By acclamation
The results of the Repertory Poll are in! Squirrel asked which three Old Operas you would most like to see staged at the New New Met, and the people have spoken! Results after the jump.
First, good news. Though it wasn’t a top winner, a number of you asked for Maria Stuarda by Gaetano Donizetti. Well, your wish is coming true! Squirrel spoke last night via CNN Hologram™ with Met Boss Peter Gelb, and has arranged for this bel canto masterpiece to be staged in the 2012-2013 season, starring Joyce di Donato in a production by David McVicar! (All who voted for Maria Stuarda can thank me with a glass of scotch at the Parterre Box cantina.)
Squirrel as the Count de Saint Bris in Les Huguenots, Metropolitan Opera, 1895
The Real Winners:
1. An overwhelming number of votes (nine, by my count) were cast for Giacomo Meyerbeer’s grandly grandiose Les Huguenots: this repertory staple was performed nearly every season between 1894 and 1905, and revived in 1910 before vanishing from the Met.
This must be a very satisfying moment for Leon Botstein. The Bard Festival produced this important and influential work to great acclaim last summer, but it seems obvious that the Met’s lavish production budget and casting muscle would make an even bigger spectacle. Also, Parterre denizen justanothertenor gets special mention for the brilliant, kooky idea to hire Patrice Chéreau as metteur en scène. (Squirrel will call him tonight.)
2. Gluck’s Armide: given its American premiere at the Met in 1910 with a jaw-dropping cast that included Olive Fremstad, Louise Homer, Alma Gluck, Pasquale Amato and Enrico Caruso — conducted by Arturo Toscanini! Last performed there in 1912.
3. Cherubini’s Médée (the French version seems to have the biggest lobby): never performed in any language at the Met. Given once in concert at Lincoln Center in the 1990s.
Honorable Mention: Some very popular runners-up included Guillaume Tell, Roberto Devereux, The Tsar’s Bride, Le Coq d’Or, Lucrezia Borgia, and La Vestale. Squirrel is appalled that Der Freischütz got only two votes, and shames you all for leaving it to rot in the Met library!
Von Stade was in many ways a very appealing singer (and I’m sure a lovely person), but wasn’t she just a little monochromatic?
Mr. MontyN.
That last bit was worthy of, even perhaps surpassed, the Vicar Himself!
Perhaps, but to me she was just such an appealing performer. and she was interesting in so many ways.
She had so much wit and charm (even as Flora!!!!)
How can you do Maria Stuarda without Roberto Devereux and Anna Bolena?
Not old standards but…
What about Le Cid – hasn’t been done in decades (except Eve Queler did it in concert years ago) and it’s a terrific opera.
And no one has done Guntram (Wagner) or Siberia (Giordano) – maybe not great operas but moments are quite wonderful and they deserve to be done!
No Boito “Mefistofele” listed?
What’s wrong with you people?
Pass Butterfly’s sword to me please.
It was DQed for being too recently performed at the Met, which you would have known if you’d read the thread.
I saw it at the Komische Oper in Berlin, and for the life of me I still can’t figure out what all the balding middle-aged men in wedding dresses were meant to represent.
arepo: Mefistofele did get a couple of votes (including from yours truly) until it was pointed out that it was done at the Met in the 90s.
Guntram is Strauss’ first opera. It does have some good moments in it, but there’s a reason no one trots it out in a full production more than once in a blue moon. You want to try to cast that tenor part?
Jonas Kaufman with Soile Isokoski.