Put a Ring on it
With over 2,600 votes cast over the course of last week, you, the cher public have spoken about which operas in the Met’s repertoire will be de rigueur, can’t miss, where-the-elite-meet Sternstunden, and which productions promise no more than a great big snooze.
The top ten Met offerings will be Die Walküre, Das Rheingold, Le Comte Ory, Boris Godunov, Nixon in China, Don Carlo, Pelléas et Mélisande, Wozzeck, Capriccio and La Fanciulla del West. La Cieca needs hardly point out, need she, that of next season’s seven new productions, six are in the top ten.
Very few of you want to return to La Bohème (which finished in 22nd place out of 28 presentations, and the family presentation of Die Zauberflöte is the only opera less popular than the revival of Armida.
Following are the complete and utterly unscientific results.
Which productions at the Met can’t be missed?
| Die Walküre | 297 |
| Das Rheingold | 283 |
| Le Comte Ory | 238 |
| Boris Godunov | 220 |
| Nixon in China | 199 |
| Don Carlo | 179 |
| Pelléas et Mélisande | 143 |
| Wozzeck | 143 |
| Capriccio | 135 |
| La Fanciulla del West | 124 |
| The Queen of Spades | 76 |
| Così fan tutte | 73 |
| Ariadne auf Naxos | 66 |
| Il Trovatore | 60 |
| Iphigénie en Tauride | 58 |
| Don Pasquale | 53 |
| Simon Boccanegra | 36 |
| Lucia di Lammermoor | 32 |
| Orfeo ed Euridice | 28 |
| La Traviata | 25 |
| Roméo et Juliette | 25 |
| La Bohème | 21 |
| Carmen | 19 |
| Rigoletto | 18 |
| Tosca | 18 |
| Les Contes d’Hoffmann | 16 |
| Armida | 11 |
| Die Zauberflöte | 10 |
Maybe we could do the same for the HD transmissions – for the unfortunate foreigners (not just **** Brits – just typed Bruts…Freudian slip?).
Great top ten! With the exeption of the two with Voigt and Fleming, I would go to all ten!
Voigt and Giordani in Fanciulla–gag. Fleming-yuch!
Just my opinion.
Why do you hate Fleming? When she sings in her repertoire (Capriccio, Rusalka…(not Armida)) she’s wonderful!
Fleming is good in that repertoire, yes. Just would rather not see her.
Now if Schwanewilms sang in Capriccio, I’d be happy.
yes so would I or even Isokoski.
Schwanewilms — weird tubular sound and chilly presence as far as I’m concerned.
Amazing film here:
It’s too bad the clip of the rose adagio at the end is out of sync with the music!!! Also, WAY OT since this isn’t a ballet board, but why isn’t this film of fonteyn’s sleeping beauty with somes available?!
My top 5 must travel to the Met to see made the top 15 – Capriccio, Queen of Spades, Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, and Ariadne. A good chunk of the others I will catch at the HD – Nixon, Boris, Le Comte, maybe Fanciulla…
Speaking of HD, does anyone know when the HD tickets go on sale for the general public?
My local mega-ultra-super-blockbusting-plex website says August 27th.
Correction: Scene & Met Members exclusive advanced tickets starting August 27, 2010, general ticket sales September 10, 2010.
Isn’t that a bit late? I think the general sales started mid-August last year.
And I vote Boris, Walkure and Pique Dame, and maybe Carpaccio. Er, Capriccio.
But then again, last year I was living in a country in which the HD transmissions were unavailable, so maybe I’m wrong…
On the off chance, and slightly off topic: has anybody seen Met’s Lulu this year? Any idea if it’ll come out in DVD? I couldn’t find any clips online and there are few photos.
Apart from JJ, of course: http://bit.ly/dtKDxm
OK, I’ll stop talking to myself right now.
yes, the one I saw was a great performance – even though I don’t much care for Berg. Luisi conducted and the orchestra sounded incredibly tight.
The crowd was /extremely/ enthusiastic at the end. One of the most rapturous ovations I’ve heard.
Damn and blast. Now I’m dying to get hold of the DVD. And JJ said von Otter made Berg sound like Mozart, which is quite a feat.
Only the operas shown at the movies have a chance of showing up on DVD — and not all of them do, of course. As Lulu didn’t make the schedule this year, there’s no chance of a DVD — alas, as its excellence this season has indeed been much talked about, and I was unable to get up to a performance. We’re lucky that the gorgeous Dexter/Hebert production made it onto video even once, though (the DVD with Migenes, which is now available).
Cenerentola live from Pesaro
http://www.rai.tv/dl/RaiTV/popup/player_radio.html?v=3
If you have a chance listen in to Rai3 to Brownlee in Cenerentola right now ( started 2 pm Eastern)
Judging from the newspaper reports, the production ( not the singing) of Sisigsmondo Monday night may have made the public wish that FZ had been in charge instead.