirelli to direct so it will be a nice traditional production that won’t do anything crazy.
2) Premiere: Friedenstag, because it’s quite enjoyable. (It’s short, though, so it should probably be paired with something. Let’s say: The Adventures of Mr. Broucek in the 15th Century.) Robert Wilson will direct, because frankly, Friedenstag is apparently probably better if everyone just sort of moves around nebulously and doesn’t focus too hard on making the libretto the focus of things.
3) Premiere: Rent, but in French, and staged by Christopher Alden. Rufus Wainwright can do the translation and show up to the prima dressed as Daphne Rubin-Vega.
Sorry, it seems I do not have serious answers except the one that I always give (Vanessa, disqualified for being too recently done.) As far as Freischutz, I feel like it is having a nice rest and we should probably not disturb it.
Given my nom de guerre, I am gratified that the lovely Maury nominated a Strauss rarity. I couldn’t leave one out.
1. Strauss’ Die Schweigsame Frau. It’s difficult and benefits from some trimming (it’s mostly a number opera, so you can do that), but I bet Damrau would bring down the house as Aminta. Not sure who’s going to sing the fiendish tenor part, JDF?
2. Gluck’s Armide. Fantastic opera, and surprisingly big enough to play well in the Met. Sure, the fourth act drags, but the Met has a huge stage and elevators and all that fancy stuff, do some magic with it. Title role has one of the best ending scenes in opera.
3. Boieldieu’s La Dame Blanche. Also hard, but a gem of the French comic repertory.
Throwing out an alternative set that I’d just thought of and no one has nominated (or gotten close to), there’s a lot of nifty Finnish opera, and god knows there are enough great Finnish singers around to do it justice. Let’s have Madetoja’s Pohjalaisia, Merikanto’s Juha, and Kokkonen’s Last Temptations or Sallinen’s Red Line or Kullervo, for a good sample of the range of those works.
Representin’ for the Baroque:
1) Alcina. A logical Handel option, since it is well-known, a star vehicle, and has some hit tunes (choruses! a trio!). I would love to see an extravagant production where a full-sized magical forest actually melts away into a desert waste. Cast two superstar sopranos (Fleming, Dessay, Damrau, etc.) and one superstar mezzo (Graham, DiDonato) and you’ve got all sold out performances (and you don’t have to hire a countertenor).
2) Orfeo. Monteverdi needs his due.
3) Aaaaand delving deeply into the obscure, I’d love to see Conradi’s Die schöne und getreue Ariadne staged in an English manor house roundabouts 1925, where the Labyrinth is a giant hedge maze, and Naxos is a grimy back-alley in the city, and Ariadne is played by Diana Damrau, Phaedra is Christine Schäfer, Pasiphäe is Dessay, Minos is Laurent Naouri, Evanthes is Andreas Scholl…sorry, I’ve already given this far too much thought.
I can’t believe I missed Alcina. That’s a good one!
The City Opera last did Alcina in 2004, I believe, so it’s not a complete stranger to New York. Probably my favorite Handel opera.
Well, yeah, City Opera’s done all the good ones (Semele, Orlando). If we want to go new to New York (and super obscure), my vote would be for La Resurrezione (which was fully staged at its premiere. It’s not an oratorio, people!). But now I’ve gone and broken the rules by suggesting more than 3. But as long as I’ve broken the rules by suggesting more than 3, I’d like you to listen to this aria and imagine Cecilia Bartoli getting lowered from the rafters and singing this aria suspended 20 ft. above the stage. Bad. Ass.
(I know not everyone’s down with the Ceci, but let’s be real, her coloratura is super precise and you can hear every note. That’s why I use her recordings to introduce people to new ridiculous arias.)
The third rule, the part about the work not being performed at the Met since 1950, got me thinking about what operas could fit that description. I had no idea so I found this:
http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/frame.htm
The Met archives are really great. Other opera houses have horrible online archives compared to the Met.
Interesting fact I learned up just now: Hamlet hasn’t been performed at the Met since 1897. It must have been THAT horrible. I wonder if Dessay will cause the opera to not be performed again for another 113 years.
So after looking at the list I pick:
1. Robert le Diable (last performed 1884) – I don’t know why I picked this. It would have been a great vehicle for Sutherland, Sills, or Anderson a few years ago but no one can really sing it now.
2. Zazà (last performed 1922) – Fleming put this opera on my radar with her Verismo recording. It would be interesting to hear her or someone else do it at the Met.
3. Euryanthe (last performed 1915) – It’s one of the most obscure operas I know so I just had to pick it. There’s a really good 1955 recording with Sutherland.
I’m sure that nothing on my list will be voted for again.
Thank you Javier, I meant to point out the searchable archives!
You all don’t have to each come up with new original suggestions! You may vote for a work that other have voted for! (How else will we know which works “win”?)
1) Robert le Diable — Yes Yes Yes! Bruce Ford in the title role, Patrizia Ciofi as Isabelle, Annick Massis as Alice, Barry Banks as Raimbaut, and John Relyea as Betram. On the podium: Mark Minkowski.
2) Massenet’s “Le Cid.” The height of pageantry, great crowd scenes to show off the Met’s chorus, and some fabulous arias.
3) Donizetti’s “Maria Stuarda,” for all the same reasons Hans Lick cites below. Plus, I felt compelled to name at least ONE Italian opera among the three. I thought seriously about “Dom Sebastien” (my latest favorite Donizetti, thanks to a fantastic Opera Rara recording), as it certainly fits the Met profile for Large Stage Spectacle.
Bruce Ford can’t sing Meyerbeer no more. Could he ever? He can’t even sing Donizetti now. Have you heard him lately? Like Miricioiou in Vespri: the moment has long long passed.
Hamlet is not “that bad” – it’s full of wonderful French-romantic music. But it will never be repertory because of the hash they made of Shakespeare’s play (blame the librettist…). Unfortunately, the upcoming production is going to make a hash of the music too, and Hamlet will disappear into oblivion again.
omg BEST NEW PARTY GAME. Ummmm, Gloriana, King Roger, and since Straussmonster STOLE Die Schweigsame Frau from me, Henry VIII by Saint-Saëns.
It seems that some people are not getting the point of this party game – which I will assume is my fault.
You need not each come up with a new suggestion of a completely obscure work! In fact, please vote for the works most truly deserving! If Schweigsame Frau is what you want to see, your vote adds to Straussmonster’s vote making… two votes! (gasp!)
Ugh, “votes,” so vulgar! That’s the trouble with Democracy, it’s as if half the country showed up in the same dress.
Very well, I will cast a vote for Straussmonster, as long as I don’t have to break up my (totally unintentional) fag triptych.
see now, I would never have even known that Szymanowski and Saint-Saens were fags. You must be an expert!
De nada to La Cieca for her thanks for my earlier list.
The entrants above do not always seem to have considered several very important matters which, to be fair, Peter Gelb often seems to ignore as well, to whit:
The Metropolitan is a GREAT BIG THEATER with 3800 seats. Chamber operas like La Dame Blanche are a perfectly ridiculous idea there. So is The Mother of Us All – the Stein/Thomson operas DO NOT WORK except in houses so small you can understand every word. Not read the titles, understand the words. Monteverdi’s Orfeo also is a CHAMBER work. This is also why I’d omit Curlew River or Beatrice et Benedict.
I’ve already voted for Robert or Les H, so we’ll set them aside for the moment (and there are several sopranos around who could sing Isabelle – the one who sang Queen Margot last summer at Bard, e.g.). I would also propose the Met produce Mefistofele and La Juive – the productions the Met gave recently were borrowed and, though sellouts and much admired, had to be returned instantly. They should stay longer.
I’ve already voted for Die Vogel and Die Gezeichneten.
So my choices here would be:
1. Maria Stuarda, never ever produced at the Met, a thrilling score and fine drama with two brilliant prima donna roles, popular all over Europe. If not this, I’d vote for the same composer’s Lucrezia Borgia (one Met performance c. 1912), and I’d put in a word for La Favorite (en francais) but the Met borrowed SFO’s lousy (italiano) production of this one for the Pav and has never ceased regretting it. The hideously cut edition and a mediocre cast generally did it in, not Donizetti’s score. But you DO need four bel canto singers: dramatic mezzo (Barcellona? Garanca?), tenor (Beczala?), baritone, bass.
2. For a New Year’s Eve treat: La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein in the translation used in Philadelphia, with Stephanie Blythe (as there). Easy to insert a party sequence with “the world’s great singers” showing up to entertain the GD before the climax. Second choice on the light side: Rossini’s Turco in Italia with Genaux, D’Aracangelo and Del Carlo.
3. Tsar’s Bride or Snegouroutchka, ideal for the house’s currently sturdy Slavic wing. If the director isn’t an idiot and plays the thing straight (i.e. not the Mazeppa way), these works could easily join the rep as popular favorites – irresistible tunes, thrilling drama (or delirious folk tale). (My third choice among the Slavs would be Tchaikowsky’s Maid of Orleans.)
OOH NO CANCEL THAT!
3. IF you can find the proper singer of the title role (and I can’t even guess at one these days), my number 3 would be Cherubini’s Medea. Certainly never given at the Met in my lifetime (and yes, we all know who SHOULD have been given a production of it, and if you don’t, La Cieca will strip off the back of her gown and show you). Those of us who would like another audition for Mayr’s Medea in Corinto could use the same sets.
Mr. Hans Lick,
Is that going to be Medea or Medee?
Big difference
While we’re doing Medee, how about a Vestale to go with it? We could have a good time and all learn something about the lineage of French opera.
oh MERDE! HOW could I have forgotten my Beloved VESTALE?
Once again, I pose the question
in italiano -or- en francais??
I can’t speak for Herr Lich, but as for myself, no excuse in this day and age for doing those works in translation (although there are other times and places and cases where translation is grand). That means we might eventually make our way to Agnes von Hohenstaufen, too.
Camille (who seems to have replaced Nerva Nelli as the person with whom I most often agree here) – Big Difference! Almost a different opera! Yes!
Well, like you (j’ose a dire), I’d prefer Medee, but the one we’re likeliest to get is Medea. Perhaps the long-awaited Antonacci debut….
P.S. to la monstre straussienne:
La Vestale – No. It really is a dreary score.
Agnes – No. Interesting, even fascinating if you are tracing the lineage of French declamation from Gluck to Berlioz and Wagner, but not a good piece. Maybe Fernand Cortez, which the Met gave (four performances) c. 1927.
Non, cherie, I much prefer your suggestion of Armide, a wonderful score – better than Rossini’s version, actually.
Herrlich Herr Hanslick!
It has just got to be the MeDEE! Some organisation named ‘Opera Quotannis’ did it in Tully in, what?, ‘97 en francais. It is so much more effective.
As for Antonacci, I saw her No. American debut @ the Met Museum of Art (seated next to our beloved doyenne, who loves her) and I was truly impressed by her vogue, and her upper arms — very trim — but the voice did not show. Maybe she would act her way through as she is good as Crazy Girl. Better than Mme. Defray, even.
I think that Les Huguenots is probably gonna win this contest (along with Freischutz!) — and I,too, believe we need a ‘Piccola Scala’ to do a host of works, baroque, chamber, Monteverdi, etc, etc.
I am sick of the Ring Thing!
If it were done with adequate singers, or had Brewer been able, but not with these half+assed casts, thrown together.
I vote for Tsar’s Bride, just to get Netrebko into a non bel canto role that she can actually execute in a musically accurate fashion. Also, I so loved Borodina’s wunderbar voice and she could possibly still hack it, although after the Faust, I dunno.
Did you hear “The Bride’ last year in the autumn, sadly, one of the last manifestations of OONY?
Olga was DA Bomb!
Must not carry on so as not to invoke the Squirrelly One’s righteous wrath!
It was Squirrel who thanked you, and your De Nada is deeply felt.
Just to be clear, you are voting for Maria Stuarda, Tsar’s Bride, and Medea? No Schreker?
I voted for Tsar’s Bride and the Schreker in the previous game.
In this one I vote for Maria S, Grande Duchesse (anything to avoid Fledermaus or Merry Widow again) and Medea.
Hans,
The previous game was no game! it was you hijacking my Carl Nielsen post! This is your chance, man!
I will assume you are voting for Tsar’s Bride, Maria Stuarda, and something Schreker.
Having read the other posts, I think my votes will now be:
1. Tsar’s Bride (incontestably the most stageworthy of the Rimsky-Korsakovs, a gorgeous score, popular all over Russia)
2. Medea (prefer Medee, but we ain’t gonna get it)
3. And Grande Duchesse de G.
I’m omitting Maria Stuarda because, as you point out, it’s on the upcoming roster, and Gezeichneten because others are voting for it, bless their hearts.
I’d much rather Medee than Medea. No Lachner recits, please. I have two recordings. One is from
1997 on Newport Classics conducted by Bart Folse. This may be the performance that Camille mentioned
as being at Tully in ‘97. Problem is that although it’s the French version, the performance is pretty inadequate. Much better is a recording from Martina Franca, 1995 with Tamar as Medee and including the young Ciofi as Dirce.
Maria Stuarda is already in the works, set to star Joyce DiDonato…so you should pick something else.
Ooooh- Yes, Yes, YES to Die Vögel! They could even make that one the “family friendly” opera they do every holiday season. And while I dearly love Die Gezeichneten, I can only imagine how that would go over with the conservative Met crowd.
I’m considering a vote for Die Gezeichneten myself, to be directed by Michael Haneke. I think it’s just what the Upper West Side needs.
I agree with Hans Lick’s strictures on the size of the Met’s auditorium–but if it’s too large for La dame blanche, it’s too large for La grande Duchesse de Gerolstein.
1. Les Huguenots: (1915) After seeing what the Bard festival could do, I can only dream of what the Met could achieve. Maybe that might a great Chereau project? It would be great PR for the Met to pull out this mammoth. I also think it IS cast-able these days.
2. Cendrillon, by Massenet (never performed). In a production for Joyce DiDonato. With a Mezzo singing the Prince. It would be a great crowd pleaser and an easy sell. The story is lovely and there is some stunning music. Especially some trios and duets that are remarkable.
3. I Capuleti e i Montechi. (never performed)
Long overdue. Beautiful piece, beautiful music. Great staging possibilities. Sort of a travesty that the Met has overlooked it this long given how famous so much of the music is.
Bonus Round: Lucrezia Borgia (1904, 1 performance) The piece is great. It holds its’ own. I am surprised they have not pulled it out for Renée!
These are great suggestions. Chereau’s Huguenots is a kind of goofy but genius idea!
This is only hear-say, but I read on another blog that when Renee was asked if she would ever sing Lucrezia at the Met she said that currently there is the possibility that the Washington production (which she sang in last season) will come to the Met (just as they did with Thais).
I vote for these, too!
No. 1 Rimsky-Korsakov’s Le Coq D’or
Wonderfully satirical opera that hasn’t been done since the 1940’s
No. 2 Handel’s Alcina or Rinaldo
Can’t believe I got beaten to it. Love Handel’s operas (hopefully with a countertenor)
No. 3 Cherubini’s Medee
Fantastic opera, in French all the better
But breaking the rules what I would really ask for is Massenet’s Esclarmonde, but who could sing it now?
Check this out: The 1945 Coq d’Or –
http://archives.metoperafamily.org/Imgs/Coqd‘Or1945.jpg
oop, that “smart quote” bolloxed the link in my browser. I changed it to http://archives.metoperafamily.org/Imgs/Coqd‘Or1945.jpg
ugh, let me try again
thanks, and good work.
that is some saturation, isn’t it?
we don’t often get to see Met stagings from the 1940s in full color, but that one deserves it if any does.
Rinaldo was done in the ’80’s, providing Met debuts for both Ewa Podles and Sam Ramey. But they haven’t done Alcina yet, darn it!
No one could sing it after Sutherland. Unfortunately the opera is really boring, at least if you’re just listening to it. The first act is exciting, but it’s all down hill after “Esprits d’lair”.
Saw Esclarmonde at Washington Concert Opera, maybe five years ago. Not only could the Soprano (Celena Schafer) sing the part, but she actually sang the role as written. As opposed to Joan who rewrote some vocal lines because she did not have the notes. There is at least one G written into the score.
So before we say that no on can sing it anymore, let’s acknowledge that what most of us know as the only version of the opera is not actually correct musically. I’ve heard there is a Mesplé version, but I have not found it…
That’s true, but I only like the first act and I think Sutherland sings it perfectly. whoever this woman is who did it Washington, I don’t think she could top Sutherland’s “Esprits d’lair”. I’d still like to hear it as I read about this performance a few year ago.
Actually, Javier, Vaness sang Alcina gloriously at NYCO with Sutherland clapping away prominently in the First Tier. She went on to do a splendid Armida in Rinaldo at the Met.
L’Africaine.
Great spectacle.
La Straniera.
Wonderfully weird bel canto
Freischutz-Euryanthe-Oberon (all three!)
Because I love Weber and no one wants to give him a break!
I would love Robert le Diable, Tsar’s Bride and or Medea too.
I would LOVE to see Catan’s Florencia en el Amazonas– The Seattle recording is one of my all-time favourites…
How about a double bill of L’Amore dei Tre Re and Eine Florentinische Tragödie? Depressing, but oh, what music!
Lastly, how can it be that the Met has gone this long without performing Janacek’s weird but charming Cunning Little Vixen? Saw this in Chicago 10 years ago or so, and was absolutely entranced.
I adore Cunning Little Vixen. Saw it in Paris last year (3 times). I think, however, that the Met might just be too big for it. It is best as a small house opera. Bastille was already too large for it.
I thought so as well, but I have to say that it worked really well at the Lyric in Chicago (which is every bit the barn that the Met is), and I am pretty sure the same production was in Houston (another big house) a couple years ago.
Squirrel, once the winners have been chosen you should start a thread where we can all submit who we think should be cast if the Met were to actually do those pieces. Then, after we’ve democratically chosen the rep and the cast, we can just submit the whole thing to Gelb. Easy peasy.
That’s actually a good idea. I second that motion!
Yes, nice way to draw the party game out as long as possible! I just knew this would get everybody excited!
Perhaps I will collate the votes, and we can send him a telegraph letting him know our demands.
Don’t you know –
SQUIRREL is GELB!
muah muah muah
What about Britten’s Turn of the Screw or Messiaen’s Saint Francois D’Assise or Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims??
Turn of the Screw is fantastic but the most chamber opera thing possible and would be utterly swallowed at the Met.
I don’t remember the rules saying the suggestions had to be feasible…
And who cares. Double the orchestra. Bounce lasers off all the singers. Whatever. No once cares about composers’ original intent/orchestrations anyway. You never see the Met trucking in Les Arts Florissants to accompany their Handel productions.
Ha – you can’t double the orchestra in Turn of the Screw!
I agree it’s too small a piece for the room, though so is Figaro in my opinion and that does not stop them.
Heck I even thought the room was too big for Damnation of Faust last week. (That piece was premiered at the Opera Comique, which I recall being about the size of the Met Gift Shop.)
may we have some comedies, please?
1) Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia; wonderful opera! and I’ve never seen it. . .
2) Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery, came with the Marinsky for a few visiting performances some years back: gorgeous!
3) Flotow’s Martha: the Met data base says there was one (just one) performance in 1961 (De los Angeles and Tucker), and then one more for New Year’s Eve 1967; if there were only 2 performances since 1950, can I still request it within the rules? if not, my alternative is Das Land des Lächelns–
on a non-operatic note, Johnny Mercer’s 100th birthday celebration at the 92nd St. Y tonight was terrific, and early opera/oratorio queen Sylvia McNair was there to sing “Ac-cen-tu-ate the Positive”– and she was great!
let me correct myself: there were clearly multiple performances of Martha at the Met in 1961 (and even in Cleveland and Atlanta), but some bug in the data base does not let you immediately retrieve that information; so I guess Martha is disqualified, but I would really like to see it anyway. . .
My revulsion to Das Land des Lächelns is so great that I will allow Flotow’s Martha to qualify.
Die Tote Stadt (not since 1923…seriously?!), Die Bürgschaft (Kurt Weill), and La Wally.
What about Lo Dartifeese by Roofus Doofus?
Seriously:
1. Ermioni/Rossini.
2. Lakme/Delibes-surprised no one has named it yet. With Dessay or Damrau.
3. Daphne/Strauss
The operas I really wanna see revived were last performed to recently-Semiramide(would love to hear Stephanie Blythe in it) and La Favorita(Denyce Graves or Borodina).
Noel, darling, wouldn’t you rather hear La Favorite, in French. Especially if you are casting Ms. Graves in it. Her French diction is so perfect it would be a crime to present it in Italian. Borodina sings in the same language as Netrebko. So either language wouldn’t really matter if you are casting her.
actually I’d rather hear Den Favoriten mit Waltraud Meier.
Denyce Graves…. yuck. But yes, French Favorite, please.
1. Montemezzi’s La Nave (1919) – once done in Chicago and never since. Monster post -romantic flim flam that concludes with the bloodthirsty Amazon heroine Basiliola tied to the prow of a ship as a live figurehead and launched into the Adriatic. Perfect for the current Met Cirque du Soleil production mentality. Extra large sopranos can double as both heroine and sea-faring vessel.
2. Massenet’s Bacchus (1909) – had 6 performances at its premiere and has never been seen again. Overdue for reappraisal. Features a plot that sees Bacchus and Ariadne misdirected to Nepal and a battle of screaming monkeys, so many Parterre contributors can audition as extras.
3. Paul Hastings Allen (an American diplomat who when in Italy wrote operas for Ricordi) – his L’ultimo dei Moicani (1916) is an American opera of sorts, and will probably offend absolutely everyone: and a shortlist can be compiled of Met artists/regulars to be scalped onstage.
LOL @ “screaming monkeys”
Thanks!!
My pleasure. I’m limbering up in anticipation and can scream with the best of you.
La chute de la maison Usher – an American topic.
Massenet – Sapho, my most frequently played opera this year, and I like it better and better every time (might have something to do with Renée Doria, but I see Fleming’s potential here, it is definitely more than a star vehicle)
And Saint François d’Assise – of course.
Incidentally, I’m relieved to hear re your Sapho-obsession, Buster. I’ve never heard Sapho, but for the past year plus, I’ve been similarly addicted to Therese–with Tourangeau, no less! Your note makes me feel less crazy, or at least less alone….
Glad to help. There are more Sapho fans here. One poster even studies with the second most famous Sapho on disc, Dame Ludmilla Andrew.
Huguette Tourangeau I don’t know at all – her Arias from Forgotten Operas looks fascinating! Thanks.
1. Mignon (last performance 1949)- I adore this opera and we have a plethora of choices for Philine and several choices for Mignon. I never get tired of Connais tu le pays).
2. Rossini’s Otello – Never been done and has some gorgeous music and calls for 3 major coloratura tenors, which we seem to have an abundance of now. How’s this… Lawrence Brownlee, Eric Cutler, Matthew Polenzani, Juan Diego Florez, Barry Banks, etc. And double the Desdemona with Joyce Di Donato and because I love her so, Jennifer Larmore.
3. Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor – gorgeous music, sparkling comedy. Lisette Oropesa would be a sparkling Anna.
I would second the vote for Lakme, but I would suggest Erika Miklosa. She has been criminally underused by the Met (25 Queens of the Night) and I love her voice.
I would second almost anything bel canto, but with the stipulations that neither Trebs nor REEENNAAAAYY sing them, since that’s not where their strengths lie.
I second the vote for Oberon. I love “Ocean, Thou Might Monster”.
Runners up:
Les Pecheurs de Perles
Mireille
Chabrier’s Le Roi malgre lui
Les indes galantes–Rameau is plenty big enough for the Met (more massive than Handel) and there is, Lord knows, enough spectacle in this particular opera-ballet to please even the most jaded Zeffirelli widow (volcano eruptions, anyone?) Huge cast–I haven’t worked out all the details, but I know Fleming and Florez are in there somewhere. Mark Morris directing, and Nicholas McGegan conducting.
Armide (Gluck)–Now that the Met has succeeded with Orfeo ed Euridice & Iphigenie en Tauride, why not continue on a Gluck kick? Mattila (Armide), Oropesa (Phenice), Goerke (La Haine), Richard Croft (Renaud), Banks (Le chevalier danois), Kwiecien (Ubalde), Finley (Hidraot) and more cameos in the divertissements than in a 70s disaster movie! Stephen Wadsworth directing, and Louis Langree conducting.
Les Huguenots–The Met has never been one for risking repertory revivals, but this should be an exception. And it is castable these days: Antonacci/Stoyanova, Damrau/Dessay, Dessay/Genaux (we can switch editions between revivals), Giordani/Burden, Keenlyside/Mattei, Pertusi/Furlanetto, Pape/TBA (your suggestions for the 2nd-cast Marcel welcome). David McVicar directing, and Marc Minkowski conducting.
If Armide & Les Huguenots constitute undue duplication–well, I’d also like to see the Met import the Covent Garden Matilde de Shabran (Dessay, Florez) & the Paris Opera Martinu’s Julietta (Kozena, Burden). even if they push the Met outside its repertorial comfort zone.
Armide is not undue duplication, it’s good taste. A more complete Gluck revival is overdue. (Fun fact: did you know that some of the most prominent Wagnerian singers of the late 19th century were also famous for their Gluck?)
Interesting! So Frida Leider follows a tradition here. Her Ah! si la liberté (flip side of Or sai chi I’onore) is an amazing recording – maybe my favorite Leider record.
It was none less and none other than the Immortal Olive, Herself, that gave the first Armide @ the MET, in the first decade of 20C. Arturo T., that old ladies’ man, lauded her to the skies for her interpretation.
Well, we wouldn’t get old Olive but Armide is a wonderful work. The Juilliard School did a creditable production around about the turn of the 21stC, which I enjoyed very nuch, and would find 10.times more gratifying with the stage machinery they’ve got.
Two choices for a second cast Marcel in HUGUENOTS: Gidon Saks and/or Andrea Silvestrelli
Difficult to limit oneself to three, but these have all been mentioned and I’d gladly fight for them:
Betrothal in a Monastery
Les Huguenots
La Vestale
Given the title of the thread, I’m surprised there hasn’t been a run on LOUISE — though I have a hard time imagining it without the late Bubbles.
Mireille Delunsch as Louise would be delightful:
This is not what I call a lovely Louise….
She sounds so strained, and she sounded even more so live in the house I recall.
I saw Bubbles sing it, Alto, and found it impossible to imagine AT THAT TIME. One of the ghastliest nights in NYCO history, though Bubbles’ Lucrezia Borgia surpassed even that bomb.
Louise definitely joins the L’Amore dei Tre Re group as: The moment has passed passed passed passed.
Bonjour mon cher M. Hanslick!
The moment, HELAS, for Louise has passed! That moment was precisely in 2000,its centenary, when SFopera revived it for the Flaming One. Why she did not triumph and tour with it, I do not know but the moment is gone now. Let the parisiens do it, they would render it avec esprit. .
And, truly I cannot imagine a more inappropriate role for our late Bubbles, than Louise–she is a Reine Margot–the score does state ’soprano dramatique’
What was so awful about her Lucrezia?
Sills sang Lucrezia when she had no legato, could not hold a note but for ravine-like wobbles, had no ornaments on pitch – I don’t mean she was off pitch, she was never on any identifiable pitch – and she presented it with three mediocrities in the other parts. The tenor was on the next plane back to Italy and never returned. It was I think the last time I ever spent money to hear Sills; I had disliked her for sometime, but that evening demonstrated that she hadn’t a clue what was wrong and no one had the guts to tell her.
Lucrezia requires a soprano who can hold long, beautifully produced notes. Everything else can be faked, the legato no. It’s a cozy role for aging divas (as the first one was), and it doesn’t go very high, but you have to be able to SING. Sutherland had no problems with it at nearly sixty; she looks like the tenor’s mother, but then, she IS the tenor’s mother in that libretto. So it works.
But Sills never could sing that way.
Today I’d say Devia or Swenson or Anderson. A role that’s kind to aging divas who know how to sing in the first place.
UGH, Louise is deadly. Endless. I saw it first at NYCO in the early 70s with Carol Neblett, all I could concentrate on was the buttons on her blouse
which keep coming undone. Maybe she wanted to rip it off ala Thais to liven things up.
The Sills Louise was too late and was gruesome.
Interesting to see all this posthumous revisionism about the Sills-Bible Louise. It was one of the great hits of its time.
Hans, Maury, friends: I re-listened to Louise last night and agree with you, there isn’t much there. It’s quaint.
Late Bubbles in LOUISE always gives me gas. (by “late Bubbles” I mean anything after ‘72). BUT, I love LOUISE and think it would play fine at the Met with the right cast. A lot of the music is intoxicating (not just ‘Depuis..”); it’s a love letter to Paris, and the final scene with Louise, mama and papa builds a momentum and release that is irresistable.
Not to mention Franny Bible.
Three by Rimsky-Korsakov:
1. Sadko
2. The Legend of Tsar Saltan
3. Christmas Eve
All are delightful, musically irresistible, entertaining in the heroic-fairy-tale manner, musically stunning, utterly approachable and likable. They could be family favorites year after year if imaginatively produced, and have never been given even a first chance at the Met.
Glad to see all of the Strauss operas in the reply, but my candidate would be’Die Liebe der Danae’. On stage (I’ve seen it Dresden and Munich) it comes across as another ‘Frau ohne Schatten’, requiring dramatic voices and the resources of a house the Met’s size.
Also Faure’s ‘Penelope’, to be done by the Manhattan School of Music in a few weeks. Wagner in French, with some fabulous music.
And I will go along with Schreker’s’Die Gezeichneten’, which I saw on a video from Salzburg. A much more compelling work than ‘Ferne Klang’, done recently in concert version here. Another work which needs the Met’s resources, dramatic voices and a first rate orchestra.
Another vote for Catan’s “Florencia en el Amazonas”!
YES! Good timing!
I’ve only got one and it’s Florencia en el Amazonas by Daniel Catan. Hgo, Los Angeles, and Cincinatti have already mounted successful productions of it. Theres a huge diva role with stunning arias (Renee, duh), 2 young lovers that could be cast as young singers (maybe Stephen Costello and Ailyn Perez), an older couple (any baritone and mezzo will do), and the god of the amazon (which is pretty much a shirtless role, therefore, Nathan Gunn).
The production is visually incredible and would be absolutely incredible on the Met stage
I would love to see this with Renee !!! And Teddy Tahu Rhodes shirtless as the God of the Amazon. And Placido could sing the Captain!! Wouldnt he love to sing in Spanish at the Met?
Gluck ARMIDE with Goerke, Burden and Podles ( she;s recorded it) – three singers Fiend and Billingsgate are too stupid and deaf to champion.
Tchaikovsky IOLANTA Netrebko and Beczala triumphed in it in Baden Baden; add Alexei Markov and we’re there.
GLORIANA Let’s have Fiend and Billingsgate bring in all the British and Commonwealth third raters with whose agents they schooled. Let’s start with Plowright, Glanville and Alan Oke– surely the ONLY choice for the HOFFMANN servants in a Met new production, we wouldn’t want someone francophone, now would we?
In no particular order:
1. LA VESTALE
2. LES HUGUENOTS
3. MEDEE
This assumes these could be well cast, otherwise forget it. I’d also like to second the suggestion of FLORENCIA EN EL AMAZONAS, a gorgeous work I wouldn’t mind seeing again.
I’m sure I’ll think of a dozen others that should have been included instead of those three, but this is fun, isn’t it?
1. Massenet’s Herodiade. I was just listening to a Baltsa-Caballe-Carreras performance. It is hothouse decadence. If chokingly-thick perfume could make noise, this is what it would sound like. I actually saw the Zajick-Fleming-Domingo production in San Francisco, and wondered at the time why this thing hadn’t become a staple of the Met repertory.
2. Les Huguenots. I know it’s uncastable, but then so are Aida and Andrea Chenier and La Gioconda, and the Met seems to do them frequently. Of course, I want the uncut five-act version.
3. Rienzi. I recently listened to the old BBC version that apparently has about 30 extra minutes of music that Wagner cut early on. If the Met can do Les Troyens, why not Rienzi? Uncut. And during Act 3, I want a fabulously-beplumed Rienzi on a beautiful prancing white horse.
cuz Rienzi aint a masterpiece
But yes I second Herodiade!!!
I agree. . since it is the MET take advantage of size and technical capability.
1) LES HUGUENOT (Meyerbeer)
2) ST.FRANCOISE D’ASSISSE (Messaien)
3) THE LEGEND OF TSAR SALTAN (Rimsky Korsakov) — Why doesnt anybody do this delightful opera. How often can the tenor turn into a bumblebee?
Those are my top three but I am glad others have voted for KING ROGER (Szymanowski), OBERON (Weber), Korngold’s DIE TOTE STADT and Catan’s FLORENCIA EN EL AMAZONAS. I would like somebody to vote for Alfano’s RESURREZIONE too (especially since Patricia Racette has expressed interest!)
looking at the picture at the top of the page. . .not a top three but yes yes yes. . .please SCHWANDA DUDEK by Weinberger!!!
1) Ermione (in my view, Rossini’s masterpiece). In the last 20 years it has been performed in many opera houses around the world, and it never failed to please. DiDonato could sing the title role (or Ganassi, though the Met doesn’t seem to appreciate her very much). The two tenors are more difficult to cast, though.
2) La forza del destino in its original version, which is quite different from the usually performed revision. Again, it’s the finding the tenor which could be problematic, because in this version Alvaro’s role is MUCH more difficult and longer than the normal version
3) Bellini’s Zaira. Usually trashed, I love this opera
There is the Scotto version and the Ricciarelli version of Zaira…pleasen Signor Farnese, how do they compare. Also, since Bellini lifted large segments and transferred them to Capuletti, which I almost saw @ Scala with Baltsa, but didn’t get in DAMN, HOW BAD could Zaira possibly be? Even Bellini’s early works are not “bad” to my ear, my special favourite being La Straniera.
Any words on Zaira you care to share?
Much obliged
Zaira is terrible. The plot is ridiculous. So is the plot of Capuletti, but we all know and love it, so that doesn’t matter.
Daniel Catan is a composer worth noticing.. I would buy any recorded releases of his work and rush to see a Catan work. What’s more his music is haunting. You listen…then say two days later out of nowhere, phrases and themes you are hearing in your head are ‘bugging you’. That is music.
Now for a real find to stage: what about Malcolm Williamson’s The Violins of St Jacques.
I once saw a video presentation of the big 3 Act opera. Take a steamy island, snakes and other exotics, set in colonial times, a big Governor’s Ball ( a La Gone with Wind), hints of lesbianism (and incest, as well – if I remember) a volcanic eruption, destroyed island, heroine finally marooned, the sole survivor …cast out alone onto the icy sea. What’s more the music is notable and accessible to the ears. How much more ‘punch’ does one need?
God! the mention of Britten’s Gloriana…..’Queen Bessie running around muttering about her dearest ‘ROOOOBBIN’ in the most fruity frigid English tones . Spare us please! Of course the Vicar would be furiously wetting his pants if anyone but one of his ‘Ethel M.Dell type’ singers was cast ever, in the role.
As for resurrecting yet more old ‘lost’ bel canto ‘twirly bird twittering’ operas depicting a ‘bats in the belfry’ soprano voiced creature………..F*#K!
I agree, Harry? I can’t imagine sitting through that Gloriana twaddle. It was a stretch for people even in the insanity surrounding the Coronation. Now I find it laughable.
Now, just to piss Harry off, I’m wishing I’d proposed an all-Tudor season, rounded out with resurrected Bel Canto twirlybirds: Henry VIII, Gloriana, Elisabetta, Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, Roberto Devereux…
Finally someone mentions an opera I’ve never even heard of. Violins of St. Jacques sounds worthy of gander, if not at the Met. When was it composed? What is the music like?
I haven’t heard the opera, but I did read the novel a long time ago. It’s by a well-known travel writer, Patrick Leigh-Fermor, and is quite short–about 150 pages. The one thing I remember about the plot is that the volcano erupts right in the middle of the big Mardi Gras ball. (Where’s Meyerbeer when you need him?)
Malcolm Williamson was Master of the Queens Musick in UK, a surprise appointment as he was chosen over Britten and Tippett and was Australian. He sort of imploded by being late for a couple of crucial very public royal commission, and apparently had a knack of pissing people off, so his career spiralled. Violins of St Jacques was written in 1966 and televised – everyone perishes in a volcanic explosion except one – music is a strange tonal brew of Messiaen, Jazz, and much else – deeply unfashionable in the 60′-70’s – might be deemed worthwhile now. His first opera, based on ‘Our Man in Havana’ by Graham Greene was very highly thought of.
Meyerbeer and others.
I wrote a synopsis (did I put it on my blog? maybe not) for a libretto on Casablanca that would have been ideal for Verdi. The conertato began with Luigi (the corrupt police chief) closing Rick’s to the words, “Son stupefatto, stupefatto….” And there was a splendid trio near the end for Rick, Elsa and whosis, her husband, “Le probleme di tre uomincelli n’accontono a una colline di fagioli.”
Of course my execrable Italian would have to be versified. (Verdi was very strict about syllable counting.)
1 – Maria Stuarda
2 – Lucrezia Borgia
3 – Medea (Cherubini)
I would LOVE to see Lucrezia Borgia, my very favorite Donizetti opera, but we all know who the Met would cast in it, so it’s probably better they don’t do it.
Lucrezia B. Is one of the Donizetti works I love, and yes, indeed we do all know we’d get singing it (”I’ll SHOW YOU, LA SCALA!!”).
Since the tessitura of this role does lie low, perhaps DiDonato?
As Caballe refuses to go away and retire, maybe she could be resuscitated??
I would like to see Palestrina, Le Grand Macabre and either Der ferne Klang or Die Kathrin.
I very much want to see this new Fura dels Baus Macabre in the Met.
Les Huguenots would be awesome, and yes, I think it IS castable right now: Masssis/Guttierez, di donato/Goerke/Stoyanova, Genaux/Larmore, Giordani/Burden(?)
I have no desire to hear Handel at the Met, to be honest. I think small companies are doing such an awesome job with Handel (I am particularly thinking of Chicago Opera Theater and SOMETIMES Glimmerglass) I see no reason to try to take what are basically chamber operas into the vast space of the MET.
A Netrebko Anna Bolena could be phenomenal with a good director and major coaching from someone who understands belcanto COMPLETELY and isn’t afraid to tell Netrebko how it’s done. I think the part is exactly right for her vocally, and she would look phenomenal and act the shit out of the role. Cast her opposite JDD as Giovanna and you could have a hit on your hands. Get JDF for Percy and the luscious Ildebrando d’arcangelo for Enrico.
It would also be great to get Podles on the stage for one of her signature roles…she’s getting up there in age and I have this fear that we will never hear her at the MET until the voice is in taters and then they will trot her out as the Countess in Queen of Spades…ugh. Let’s hear her in Tanredi with Ciofi or Gutierrez as Amenaide.
Podles, of course, is a huge hit in Idaho.
Podles had a big hit very recently as Tancredi in Boston. The lady is a force and a potent one.
Right, Will. She can still do sublime bel canto at the age of 57. I was at her Met debut (Rinaldo), and I’ve never understood why Volpe (or somebody) refused to have her back. Or has the age of quirky but wonderful voices passed forever?
Grapes of Wrath
Dead Man Walking with Susan Graham
Harvey Milk
*Since they have all been done as mainstream movies, they should do well as part of the HD series.
cynical!!!
Mr. squirrel,
you might just as well put Huguenots, Diable and L’Africaine on the list and leave it at that. They always seems to win these contests. Not sure why …
Tremble before the power of Meyerbeer!
And I’m a little surprised at how many of these ‘unseen’, ‘unproduced’ operas have been done at NYCO in the last 15 yrs or so:
Cendrillon, Alcina, Turn of the Screw, Tote Stadt, Mother Of Us All, Viaggio, Ermione, Vixen, Capuletti, Pecheurs, etc.
Yes, I know it’s not the Met — but it’s just across the freakin street.
And Bravo! to you, RDaggle.
thanks, Will.
oh, and how could I not include the production of “Daphne” that NYCO did? The closest to the ‘regie’ so beloved at Parterre.
Wow, those costumes were OTT!
( look, I don’t care if you are a gay nazi biker stag — the old rule applies: Take a look in the mirror before you go out, and leave ONE THING off! )
They did those operas at NYCO because they are operas too small for the Met that didn’t belong in it. (Of those you list, I’d except Ermione, definitely a work worthy of rehearing.) That is why we need two companies, the second one ideally in a MUCH smaller house than the Koch. This is how all rationally run great opera cities do things.
What is a surprise is that Mefistofele, such an outsize work and such an outsize hit at NYCO for Treigle (and later the lesser but golden-voiced Sam Ramey) has not been presented by the Met (aside from a few times in a borrowed production) since 1926. Now that’s a crowd pleaser.
1)The Greek Passion/Martinu (I have no idea why this melodic, moving opera is largely ignored.)
2)I Masnadieri/Verdi (There’s no sane reason why the tenor stabs the soprano at the end, but it makes for a great final curtain.)
3)Der Vampyr/Marschner (I think it would be fun to see Thomas Hampson struck by lightning.)
naughty!
The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia by Rimsky-Korsakov. aka: The Russian Parsifal in some quarters. The MET used to do Rimsky and it’s a great shame they stopped–gorgeous music, plenty of chances for great stagecraft, wonderful roles to sing.
St. Francois d’Assise by Messiaen. We would have had it from NYCO but then Mr. Mortier fled and all that collapsed. A major modern score that needs to be done in New York.
Medée by Cherubini–IN FRENCH, with the spoken dialog, not the bastardized hybrid mess Sarah Caldwell made of it (twelve tone recitatives in classical Greek pre-recorded and mimed by actors rather than the singers–nightmarish) and cast with someone daring and charismatic in the title role. If Anna Catarina Antonacci is still in voice, she could be a good choice.
Kitezh was done at the Met in 2003 by the Mariinsky – I saw it twice, it was breathtaking if you are able to succumb to its leisurely timescale.
Great suggestions so far but there are a lot of great choices yet to be made. Thanks to those who already suggested Louise, Cunning Little Vixen, and some of the lesser known Massenet operas. To these I’ll add
Bolcom’s McTeague, which was spectacular in its Chicago premiere with Malfitano and Ben Heppner. Had a second performance in Bloomington and then vanished. A riveting night of theater.
Chabrier’s Le Roi Malgre Lui. Heavily cut recording available with Barbara Hendricks but the piece virtually jumps to life upon hearing it.
Bernstein’s Candide. Why not? Everyone else has had a shot at it. The Met should be able to muster up a viable version for their house.
Candide: next month, the return of Karan Armstrong as the Old Lady. Jane Archibald as Cunegonde. I think I will go.
I still haven’t heard McTeague, but happened to run into Malfitano last night and she was raving that she thinks it’s the most successful recent opera.
I just checked the Met dabatase and was surprised to see that neither Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda or Roberto Devereux has been done at the Met. Remember when there were rumours that the Met was going to do all three in one season with Netrebko as Anna, Ghergiou as Maria and Fleming as Elisabetta?
I’m still working on my list of three. I take these polls very seriously.
Kashania, Met Futures is listing Bolena with Netrebko
and Stuarda with DiDonato for upcoming seasons. No guarantee that they will happen of course but they are at least planned.
I heard the Devereux rumors too, don’t know what to make of that but it’s only about ten years since
NYCO did Devereux across the plaza
Ten years, Richard? Thirty, isn’t it?
No, about 10-12 years ago. For Flanigan, a different production that the one they did in the 70s for Sills
I vote for
Cunning Little Vixen, a perfect opera for Basil Twist
Iris for a different take on Orientalism
Merry Mount: SATANIC PIGLRIMS! Need I say more
I would also be really curious to see “Iris” onstage.
It might be a very interesting project for Julie Taymor to direct.
Iris is really a trip onstage, particularly the
unworldy last act.
New Jersey State Opera did it about 20 years ago for Adriana Maliponte.
Iris would be wonderful. I’m voting for that. Trying to think of a singer with the same tremulous quality (for vulnerability) as Olivero, I flashed on Radvanovsky and enjoyed the thought of her “Ho fatto un triste sogno.” Antonenko might really kill in “Apri la tua finestra” though I don’t have a clear idea if the tessitura is something he could do.
Teatro Grattacielo did a ’semi-staged’, with elaborate costumes, six or seven years back and, yes, I would love to see it fully realized on stage. The Hymn to the Sun is worth the admission price alone.
Too bad Freni is no longer active.
1. JONNY SPEILT AUF: Though not at all politically correct, Ernst Krenek’s “jazz opera” would be loads of fun. Especially if you stage it in black and white (like Jonathan Miller’s staging of THE MIKADO) and alternate the scenery between art deco splendor for the Paris scenes with Jonny and CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI-style expressionism for the modernist composer character of Max. The incorporation of historical film footage from the 1920s and ’30s would also be a great addition.
2. I second the suggestion of Kurt Weill’s DIE BURGSHAFT. Anyone familiar with Zhang Yimou 1994 film TO LIVE can find a great historical setting and metaphor to match the opera’s pessimistic look at two friends’ shifting alliances through the sweep of history. Just start it at the beginning of China’s Communist Revolution of 1949 and end it with the violence of the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s.
3. DIE VOGEL: Another vote for this Braunfels opera, which would be perfect for director Mary Zimmerman. And before you start attacking me, I’ve personally been amazed at Zimmerman’s mastery at staging myths and fairy tales in Chicago and Berkeley (METAMORPHOSES, THE SECRET IN THE WINGS, THE ODYSSEY, ARGONAUTIKA). This is the opera The Met should have offered Zimmerman instead of LUCIA or SONNAMBULA. The material in DIE VOGEL would fit much better with Zimmerman’s award-winning directing ethos.
1. Smetana’s Dalibor. Was done by OONY, but I’d like to see a staged performance.
2. Szymanowski’s King Roger. I know it only from recordings.
3.The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia by Rimsky-Korsakov. Saw it in Boston a few decades ago. Would like to see it at the Met.
Unfortunately dallasuapace and Will (above) the MET gave the City of Kitezh/Fevronia in the summer of 2003 in a so-so Kirov,oops, Mariinsky, production so, even though it is an interesting work – maybe food for La Netrebko – it doesn’t qualify by the rules of the squirrel game.
Les Vespres Siciliennes
Don Carlos
Turandot with the Glass ending
Daphne with Schwanewilms
Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor with Damrau as Frau Fluth
Das Wunder der Heliane with Harteros
for an added fourth Armide with Isokoski or Denoke
I guess I’ll respond in earnest and second the votes for Iris (Radvanovsky?), Armide (Goerke), and Devereux (Flanigan.)
1. Roberto Devereux
2. Lucretia Borgia
3. Robert le Diable (or Roberto il Diavolo)
I have to go back to this Die Tote Stadt thing. I still cannot believe that this work has not been done since 1923. What an awful, awful shame. And furthermore, why is it that this isn’t being scheduled for Renaaaaay (of all people) after her 125 gala performance? Not to mention how great of a project it would make for one of Gelb’s pet directors, as there’s soooo much that could be done with it. (coincidentally, has Chereau ever done a Tote Stadt? I’d be interested to see one from him).
Well two things here. First NYCO has revived Tote
Stadt pretty regularly over the last 35 years, I saw it in the 70s with NEblett, the 90s with Flanigan
and back in 2006 with susan B Anthony. So it’s a rarety as far as the Met but not at all in NYC as a whole.
Secondly, I don’t think it’s that great a fit for Fleming. I loved her singing of the aria at the 125th gala too, but the rest of the score is heavier and the orchestration is dense. A lot of her sound will disappear, even Flanigan struggled.
1) Borodin’s Prince Igor. The opera is a mess, but what tunes!Really, really something.
2)Massenet’s Don Quichotte. Great vehicle for charismatic bass.
3)Mascagni’s Iris. This has already been suggested, but let me add my vote. Great roles for soprano, tenor , basso. And terrific exposure for the Met chorus, which sounds rejuvenated. Last act is set in a sewer with apparitions from Iris’ past serenading her to her death.
I’d like to add Giovanna D’Arco to my list. I have the dvd of Werner Herzog’s production with Susan Dunn and the music is gorgeous (not first rate Verdi but second rate Verdi is better than just about anyone in my book)
I vote for Moniuszko’s Halka. Years ago I heard and very much enjoyed a recording of it. The conductor on the recording had the incredible name Satanowski.
No doubt repeating others’ recommendations, but:
Chabrier’s Le Roi malgré lui Why? Utterly gorgeous music.
Enescu’s Oedipe Why? Eloquent. Magnificent. Dazzling.
Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise Why? Oh, to hear Levine conduct and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra perform Messiaen’s miraculous score!
Lulu, I used to own the Chabrier in the complete recording with Barbara Hendricks… stunning music. I’m so glad someone knows it besides me.
The Chabrier is an amazing score – astonishing. I saw it at Opera North UK, where they wrote a new libretto – alas it didn’t work at all – it was just done in Paris and the same happened. Should be given in concert – also spoken dialogue is always a problem. It’s like Dvorak’s Jacobin and Weber’s Euryanthe – really striking music, but they just die the death on stage as the librettos are so undramatic and uninteresting.
I SO agree with you, Lulu, about Oedipe! High on my list of operas that have never been done in New York and should be, would be a great success here. And it’s very grand!
I voted my three but I’d love to hear an Oedipe as well. Big score, big opera, creepy and compelling and unique, needs a real stage vision to go along with it.
Herr Hanslick and Staussmonster –
I absolutely concur with you guys regarding Oedipe. First time I listened it amazed me that such a fine work lay buried so deeply. Why?
When you get Cyrano de Bergerac instead of ANY of the worthy contenders mentioned, you have to wonder what has gone wrong.
Now that we have Mr. Squirrel in charge @ the MET, maybe things will or CAN change. House of the Dead is a start.
My three titles are the following (those are the ones that should count as votes for those keeping count)
1) Gomes’s Fosca – absolutelly gorgeous music in authentic italian “grand” style. Hint: Stoyanova has sung a very good Delia.
2) Rossini’s William Tell – I dont understand how it hasn’t received votes so far – has it been performed recently (met opera archives doesn’t seem to have any record post 1931)?. It is opera at its grandest!
3) Bellini’s I Capuletti ed I Montecchi. I cannot understand how it hasn’t yet been scheduled, specially since it is an excelent title for the current met roster and that could showcase a combination of “Stars” that by itself would bring an audience. Besides, think of all the straight guys going bezerk seeing Garanca and Netrebko KISS ONSTAGE.
Since I use VerdiLover as my nick, I can’t help but mention the original Forza though I don’t think it counts as another opera, it is almost entirely different, and I think the Met would be a great venue for a good production.
Again on the business side, I cannot understand why the met doesn’t do Pearl Fischers as a regular title, since it is so castable with the current met roster.
On the other hand, some of the good suggestions offered are completely impaired by casting difficulties. I cannot in good conscience say that Les Huguenots is castable today (unless some extremely good people are being kept hidden someplace). And the inevitable consequence of trying would be a miserable failure that would do no justice to a wonderfull opera.
Verdilover, the trouble with the Pearl Fishers is that it is such a lame drama, despite some truly gorgeous music. I’ve only seen it once and was deeply disappointed. (It didn’t help that it was in English too.)
As one of those who suggested Les Huguenots complete with a proposed double cast, permit me to take issue with your claim that it’s not castable today. Perhaps it isn’t castable with an all-star cast, if you limit yourself to those singers which Gelb has deemed to be stars. But we have good Rossini singers nowadays, after all, and if you can sing Rossini, you can sing Meyerbeer. The only possible exception might be Raoul, and even then his music is slightly less strenuous than Arnold’s music in Guillaume Tell, which I notice you did list as an opera worth reviving.
Indiana III
You are absolutely correct in what you say. Of course it won’t be Sutherland, Corelli et al., but, for instance, the Raoul @ Bard, um I think Michael someone (only 31 y.o.) Is perfectly plausible. If Giordani (OONY’s Raoul) could be depended upon–one never knows with him– he would as well. He may be too old for it now, as it requires a great deal to muster up all That!
It”s HugeNuts pour Moi, or None At All!
Oh, and as for Reine Marguerite we could have Diana Damrau or Annick Massis and Mme. Defray served up for the sloppy seconds as just desserts for ruining Sonnambula.
1. Les Huguenots
One of the grandest of French grand operas. Yes, it’s very difficult to cast but that’s not really the point of this contest. And as someone has pointed out, Aida is also very difficult to cast adequately and that hasn’t stopped the Met.
2. Roberto Devereux
My favourite of Donizetti’s three queens. Not just a diva vehicle but one of the great dramatic bel canto works.
3. Mefistofele
I’m not as fanatical about this work as some opera fans I know (who count it among their very favourite works), but it is a big, Romantic work that is perfectly suited a big house like the Met. It is also an auidence pleaser. And frankly, it’s more interesting than Gounod’s take on the story.
Basic difference between Aida and Huguenots is that Aida still “works” with a less spetacular cast (opera houses around the world prove this every day). I am pretty positive that Les Huguenots does not.
MEFISTOFELE is a work I love too and should be performed more often. In fact there were 13 performances 1999 2000 season with Ramey and Pavarotti, Villaroeal and others. So it doesnt count.
ooops I was wrong. . .Richard Leech, not Pavarotti. Though I think he was originally announced for the production.
Yes, Richard Leech and then Richard Margison, whom they actually got to sing in Italian! (Rather than his usual Canadian)
Speaking of Canada– I believe the Bonynge Norma is soon to take place in Vancouver, with Margison. Anyone ging to go, and then report?
Thanks.
.
Darn, I didn’t check to see if the Met had done Mefistofele. In that case, my third vote goes to
3. Capuleti e Montechi
Because you can never have too much Bellini (and because I’m having trouble thinking of a neglected German work that I really want to see at the Met).
Everybody’s responses to this “quiz” have been wonderful! (Remember there are no right answers, only good ones and stupid ones.)
I have not seen many suggestions yet for Louise, Guillaume Tell, or (ahem) Maskarade however. Shall anyone dare to include them among your three?
Here are my votes. All are doable, all are sorely needed.
1. Freischütz – was done as late as the 1970s (I made the rules, it’s good to be the Squirrel). Badly needed – a touchstone work for German Opera that any major house should be putting on the stage for us to experience. Squirrel wasn’t born the last time they did it!
2. Maskarade (duh) – An early-modern comic masterpiece. I’d suggest the Danish version with a conductor like Thomas Dausgaard.
3. Huguenots – There is a huge interest in Meyerbeer, and this is the big one. A fine production of this opera would have the vocal, theatrical, and historical appeal to satisfy many a Met-goer. (And I still love justanothertenor’s idea for Chéreau to direct!)
I voted for Rossini’s William Tell, which counts for Guillaume Tell does it not?
Actually I assumed you were voting for the Ken Russell film version…;)
I had assumed that Nielsen’s absolut vidunderlig Maskarade was a given, in other words that we were to all vote for Maskarade + three other neglected masterpieces. That is to say, a “Top 3″ that was in fact a “Top 4.”
Having gone to a splendidly cast Louise in SF in 1999 (Fleming in a congenial role, Ramey, Palmer…may have been Hadley, don’t remember) I’m going to side with the folks who say it just hasn’t aged into something readily enjoyable at this particular moment in history. I remember it as having longeurs on top of longeurs. And then Depuis le Jour. And then a final course of longeurs.
Oh the choices, the choices.
1. Massenet – Griselidis. Never performed with a few real gems.
2. Verdi – Don Carlos. Always loved it in French, never seen it.
3. Philidor – Tom Jones. The novel is wonderful, may as well see it..
I think so far Philidor’s Tom Jones is winning the “most obscure” race (though there’s a lot of competition)
Remember folks, we have to sell this to Mr Gelb!!
*grins* Seeing as my thought process getting to tom jones went past both Les Dragons de Villars, and Les Cloches de Corneville, it coulda been worse.
Hell, if I could’ve come up with a third opera with a major role for a dancer, I would’ve suggested a set of that third, Muette de Portici and La Camargo (lecoq)….
Rimsky’s ‘Mlada’ – the title role is for a dancer, and there’s a great campy cameo for Cleopatra as well – also a full opera company piled on top.
I can think of some so-called leading sopranos who would do well to add the title role in Mlada to their repertoire.
@Queen amahelli – oo, awesome, thank you! I’ve got a major hole in my knowledge when it comes to the Russians.
@Monty – *cackle* Laughing this hard is a great way to start the day..
fuzzy chris – you’ll love Mlada: it’s not staged very often as there is a scene of Divination by Horses, requiring a group of white ones and a group of black ones, a witches sabbath on a mountain, which then reveals Cleopatra’s court, and a full scale inundation a la Gotterdammerung at the end – and it requires a dramatic soprano with a stonking top C sharp and a tenor with a top C. Believe it or not there is a DVD available from the Bolshoi, and it may be on youtube – It’s bonkers!
1. Ok, well let me give a vote for Azerbaijani composer Uzeir Hajibeyov’s last opera “Koroghlu” (1937) – a legendary, historical epic. Borrowing on the passionate language of traditional Azeri mugam, I like to describe Hajibeyov’s operas as Borodin on steroids. This might make for some nice cultural outreach for the Met, and they could rake in some Azerbaijani oil money. Bonus: the first lady of Azerbaijan looks like a really evil version of Audrey Hepburn.
Some links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kydP4e6xS3Y&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvjw3GJdzc8&
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HLEJJwFIH8&feature=relatedfeature=related
2. Boieldieu – La Dame Blanche
3. Rossini – Guillaume Tell
I posted some suggestions yesterday but here are my votes. Please Mr Gelb!!!
1. Saint François d’Assise
Because it’s Met debut is long overdue…
2. Le Coq d’Or (with Julie Taymor directing)
Because it would be a dream come true… (I’d fly from Australia to see it, because there is no hope of it being done here, no matter how hard I beg…)
3. Der Vampyr
Because it would be fun to see some of the campy Met stars in something really campy…
1. SNORE
2. Taymor is a great idea!!!!
3. You don’t get enough of that already??
Saw Coq d’Or at the Chatelet. It was beautiful! The production was by a Japanese director, I believe.
It was supposed to be revived in San fran in this production, but sadly it was cut.
I think Taymor would do a brilliant job of it.
Who will sing the Astronomer??? (Eb for the tenor…)
The Coq d’Or at Chatelet was the Mariinsky production directed by Ennosuke Ichikawa, a kabuki actor…
No-one has mentioned Debussy’s “Le martyre de Saint Sébastien”. I have always wanted to know what it would look like on stage…
Well, it isn’t an opera really–just some very elaborate incidental music to a very ornate verse play. You might as well ask the Met to mount Mendelssohn’s music for A midsummer night’s dream…
I’m coming to this late, and haven’t read beyond the 10th suggestion, but here are the 3 I’d like to see, given the squirrel’s rules:
1. La donna del lago
2. Lucrezia Borgia (but I ask, please, not with Fleming)
3. Powder Her Face
If Powder Her Face proves to be too much of a chamber piece for a house of the Met’s size, then I substitute Cunning Little Vixen in its place.
Let me explain about my special request for Lucrezia Borgia. Most of you know that I’m not a Fleming hater. In fact, I’m currently enjoying her singing in Herodiade. But the two times she sang this role — at WNO and at La Scala — the reviews were mixed at best.
Why Powder Her Face? I know very little about this work, but I really like Adès’ music. So I’m willing to give it a try.
She actually sang the role in more than 2 productions. She also sang it at Carnegie Hall in 2000. You really have to hear it for yourself. I know that someone people still think that critics and reviewers are still relevant, but not me.
Powder Her Face? What would the patrons think about an opera which has a blowjob as its main claim to fame?
We had a fine production of PHF in Boston several years ago and it made a very good impression. Not everybody’s cup of tea musically or dramatically, perhaps, but a genuine opera, very good theater, a work of real stature. There’s much more to it than just a blowjob.
but it is a tiny chamber opera – 4 singers and about 15 instruments – how big can a blowjob be to be enjoyed by 3800 people in the Met?
Having heard a few things by Ades, I’m really not sure how much there is to any of them.
If it features a blowjob, it could make a nice pairing with Bondy’s Tosca. The Met could assemble a themed package for subscribers called “BJs Throughout the Ages” and include all the productions in its repertory that have a blowjob on stage. Or they could name the series after the GD who used to help the ushers get off. And imagine the special cocktail the bartenders would serve …
Since Powder Her Face is scored for such a small ensemble, I throw my vote to Cunning Little Vixen.
Cruz,is that Cunning or Cumming? (I got in there before Sanford.)
Does the idea that chamber-music effects cannot be adequately presented in the Met stand up? Last season we had a piano recital there, after all, and it was marvelous. I have seen Powder Her Face –at BAM — and have the recording. It’s not my favorite work, but it’s a fine piece and might be a real relief at the Met if well-presented.
In an ideal world, one would lead to the other.
Alto, I leave it to the New Yorkers here to weigh in on chamber pieces in the Met. Adès composed PHF for a small venue because, I’ve read, limited financial resources. Maybe he could enlarge (revise) the music for the Met’s orchestra.
Yikes, I didn’t say anything about Donna del Lago. I’ve heard DiDonato sing selections from this in concert and I just about [arrived] in my pants. I would love to hear and see her in the entire work. I’m confident that she would be able to act as well as sing whatever the role demands.
Cruz, do we need to have a lesson in how to properly conjugate the verb “to cum”? {arrived} is not proper english.
I’m cumming
I have cum
I came
I will be cumming again shortly
I want to cum again
I faked my cum shot
I’m too high to cum
1. Rimsky’s “Christmas Eve”
A delightful counterpart to Tchaikovsky’s Cherevichki premiering in London this month. Tuneful Slavic fantasy.
2. Moniuszko’s “Halka”
3. Marchetti’s Ruy Blas
I can’t believe that’s two “Halka” votes!
is Valery Gergiev still principal guest conductor at the Met? no? Isn’t it amazing that they have not done Coq d’Or or Prince Igor or Ruslan and Ludmila.
SQUIRREL! Check the Archives. They’ve done Ruslan and Lyudmila and Prince Igor at the Met with the touring Kirov; seen ‘em both…Ruslan with a young Netrebko.
That was sometime in the last decade, not ancient history, so it shouldn’t be hard.
Le Coq d’Or was, of course, the property of La Sills at NYCO in the early seventies, when you were still in the squirrel nest, chewing on your baby acorns. Don’t think the Met could have competed with that! It had a great success, so lots of old people have a recollection of it — it toured to L.A., as well.
I don’t know if Gergiev still holds that title. Certainly his non Russian work at the Met has been very uneven.
Gergiev did bring the Kirov/MT to the Met with both Prince Igor and Ruslan about 12 years ago. Ruslan is a wonderful fantasy piece and the MT did just a wonderful job of it.
The Prince Igor was more problematic , there is often a problem about which music to use and what order to use it in with this piece but I love it just the same.
ATTENTION ALL DEBUSSY LOVERS! TOMORROW NIGHT at Florence Gould Hall, l’Opera Francais de New York will present Debussy’s weirdness masquerading as opera, i.e., “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Devil in the Belfry” — for those of you coming down off the high of an evening with Aprile, this may be the bromide you are looking for. Or not.
In whatever case, it is more opera weirdness than you’re liable to ever see very soon at the Metropolitan Opera, House of the Dead excepted. You can surely find out more by going to the Alliance Francaise site, I think http://www.fiaf.com or something to that effect.
The ‘Usher’, I believe it is, will be an edition of the extant scraps, worked out by the eminent Carolyn Abbate, so it’s gonna be as good as it gets, as the saying goes.
Last year the Robert Orledge version of Usher was done in Amsterdam with the excellent Henk Neven. A great success.
Living up to my name, I would vote:
1. Rossini – Otello
2. Donizetti – I Capuleti e i Montechi
3. Rossini – La Gazza Ladra
I second all votes for Rimsky, partic. Sadko or Kitezh.
I’m kind of surprised we haven’t seen Rienzi in over a hundred years. That might be (lengthy) fun.
I would go for a vote for each opera named here but, because I can’t, I’ll go for:
- Handel’s Alcina (Fleming, Dessay, Graham)
- Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montechi (Netrebko, Garanca)
- Massenet’s Herodiade (Fleming, Domingo)
Is that Domingo as tenor or baritone?
1. Cunning Little Vixen – Because it’s actually a masterpiece. Thomas Allen may still sing the Forrester, and if not, get Peter Mattei. I think Diana Damrau would make a fantastic Vixen.
2. Daphne. Fleming actually sings this one pretty well.
3. Mignon. Despite some of the fluffy stuff, I would love to see Graham or even DiDonato add this to their rep on a larger scale. Get Dessay to do Philine, and you’re made.