Jimmiography
In celebration of James Levine‘s 40th anniversary at the Met, the company is releasing two massive collections of previously (mostly) unavailable material conducted by the maestro. Highlights include video performances of Smetana’s The Bartered Bride (Teresa Stratas, Nicolai Gedda, Jon Vickers, Martti Talvela), and Der Rosenkavalier (Kiri Te Kanawa, Tatiana Troyanos, Judith Blegen, Luciano Pavarotti, Kurt Moll).
The DVDs also include highlights from historic concerts in 1982 and 1983 featuring five legendary names, Leontyne Price, Marilyn Horne, Tatiana Troyanos, Plácido Domingo, and Sherrill Milnes. The 11 historic performances on the 32-CD set range from early 1980s innovations like the Parade triple-bill to the world premiere of John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby from 2000.
The two sets comprising “James Levine: Celebrating 40 Years at the Met” will be available on September 21.
11 Titles on 32 CDs
Berg: Lulu. Christine Schäfer, Hanna Schwarz, David Kuebler, Clifton Forbis, James Courtney; April 21, 2001
Berg: Wozzeck. José van Dam, Anja Silja, Ragnar Ulfung, Richard Cassilly, Dieter Weller; March 8, 1980
Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini. Marcello Giordani, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Kristine Jepson, Peter Coleman-Wright, John Del Carlo, Robert Lloyd; December 27, 2003
Berlioz: Les Troyens. Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Deborah Voigt, Ben Heppner, Dwayne Croft, Robert Lloyd; February 22, 2003
Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande. Jeannette Pilou, Dale Duesing, Jocelyne Taillon, José van Dam, Jerome Hines; January 22, 1983
Harbison: The Great Gatsby. Jerry Hadley, Dawn Upshaw, Dwayne Croft, Susan Graham, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Mark Baker; January 1, 2000
Parade (triple bill)—Satie: Parade / Poulenc: Les Mamelles de Tirésias / Ravel: L’Enfant et les Sortilèges. Ainhoa Arteta, Danielle de Niese, Earle Patriarco, Ruth Ann Swenson, Wendy White; March 16, 2002
Schoenberg: Moses und Aron. Philip Langridge, John Tomlinson; February 20, 1999
Stravinsky: The Rake’s Progress. Dawn Upshaw, Paul Groves, Samuel Ramey, Stephanie Blythe; April 19, 2003
Stravinsky (triple bill)—Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps / Le Rossignol / Oedipus Rex. William Lewis, Florence Quivar, Franz Mazura, Gianna Rolandi, Philip Creech; February 25, 1984
Wagner: Lohengrin. Ben Heppner, Deborah Voigt, Deborah Polaski, Hans-Joachim Ketelsen, Eric Halfvarson; March 21, 1998
12 Titles on 21 DVDs
Berg: Lulu. Julia Migenes, Franz Mazura, Evelyn Lear, Kenneth Riegel; December 1980
Berg: Wozzeck. Falk Struckmann, Katarina Dalayman, Wolfgang Neumann, Graham Clark, Michael Devlin; October 2001
Corigliano: The Ghosts of Versailles. Teresa Stratas, Håkan Hagegård, Marilyn Horne, Gino Quilico, Graham Clark, Renée Fleming; January 1992
Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro. Carol Vaness, Kathleen Battle, Frederica von Stade, Thomas Allen, Ruggero Raimondi; December 1985
Puccini: Il Trittico. Renata Scotto, Cornell MacNeil, Vasile Moldoveanu, Betsy Norden, Jocelyne Taillon, Gabriel Baquier, Italo Tajo, Philip Creech; November 1981
Smetana: The Bartered Bride. Teresa Stratas, Nicolai Gedda, Jon Vickers, Martti Talvela; November 1978
R. Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos (Virgin Classics release). Deborah Voigt, Natalie Dessay, Susanne Mentzer, Richard Margison, Nathan Gunn; April 2003
R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier. Tatiana Troyanos, Kiri Te Kanawa, Kurt Moll, Judith Blegen, Derek Hammond-Stroud, Luciano Pavarotti; October 1982
R. Strauss: Elektra. Hildegard Behrens, Deborah Voigt, Brigitte Fassbaender, James King, Donald McIntyre; January 1994
Verdi: Don Carlo. Vasile Moldoveanu, Renata Scotto, Tatiana Troyanos, Sherril Milnes, Paul Plishka, Jerome Hines; February 1980
Weill: The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Teresa Stratas, Astrid Varnay, Richard Cassily, Ragnar Ulfung, Cornell MacNeil; November 1979
In Concert at the Met (Highlights). Plácido Domingo, Tatiana Troyanos (February 28, 1982); Leontyne Price, Marilyn Horne (March 28, 1982); Plácido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes (January 30, 1983).
Is there going to be an ‘anniversary gala’ similar to the 25th anniversary multi hour one in 1996? I still have fond memories of that marathon.
I do enjoy those marathon galas. Nothing beats the Met Centennial Gala. And the Met’s 25th Anniverary Gala at Lincoln Centre was lots of fun too (Act III of Rigoletto with Pavarotti, Act III of Otello with Domingo/Freni and the party scene from Fledermaus with a gaggle of stars).
Any ideas why Troyens and Cellini are not being released on DVD ( can it be that these expensive productions were not filmed}?
Lieberson was such a complete Dido – not only in her singing but her “being” .Her interaction with her subjects ( particularly children) made Carthage seem like the most enlightened place on earth, giving the tragedy more impact in the end.
Cellini “worked” and I’m sorry we didn’t get a chance to see it again this season – all the more reason to miss not having it on DVD.
No, neither was filmed.
Not what I had hoped to hear, but thanks for the info.
What is deeply unfortunate was that during the 80′s and 90′s up until the time Pavarotti left the Met, it was a “two tenors” house. Opening nights, gala presentations, new productions and telecasts were all centred around Pavarotti and Domingo.
Wonderful things that should have been filmed were not. “Rusalka” with either Benackova or Renee Fleming (one of her best roles), “Jenufa” with Leonie Rysanek, “Katya Kabanova” with Mattila or even Malfitano or Benackova with Leonie. The Russian stuff Gergiev did should have been filmed.
At long last the Scotto Trittico and Don Carlo are becoming available. The Behrens Elektra was another tour de force by all three ladies. Fassbaender announced her retirement from the stage directly after this run, if memory serves.
“Fassbaender announced her retirement from the stage directly after this run, if memory serves.”
http://tinyurl.com/yznppet
Alas, she chewed the scenery and mainly showcased her register breaks–a truly *dreadful* performance from a genuinely great artist.
Pictures of the CD and DVD covers can now be found online (http://www.metoperashop.org/default.aspx) in case anyone needs more visual stimulation. If you click on the Enlarge link you can see each cover individually.
I know little about most of these works but the comments on here have excited me and the collector in me wants to own the sets.
As much as Levine fought to bring the opera to the Met I’m surprised Porgy and Bess isn’t in this list. Wasn’t he supposed to record the opera for Sony with the Met?
Interesting, too, that the Pavarotti/Eaglen Turandot that supposedly were recorded aren’t included. Perhaps Sony has the rights to those tapes?
I am dying to see the famous Stratas performances, so even though I already own that Lulu I’ll probably buy the DVD boxset. Any clue if these will be released individually, how likely they’ll be on Amazon…?
Stratas should be brought before a tribunal for skipping that performance of Lulu. Unforgivable, I guess I wanna see the ‘replacement’ anyway…
Monstrata, you ARE aware that the “Lulu” is the telecast that Stratas cancelled, right? It has Julia Migenes (then Migenes-Johnson)in the lead.
There is a japanese DVD release of the Paris Lulu with Stratas (yes, it WAS filmed)- no english subs I think… but here it is..
http://www.operajaponica.org/reviews/dvd/lulu79dvd.htm
So has anyone heard if there are plans to release these box sets in individual releases? It would make sense, especially because LULU is already out on DVD.