That little place just two hours from the city is on the list of things I shall never understand, like the plot of Parsifal. So there I was rushing back from the realm of very large bugs and a terrifying lack of restaurants, waiting to see if I would make it back and across the bay in time for a one o’clock curtain. For better or worse, I did. Read more »
This season’s Met Donizetti Tudor Trilogy concluded with Roberto Devereux, given its penultimate performance by HD transmission Saturday, April 16. It is good to see these works finally given here; they are too important, too crucial a part of the operatic repertory to have been ignored for as long as they have. Read more »
Vocal luster, magnetic stage presence, and a sense of the sheer love of singing makes every appearance by soprano Renée Fleming an unforgettable evening. Renowned for her “big, beautiful voice” (The New York Times) and uncanny ability to communicate the essence of a song or operatic aria, Fleming is simply an irresistible performer. Joined by pianist Inon Barnatan, the soprano offers an eclectic program traveling from the heights of German Romanticism to contemporary American song. (Photo: Decca/Andrew Eccles) Read more »
“David McVicar, on his knee, with… Mariusz Kwiecien during a rehearsal.” [New York Times]
Friday’s season premiere at the Met of Donizetti’s opera about the doomed Scottish queen proved surprisingly satisfying and a genuine success for Sondra Radvanovsky.
Enthusiasm is contagious–you have to cover up carefully lest it make you sick.
I always think of Don Giovanni as half of the greatest opera ever written. Or, actually, about 2/3 of the greatest opera ever written.
Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin is his masterwork and its themes of social convention and unrequited longing surely struck a deep chord in a composer who, in late 19th century Russia, was gay and had to conduct himself carefully.
Last night, the Met opened the 2013-14 season with a handsome, fairly conservative new production of Eugene Onegin by Deborah Warner that replaces the handsome, fairly conservative one by Robert Carsen. (The trend is clear.)
Tonight at long last brings us to our first Met livechat of the season, cher public.
La Cieca predicts you won’t be seeing any puritans at the Met next season, except of course for the ones who slouch around during intermission hissing, “You call that a trill?”