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)
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.”