parterre box

UPDATE: And now the reactions to Act 2:

“Villazon continued to struggle.  Pushed upper register and passaggio. High notes he seems to accomplish (or in some cases misses) by sheer will of force. Aside from a beautiful legato in the sextet, his voice is very worrisome.  Netrebko has bloomed in this act, acuti seemingly in control, mostly, and beautiful phrasing.   Her duet with Kwiecien was the highlight of a second act that was blessed with many magical moments. Armiliato is expertly following the singer and trying to help them as much as possible. This was an overall splendid second act.”

“Villazon seems to grow stronger by the act and the engagement scene suits Trebs’ voice. Now we await the would be horror of the mad scene…” Read more »

As has happened at least once before, cher public, La Cieca went out on a limb and made a wrong prediction. Thank goodness in this case she only went with a blind item — so at least she hasn’t a whole egg on her face. Read more »

Texted from the Met a few minutes ago:

During act 2 (still going on) a stage hand walked out in the middle of Tristan and Isolde’s first duet to move her yellow gown away from the torch and ensure it didn’t light! Meier and Seiffert just kept singing…